up without coming to a resolution. That night it was known at court that Pym intended to move the house at its next sitting to adopt a petition asking the king to come to terms with the Scots (State Papers, Dom. cccclii. 46, 114, 115; Harl. MS. 4931, f. 49). Charles at once summoned the privy council to meet at the unusual hour of 6 A.M. On a declaration by Vane that there was no hope that the commons ‘would give one penny,’ Strafford voted with the majority for a dissolution. That morning the Short parliament was dissolved (Laud, Works, iii. 284; Whitaker, Life of Radcliffe, p. 233). Strafford's position was evidently that, while he preferred to accept whatever reasonable sums the commons were inclined to give, so long as they supported the war, he refused to bargain with them if they made it a condition that the war was to be stopped.
Later in the morning a meeting of the committee of eight appointed to give advice on Scottish affairs—of which Strafford was a member—was held to discuss the situation. Vane and others wished the king to content himself with defending England against invasion. Strafford, knowing that it would be impossible to procure supplies for protracted operations, was eager for an offensive move against Scotland which he thought would be decisive in a short time. He urged that the city should be required to lend 100,000l. for the purpose, and that ship-money should be collected. Northumberland hesitated to embark on war with means so scanty. ‘Go on vigorously,’ replied Strafford—at least so far as the hurried notes we possess enable us to ascertain his language—‘or let them alone. No defensive war; loss of honour and reputation. The quiet of England will hold out long. You will languish as betwixt Saul and David. Go on with a vigorous war, as you first designed, loose and absolved from all rules of government; being reduced to extreme necessity, everything is to be done that power might admit, and that you are to do. They refusing, you are acquitted before God and man. You have an army in Ireland you may employ here to reduce this kingdom. Confident as anything under heaven, Scotland shall not hold out five months. One summer well employed will do it. Venture all I had, I would carry it or lose it. Whether a defensive war is as impossible as an offensive, or whether to let them alone’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 3). Later on a question was to arise as to whether the kingdom to be reduced was England or Scotland. Taking the position of the words in the speech, it is at least highly probable that England was intended (see a discussion of this in my Hist. of England, 1603–42, ix. 123 n.) At all events, the Irish army was only intended to be employed in England in the case of rebellion in that country. Its primary employment would be in Scotland. Within two days it was rumoured that the king thought of using the Irish army against his English subjects, as well as against the Scots (Montreuil to Bellièvre, 7–17 May, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15995, fol. 84). From that moment a strong feeling of wrathful indignation against Strafford—‘Black Tom Tyrant’ as he was called—arose among his English countrymen.
With the government the first necessity was to raise money. On 10 May, on the refusal of the lord mayor and aldermen to take any steps to raise a loan, Strafford told the king that unless he hanged some of them he would do no good. Baffled in the city, Strafford turned to the three Spanish ambassadors then in England, requesting them to ask the king of Spain to lend 300,000l. If the security offered was thought insufficient, that king might confiscate the property of English merchants in his harbours. In the midst of this agitation Strafford was incapacitated from open action by an attack of dysentery. On 24 May, when he was convalescent, he was visited by the king, and threw off his warm gown to receive him properly. The result was that he caught a chill, and for some days his life was despaired of. It was not till 5 July that Strafford was sufficiently recovered to take his seat in the council. By that time the Irish parliament had proved restive in the absence of his controlling hand, having insisted on a mode of collecting the subsidies voted by it which would seriously diminish their amount. Nevertheless, it was expected that the Irish army would rendezvous at Carrickfergus towards the end of July, in readiness to cross the sea. In England various schemes for raising money had been tried in vain, and the English forces marching northwards were in a dissatisfied and almost mutinous condition. On 11 July Strafford supported a scheme for the debasement of the coinage (State Papers, Dom. cccclix. 77), and threatened strong measures against those who opposed it. Later in the month he again pleaded in vain with the Spanish ambassadors for a loan, offering his personal security for the repayment of 100,000l. When on 30 July a petition against the violence of the soldiers was presented from Yorkshire, Strafford urged that it should be rejected as an act of mutiny. He could see that Charles had brought himself to such a
