up

fix the badge of submission or inferiority upon them. The English, on the other side, scarcely less proud, were avowedly averse to admitting the Scots to a footing of equality; and the king's indiscretion, at the commencement of his reign, in lavishing English money, posts, and titles upon some Scottish favourites, had raised a popular clamour that the country was to be overrun and devoured by their poor and hungry neighbours. At different stages of the debates several members of the Commons gave full expression to the most angry and contemptuous feeling against James's countrymen. One speaker quoted Scripture to show that the union was altogether unfit and unnatural. He brought in the comparison of the families of Abraham and Lot, which, joining, soon grew to difference, and to the words Vade tu ad dextram, et ego ad sinistram (go thou to the right hand, and I will go to the left). Sir Christopher Pigot, member for Buckinghamshire, expressed his astonishment and horror at the notion of a union between a rich and fertile country like England, and a land like Scotland, poor, barren, and disgraced by nature-between rich, frank, and honest men, and a proud, beggarly, and traitorous race; and, giving still further licence to his rhetoric, he declared that the difference between an Englishman and a Scot was the same as that between a judge and a thief! The whole Scottish nation hotly resented these gross insults, and threatened to take arms to avenge them. James, in an agony of alarm, rebuked Cecil for allowing such expressions to pass unnoticed; and he declared to his council that the insult touched him as a Scot. Next he rebuked and threatened the Commons, who thereupon expelled Pigot, and even committed him to the Tower. In the session of 1604 the English and Scotch commissioners had agreed to the entire abrogation of all hostile laws between the two kingdoms, to the abolition of border courts and customs, and to a free intercourse of trade throughout the king's dominions. James had also, very soon after his accession, both on coins and in proclamations, assumed the title of King of Great Britain; and here, in prudence, he ought to have stopped, and left the rest to the salutary operation of time and peaceful intercourse. But he drove on to his end, and was greatly enraged with the Commons when they rejected his proposition for the naturalization of the ante-nati, or Scots born before his accession to the English throne. A decision, however, soon after obtained in the courts of law, extended the rights of naturalization to all Scots who were post-nati, or born after the king's accession; so that in the course of a few years the mass of the Scots would become natural subjects of the English crown. The Commons did not venture to call in question this right of the post-nati, though it was evident that they did not admit it with very good will. When urged to go farther they invented all kinds of difficulties and delays, which called forth another harsh schooling from the king. In his speech to the two Houses,

which had the haughtiness but not the dignity of Elizabeth, he threatened to abandon London, and fix his residence at York or Berwick; and he alluded with bitterness to certain discourses which had been made in the Commons House. 66 I looked," cried James," for no such fruits at your handssuch personal discourses and speeches, which, of all other, I looked you should avoid, as not beseeming the gravity of your assembly. I am your king; I am placed to govern you, and shall answer for your errors; I am a man of flesh and blood, and have my passions and affections as other men; I pray you, do not too far move me to do that which my power may tempt me unto."*

The Commons, who had already learned that James could bark better than he could bite, would not take this castigation in silence. They made known to him, through the Speaker, their earnest desire that he would listen to no private reports of their doings, but take his information of the House's meaning from themselves; that he would be pleased to allow such members as he had blamed to clear themselves in his hearing, and that he would, by some gracious message, let them know that they might deliver their opinions in their places without restraint or fear. On the very next day he civilly replied, through the Speaker, that he wished to preserve their privileges, especially that of liberty of speech.† And yet, a very few days after this message, he was interfering again, and commenting on their speeches, telling them that they were too much given to the discussion of matters above their comprehension. Nay, when they moved the reading of a petition, which contained strong remonstrances against ecclesiastical abuses, now growing in the bright sunshine of the royal countenance, and in favour of the deprived and persecuted Puritan preachers, the Speaker, according to orders received, told the House that his majesty reserved these matters to himself, and would not be pressed thereon. Some members cried out that this was an infringement of their liberties; but the Speaker told them (and truly enough) that there were many precedents, that the late queen had often restrained the House from meddling in politics of divers kinds. A motion was then made for the appointment of a committee to search for precedents that "do concern any messages from the sovereign magistrate, king or queen, of this realm, touching petitions offered to the House of Commons." But here James sent down a second message, telling the House, that, though the petition contained matter whereof they could not properly take cognizance, yet, if they thought good to have it read, he was not against the reading. The Commons were mollified, and the petition was at last, "with general liking, agreed to sleep." In this same session the merchants presented to the Commons a petition upon the grievances they sustained from Spain, entering

• Commons' Journals.-Parl. Hist.-Ambassades de la Boderie. ↑ Journals.

largely into the cruelties which they and their mariners suffered, particularly in the New World, which the jealous Spaniards still pretended to close against all mankind. The Commons named a committee; and, when the committee had made its report, they prayed a conference with the Lords. The Upper House was a mere branch of the court, and so the Lords intimated that it was an unusual matter for the Commons to enter upon. At length, however, they granted the conference, and Bacon reported its result. Cecil was of course the principal speaker on the part of the Lords. He had the double task of removing the odium from Spain (for James was more and more inclined to a close alliance with that monarchy), and of supporting his master's high notions touching the prerogative. After considerably extenuating the wrongs imputed to Spain (the merchants had greatly exaggerated their case, but the Spanish principle was monstrous), he went on to argue that, by law, the crown of England was invested with an absolute power of peace and war, and that petitions made in parliament intermeddling with such matters were futile and inconvenient; that, if parliaments have ever been made acquainted with matter of peace or war in a general way, it was either when the king and council conceived that it was material to have some declaration of the zeal and affection of the people, or else when they needed money for the charges of the war, in which case they should be sure enough to hear of it. The Lords would make a good construction of the Commons' desire; but, as Cecil told them, they could not concur in the petition. Henry Howard (one of the sons of the late Earl of Surrey), now Earl of Northampton, and the most thorough-going courtier, followed Cecil, and told the Commons that their duties were confined to the places which they represented, that they had " a private and local wisdom according to that compass, but were not fit to examine or determine secrets of state." It appears that the Commons submitted, and gave up the merchants' petition. But the outcry out of doors was loud, and became the louder as James further betrayed his leaning to Spain.

On the 4th of July, 1607, he prorogued the parliament till the month of November of the same year, but, in effect, it did not meet again till February, 1610. While it was still sitting, in the month of May, 1607, lawless assemblages of men, women, and children were suddenly observed in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire. The king was greatly alarmed, and at first thought that it must be an organised insurrection, got up either by the Papists or by the Puritans, who were equally dissatisfied with his government. But it was nothing of the sort, but rather resembled the agricultural riots about enclosures which happened in the time of Edward VI.* The forfeitures of the estates of some of the gentlemen who had been engaged in the gunpowder-plot threw the lands

See ante, vol. ii. p. 480.

rous.

into the hands of new proprietors, who were disposed to make the most of them, and enclosed many tracts where the former owners had allowed the peasantry right of common. Through the blundering statutes against enclosures, the people might consider themselves justified by law in opposing these encroachments. At Hill Norton, in Warwickshire (formerly an estate of the Treshams), they assembled to the number of a thousand; in other places they were still more numeThey cut and broke down hedges, filled up ditches, and laid open all such enclosed fields as had formerly been free and common. They termed themselves" Levellers;" and they "bent all their strength to level and lay open the old commons without exercising any manner of theft or violence upon any man's person, goods, or cattle." There was, in fact, an order in their disorder; and not a single crime or atrocity was committed, though, for a time, in whole districts, rich and poor were at their mercy. At first they had no particular leader, but afterwards they placed at their head "a base fellow," called John Reynolds, whom they surnamed Captain Pouch, from a large pouch

or

purse which he wore by his side. This poor fellow was a madman. He assured the ignorant peasantry that he had authority from the king's majesty to throw down the new enclosures, and that he was sent from God to satisfy men of all degrees. As in a recent case of a somewhat similar kind, he was quite sure that he was invulnerable that neither bullet nor arrow could harm him; and he further assured the poor clowns and their wives that he kept a spell in his pouch which would protect them all, provided only they abstained from evil deeds and cursing and swearing. When commanded by proclamation to disperse, they told the magistrates that they were only executing the statutes against enclosures. When the lords-lieutenants endeavoured to raise the counties against them, they found the yeomanry rather shy of bearing arms in such a cause; and many country gentlemen, whose interests were not implicated, thought it would be better to yield the point, and let them enjoy their rights of common as before. But the king sent down the Earls of Huntingdon and Exeter, and the Lord Zouche, with a considerable force of regular troops; and Sir Anthony Mildmay and Sir Edward Montague fell upon a body of them at Newton, another estate which had belonged to Tresham. They were busy digging and levelling, and were furnished with many half-piked staves, long bills, bows and arrows, and stones. "Those gentlemen (Mild

may and Montague), finding great backwardness in the trained bands, were constrained to use all the horse they could make, and as many foot of their own servants and followers as they could trust, and first read the proclamation twice unto them, using all the best provisions to them to desist that they could devise; but, when nothing would prevail, they charged them thoroughly, both with their horse and foot. At the first charge

they stood, and fought deperately; but at the second charge they ran away; in which there were slain some forty or fifty of them, and a very great number hurt. One Sir Henry Fookes, that led the foot against them, was very sore hurt, and bruised in many places of his body, more likely to die than live." This rout was followed up by others till the insurrection was entirely put down. Many men were taken, tried before Sir Edward Coke, and condemned to death as rebels and traitors, for levying war against the king. Captain Pouch was "made exemplary"—that is to say, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. The poor fellow ought only to have been sent to a madhouse. Others were condemned for felony because they had not dispersed on reading of the king's proclamation.†

It

Meanwhile James continued his life of indolence and ease, hunting a good part of the year, and lying in bed the greater part of the day when he was not so pleasantly engaged. In Scotland his minister, the Earl of Arran, had desired him to recreate himself at hunting, and he would attend the council, and report at his majesty's return all opinions and conclusions. He was scarcely settled in England when he found "that felicity in the hunting life, that he wrote to the council that it was the only means to maintain his health, which being the health and welfare of them all, he desired them to take the charge and burden of affairs, and foresee that he be not interrupted nor troubled with too much business."§ He even went so far as to say that he would rather return to Scotland than be chained for ever to the council-table. was rarely that his subjects could get access to him in his retreats. When they did, his address, and demeanour, and appointments, clashed strangely with the notion of a most royal and heaven-descended prince, the image, as he called himself, of the God-head. He was dressed all over in colours green as the grass, with a little feather in his cap, and a horn instead of a sword by his side. His queen, Anne of Denmark, was as fond of dancing and masques, fine dresses and costly entertainments, as he was of hunting; nor had she, on the whole, much more personal dignity than her husband. She was dissipated, thoughtless, extravagant, and had her favourites. But it was the monstrous favouritism of James that withdrew the | eyes of all from his other follies and the follies of the queen, making them appear comparatively of little consequence. When he first entered England, the man he most delighted to honour and enrich was Sir John Ramsay, who had stabbed the Earl of Gowrie at the time of the alleged conspiracy, for which he had been promoted by James to be Viscount Haddington. As soon as they were fairly settled in the land of promise, he received leases of crown-lands, gifts, and pensions. Haddington had recently been 10,000l. deep in the Letter of the Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir John Manvers, &c., in Lodge's Illustrations, Melvil's Memoirs. Osborn.

+ Stow-Arthur Wilson. { Winwood's Memorials.

merchants' books; but this debt was presently paid off, and the Scottish Viscount was well matched, being married, by the king's desire, to the daughter of the great Earl of Sussex. Towards the end of James's reign he was created an English peer, with the title of Earl of Holderness. In the language of the times, he had a good and a gracious maker in this terrestrial globe.* Next to Haddington, the prime favourite was Sir James Hay, another Scotchman, whom we have already mentioned, and who was soon created Lord Hay, and subsequently Viscount Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle. Places, honours, gifts, were showered upon this Scottish Heliogabalus, who, in the course of his very jovial life," spent above 400,000Z., which, upon a strict computation, he received from the crown, leaving not a house nor acre of land to be remembered by." But nearly all the Scottish favourites, like Carlisle, and their master, the king, spent their money as fast as they could get it; being rapacious, but certainly not avaricious. Nor had they long the field to themselves; for James presently chose to himself minions of English birth, to whom he gave far more than he ever bestowed on the Scots. The first of these favourites was Sir Philip Herbert, brother of the Earl of Pembroke, who was presently created Earl of Montgomery, found in a rich wife, and loaded with gifts. "The Earl of Montgomery," says Clarendon, "being a young man scarce of age at the entrance of King James, had the good fortune, by the comeliness of his person, his skill and indefatigable industry in hunting, to be the first who drew the king's eyes towards him with affection. .... Before the end of the first or second year he was made gentleman of the king's bedchamber and Earl of Montgomery. . . . . He pretended to no other qualifications than to understand horses and dogs very well; which his master loved him the better for, being at his first coming into England very jealous of those who had the reputation of great parts." The Viscount Haddington, the Scottish favourite, became jealous of Montgomery, and struck the English favourite with his whip on a public race-course at Croydon; an insult which the English took up as offered not merely to the spiritless minion, who had not courage to resent it, but to the whole nation; so far as Mr. John Pinchback, though a maimed man, having but the perfect use of two fingers, rode about with his dagger in his hand, crying, Let us break our fast with them here, and dine with the rest at London. But, Herbert not offering to strike again, there was nothing spilt but the reputation of a gentleman."S This coward's mother, the high-minded sister of

⚫ Lodge.

....

66

† Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion. "It is most true that many Scots did get much, but not more with one hand than they spent with the other; witness the Earl of Kelly, Annandale, &c.: nay, that great getter, Earl of Carlisle, also, and some private gentlemen, as Gideon Murray, John Achmuty, James Baily, John Gib, and Barnard Lindley. But these,

and all the Scots in general, got scarce the tithe of those English getters, that can be said did stick by them, or their posterity. Besides, Salisbury (Cecil) had one trick to get the kernel, and leave the Scots but the shell, yet cast all the envy on them."-Weldon.

§ Osborn.

*

Sir Philip Sydney, tore her hair when she heard of her son's dishonour. James took the matter into his own hands, sent Haddington to the Tower for a short time, and then reconciled the parties. He had a deal of work of the like kind-for the Scottish and English courtiers quarrelled incessantly, and sometimes fought. Douglas, the master of the horse, was killed by Lee, brother to the Avenor, in a desperate duel. Lee was not much followed (for revenge) by the Scots, because they held there was fair play. The younger Douglas got his brother's place, which helped somewhat to appease the quarrel. Some years after Herbert's quarrel, Crichton Lord Sanquhar, a fiery Scot, was executed for the assassination of a great fencing-master, who had thrust out one of his lordship's eyes. Bacon, in eloquent language, praised his master's love of justice and strict impartiality; and James himself took care to extol his doings; but it appears that he had a personal pique against the Scottish Lord; and a caustic chronicler of his deeds says, "He satisfied, in part the people, and wholly himself; it being thought he hated him for his love to the King of France, and not making any reply when he said, in his presence, to one that called our James a second Solomon, that he hoped he was not David the fiddler's son: thus do princes abuse each other."

When Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, saw himself supplanted in the king's strange favour by a new comer, he betrayed no resentment, but clung to the new minion as to a bosom friend-a line of conduct which quite charmed the king, and which secured to Herbert a continuance of the royal liberality and good will. This new favourite, who over-topped all his predecessors, and first put the monstrous folly or vice of James in its full and disgusting light, was Robert Carr, or Ker, of the border family of Fernyherst, which had suffered severely in the cause of the king's mother. It is said that, when a mere child, Robert Carr had been page to James. In his youth he went over to France, according to the custom of Scottish gentlemen, and there acquired many courtly graces and accomplishments.

He was

poor, even beyond the bounds of Scottish poverty, but" straight-limbed, well-favoured, strong-shouldered, and smooth-faced, with some sort of cunning and show of modesty;"§ and he had been taught that personal beauty, gay dress, and manners, would make him a fortune at court. He had recently returned from the Continent, and the gloss

was

not off his French-cut doublet when he appeared, in the month of July, 1606, as page or esquire to the Lord Dingwall, in a grand tilting

An officer of the royal stables, whose business was to provide oats for the horses. This

† Hardwicke State Papers, Letter of Sir Dudley Carleton. particular duel was fought near Salisbury, in the month of November, 1603. The quarrel had begun at Windsor. "Douglas was left dead on the field with three hurts, and was buried three days after in Salisbury Church, with a kind of solemnity, at which the duke, the Scottish lords, and all other scot and lot were present. Lee was hurt in four places, but lives, and is like to escape."-Id. ‡ Osborn. § Nug. Ant.

match at Westminster. In the course of the chivalrous entertainment he had to present his lord's shield to the king. In doing this his horse fell with him, or threw him, close to James's feet. His leg was broken, but his fortune was made. The king, struck with his beauty, and tenderly moved by his accident, ordered him to be instantly carried into Master Rider's house at Charing Cross, sent his own surgeon to attend him, and, as soon as the tilting was over-" having little desire to behold the triumph, but much to have it ended" he flew to visit him, and wait upon him in person; and after, by his daily visiting and mourning over him, taking all care for his speedy recovery, he made the day-break of his glory appear.' Carr, at this time, was scarcely of age, and, as James soon found out that the more scholastic part of his education had been sadly neglected, he undertook to teach him Latin himself, and gave him a lesson every morning.† And soon he began to give court places and rich presentsthings which Carr coveted more than all the Latinity of James's preceptor Buchanan, or of Cicero and Horace. On Christmas-eve, 1607, the new favourite was knighted, and sworn gentleman of the bedchamber, which place kept him constantly about the king, who took no care to conceal his nauseous affection from the court, leaning on his arm, pinching his cheek, smoothing his ruffled garment, and looking in his face even when directing his discourse to others. Soon everybody who had to ask a favour, to press a suit, or to demand simple justice, found that the surest road to success was through the good graces and protection of Sir Robert Carr. Hence rich presents poured in upon him; ladies of the highest rank leered at him; and the haughtiest of the nobles paid their adoration to this rising sun, sparing neither bounty nor flattery. This court picture is too base and revolting to be dwelt upon. It was at first feared that Carr, as a Scot, would especially favour his own countrymen; but this was not the case, probably because the English lords and ladies could pay him best. "He even appeared to be endeavouring to forget his native country, and his father's house, having none of note about him but English. But, above all, was Sir Thomas Overbury his Pythias." close friendship, which ended in the murder of Overbury, commenced with Carr's first appearance at court; and it became the custom to bribe and flatter Sir Thomas, on account of the influence he had with his friend. Cecil and Suffolk, who were rivals, tried hard which should engross him and make him their monopoly. All this seems to have inflated Overbury, who was otherwise moderate

This

• "Lord!" exclaims Sir Anthony Weldon," how the great men flocked then to see him, and to offer to his shrine in such abundance, that the king was forced to lay a restraint, lest it might retard his recovery by spending his spirits. And, to facilitate the cure, care was taken for a choice diet for himself and chirurgeons with his attendants, and no sooner recovered but a proclaimed favourite."

"I think some one should teach him English too; for, as he is a Scottish lad, he hath much need of better language."-Letter of Lord Thomas Howard to Sir John Harrington. Nug. An.

+ Weldon.