rgy, and between the
clergy and kings, the people had acquired political importance. They
had obtained a knowledge of their rights and of their strength; and
they were determined to maintain them. They liked not the tyranny of
either nobles, priests, or kings; but they bent all their energies to
suppress the power of the latter, since the two former had been
already humiliated.

The struggle of the people against royalty is preeminently the genius
of the English Revolution. It is to be doubted whether any king could
have resisted the storm of popular fury which hurled Charles from his
throne. But no king could have managed worse than he, no king could be
more unfortunately and unpropitiously placed; and his own imprudence
and folly hastened the catastrophe.

The House of Commons, which had acquired great strength, spirit, and
popularity during the reign of James, fully perceived the difficulties
and necessities of Charles, but made no adequate or generous effort to
relieve him from them. Some of the more turbulent rejoiced in them.
They knew that kings, like other men, were selfish, and that it was
not natural for people to part with their privileges and power without
a struggle, even though this power was injurious to the interests of
society. In the Middle Ages, barons, bishops, and popes had fought
desperately in the struggle of classes; and it was only from their
necessities that either kings or people had obtained what they
demanded. King Charles, no more than Pope Boniface VIII., would
surrender, as a boon to man, without compulsion, his supposed
omnipotence.

[Sidenote: Quarrel between the King and the Commons.]

The king ascended his throne burdened by the debts of his father, and
by an expensive war, which the Commons incited, but would not pay for.
They granted him, to meet his difficulties and maintain his honor, the
paltry sum of one hundred and forty thousand pounds, and the duties of
tonnage and poundage, not for life, as was customary, but for a year.
Nothing could be more provoking to a young king. Of course, the money
was soon spent, and the king wanted more, and had a right to expect
more. But, if the Commons granted what the king required, he would be
made independent of them, and he would rule tyrannically, as the kings
of England did before him. So they resolved not to grant necessary
supplies to carry on the government, unless the king would part with
the prerogatives of an absolute prince, an