sel for its dissolution, saw in his call for forces
to defend the coast an attempt to re-establish the one thing they hated
most, a standing army. Charles could at last free himself from the
minister who had held him in check so long. In August 1667 the
Chancellor was dismissed from office, and driven by the express command
of the king to take refuge in France.

CHAPTER II

THE POPISH PLOT

1667-1683

[Sidenote: The Cabal Ministry.]

The fall of Clarendon marks a new epoch in the history of the
Restoration. By the exile of the Chancellor, the death of Lord
Southampton, which had preceded, and the retirement of Ormond and
Nicholas which followed it, the constitutional loyalists who had
hitherto shaped the policy of the government disappeared from the royal
council. The union between King, Church, and Parliament, on which their
system had been based, was roughly dissolved. The House of Commons,
which had been elected in a passion of loyalty only six years before,
found itself thrown into a position of antagonism to the Crown. The
Church saw the most formidable opponent of its supremacy in the king.

For the first time since his accession Charles came boldly forward to
the front of public affairs. He had freed himself, as he believed, from
the domination of the constitutional loyalists and of the ministers who
represented them. The new ministry was mainly made up of that section of
the original ministry of 1660 which then represented the Presbyterians,
and which under Ashley's guidance had bent to purchase toleration even
at the cost of increasing the prerogatives of the Crown. Ashley himself
remained Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Duke of Buckingham, whose
marriage with the daughter of Lord Fairfax allied him with the
Presbyterians, and who carried on political relations even with the
Independents, held a leading position in the new Cabinet, though at
first without office. Sir William Coventry, a bitter opponent of
Clarendon, took his seat at the Treasury board. The direction of Scotch
affairs was left to Lord Lauderdale, a man of rough and insolent manner
but of striking ability, and whose political views coincided as yet
mainly with those of Ashley. Two great posts however were filled by men
whose elevation showed the new part which Charles himself was resolved
to take in the task of administration. Foreign affairs the king
determined to take into his own hands: and this was adroitly managed by
the nom