king's great difficulty lay in procuring arms, and on the
twenty-third of April he suddenly appeared before Hull, the magazine of
the north, and demanded admission. The new governor, Sir John Hotham,
fell on his knees, but refused to open the gates: and the avowal of his
act by the Parliament was followed at the end of May by the withdrawal
of the royalist party among its members from their seats at Westminster.
Falkland, Colepepper, and Hyde, with thirty-two peers and sixty members
of the House of Commons, joined Charles at York; and Lyttelton, the Lord
Keeper, followed with the Great Seal. But one of their aims in joining
the king was to put a check on his projects of war; and their efforts
were backed by the general opposition of the country. A great meeting of
the Yorkshire freeholders which Charles convened on Heyworth Moor ended
in a petition praying him to be reconciled to the Parliament; and in
spite of gifts of plate from the universities and nobles of his party
arms and money were still wanting for his new levies. The two Houses, on
the other hand, gained in unity and vigour by the withdrawal of the
royalists. The militia was rapidly enrolled, Lord Warwick named to the
command of the fleet, and a loan opened in the City to which the women
brought even their wedding-rings. The tone of the two Houses rose with
the threat of force. It was plain at last that nothing but actual
compulsion could bring Charles to rule as a constitutional sovereign;
and the last proposals of the Parliament demanded the powers of
appointing and dismissing the ministers, of naming guardians for the
royal children, and of virtually controlling military, civil, and
religious affairs. "If I granted your demands," replied Charles, "I
should be no more than the mere phantom of a king."

END OF VOL. V

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.

* * * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

The following words appear with and without hyphens. They have been
left as in the original.

Franche Comte Franche-Comte
goodwill good-will
middle classes middle-classes
newcomer new-comers

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE,
VOLUME V (OF 8) ***

******* This file should be named 23642.txt or 23642.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/6/4/