ould they deliver it up unto the spoiler who demanded it
"even as Ahab required Naboth's vineyard, Oh! their children would be
bound to curse them." Such was the attitude of Massachusetts, and when
it was known in London, the blow was struck. For technical reasons
Randolph's writ was not served; but on the 21st of June a decree in
chancery annulled the charter of Massachusetts. [Sidenote: Massachusetts
refuses to surrender her charter] [Sidenote: It is annulled by degree of
chancery, June 21, 1684]

To appreciate the force of this blow we must pause for a moment and
consider what it involved. The right to the soil of North America had
been hitherto regarded in England, on the strength of the discoveries of
the Cabots, as an appurtenance to the crown of Henry VII.,--as something
which descended from father to son like the palace at Hampton Court or
the castle at Windsor, but which the sovereign might alienate by his
voluntary act just as he might sell or give away a piece of his royal
domain in England. Over this vast territory it was doubtful how far
Parliament was entitled to exercise authority, and the rights of
Englishmen settled there had theoretically no security save in the
provisions of the various charters by which the crown had delegated its
authority to individual proprietors or to private companies. It was thus
on the charter granted by Charles I. to the Company of Massachusetts Bay
that not only the cherished political and ecclesiastical institutions
of the colony, but even the titles of individuals to their lands and
houses, were supposed to be founded. By the abrogation of the charter,
all rights and immunities that had been based upon it were at once swept
away, and every rood of the soil of Massachusetts became the personal
property of the Stuart king, who might, if he should possess the will
and the power, turn out all the present occupants or otherwise deal with
them as trespassers. Such at least was the theory of Charles II., and
to show that he meant to wreak his vengeance with no gentle hand, he
appointed as his viceroy the brutal Percy Kirke,--a man who would have
no scruples about hanging a few citizens without trial, should occasion
require it. [Sidenote: Effect of annulling the charter]

But in February, 1685, just as Charles seemed to be getting everything
arranged to his mind, a stroke of apoplexy carried him off the scene,
and his brother ascended the throne. Monmouth's rebellion, and the
ho