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Home Domestic Affairs, 1660-88, in England and Scotland England; Part 4 |
England; Part 4But, in reality, the king was not in his old position of power. The arbitrary courts, such as the Star Chamber, were no longer in existence. The Restoration, it has been said, was not only a restoration of the Monarchy but of the Parliament as well, and the wishes of that Parliament could no longer be ignored. "The King of France", said a shrewd observer, "can make his subjects march as he pleases; but the King of England must march with his people." Moreover, in 1667 the Parliament made a great advance; it secured that additional grants of money to the Crown should be appropriated for particular objects, and that a Parliamentary audit should be made to ensure that the money was so expended.During the first seven years of Charles's reign (1660-7), Lord Clarendon, the author of the famous History of the Rebellion, was the chief minister; indeed he had such influence that Charles, a contemporary said, was but " half a king" whilst he was in power. As Edward Hyde, Clarendon had been a member of the Long Parliament, and had approved of its measures until the Grand Remonstrance was brought forward. He was perhaps too intolerant a High Churchman, as the code associated with his name shows; but he was moderate in politics, upright and hard-working, and his great object was to establish a balance of power as between King and Parliament. Partly in consequence of his very moderation, he became in time unpopular with all classes. The king got tired of his lectures; the courtiers sneered at his morality; the Royalists disliked him for his supposed leniency to the Puritans over the amnesty and the land questions; whilst the Nonconformists hated him for his code. Moreover, the marriage of his daughter, Anne Hyde, with James, Duke of York, the king's brother, made him appear self-seeking; and the sale of Dunkirk to France, for which Louis XIV, the French king, was said to have bribed him (According to Pepys, the Diarist, the common people called the great house which Clarendon was building for himself, in Piccadilly, Dunkirk House, "from their opinion of his having a good bribe for the selling of that towne"), caused him to be accused of corruption. Clarendon's unpopularity was increased by two disasters for which he was in no way responsible. The Great Plague of 1665 killed one-fifth of the population of London (For four months previous to the arrival of the Plague there had been no rain, which made the capital very insanitary), besides raging in the provinces. The Great Fire in the following year swept away two-thirds of London's houses, and not far short of a hundred of its churches, including St. Paul's; it was indeed fortunate for England that she had Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild so many of them (Wren built St. Paul's and fifty-two churches in London). Finally, in 1667, the whole nation held Clarendon responsible for the appearance of the Dutch fleet up the Thames. And so Clarendon was dismissed by the king, was impeached by Parliament, and retired into exile. |
Chronology |
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