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Now the temper of the English people was going to be a very serious matter. They were fully ‘grown up’ and fully aware that they were grown up; and they did not want to be ‘in leading-strings’ any longer. Even the great Elizabeth, in her last years, had galled this proud temper a good deal. She had scolded her Parliaments and done high-handed things against the law. But she had served and guided her people faithfully, and they knew it and made allowances accordingly.

James I and his son Charles I never thought of themselves as ‘servants’ of their people. They wanted to rule as the Tudors had ruled, though the need for the guidance and the leading-strings had passed away. They were not ‘tyrants’ or cruel men or extortioners, but they irritated the nation until they provoked rebellion and civil war. And so they broke the unity of King and People, which was hardly restored again before the reign of Victoria the Great.

The main thing to remember about them is that they quarrelled continually with their Parliaments, with the House of Lords almost as much as with the House of Commons; and nearly all their quarrels were over religion or money. The House of Commons took the lead in the quarrels, because it was the most powerful body of gentlemen in the country. The Tudors had flattered and strengthened it enormously, and added very largely to its numbers; for they had been rather afraid of the House of Lords. The Stuarts added more than a hundred members to the House of Lords in the