Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/137

] direct charge against himself, inasmuch as he himself had been with Buckingham all the time in Spain, and had verified his narrative on his return. The peers passed this royal charge courageously by; and Charles then ordered the cause betwixt Bristol and Buckingham to be removed from the peers to the court of King's Bench; but the lords would not permit such an infringement of their privileges. They put these questions themselves to the judges—"Whether the king could be a witness in a case of treason? And whether, in Bristol's case, he could be a witness at all, admitting the treason done with his privity?" The king sent the judges an order not to answer these questions, and in the midst of these proceedings the charges against Bristol were heard, and answered by him with a spirit and clearness which appeared perfectly satisfactory to the house. The charges against him amounted to this:—That he had falsely assumed James of the sincerity of the Spanish cabinet; had concurred in a plan for inducing the prince to change his religion; that he had endeavoured to force the marriage on Charles by delivering the procuration; and had given the lie to his present sovereign by declaring false what he had vouched in Buckingham's statement to be true. These were so palpably untenable positions that the house ordered Bristol's answer to be entered on the journals, and there left the matter.

But now the impeachment of Buckingham by the commons was brought up to the lords. It consisted of thirteen articles; the principal of which were that he had not only enriched himself with several of the highest offices of the state which had never before been held by one and the same person, but had purchased for money those of high admiral and warden of the Cinque Ports; had in those offices culpably neglected the trade and the security of the coasts of the country; had perverted to his own use the revenues of the crown; had filled the court and dignities of the land with a host of his indigent relations; had put a squadron of English ships into the hands of the French, and on the other hand, by detaining for his own use a vessel belonging to the king of France, had provoked him to make reprisals on British merchants; had extorted ten thousand pounds from the East India Company; and even charged him with being accessory to the late king's death, by administering medicine contrary to the advice of the royal physicians.

Eight managers were appointed by the commons to conduct the impeachment—Sir Dudley Digges, Sir John Elliot, Serjeant Glanville, Selden, Whitelock, Pym, Herbert, and Wandsford. Digges opened the case, and was followed by Glanville, Selden, and Pym. Whilst these gentlemen were speaking and detailing the ground charges against him, Buckingham, confident in the power and will of the king to protect him, displayed the most impudent recklessness, laughing and jesting at the orators and their arguments. Serjeant Glanville, on one occasion, turned brusquely on him, and exclaimed, My lord, do you jeer at me? Are these things to be jeered at? My lord, I can show you when a man of a greater blood than your lordship, as high in place and power, and as deep in the favour of the king as you, hath been hanged for as small a crime as the least of these articles contain."

Sir John Elliot wound up the charge, and compared Buckingham to Sejanus; as proud, insolent, rapacious, an accuser of others, a base adulator, and tyrant by turns, and one who conferred commands and offices on his dependents. "Ask England, Scotland, and Ireland," exclaimed Sir John, "and they will tell you whether this man doth not the like. Sejanus's pride was so excessive, as Tacitus saith, that he neglected all counsel, mixed his business and service with the prince, and was often styled imperatoris laborum socius. My lords," he said, "I have done. You see the man; by him came all the evils; in him we find the cause; on him we expect the remedies."

The direct inference that if Buckingham was a Sejanus the king was a Tiberius, and a rumour that Elliot and Digges had hinted that in the death of the late king there was a greater than Buckingham behind, transported Charles with rage, and urged him on one more of those acts of aggression which ultimately brought him to actual battle with his parliament. He had the two offending members called out of the house as if the king required their presence, when they were seized and sent to the Tower. This outrage on the persons of their fellow members and delegated prosecutors, came like a thunder-clap on the house. There was instantly a vehement cry of "Rise! rise! rise!" The house was in a state of the highest ferment.

Charles hurried to the house of lords to denounce the imputations cast upon him, and to defend Buckingham; and Buckingham stood by his side whilst he spoke. He declared that he had punished some insolent speeches, and that it was high time, for that he had been too lenient. He would give his evidence to clear Buckingham, he said, in every one of the articles, and he would suffer no one with impunity to charge himself with having any concern in the death of his father. But all this bravado was wasted on the commons: again with closed doors they discussed the violation of their privileges, and resolved to proceed with no further business till their members should be discharged. In a few days this was done, and the house passed a resolution that the two members had only discharged their bounden duty.

At this crisis the earl of Suffolk died, leaving vacant the chancellorship of the University of Cambridge; and Charles, with that perversity which proved his ruin, seized on the opportunity to mark his friendship for Buckingham, and thus to stamp his opinion of the proceedings of the commons, to confer the honour on him. The news of Suffolk's death reached the palace early on Sunday morning, and the next day, about noon, Dr. Wilson, chaplain to Montague, lord bishop of London, arrived in Cambridge, bringing a verbal message from the bishop that the king desired the heads of houses to appoint the duke. These facile gentlemen were very ready to comply, but the fellows and younger members declared that the heads had no more to do with it than they had, and forthwith nominated Howard, earl of Berkshire, without waiting for his consent. On Tuesday morning, however, the bishop of London, with Mason, the duke's secretary, and a Mr. Cozens, arrived with the king's mandate for choosing Buckingham. Then there was a violent strife, the heads of houses and the bishop persuading and intimidating the fellows, and to such effect that at length the election of the favourite was carried by a mere majority of three.