Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/773

 Struggle in England between King and Parliament 66y Section 117. Plow Charles I lost his Head In 1640 Charles found himself forced to summon Parlia- Charles Ps ment, for he was involved in a war with Scotland which he ?he Scotch could not carry on without money. There the Presbyterian Presbyterians system had been pretty generally introduced by John Knox in Elizabeth's time (see above, p. 640). An attempt on the part of Charles to force the Scots to accept a modified form of the English prayer book led to the signing of the National Covenant The National in 1638. This pledged those who attached their names to it to i6lT"^" ' reestablish the purity and liberty of the Gospel, which, to most of the Covenanters, meant Presbyterianism. Charles thereupon undertook to coerce the Scots. Having Charles no money, he bought on credit a large cargo of pepper, which the^Long had just arrived in the ships of the East India Company, and Parliament, sold it cheap for ready cash. The soldiers, however, whom he got together showed little inclination to fight the Scots, with whom they were in tolerable agreement on religious matters. Charles was therefore at last obliged to summon a Parliament, which, owing to the length of time it remained in session, is known as the Long Parliament. The Long Parliament began by imprisoning Archbishop Laud The meas- in the Tower of London. They declared him guilty of trea- Long° son, and he was executed in 164c;, in spite of Charles's efforts to Parliament _^^' ^ _ against the save him. Parliament also tried to strengthen its position by king's passing the Triennial Bill, which provided that it should meet at least once in three years, even if not summoned by the king. In fact, Charles's whole system of government was abrogated. Parliament drew up a " Grand Remonstrance " in which all of Charles's errors were enumerated and a demand was made that the king's ministers should thereafter be responsible to Parlia- ment. This document Parliament ordered to be printed and circulated throughout the country. Exasperated at the conduct of the Commons, Charles at- tempted to intimidate the opposition by undertaking to arrest tyranny