Hokay … who fancies a break?
Right; wrap up some sarnies, cheese, apples and a crate of mild and pile in to the charabanc. We're taking a day trip from Norwich Castle up to Hull to see the start of the Civil War proper … if you need the loo you'd better go now as it's a fair old drive.
By this point, Charles had alienated all but the most conservative gentry. The Irish had risen in rebellion against the "New English" settlers sent by James and Charles to rule over them, the Scottish Covenanters occupied northern England and their army had just humiliated Charles' own. Meanwhile, parliament had raised the trained bands in London and now occupied the city, trusting Charles not one inch.
Desperate for a way out Charles travelled north to parley with the Scots, basically taking back everything he had said before, ripping up his new religious rules and promising them lots of money if only they'd join his cause or at least remain neutral.
By bribery and subterfuge Charles had temporarily eliminated the threat from the north; now he needed weapons and munitions for his ragbag army of royalist gentry and the poorly-armed villagers they forced to accompany them. He could not get at the arsenal in the Tower of London as the city was under parliamentary control, but there was one other arsenal closer at hand in Hull, containing twenty-thousand weapons and seven-thousand barrels of gunpowder. Take that and he would be in a powerful position.
Fairfax, commander of the parliamentary forces, had recently sent Sir John Hotham (and his son's company of horse) to occupy Hull against just such a move by Charles.
Good old Fairfax was one of the few parliamentarians (possibly the only one) to keep, bind and catalogue the civil war tracts (the equivalent of seventeenth century email exchanges between king and parliament in the run-up to hostilities). This rather historically important one now lives with me (yay), at least until I pop my clogs whence it shall go the City of Hull and hence back into the public domain where it belongs.
This lovely little tract (number nineteen in Fairfax's collection) was printed at the king's camp at York (even though it says London on the title page … parliament held London against the king but wherever he was - usually Oxford, York or Nottingham - his tracts were always stated as printed in the capital as he considered the capital travelled with him) and copies sent by riders to parliament in London. Do take the time to read it as it tells its own story of the last petulant outburst by Charles before both sides tooled up and the war kicked off.
Charles actually arrived at the gates of Hull with three-hundred fully-armed cavalry. Hotham decided that he couldn't let them in as they'd overwhelm his own forces. So instead he told the king he could enter the city with only a dozen guards, which of course Charles dared not attempt and rejected the offer as an affront to his dignity. The king claimed in the tract that he offered to come into the city with only twenty horse but this is denied by Hotham and other witnesses.
Hotham informed the king that he was under orders from parliament to occupy the city and not give up the arsenal without parliamentary assent. Charles threw a tantrum, telling Hotham that he did not believe parliament would be so seditious and traitorous and declared Hotham a traitor.
Charles then returned to York in an almighty huff from whence he had this tract printed by his personal printer Robert Barker (part of the king's travelling entourage) and copies sent post haste to parliament demanding Hotham's head as a traitor.
He settled down with his forces to await parliament's response. Somewhere out there in antiquarian-book-land is tract twenty of Fairfax's personal collection in which parliament informs the king that "Sir John Hotham hath done nothing but in obedience of both Houses of Parliament" and that "the declaring of him a traitor, being a member of the House of Commons is a high breach of the privilege of Parliament." (from the surviving copy in the State Papers).
At which response Charles threw a Trump-toddler-like paddy and moved south to muster in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire with his personal headquarters at Nottingham as both sides gathered men and arms and the English Civil War finally lumbered forward into an inescapable catastrophe.
Next time: The good folk of Norwich do bicker amongst themselves.
Sources:
Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition.
The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.
Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.
A Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)
Francis
Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of
Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich:
published 1753 to 1775
Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society
East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009
Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973
Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols
Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)
Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)
The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)
Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999
The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014
The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002
Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996
Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005
Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004
Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981
Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983
2 comments:
What a book to have in your own hands! I read the first two and will have to come back later for the rest; I read your posts in the evening when I'm already low on brain.
I remember in the blogging days there was a daily photo blog out of Hull, which I followed. I don't remember now what it was called, but I got a good look around the city from it.
Hull's nice place, Petrea. A university city like Norwich, both cities have been European City of Culture at one time or other, though we - rather smugly - are also UNESCO City of Literature. Yay!
Post a Comment