Charles was not an eloquent speaker, and he, moreover, was afflicted with stammering; but he plunged boldly into a statement which it was very easy for the two houses to understand. He informed them that his father had left debts to the amount of seven hundred thousand pounds; that the money voted for the war against Spain and Austria was expended, and he therefore called upon them for liberal supplies. He declared his resolution to prosecute the wars which they had so loudly called for with vigour, but it was for them to furnish the means.
As he was beginning his reign, and had not plunged himself into very heavy debt, or preached up, like his father, the claims of the prerogative, he had a right to expect a more generous treatment than James. But, notwithstanding the éclat of a new reign, and the usual desire on such occasions to stand well with the throne, the commons displayed no enthusiasm in voting their money. There were many causes, even under a new king, to produce this coolness. Charles had won their popularity by abandoning the Spanish match, but he had now neutralised that merit by taking a catholic queen from France. To please the commons and the public generally, he should have selected a wife from one of the protestant houses of Germany or the Netherlands; but for this he had displayed no desire. In the second place, he had retained the hated Buckingham in all his former eminence, both as a minister of the crown, and as his own associate. The recent conduct of this profligate man in France had outgone his folly and vice in Spain, and had outraged all the most serious feelings and sacred sentiments of the nation. Besides, they had no faith in his abilities, either as a commander or a statesman, and beheld with disgust his reckless extravagance and unconcealed infamy of life at home. No talent whatever had been shown in the war in Germany for the restoration of the Palatinate; and, therefore, the commons, instead of voting money to defray the late king's debts, and to carry on the war efficiently, restricted their advances to two subsidies, amounting to about one hundred and forty thousand pounds, and to the grant of tonnage and poundage, not for life as afore-time, but merely for the year.
But still more apprehensive were they on the subject of religion. The breach with Spain had naturally removed any delicacy on the part of the Spaniards to conceal the treacherous concessions, in perfect contradiction to the public professions of both the late and the present king, which had been made on that head. It was now freely whispered that the like had been made to France, and the sight of the crowd of priests and papistical courtiers who had flocked over with the queen, and the performance of the mass in the king's own house, led the zealous reformers to believe that there was a tacit intention on the part of the king to restore the catholic religion.
What rendered the commons more sensitive on this head were the writings of Dr. Montague, one of the king's chaplains, and editor of his father's works. In a controversy with a catholic missionary, he had disowned the Calvinistic doctrines of the puritans with which his church was charged, and declared for the Arminian tenets of which Laud was the great champion. This gave great offence; he was accused of being a concealed papist, and two puritan ministers. Yates and Ward, prepared a charge against him, and laid it before parliament. Montague denied that he was amenable to parliament, and "appealed unto Cæsar." Charles informed the commons that the cognisance of his chaplains belonged to him, and not to them. But they asserted their right to deal with all such cases, and summoned him to appear at the bar of the house, where they bound him in a bond of two thousand pounds to appear when called for.
Charles endeavoured to recall their attention to the state of the finances, showing them the inadequacy of their votes; the fitting out of the navy amounting alone to three hundred thousand pounds. He was beyond all indignant at the grant of tonnage and poundage for only one year, seeing that his predecessors from the time of Henry VI., had enjoyed it for life; and the lords threw out that part of the vote for this reason, so that he had no parliamentary right to collect that at all. To make matters worse, instead of listening to the pleading of lord Conway, the chief secretary, for further grants, they presented to the king, after listening to four sermons one day, and taking the sacrament the next, a "pious petition," praying him, as he valued the maintenance of true religion, and would discourage superstition and idolatry, to put in force all the penal statutes against catholics.
To this demand Charles could only return an evasive answer. He had recently bound himself by the most solemn oaths to do nothing of the kind; and under the sanction of the marriage treaty with France, the mass was every day celebrated under his own roof, and his palace and its immediate vicinity swarmed with catholics and their priests. Nay, he had, just before summoning parliament, been called on by France to send a fleet in virtue of this treaty to assist in putting down the Huguenots. Soubise, the general of the Huguenots, still retained possession of Rochelle and the island of Rhé, and their fleet scoured the coasts in such force, that the French fleet dared not attempt to cope with it. Richeileu, therefore, called on Charles to give Louis assistance. Accordingly, though the affairs of the English fleet had been most woefully conducted ever since Buckingham had been lord admiral, he mustered seven merchant vessels, and sent them with the Vanguard, the only ship of the line that was fit for sea, under the command of admiral Pennington, to Rochelle. The destination of the fleet was declared to be Genoa, but on reaching Dieppe, the officers and crew were astonished to receive orders to take on board French soldiers and sailors, and proceed to Rochelle to fight against the protestants. They refused to a man, and notwithstanding the imperative commands of the duke of Montmorency, the lord admiral of France, they compelled their own admiral to put back to the Downs.
On this ignominious return, Pennington requested to be permitted to decline this service, and his desire was much favoured by the remonstrances of the Huguenots, who sent over an envoy, entreating the king not to give such a triumph to popery as to fight against the protestants. Charles, with that fatal duplicity which he had learned so early under his father, sent fair words to Soubise, the duke of Rohan, and the other leaders of the Huguenots; but Buckingham, by speaking out more plainly, exposed the hollowness of his master. He assured the navy that they
