Struggle for Constitutional Government 235 sides, was at length attainted of treason ; and the king, against his own mind, to serve his ends, gave him up to death. The archbishop of Canterbury was also made pris- oner upon an accusation of high treason, for which he after suffered ; Wren, bishop of Norwich, was likewise com- mitted to the Tower ; several other prelatical preachers were questioned for popish and treasonable doctrines ; the Star Chamber, an unjust and arbitrary court, was taken away, and the High Commission Court ; an act was procured for a triennial Parliament, and another for the continuation of this, that it should not be broken up without their own consent. There were great necessities for money by reason of the two armies that were then maintained in England, and the people would give the king no money without some ease of grievances, which forced him, against his inclina- tion, to grant those bills, with which, after he had granted, he found he had bound up his own hands, and therefore privately encouraged plots that were in those times con- trived against the Parliament. The Grand Remonstrance, which the commons drew up after spending a year in rectifying the abuses of Charles' personal government, contains a gloomy review of his reign and an account of the measures already passed by the Long Parliament with a view of doing away with the abuses. Some notion of this remarkable document may be derived from the following extracts. 1 The commons in this present Parliament assembled having, w r ith much earnestness and faithfulness of affection and zeal to the public good of this kingdom and his Majesty's honor and service, for the space of twelve months, wrestled with great dangers and fears, the pressing miseries and calamities, the various distempers and disorders which 1 The full text of the Grand Remonstrance would fill toward thirty pages of this volume. The whole document is given by Gardiner, Con- stitutional Documents, pp. 202-232. 314. Ex- tracts from the Grand Remon- strance of the com- mons, pre- sented to Charles I, December z, 1641.
