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The growing power of Parliament

[1660-5

From this time forward Clarendon's favour with the King sensibly diminished, but his retention of power depended now more on Parliament than the King. Parliament, and in it the House of Commons, was more and more the dominant factor in determining the policy of the State. In 1660 the nation had surrendered itself unconditionally to the King. "We submit and oblige ourselves and our posterities to your Majesty for ever," said the Commons; but in reality the last twenty years had but strengthened the resolution of England to control its own fate. Foreign observers who visited England after the Restoration noted with wonder the keen interest which all classes of the people took in public affairs. In this country, reported the French ambassadors in 1665, every man thinks he has a right to talk about matters of State. Even the watermen, as they rowed the Lords to Westminster, would try to get them to speak about the political questions of the day. What happened at Court was the continual subject of debate in the City. "As they are naturally lazy," says another traveller, "and spend half their time taking tobacco, they are all the while exercising their talents about the Government; talking of new customs, of the chimney-tax, the management of the public finances, and the lessening of trade." All this activity of public opinion outside stimulated Parliament to assert itself."Let the King come in," said Harrington in 1660, " and let him call a Parliament of the greatest cavaliers in England, so they be men of estates, and let them sit but seven years, and they will all turn commonwealthsmen." The prediction was not yet fulfilled; but there were signs that it was on its way to fulfilment. Inevitably something of the spirit which animated the Long Parliament of Charles I passed into the Long Parliament of Charles II. During the civil troubles first one branch of government, then another, had fallen under the control of the House of Commons. It had assumed not only the legislative power but the direct control of the executive. All the different functions of administration had been taken charge of by its committees; all the highest questions of policy had been subjected to its decision. Men might change and principles might change, but such an experience could not be forgotten, and the increasing independence and growing claims of the House of Commons testified its consciousness of its past. King and Minister were alike obliged in the long run to yield to its pressure. What Charles wished to do became a minor question. The King of France, wrote Courtin to Lionne in 1665, can make his subjects march as he pleases; but the King of England must march with his people. What Clarendon thought best for the King's service was more and more liable to be overruled, and he was obliged to conform himself, though not without a struggle, to the views of Parliament.

Accordingly, Parliament proceeded to complete its ecclesiastical settlement by a series of measures for the complete suppression of Nonconformity. An Act specially directed against the Quakers had

1662-4]

Religious persecution

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been passed in May, 1662. If five or more of them met for worship they were to be fined five pounds each or three months' imprisonment for the first offence, ten pounds or six months for a second, and to be banished to the Plantations on a third conviction. In 1664 this Act was strengthened and extended to Presbyterians and Independents in general, under the pretext that their assemblies were "the seedplots and nurseries of seditious opinions." A conventicle was defined as a meeting of more than five persons over and above the members of a household; conviction was facilitated, and offenders who could not pay the cost of their own transportation to the colonies were to serve five years as indentured labourers; transported convicts who escaped or returned to England before the expiration of their sentence were to suffer death as felons. A year later came the Five Mile Act, which aggravated the lot of ejected nonconformist ministers by prohibiting them from residing within five miles of any corporate town or teaching in any public or private school, unless they had taken a test. The test consisted of the non-resistance oath imposed by the Corporation Act, with the additional pledge not to "endeavour at any time any alteration of government either in Church or State." This closed the series of measures which some historians have dubbed "the Clarendon Code." Clarendon approved of the Conventicle Act; his attitude with regard to the Five Mile Act is uncertain. The King's compliance was due to his pecuniary necessities. The growing power of Parliament was not only shown by the fact that it forced its ecclesiastical policy upon the King. It influenced both the relations of England to the rest of the British Isles, and still more its relation to Europe.

The settlement of Scotland and Ireland had proceeded pari passu with that of England. In both kingdoms the restoration of the old constitution in 1660 entailed the restoration of their separate Parliaments, and the undoing of the legislative union which Cromwell had effected. Equality of commercial privileges perished with the Cromwellian union or survived it only for a short time. The Navigation Act of 1660 excluded Scotland from the benefits of the colonial trade, though it included Ireland. The Act for the encouragement of English trade passed in 1663 imposed a heavy tax on the importation of Scottish cattle and sheep; Scottish corn was practically excluded, Scottish salt ere long heavily burdened.

Clarendon hints that the King might have done well to maintain the Union with Scotland, but that he "would not build according to Cromwell's models." In Ireland Charles had to do this, whether he would or not. The Cromwellian settlement rested on a solid legal basis, since the last acts to which Charles I had given his assent before the civil war began were a series of measures confiscating the lands of the Irish rebels, in order to pay the cost of reducing that country. The new colonists were in possession; all the machinery of government was in their

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Restrictions on Irish trade

[1660-6

hands, and English public opinion was unanimous in their support. Despite the King's obligations to the Irish Catholics, despite his pity for "the miserable condition of the Irish nation," all he could do was to restore a few favoured individuals to their estates, and induce the soldiers and the Adventurers to submit to a slight reduction of their share of the land for the benefit of the dispossessed. On the other hand, the commercial jealousy which found expression in the restrictions placed by England upon Scottish trade was still more strongly felt with regard to Irish. In 1663 Irish shipping was entirely excluded from the colonial trade. In 1666 the importation of Irish cattle, sheep, and swine, alive or dead, was totally prohibited. The latter Act led to a long struggle between the country gentlemen who backed it and the Government. The King yielded under compulsion; the House of Lords resisted stubbornly, and became involved in a heated controversy with the Commons; Clarendon sacrificed the last shreds of his popularity with the country party in his endeavour to maintain the prosperity of Ireland and the rights of the upper House and the King against the encroachments of the Commons. But the lower House would hear of no compromise; as in the case of the ecclesiastical statutes, so in that of economic statutes, they refused to leave any loophole for the exercise of the King's dispensing power, and carried the day. "The House of Commons," commented Clarendon, "seemed much more morose and obstinate than it had formerly appeared to be, and solicitous to grasp as much power and authority as any of their predecessors had done."

English foreign policy during the period between the Restoration and the close of 1664 developed upon similar lines; that is, its control passed by degrees from the hands of the King and his Ministers into the hands of the Parliament. Clarendon's policy, as stated by himself, was straightforward and intelligible. "He laboured nothing more than that his Majesty might enter into a firm peace with all his neighbours, as most necessary for the reducing his own dominions into that temper of subjection and obedience as they ought to be in." At first sight it seemed easy to attain this modest aim. The fact that the King was restored without the interposition of any foreign Power appeared to leave him free to follow what policy he pleased. It is true that Charles was personally pledged by his treaty with Spain in April, 1656, that when he recovered his throne he would abandon Jamaica and other possessions in the West Indies acquired since 1630, and would assist Philip IV to regain Portugal. But it might be argued that the King's restoration without Spanish aid freed him from these stipulations. England was still nominally at war with Spain when the King returned; but a formal cessation of hostilities was proclaimed on September 10, 1660. But Charles turned a deaf ear to the Spanish demands for the restoration of Jamaica and Dunkirk. Parliament was firm on that point; and a Bill for annexing both places in perpetuity to the Crown of England

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The alliance with Portugal

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passed the House of Commons on September 11, 1660. Their retention rendered an agreement with Spain impossible; the old treaty of November 15, 1630, was republished, but hostilities in the West Indies still continued, and in October, 1662, an expedition from Jamaica took and destroyed Santiago de Cuba. A new treaty of peace and commerce was not signed till May, 1667, and the American quarrels were not settled till July, 1670.

During the same period Charles, instead of assisting Spain to recover Portugal, adopted exactly the opposite policy. England had from the first favoured Portuguese independence. In 1642 Charles I signed a treaty with Portugal securing great privileges for English merchants, which were further increased by Cromwell's treaty with Portugal in 1654. Blake's fleet helped to preserve Portugal from the navy of Spain, and Cromwell's diplomacy laboured to compose her quarrel with Holland. On the very eve of the Restoration, in April, 1660, the English Council of State signed a treaty permitting Portugal to levy 12,000 men in England. It was natural therefore that Portugal, abandoned by Louis XIV at the Treaty of the Pyrenees, should turn to Charles II for aid as soon as he was restored to his throne. In the summer of 1660 Francisco de Mello, the Portuguese ambassador, proposed a match between Charles and the Infanta Catharine, daughter of John IV, and sister of the reigning king Alfonso VI. As an inducement he offered the cession of Tangier and Bombay, commercial privileges and complete liberty of conscience for English merchants, and a dowry of two million crusados. The Cromwellian statesmen in the King's council, Albemarle and Sandwich, were strongly in favour of the proposed alliance; Ormond and Hyde, the heads of the cavalier section, approved it; Bristol, the leader of the Catholic party, worked hard with the aid of the Spanish ambassador to prevent its acceptance. The treaty was signed on June 23, 1661; the marriage followed on May 21, 1662. England became pledged to assist Portugal with 2000 foot, 1000 horse, and ten ships of war until her independence was attained. Old soldiers were not difficult to find at the moment; the removal of the Cromwellian garrisons in Scotland, which took place about the end of 1661, supplied an organised body of infantry, whilst Irish Catholics who had served the King in Flanders helped to furnish the cavalry. Both did good service; in the battles of Amegial (June 8, 1663) and Montes Claros (June 17, 1665) the English contingent bore a large part in winning the victory. English diplomacy, too, represented by Fanshawe, Southwell, and Sandwich, worked indefatigably on behalf of Portugal until the treaty of February 13, 1668, secured its independence.

By retaining Cromwell's conquests from Spain and by assisting Portugal Charles returned to Cromwell's foreign policy, though he succeeded in avoiding open war with Spain. At the same time he naturally drew nearer to France. At first he had testified his resentment of

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England and France

[1660-2 Mazarin's close alliance with the usurper by ordering Bordeaux, the ambassador who had been the instrument of the Cardinal in effecting it, to leave England. But this feeling did not prevent the re-establishment of good relations between the two Powers. Queen Henrietta Maria, who exerted all her influence to restore them, proposed a match between Charles and Hortense Mancini, Mazarin's niece, to whom the Cardinal promised to give a dowry of 4 million livres. Charles refused the match. as beneath his dignity, but the Queen succeeded in negotiating a marriage between the Princess Henrietta and Louis XIV's brother, the Duke of Orleans. It took place on March 31, 1661, and the Duchess of Orleans became ere long the channel for all confidential communications between Charles and Louis.

The marriage of Charles with Catharine of Braganza formed a second link with France. Debarred from assisting Portugal openly, Louis was anxious to prevent her reconquest by Spain, in order to keep that Power weak. Hence when Charles hesitated Louis pressed the match, and promised to contribute 800,000 crowns towards the expense of defending Portugal, besides permitting a certain number of French officers and soldiers to take service under the Portuguese standards.

The sale of Dunkirk to France constituted a third link. It was an expensive possession, for it required a garrison of nearly 4000 men, and cost about £100,000 a year. The harbour was poor, which made it of little value as a naval station, and with the abandonment of Cromwell's plan for a great European league for the support of Protestantism its military value was greatly diminished. For strategic reasons Albemarle and Sandwich urged its sale; Tangier, they said, would be far more valuable as a naval base, and it was impossible to hold both places. For financial reasons, Southampton, the Lord Treasurer, took the same line, and Clarendon both approved the plan and managed the bargain. The two possible purchasers were France and Spain, and the former was at once the better paymaster and the more desirable ally. After much haggling between Clarendon and D'Estrades, the price was finally fixed at 2,500,000 livres; and the transfer took place on October 27, 1662.

It seemed at the close of 1662 as if Charles had definitely resolved to range himself on the side of France in her struggle with the Spanish monarchy, and as if as close an alliance between Charles and Louis was about to be formed as that which Cromwell had made with Mazarin. But the difference was that religious interests had no part in determining the policy of Charles, nor was his inclination towards France connected with any definite scheme of European policy. His policy was mainly dictated by commercial considerations, and he looked outside Europe. "Upon the King's first arrival in England," says Clarendon, "he manifested a very great desire to improve the general traffic and trade of the nation, and upon all occasions conferred with the most active merchants upon it, and offered all that he could contribute to the advancement