6 The king, who had been removed from Windsor-castle to St. James's, and thence to Sir Robert Cotton's house, was now placed at the bar; but refusing to acknowledge the legal jurisdiction of the court, during that and the two following days, the court adjourned to the painted chamber, and proceeded to hear witnesses against him on the charge of traiterously levying war against the people.' On the 27th, the court resumed its sittings in Westminster Hall; and the king being again brought up, he was sentenced to be put to death, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy, by the severing of his head from his body.' Three days afterwards, (January 30) this sentence was fully executed on a scaffold erected in the street before Whitehall; the king submitting to his sad fate with exemplary and truly Christian fortitude. 6 CHAPTER XIII. History of London during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles the Second. MEASURES were now taken to settle the kingdom in a commonwealth; the house of peers was declared dangerous and useless; the kingly office was abolished, and a council of state, consisting of 38 persons, was appointed to administer the laws. On the 9th of March, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and the Lord Capel, were beheaded in the Palace-yard, Westminster; and on the 1st of April, the lord mayor, Sir Abraham Reynardson, having refused to obey the order of the house, in proclaiming the abolition of the kingly office in England and Ireland within the said city, his lordship was brought to the bar of the house of commons, and after some queries proposed concerning his non-performance thereof, he replied, that according to the oath of allegiance which he had taken, he could not in conscience proclaim the said act for the abolishing of the kingly office declaring that the business was only proper for the sheriffs of the city. And being remanded from the bar, the house voted as followeth : "Resolved by the commons of England assembled in parliament, that the lord mayor of the city of London, for his contempt in disobeying the orders of parliament, be fined 20001. "Resolved, &c. that he be committed prisoner to the Tower of London for two months, and be degraded of mayoralty. "Resolved, &c. that an order be forthwith drawn up, and immediately sent to the common council of the said city, requiring and empowering them to elect a new mayor with all speed; and in order thereunto, the several companies within the said city are required to meet this day for the election thereof " At this time, the dearth of corn increasing, wheat was sold at the excessive rate of four pounds five shillings the quarter. On the 3rd of April, Alderman Atkins was chosen mayor of this city, in the room of Sir Abraham Reynardson (lately degraded and imprisoned by order of the commons, as above mentioned); who being to be presented to the house of commons for their approbation, they, for the greater solemnity of the ceremony, commanded the commissioners of chancery to bring in the great seal, and lay it upon the table. In the same month, the city agreed to advance a loan of 120,0001. for the service in Ireland, and this was afterwards increased to 150,000). A day of public thanksgiving being appointed, the lord mayor and common council, with the house of commons, and principal officers of the army, went to Christ-church, in Newgate-street; and afterwards to a splendid entertainment given at the expence of the city in Grocers' Hall, in commemoration of the late suppression of the levellers. On the following day, the Lord General Fairfax was presented by the city with a large and weighty basin and ewer of beaten gold; and to Cromwell was given plate to the value of 3001. and 200 pieces in gold.* Shortly afterwards, Richmond park, divers houses, and 10001. in money to the poor, was given to the citizens, as a testimony of the favor of the house to them."† 66 The above-named ordinance for the abolishing of monarchy was, on the 30th of May, proclaimed in this city by the lord mayor assisted by twelve aldermen. On the 4th of January 1650, about sixty houses in Tower-street, with all their inhabitants, were blown up by the explosion of twenty-seven barrels of gunpowder, which took fire through carelessness at a ship-chandler's, opposite Barking church. The number of sufferers was much increased through a parish feast held on that day, at the Rose tavern, next door but one to the house where the powder was, all within which perished. A cradle and child were carried up by the blast, and lodged upon the upper leads of Barking church; and on the following day, the infant was rescued from its perilous situation without injury: On the 29th of May, Cromwell returned to London from his victorious campaign in Ireland, and was received with every demonstration of joy. In the following month, he was constituted captain-general of all the forces of the commonwealth; and three days afterwards, he commenced his march towards Scotland, where prince Charles had numerous supporters, and was then in arms. Though the struggle was desperate, Cromwell eventually overcame all opposition, and on his return to the metropolis, after the decisive battle of Worcester, fought on September the 3rd, * Whit. Mem. p 392. + Ibid. p. 316 1651, he was met at Acton by the Speaker and many members of parliament, the council of state, the lord mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, many persons of quality, with the militia, and multitudes of people, who welcomed him with shouts and acclamations.' On the 16th of the same month, he and his principal officers, &c. were feasted by the city, in their Guildhall, with all possible magnificence. Wheat was now sold at three pounds thirteen shillings and four-pence the quarter.* (6 On the 20th of April, 1653, Cromwell, by one of those daring acts, which nothing but imperious necessity can justify, dissolved the long parliament, as it has since been designated in history, by military force. In the December following, he was solemnly sworn into the office of Lord Protector, in the chancery court at Westminster. In the following February, he dined with the corporation of the city, at Grocers' hall, and the entertainment was conducted with regal splendour: on this occasion, Cromwell exercised one of the functions of a sovereign, by conferring the honour of knighthood on the lord mayor." His endeavours to obtain the crown were not, however, successful; yet he procured all the authority of a king to be granted to him under his former title; and he was, in consequence, solemnly inaugurated in Westminster hall, on the 26th of June, 1657, with great magnificence. During the ceremony, the lord mayor stood on the left of the protector's chair, holding the city sword, the Earl of Warwick holding the sword of state on his right. In the year following, a dangerous conspiracy was formed against Cromwell's life; "in which," says Whitelocke, " major-general Harrison was very deep." The principal conspirators were seized on the night of the 4th of February, at their house of rendezvous in Shoreditch; and Dr. Hewit and Sir Henry Slingsby were sent to the scaffold. The protector died at Whitehall, on the 3rd of September this. year, (1658) and was buried in Westminster-abbey, with more than regal pomp; the lord mayor, aldermen, and chief citizens attending the solemnity. Richard, his successor, had too little talent to direct the vessel of the state at that tempestuous period, and bending to the pressure, he suffered the army to restore the Long Parliament, by which his power was rendered nugatory, and then abdicated the Protectorate within eight months, The citizens now declared for a free parliament, and so offended the Rump, as the sitting members of the Long Parliament were called in derision, by their refusal to grant any supplies of money, that General Monk was ordered to march into the city, with his army, in order to enforce obedience. The city gates and portcullisses were also ordered to be destroyed, which was immediately done at Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, and Aldgate; and the other gates were all more or Chron. Preci. + Whit. Mem. p. 661. less damaged.* Several of the aldermen and common council were also arrested.+ Three days afterwards, Monk, who had discovered that the aid of the citizens was necessary to forward his views in restoring monarchy, drew up his forces in Finsbury fields, and, having himself dined with the lord mayor, he accompanied him to a meeting of the aldermen and common council, at Guildhall, where after many excuses for his late conduct," they pledged their troth each to other, in such a manner, for the perfect union, and adhering to each other for the future, that as soon as they came from thence, the lord mayor attended the general to his lodgings, and all the bells of the city proclaimed, and testified to the town and kingdom, that the army and city were of one mind; and as soon as the evening came, there was a continual light of bon-fires throughout the city and suburbs, with such an universal exclamation of joy, as had never been known, and cannot be expressed, with such ridiculous signs of scorn and contempt of the parliament, as testified the non-regard, or rather the notable detestation they had of it; there being scarce a bon-fire at which they did not roast a rump, or pieces of flesh made like one, which they said was for the celebration of the funeral of the parliament,' and there can be no invention of fancy, wit, or ribaldry, that was not that night exercised to defame the parliament, and to magnify the general." Next day Monk returned to his quarters at Whitehall, and disposed of his army as he thought most convenient. He then restored the excluded members to their seats in the house of commons, who passed an ordinance to restore the common council to their ancient rights, to release the imprisoned apprentices, and to replace the city posts, chains, gates, and portcullises. In return, the city chose Monk major-general of their forces, and advanced the parliament sixty thousand pounds. The citizens, by the advice of their general, disarmed all who were suspected of favouring the rump parliament, and kept a strong guard for the peace and quiet of the city, till the meeting of a free parliament, which was now resolved upon, as well as to restore the monarchy, the royal family and the church. The citizens contributed all in their power to accomplish this great and glorious work; and took every precaution to prevent riot, tumult, or opposition of any kind, within the city. Monk and his council were several times feasted by different city companies in their respective halls; and though the design of restoring the king was not openly avowed, it was easy to see that some considerable change was meditated. At length, on the first of May, 1660, the general told the parliament that Sir * On the ninth of February, 1660. + Brayley's London, i. 367. Clar. Reb. iii. p. 716. John Grenvile was without with letters from the king; and this was no sooner spoken, than a general burst of acclamation evinced how well the wary Monk had taken his measures.* The same gentleman, with the Lord Viscount Mordaunt, was also the bearer of another letter directed to the city; with which the common council was so well pleased, that they voted a gratuity of 5002. to each of the messengers, and deputed fourteen of their principal members to wait on his majesty, at the Hague in Holland, with assurances of their fidelity and cheerful submission, and to present him, in the name of the city, with 10,000l. The king was so pleased that he knighted the whole of them. The house of commons also resolved to give the king 50,000l., and the citizens agreed to advance that sum. A few days afterwards, the common council made an order, that Richmond Park, which the protector had given them, should be restored to the sovereign, "and he assured that the city had only kept it as stewards for his majesty."+ On the eighth, the new king was solemnly proclaimed at Westminster hall gate, by the title of Charles the Second; "the lords and commons standing bare by the heralds whilst the proclamation was made." He was afterwards proclaimed at the accustomed places in the city, amidst the loudest shouts and acclamations," and the city was full of bon-fires and joys."+ On the twenty-sixth of May, 1650, the king landed at Dover; and on the twenty-ninth, he made his public entry into the metropolis: "all the ways thither," says Clarendon," being so full of people and acclamations, as if the whole kingdom had been gathered there." In St. George's Fields, he partook of a rich collation, provided by the lord mayor and aldermen, under a magnificent tent; after which he proceeded through the city to Whitehall; the houses being hung with rich silks and tapestry, the conduits flowing with wine, and the streets and buildings crowded with spectators; all of whom "expressed their joy with such protestations as can hardly be imagined." The procession itself was conducted with extreme pomp; the king riding between his brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, preceded by the lord mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and six hundred of the principal citizens, in gorgeous apparel, with gold chains, as well as by many hundred gentlemen," all gloriously habited and gorgeously mounted." On the same night, Monk was invested with the order of the garter at Whitehall, as an earnest of the honours about to be bestowed upon him for his dexterous management.S * Clar. Reb. vol. iii. p. 2, p. 756. Ludlow says, "The dissolution and drunkenness of that night were so great and scandalous, in a nation which had not been acquainted with such disorders for many years past, that the king, who still stood in need of the presbyterian party, which had betrayed all into his hands, for their satisfaction caused a proclamation to be published for forbidding the drinking of healths."" Mem. 348. |