Oliver Cromwell Author:John Morley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI THE EVE OF THE WAR WHEN Mary Stuart in 1567 rode away a captive from Carberry Hill, she seized the hand of Lord Linsay, her foe, and holding it ... more »aloft in her grasp, she swore by it, "I will have your head for this, so assure you." This was in Guise-Tudor blood, and her grandson's passion for revenge if less loud was not less deep. The destruction of Strafford and the humiliation that his own share in that bitter deed had left in the heart of the king, darkened whatever prospect there might at any time have been of peace between Charles and the Parliamentary leaders. He was one of the men vindictive in proportion to their impotence, who are never beaten with impunity. His thirs( for retaliation was unquenchable, as the popular leaders were well aware, as they were well aware too of the rising sources of weakness in their own ranks. Seeing no means of escape, the king assented to a series of reforming bills that swept away the Star Chamber, the Court of High Commission, the assumed right to levy ship-money, and the other more flagrant civil grievances of the reign. The verdicts of Hal lam have grown pale in the flash and glitter of later historians, yet there is much to be said for his judgment that allthe useful and enduring part of the reforming work of the Long Parliament was mainly completed within the first nine months of its existence. These were all measures obviously necessary for the restoration or renovation of the constitution, and they stood the test of altered times. Most of the rest was writ in water. Charles went further and into a new region in agreeing to a law that guaranteed the assembly of a Parliament at least once in three years whether with the king's consent or without. Further still he went when he assented to an act for prolonging the lif...« less