Sidenote: The Counsellors of Charles.]

But Charles was not without friends, and some of his advisers were men
of sagacity and talent. It is true they did not fully appreciate the
weakness of the king, or the strength of his enemies; but they saw his
distress, and tried to remove it. They, very naturally in such an age,
recommended violent courses--to grant new monopolies, to extort fines,
to exercise all his feudal privileges, to pawn the crown jewels, even,
in order to raise money; for money, at all events, he must have. They
advised him to arrest turbulent and incendiary members of the Commons,
to prorogue and dissolve parliaments, to raise forced loans, to impose
new duties, to shut up ports, to levy fresh taxes, and to raise armies
friendly to his cause. In short, they recommended unconstitutional
measures--measures which both they and the king knew to be
unconstitutional, but which they justified on the ground of necessity.
And the king, in his perplexity, did what his ministers advised. But
every person who was sent to the Tower, every new tax, every sentence
of the Star Chamber, every seizure of property, every arbitrary
command, every violation of the liberties of the people, raised up new
enemies to the king, and inflamed the people with new discontents.

[Sidenote: Death of Buckingham--Petition of Right.]

At first the Commons felt that they could obtain what they wanted--a
redress of grievances, if the king's favorite adviser and minister
were removed. Besides, they all hated Buckingham--peers, commons, and
people,--and all sought his downfall. He had no friends among the
people, as Essex had in the time of Elizabeth. His extravagance, pomp,
and insolence disgusted all orders; and his reign seemed to be an
insult to the nation. Even the people regarded him as an upstart,
setting himself above the old nobility, and enriching himself by royal
domains, worth two hundred eighty-four thousand three hundred and
ninety-five pounds. So the Commons violently attacked his
administration, and impeached him. But he was shielded by the king,
and even appointed to command an expedition to relieve La Rochelle,
then besieged by Richelieu. But he was stabbed by a religious fanatic,
by the name of Felton, as he was about to embark at Portsmouth. His
body was removed to London, and he was buried with great state in
Westminster Abbey, much lamented by the king, who lost his early
friend, one of the worst ministers, but not th