d to assert that the
legislative power lay in their hands; and that, if the King refused to
approve the laws for which they demanded his sanction, they would
refuse him the subsidies which he needed.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1605.]

And this resolution was strengthened by the ill-feeling which the
treatment of the Puritan ministers excited. The Parliament had been
adjourned from August 1604 until February 1605: but the King feared
that these clergymen, who had been assailed just at that time, might
apply to the Lower House in which so many Puritans had seats.[328] He
therefore prorogued it afresh in the hope of getting rid of certain
persons who were especially hostile, or of bringing them over to his
own side.

Instead of this, new grievances were constantly accumulating. In the
absence of regular subsidies the King helped himself to money by a
voluntary loan, which gave great offence, and in this matter also led
people to contrast the late Queen's conduct with that of James. She
had, so people said, conducted the war in Spain, afforded help to the
Netherlands, and maintained garrisons on the Scottish border, three
measures which had cost her millions; of all this there was no mention
under the present King. On the contrary he had additional revenues
from Scotland; for what reason did he require extraordinary
subsidies?[329] Men complained of his movements to and fro in the
country, and of the harshness with which the right of the court to
transport and cheap entertainment on these occasions was enforced; of
his hunting, by which the tillage was injured; most of all, of his
intended advancement of the Customs Duties, for this would damage
trade and certainly would benefit only the great men who were
interested in the farming of the Customs. The King had once thought of
dissolving Parliament, but afterwards renounced the idea. As it was,
when Parliament was summoned for November 1605, a stormy session lay
before it, owing to the attack made by the Parliamentary and Puritan
party upon the behaviour of the King in ecclesiastical and political
questions, as well as upon the financial disorder which was gaining
ground.

An event intervened which gave an entirely different direction to the
course of affairs.

NOTES:

[316] Economies royales v. 23.

[317] Molino, Giugno 9, 1604: 'Se ben e vero, ch'erano suddite del re
di Spagna, e anco verissimo, che quei popoli si erano soggettati alla
casa di Borgogna--con quelle conditi