king for life,
a grant which might have been perilous for freedom had not the taxes
voted to supply the sum fallen constantly below this estimate, while the
current expenses of the Crown, even in time of peace, greatly exceeded
it. But even for this grant a heavy price was exacted. Though the rights
of the Crown over lands held, as the bulk of English estates were held,
in military tenure had ceased to be of any great pecuniary value, they
were indirectly a source of considerable power. The rights of wardship
and of marriage above all enabled the sovereign to exercise a galling
pressure on every landed proprietor in his social and domestic
concerns. Under Elizabeth the right of wardship had been used to secure
the education of all Catholic minors in the Protestant faith; and under
James and his successor the charge of minors had been granted to Court
favourites or sold in open market to the highest bidder. But the real
value of these rights to the Crown lay in the political pressure which
it was able to exert through them on the country gentry. A squire was
naturally eager to buy the good will of a sovereign who might soon be
the guardian of his daughter and the administrator of his estate. But
the same motives which made the Crown cling to this prerogative made the
Parliament anxious to do away with it. Its efforts to bring this about
under James the First had been foiled by the king's stubborn resistance;
but the long interruption of these rights during the troubles made their
revival almost impossible at the Restoration. One of the first acts
therefore of the Convention was to free the country gentry by abolishing
the claims of the Crown to reliefs and wardship, purveyance, and
pre-emption, and by the conversion of lands held till then in chivalry
into lands held in common socage. In lieu of his rights Charles accepted
a grant of L100,000 a year; a sum which it was originally purposed to
raise by a tax on the lands thus exempted from feudal exactions; but
which was provided for in the end with less justice by a general excise.

[Sidenote: England and the Church.]

Successful as the Convention had been in effecting a settlement of
political matters it failed in bringing about a settlement of the
Church. In his proclamation from Breda Charles had promised to respect
liberty of conscience, and to assent to any Acts of Parliament which
should be presented to him for its security. The Convention was in the
main Presbyter