nate
temper, she precipitated him into hasty and imprudent measures. Her
religion likewise, to which she was much addicted, must be regarded as
a great misfortune; since it augmented the jealousy which prevailed
against the court, and engaged her to procure for the Catholics some
indulgences which were generally distasteful to the nation.[*]

In the former situation of the English government, when the sovereign
was in a great measure independent of his subjects, the king chose
his ministers either from personal favor, or from an opinion of their
abilities, without any regard to their parliamentary interest or
talents. It has since been the maxim of princes, wherever popular
leaders encroach too much on royal authority, to confer offices on them,
in expectation that they will afterwards become more careful not to
diminish that power which has become their own. These politics were now
embraced by Charles; a sure proof that a secret revolution had happened
in the constitution, and had necessitated the prince to adopt new maxims
of government.[**]

* May, p 21.

** Sir Edw. Walker, p. 328.

But the views of the king were at this time so repugnant to those of
the Puritans, that the leaders whom he gained, lost from that moment
all interest with their party, and were even pursued as traitors with
implacable hatred and resentment. This was the case with Sir Thomas
Wentworth, whom the king created, first a baron, then a viscount, and
afterwards earl of Strafford; made him president of the council of
York, and deputy of Ireland; and regarded him as his chief minister and
counsellor. By his eminent talents and abilities, Strafford merited
all the confidence which his master reposed in him: his character
was stately and austere; more fitted to procure esteem than love:
his fidelity to the king was unshaken; but as he now employed all his
counsels to support the prerogative, which he had formerly bent all his
endeavors to diminish his virtue seems not to have been entirely pure,
but to have been susceptible of strong impressions from private interest
and ambition. Sir Dudley Digges was about the same time created master
of the rolls; Noy, attorney-general; Littleton, solicitor-general. All
these had likewise been parliamentary leaders, and were men eminent in
their profession.[*]

* Whitlocke, p. 13. May, p. 20.

[Illustration: 1-647-strafford.jpg EARL OF STRAFFORD]

In all ecclesiastical affairs, and even i