Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Jesuits' Residence Ransacked

King Charles the First
The Jesuits’ prudence did not save them, for their residence and oratory were ransacked the next day. The riot was duly reported to the King. In a few days an order was issued, commanding that the house should be demolished where the archbishop and mayor had received such an affront. Many religious houses, chiefly of the Franciscan Order, which by their retired situation had hitherto been saved from destruction, were now plundered and their inmates driven out. For four years the rule of the Lords Justices continued. Once they were rebuked by the King for over-zeal ; but he soon repented of the short respite, and ordered the laws to be still more strictly enforced against recusants. Charles, in the meantime, had summoned a third Parliament. Instead of obtaining the supplies he needed, he was called on to accept the Petition of Right; by which it was declared that no forced loans should be demanded, no taxes imposed without the consent of Parliament. Other grievances, religious and political, were discussed, and a motion was made for their redress. This the Speaker refused to put from the chair. In a few days Parliament was once more dissolved ; and a proclamation was issued, stating that the King intended in future to govern without parliaments. A few months before, Buckingham fell by the hand of the assassin, Felton. Laud and Wentworth were chosen to take his place and to guide the royal councils. Thomas Wentworth, better known in history by his later title of Lord Strafford, was born in 1593. His ancestors had held the estate of Wentworth Woodhouse from the days of the Saxons, and in later times not a few had filled some of the highest olfices in the State. In his youth he was carefully taught all the accomplishments suited to his rank. At Oxford, besides the usual course of study, he read with attention the best authors ancient and modern; and later he studied the great principles of law and the details of the management of an army. At the age of twenty-one, by his father’s death, he entered on the possession of the family estates. In the early part of Charles’ reign he did not enjoy the royal favour. 
Link (here) to The Irish Monthly.

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