INTRODUCTION. ON N the third of November, 1640, at nine o'clock in the forenoon, the Earl Marshal of England came into the outer room of the Commons' House, accompanied by the Treasurer of the King's Household and other officers. When the Chancery crier had made proclamation, and the clerk of the Crown had called over the names of the returned knights, citizens, burgesses, and barons of the Cinque-ports; and after his Lordship had sworn some threescore members, and made arrangements for swearing the rest, he departed to wait upon his Majesty, who, about one o'clock, came in his barge from Whitehall to Westminster stairs. There the lords met him. Thence on foot marched a pro cession consisting of servants and officers of state.1 1 There is a document amongst the State Papers, headed "Proceeding to the Parliament of the Most High and Mighty Prince, King Charles, on Tuesday, the 3rd of November, 1640, from Whitehall by water to Westminster Stairs, and from thence on foot." The document is interesting in connection with Clarendon's statement: "The King himself did not ride with his accustomed equipage, nor in his M B usual majesty, to Westminster, but went privately in his barge to the parliament stairs, and so to the Church, as if it had been to a return of a prorogued or adjourned Parliament."-Hist. of Rebellion and Life (in one vol.), 68. The paper exhibits the following programme: "Messengers; trumpets; the Sergeant-trumpeter alone; Master of the Chancery; the King's Puisne Sergeants The King, so accompanied, passed through Westminster Hall and the Court of Requests to the Abbey, where a sermon was preached by the Bishop of Bristol. The King's Majesty, arrayed in his royal robes, ascended the throne. The Prince of Wales sat on his left hand : on the right stood the Lord High Chamberlain of England and the Earl of Essex, bearing the cap; and the Earl Marshal and the Earl of Bath bearing the sword of state occupied the left. Clarence, in the absence of Garter, and also the gentleman of the black rod, were near the Earl Marshal. The Earl of Cork, Viscount Willmott, the Lord Newburgh, and the Master of the Rolls, called by writ as assistants, "sat on the inside of the woolsacks;" so did the Lord Chief Justices, Lord Chief Baron, and the rest of the judges under them. "On the outside of the woolsack" were four Masters of Chancery, the King's two ancient Serjeants, the AttorneyGeneral, and three of the puisne Serjeants. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, apparelled in their robes, and seated in their places, and to the House of Commons, assembled below the bar, his Majesty delivered an address, declaring the cause of summoning this parliament. Then the Lord Keeper Finch made a speech; after which, the Commons having chosen William Lenthall, of Lincoln's Inn, as Speaker, that gentleman, being approved with the usual ceremonies, added another oration, in which he observed: "I see before my eyes the Majesty of Great Britain, the glory of times, the at-law; the King's Solicitor and the King's Attorney-General; the King's two ancient Sergeants-at-law; Masters of the Requests, two and two; Barons of the Exchequer; Justices of the Common Pleas; Justices of the King's Bench; Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer: Master of the Rolls; the two Lords Chief Justices; Pursuivants-of-Arms; Privy Councillors; Heralds; Lord Finch, keeper of the Great Seal of England, and many other lords and gentlemen." |