The Midsummer revels were, however, revived, and held with great pomp when King James paid a visit to Chester in 1617. His arms are carved in a panel under one of the front windows of Bishop Lloyd's house. One of the Fitton family was mayor on this occasion, and the king's sword was borne by a Stanley. James rode to the minster, where he heard one of the scholars of the King's School read a Latin address of welcome. 'After the said oration he went into the choir, and there, in a seat made for the king at the higher end of the choir, he heard an anthem sung. And after certain prayers the king went from thence to the Pentice, where a sumptuous banquet was prepared at the city's cost: which being ended, the king departed to the Vale Royal: and at his departure the order of knighthood was offered to the mayor, but he refused the same.' The sale of knighthoods and baronetcies was one of King James's ways of raising money, and the Mayor of Chester was not the only one who declined the honour. A zealous Puritan named William Prynne wrote against the performance of stage plays, dancing, and other amusements. Some things that he said were thought to refer to the Queen of Charles the First, and he was tried by the Star Chamber and ordered to pay a fine of £5,000 and to have his ears slit. There was a branch of the Court of Star Chamber at Chester, but it was abolished in Charles the First's reign. In one of the rooms of Leasowe Castle are some oak panels brought from the Star Chamber at Westminster. William Prynne passed through Chester on his way to his prison in Carnarvon Castle. The Puritans turned out to welcome and cheer him in the streets, but their leaders were punished by fines and imprisonment for so doing. Neither James nor Charles got on well with their Parliaments. The Tudor monarchs had for the most part understood the people, and the people in their turn allowed them to have their own way. But the Stuarts began to claim powers which the people would not permit. When Parliament refused to grant money they asked for, the Stuart kings tried to raise money by means which the people thought illegal. Charles borrowed large sums of money without the consent of Parliament. Sir Randolph Crewe, of Crewe Hall, was one of the judges who thought that this was wrong, and he was dismissed from his office by the king. Charles also tried to impose a tax called Ship Money, a tax which had in former times been levied on the counties on the seaboard for the support of the navy. Now the king proposed that inland counties also should contribute for this purpose. Sir William Brereton, a Cheshire knight, objected strongly to the hateful tax, and was very angry with the people of Chester for rating some land of his near Chester, called the Nunnery Fields, for the payment of the money.