Passing on to events in England connected with merchant shipping, by far the most conspicuous about this period were the attempts of that unwise and unfortunate monarch Charles I. to burden the mercantile community with the expense of a fleet which his, perhaps natural, anxiety to support the Palatinate had rendered necessary. Demanding from the city of London and from the other seaports the requisite number of ships or their equivalent in money, the people of the maritime towns not actually dependent upon trade passively resisted, thereby making the burden yet more intolerable to those who remained on the coast. The proclamation which consequently followed, commanding the parties who had withdrawn to return to their dwellings, brought about the famous struggle of Hampden, who resisted the writs as illegal. The first writ recited that certain “Thieves, pirates, and robbers of the sea, as well Turks,[166] enemies of the Christian name, as others, gathered together and wickedly took by force, and spoiled the ships, goods, and merchandise, not only of the King’s subjects, but the subjects of our friends in the sea, which hath been defended by the English nation.” The writ went on to recite how men “were carried away into captivity, and the merchant shipping of the kingdom endangered by the preparations made to molest our merchants. Accordingly, the Princely honour of the King required that force should be employed to defend the kingdom, guard the seas, and give security to shipping.” Upon these grounds Ship-money was demanded by the King, without the sanction and authority of Parliament, and, out of this unconstitutional proceeding arose the quarrel which had so fatal a termination for that ill-advised monarch. The city of London petitioned the King, setting forth that they were exempted by their privileges from the demand. But the King persevered; Hampden was defeated in the courts of law, which, under the influence of corrupt judges, pronounced the writ legal, and thus the levy of Ship-money, at first peculiar to the maritime towns, was imposed upon the entire kingdom. [Sidenote: Its payment enforced by law.]