In 1610 King James I., in a letter addressed to the heads of the city and the Church, commanded that the inhabitants should kneel whilst receiving the sacrament, and when they several years later applied to him for a renewal of their charter the King refused to grant it until he had been satisfied that his command regarding their kneeling when receiving of the sacrament had been obeyed. A few years later the King visited Coventry and was presented with what must be almost considered the inevitable £100, and in addition thereto with a silver cup of fine workmanship weighing forty–five ounces, out of which, the King exclaimed, that he would drink wherever he went. During the succeeding reign and the Civil War which broke out, Coventry attached itself to the side of Parliament; the influence of Lord Brooke of Warwick overpowering that of the Earl of Northampton, who was Recorder and a staunch Royalist. At the outset of the war, King Charles, after he had raised his standard at Nottingham, sent to Coventry and demanded quarters, and these being refused he attacked the city in full force and succeeded in capturing one of the gates. He was, however, finally repulsed with considerable loss, and obliged to abandon his attempt to take the town. For this act of contumacy and the fact that it was garrisoned by Parliamentary troops until the Restoration it was destined to suffer later on. Charles II., notwithstanding the enthusiastic demonstrations of the inhabitants at his restoration and the surrender of possessions which the city had originally purchased from the Crown, did not forget the part Coventry had played during the Civil War, and a commission held in 1662 prescribed the demolition of the city walls as a mark of the King’s displeasure for the disloyalty of the inhabitants to his father. This act was immediately put into effect by the Earl of Northampton. All that now remains of the fortifications are two of the gates, Cook Street Gate, now a mere roofless shell, and the Swanswell or Priory Gate in Hales Street, which after the archway had been blocked up some years ago was converted into dwellings. Twenty–five years later, when King James II. visited Coventry, the citizens, no doubt remembering the exactions and punishment under which they suffered in the previous reign for their old–time disloyalty to the Crown, paid the King the greatest marks of attention and respect. They presented him with a gold cup and cover, and even went the length of smoothing the rough surfaces of their streets with sand, white–washing their houses, and decorating them with garlands and flags. Occasionally interesting relics of the Roman occupation are discovered when excavating foundations for new buildings, and when laying out new roads.