The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_A._ After the sending of these propositions to the King, and his
Majesty’s refusal to grant them, they began, on both sides, to prepare
for war. The King raised a guard for his person in Yorkshire, and the
Parliament, thereupon having voted that the King intended to make war
upon his Parliament, gave order for the mustering and exercising the
people in arms, and published propositions to invite and encourage them
to bring in either ready money or plate, or to promise under their hands
to furnish and maintain certain numbers of horse, horsemen, and arms,
for the defence of the King and Parliament, (meaning by King, as they
had formerly declared, not his person, but his laws); promising to repay
their money with interest of 8_l._ in the 100_l._ and the value of their
plate with twelve-pence the ounce for the fashion. On the other side,
the King came to Nottingham, and there did set up his standard royal,
and sent out commissions of array to call those to him, which by the
ancient laws of England were bound to serve him in the wars. Upon this
occasion there passed divers declarations between the King and
Parliament concerning the legality of this array, which are too long to
tell you at this time.
_B._ Nor do I desire to hear any mooting about this question. For I
think that general law of _salus populi_, and the right of defending
himself against those that had taken from him the sovereign power, are
sufficient to make legal whatsoever he should do in order to the
recovery of his kingdom, or to the punishing of the rebels.
_A._ In the meantime the Parliament raised an army, and made the Earl of
Essex general thereof; by which act they declared what they meant
formerly, when they petitioned the King for a guard to be commanded by
the said Earl of Essex. And now the King sends out his proclamations,
forbidding obedience to the orders of the Parliament concerning the
militia; and the Parliament send out orders against the execution of the
commissions of array. Hitherto, though it were a war before, yet there
was no blood shed; they shot at one another nothing but paper.