Charles had now a last chance of regaining the affection of his people.  If he could have resolved to give his confidence to the leaders of the moderate party in the House of Commons, and to regulate his proceedings by their advice, he might have been, not, indeed, as he had been, a despot, but the powerful and respected king of a free people.  The nation might have enjoyed liberty and repose under a government with Falkland at its head, checked by a constitutional Opposition under the conduct of Hampden.  It was not necessary that, in order to accomplish this happy end, the King should sacrifice any part of his lawful prerogative, or submit to any conditions inconsistent with his dignity.  It was necessary only that he should abstain from treachery, from violence, from gross breaches of the law.  This was all that the nation was then disposed to require of him.  And even this was too much.

For a short time he seemed inclined to take a wise and temperate course.  He resolved to make Falkland secretary of state, and Culpeper chancellor of the exchequer.  He declared his intention of conferring in a short time some important office on Hyde.  He assured these three persons that he would do nothing relating to the House of Commons without their joint advice, and that he would communicate all his designs to them in the most unreserved manner.  This resolution, had he adhered to it, would have averted many years of blood and mourning.  But “in very few days,” says Clarendon, “he did fatally swerve from it.”

On the third of January 1642, without giving the slightest hint of his intention to those advisers whom he had solemnly promised to consult, he sent down the attorney-general to impeach Lord Kimbolton, Hampden, Pym, Hollis, and two other members of the House of Commons, at the bar of the Lords, on a charge of High Treason.  It is difficult to find in the whole history of England such an instance of tyranny, perfidy, and folly.  The most precious and ancient rights of the subject were violated by this act.  The only way in which Hampden and Pym could legally be tried for treason at the suit of the King, was by a petty jury on a bill found by a grand jury.  The attorney-general had no right to impeach them.  The House of Lords had no right to try them.

The Commons refused to surrender their members.  The Peers showed no inclination to usurp the unconstitutional jurisdiction which the King attempted to force on them.  A contest began, in which violence and weakness were on the one side, law and resolution on the other.  Charles sent an officer to seal up the lodgings and trunks of the accused members.  The Commons sent their sergeant to break the seals.  The tyrant resolved to follow up one outrage by another.  In making the charge, he had struck at the institution of juries.  In executing the arrest, he struck at the privileges of Parliament.  He resolved to go to the House in person with an armed force, and there to seize the leaders of the Opposition, while engaged in the discharge of their parliamentary duties.