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PYM, JOHN (1584-1643)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 683 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PYM, See also:JOHN (1584-1643) , See also:English statesman, was the son and See also:heir of See also:Alexander Pym, of Brymore, See also:Somersetshire, a member of an See also:ancient See also:family which had held this seat in See also:direct male descent from the See also:time of See also:Henry III. He matriculated as a commoner at Broadgates See also:Hall (now See also:Pembroke See also:College), See also:Oxford, in 1599, and entered the See also:Middle See also:Temple in 1602. He acquired a See also:sound knowledge of the See also:law, and became See also:receiver-See also:general of the See also:king's See also:revenue for Wilts., thus gaining a valuable insight into business and See also:finance. He was returned to See also:parliament as member for See also:Calne in 1614 and again in 1621. See also:Heat once became conspicuous in the struggle between See also:Crown and parliament. To the See also:committee appointed to consider the See also:state of See also:religion he made his first See also:great speech on the 28th of See also:November 1621. He held fast to the Elizabethan principle that the See also:Roman Catholics should be subjected to disabilities, not because of their religion, but because of their politics. He, therefore, moved that a See also:special See also:commission for the suppression of recfisancy should be appointed, and that an association, after the See also:model of those formed under See also:Elizabeth, should be entered into for See also:defence of the king's See also:person and for the See also:execution of the See also:laws concerning religion. Pym supported See also:Sir See also:Edward See also:Coke in the remonstrance on the prevailing discontents, and was a See also:chief See also:promoter of the See also:petition which incurred See also:James's violent displeasure, and of the See also:Commons' See also:answer defending their privileges, which was after-wards torn from the records by the king's own See also:hand. On the See also:dissolution of parliament which immediately followed, Pym, with other "See also:ill-tempered See also:spirits," was arrested in See also:January 1622, and was confined first to his See also:house in See also:London, and then to Brymore. He associated himself with the party of See also:Francis, 4th See also:earl of See also:Bedford, was returned for See also:Tavistock in 1624, and represented this See also:borough in all the ensuing parliaments. Hesupported See also:Eliot in urging See also:war against See also:Spain for the defence of Protestantism and the See also:Palatinate, and showed throughout his career, as far as his See also:attention was ever directed to See also:foreign policy, a steady inclination in favour of See also:France.

In the parliament of 1625 he continued his See also:

campaign against the Roman Catholics, and See also:drew up with Sir See also:Edwin See also:Sandys the articles against them, and the petition to the king for the direct execution of the penal laws. In the parliament of 1626 he was the chief mover, in See also:April, in the See also:prosecution of See also:Richard See also:Montagu, who had advocated Romish doctrines. On the 8th of May he was manager of See also:Buckingham's See also:impeachment, when it was his special See also:duty to See also:press articles ix., x., xi., See also:relating to the improper See also:distribution of rewards and honours. In the third parliament of See also:Charles I., in 1628, Pym overruled Eliot in deciding that Buckingham's impeachment should now be subordinated to the struggle on general grievances. He zealously pushed on the Petition of Right, resisting on the loth of May the clause added by the Lords to safeguard the king's " See also:sovereign See also:power," declaring that " he knew not what it was." On the 9th of See also:June he carried up to the Lords the impeachment of See also:Roger See also:Manwaring, and delivered a famous speech in which he expounded the fundamental principles which guided his policy. " Histories," he said, " are full of the calamities of whole states and nations . . . . [when] one See also:part seeks to uphold the old See also:form of See also:government and the other part to introduce a new .. . But it is equally true that time must needs bring about some alterations. . Those things only are eternal which are See also:constant and See also:uniform. Therefore it is observed by the best writers on this subject, that those commonwealths have been most durable and perpetual which have often reformed and recompensed them-selves according to their first institution and See also:ordinance." On the 11th of June he joined in the attack upon Buckingham, whom he regarded as the " cause of all these grievances." On the 27th of January 1629 he was reporter of the committee on religion, and declared that See also:convocation was dependent upon parliament. He again, in See also:February 1629, differed from Eliot, who treated the dispute about See also:tonnage and poundage as a point of See also:privilege, declaring that " the liberties of this house are inferior to the liberties of the See also:kingdom," and desiring to See also:deal with it on higher ground as a See also:breach of law and the constitution.

He .took no part in the subsequent disturbance in the house, and his name is not mentioned as actively resisting Charles's arbitrary government during the eleven years which followed the dissolution. At this See also:

period the state of public affairs may well have appalled the most hopeful and the most patriotic, but there seems no sufficient authority for the belief that Pym, with See also:Hampden and See also:Cromwell, actually embarked for New See also:England and were prevented from sailing by orders from the government. An allusion, however, to a similar See also:plan formed " by some very considerable personages," " diverted by a miraculous See also:providence," is made in a See also:sermon by See also:Thomas See also:Cave in 1642. Pym himself was directly interested in the colonies, being patentee of See also:Connecticut and Providence, and of the latter See also:company also treasurer, and there can be little doubt that like other leaders of the opposition during this period, he regarded See also:America as a possible See also:refuge. On the See also:assembly of the See also:Short Parliament on the 13th of April 164o, Pym was the acknowledged See also:leader. " Whilst men gazed upon each other," says See also:Clarendon (Hist. ii. 68), " looking who should begin (much the greater part having never before sat in parliament), Mr Pym, a See also:man of See also:good reputation . . . who had been as See also:long in these assemblies as any man there living, See also:broke the See also:ice." On the 17th of April he made a great speech of nearly two See also:hours, in which he enumerated the See also:national grievances, deplored almost in the words of See also:Bacon " the interruption of that sweete communion which ought to be betwixt the king and his See also:people in matters of See also:grant and See also:supply," pointed out the See also:practical injury inflicted on See also:commerce and every sort of enter-prise including colonial expansion by illegal and arbitrary See also:taxation, and concluded by asking the Lords to join in finding out causes and remedies. His words made a deep impression. On the 27th of April he resisted the grant of supply, and when the Lords passed a See also:resolution that supply should precede the discussion of grievances, Pym, as manager of the Commons, on the 1st of May, read them a severe lecture on the breach of privilege they had committed. Finally, on the 4th, it was resolved that Pym should next See also:day petition the king to make terms with the Scots, to avoid which Charles summarily dissolved the parliament. All the energies of Pym were now concentrated on obliging Charles to summon another parliament.

He was the author of the petition of the twelve peers to the king for redress of grievances and for calling a new parliament, by the wide distribution of which an See also:

appeal was made to the nation, and he was the promoter of the petition signed by ro,000 citizens of London. In company with Hampden he rode through the provinces, rousing and organizing public See also:opinion. Meanwhile Charles's See also:attempt to implicate Pym in treasonable communications with the Scots, though there is little doubt that they existed, met with See also:complete failure. Thus, when the king was forced to See also:call the Long Parliament on the 3rd of November, Pym was its acknowledged author and leader. His great See also:work was now, as he conceived it, to See also:save the national liberties and the national religion. Clarendon (Hist. iii. 2) records some " See also:sharp discourse " of Pym with himself at this time, " that they had now an opportunity to make their See also:country happy by removing all grievances and pulling up the causes by the roots, if all men would do their duties." He had seen See also:Vane's notes of See also:Strafford's speeches at the See also:council when he had advised the subduing of " this kingdom " by the Irish See also:army, and on the 7th of November, after declaring to the house the dangerous designs then on See also:foot, Pym moved for a sub-committee to examine into Strafford's conduct in See also:Ireland. The latter's sudden arrival at London on the 9th with the intention of instantly impeaching the popular leaders of See also:treason was met by Pym with corresponding quickness and resolution. On the 11th, after a debate of four hours in the Commons, by his directions with locked doors, he carried up Strafford's impeachment to the Lords, and by this great stroke rendered him at once powerless. On the 16th of See also:December he moved the impeachment of See also:Laud, whom he joined with Strafford as conspiring to subvert the government of the kingdom, and carried up the articles to the Lords on the 26th of February 1641. He was the chief promoter of the See also:case against Strafford, while the attempts of the See also:queen to gain him over were without result, and on the 28th of January 1641 he brought up to the Lords the See also:list of charges. On the 23rd of See also:March he opened the case, when he argued that to attempt to subvert the laws of the kingdom was high treason, and delivered a violent denunciation against the fallen See also:minister, attributing to him systematic See also:cruelty, avarice and corruption.

He soon afterwards heard of the army See also:

plot, and the See also:necessity of destroying Strafford became more apparent. He now disclosed Vane's notes. To the See also:attainder, which was at this See also:stage resolved upon, he was opposed (since he clung to the more judicial See also:procedure by impeachment), but when overruled he sup-ported it, at the same time procuring that the legal arguments should not be interrupted. He delivered his final speech on the 13th of April, a great oratorical performance, when he again appealed to the Elizabethan See also:political faith and to that of Bacon, who had so severely censured any See also:action which divided the king from the nation. The man who violated this See also:union was guilty of the blackest treason. " Shall it be treason," he asked. " to embase the King's See also:coin though but a piece . . . of sixpence . . . and not to embase the spirits of his subjects; to set a See also:stamp and See also:character of See also:servitude upon them?" Towards the end of his tremendous See also:indictment of Strafford, Pym broke down, fumbled among his papers, and lost the See also:thread of his See also:argument. But his temporary failure did not diminish the force and effect of his words, all the more impressive because actually spoken in the presence of the sovereign. " I believe," wrote See also:Baillie (Letters, i. 348) " the king never heard a lecture of so See also:free See also:language against that his idolized See also:prerogative." Attempts were now once more made to gain over Pym to the See also:administration.

He had two interviews with the king, but without result, and Charles again determined to resort to 681 force. On the 2nd of May he endeavoured to get See also:

possession of the See also:Tower. On the 3rd the Protestation, on Pym's.See also:motion, was taken by the Commons within closed doors, and afterwards circulated in the country, and on the 5th Pym disclosed the army plot. These incidents decided the struggle and Strafford's See also:fate. The Lords immediately passed the attainder, together with the See also:bill for making parliaments indissoluble without their own consent. Soon afterwards were swept away those institutions of Tudor growth which had become the chief See also:instruments of oppression, the council of the See also:North, the See also:court of high commission, and the See also:star chamber, while the Crown abandoned the claim to See also:levy customs without consent of parliament. Meanwhile Pym had also taken the See also:lead in the religious controversy. During the dispute between the two houses on this question on the 8th and 9th of February 1641, while supporting the London petition for the abolition of the bishops, he had declared his opinion that " it was not the intention of the House to abolish See also:episcopacy or the See also:Book of See also:Common See also:Prayer, but to reform both wherein offence was given to the people." This, no doubt, expressed his real intentions and policy. When, however, it became clear that the bishops were merely the nominees of the king to carry out " innovations in religion " and preach arbitrary government, Pym was easily persuaded to support their abolition, and voted in opposition to the moderate party for the See also:Root and See also:Branch Bill of May 1641, and again for taking away their votes in See also:October. But in his " Vindication," published in March 1643, he especially states that his action with regard to the bishops in " no way concluded me guilty of revolt from the orthodox See also:doctrine of the See also:Church of England." The first See also:act in the great political struggle had ended in the complete See also:triumph of Pym. His chief care now was to defend the parliament from violence, since this was the only method of See also:retaliation See also:left aK the king's disposal. Through the See also:medium of the countess of See also:Carlisle, Charles's plans were regularly disclosed to Pym.

In June he heard of the second army plot, and on the 22nd he carried up the ten propositions to the Lords, requesting their concurrence in effecting the disbandment of the armies and the removal of evil counsellors. After Charles's departure for See also:

Scotland, Pym served on the committee for defence, appointed on the 14th of See also:August, and was chairman of the committee which sat during the See also:recess from the 9th of See also:September to the loth of October to See also:watch the progress of affairs and communicate with Scotland. On the latter day letters arrived from Hampden, who had accompanied Charles, with See also:news of the " incident," and immediate See also:measures were taken to guard the parliament, by bringing up the See also:train-bands. On the 3oth Pym revealed his knowledge of the second army plot. On the 1st of November came news of the See also:Ulster insurrection, which created a serious difficulty for the parliament, when it was finally declared, at Pym's instance, that if the king did not See also:change his advisers parliament would provide for the needs of Ireland in-dependently. On the 22nd of November Pym made a great speech on the See also:Grand Remonstrance, of which he was the chief promoter, when he referred to plots " very near the king, all driven See also:home to the court and popish party." Charles returned on the 25th. He immediately substituted a force commanded by See also:Dorset for the guard already placed at See also:Westminster, but was compelled to withdraw it, and on Pym's motion the house appointed its own watch. Everything now pointed to the See also:advent of a frightful See also:catastrophe. Charles appointed Lunsford to the Tower, rejected the Grand Remonstrance and the See also:Impressment Bill, and began to assemble an armed force. In consequence Pym urged, but unsuccessfully, on the 3oth of December the summoning of the train-bands to guard the parliament, and moved the impeachment of the bishops, who had declared the proceedings of the parliament to be sinful and illegal. At the See also:critical moment, however, Charles wavered. He renewed his offer to Pym of the See also:exchequer on the 1st of January 1642, and this See also:meeting with a refusal, or again See also:drawing back himself, he determined on the impeachment of the five members on the 3rd of January.

The latter had been forewarned of the -king's plans, and when on the 5th he entered the House of Commons with an armed See also:

band to seize them, they had removed themselves in safety (see LENTIAL, See also:WILLIAM). Charles's first look on entering was for his great opponent, and he was greatly disconcerted at not finding him in his usual See also:place. To his question "Is Mr Pym here?" there was no answer, and nothing remained but to See also:retreat with his See also:mission completely unachieved. The second act in the great national See also:drama had thus, as the first, ended in a victory for Pym. On the 11th, with the other members, he was escorted in triumph back to Westminster, and while the other four stood uncovered, Pym returned thanks from his place to the citizens. On the 25th of January he delivered a great speech to the Lords on the perils attending the kingdom, and referring to their hesitation on the subject of the See also:militia, declared that he should be sorry that See also:history should have to relate that the House of Peers had had no part in the preservation of the state in the See also:present extremity of danger. The Commons ordered his speech to be printed, and it provided the chief material for the See also:paper war between Charles and the parliament which now followed. Still endeavouring to avoid a complete breach of constitutional forms, Pym caused to be added to the resolution of the Commons on the loth of May 1642, which declared that " the king intends to make war against the parliament," the words " seduced by wicked counsel." When war broke out, Pym remained at headquarters in See also:control of the parliament and executive, and on the 4th of See also:July was appointed to the committee of safety which directed the movements of the See also:parliamentary forces. His attitude was See also:firm but moderate. He opposed the attempt to prevent Colepepper giving the king's See also:message to the house on the 27th of August. On the 2oth of October, upon Charles refusing to accept the petition of the parliament and advancing tavards London, Pym proposed the parliamentary See also:covenant, and that those who refused it should be " See also:cast out of the Hcuse." He succeeded in over-coming the opposition in the See also:city to the heavy taxation now imposed. On the loth of November, after Edgehill, he spoke in support of the negotiations for See also:peace, at the same time warning the citizens that " to have printed liberties and not to have See also:liberty in truth and realities is but to See also:mock the kingdom." In February 1643 he still showed an inclination for peace, and during the negotiation of the treaty at Oxford supported the disbandment of the armies.

When it was evident that peace would not be secured, he proposed in See also:

order to carry on the war an See also:excise, hitherto unknown in England, which met with the same violent hostility afterwards aroused by See also:Walpole's See also:scheme. In March he published a " See also:Declaration. and Vindication " of his public conduct, in which he threw the whole blame of the appeal to arms on the opposite party, and expressed his fidelity to the Church and constitution. In May he entered, together with the other leaders, into resultless negotiations with the queen, and on the 23rd he took up her impeachment to the Lords. In June he reported on See also:Waller's plot, which exposed the insincerity of Charles's negotiations, and on the 26th of June wrote a " sharp See also:letter " to See also:Essex on his inaction. In July, after the defeat at Adwalton See also:Moor, he prevented the house from again initiating negotiations for peace, which he declared " full of See also:hazard and full of danger," and on the 3rd of August, after having visited Essex at See also:Kingston, persuaded him to See also:separate himself from the peace propositions of the Lords and to march to relieve See also:Gloucester. He thus incurred the hatred of the peace party, and on the 9th of August a See also:mob of See also:women surrounded the house calling for Pym's destruction, and were not dispersed without some bloodshed. Pym had already, on the 3rd of January, proposed to the house an See also:alliance with the Scots, and the Royalist victories now induced parliament to consent to what had before been rejected. The See also:establishment of See also:Presbyterianism was accepted by Pym as a disagreeable necessity, and he was one of the first to take the covenant on the 25th of September. This alliance, which was afterwards destined to have so decisive an influenceon the military campaign, and was the first occasion on which the two nations had See also:united in public action, closes Pym's great career. He was made See also:master of the See also:ordnance on the 8th of November, but died on the 8th of December at See also:Derby House, where he resided. On the 15th of December he received a public funeral in Westminster See also:Abbey, whence his See also:body was ejected at the Restoration. A sum of £io,000 was voted by the parliament to pay Pym's debts and provide for his family.

About 1614 Pym married See also:

Anne See also:Hooke, or See also:Hooker (d. 1620), by whom he had five See also:children, including two sons, Alexander, who died unmarried, and Charles, who was created a See also:baronet; this See also:title, together with Pym's male See also:line, became See also:extinct in the person of Pym's See also:grandson Charles in 1688, Brymore then passing to his See also:sister See also:Mary, wife of Sir Thomas See also:Hales, See also:Bart. Pym had little of the Puritan in his character or demeanour. His good See also:humour, humanity and cheerfulness in all circumstances, "his pleasant countenance and sweet behaviour," were marked characteristics; the aspersions, however, on his morals, as well as the accusations of See also:bribery, are completely unsubstantiated and discredited. His See also:death came as an irreparable loss to the parliamentary cause. " Since Pym died," writes Baillie (Letters, ii. 216), " not a state See also:head among them; many very good and able spirits, but not any of so great and comprehensive a braine as to See also:manage the multitude of weightie affaires as lyes on them." He was one of the greatest leaders that the House of Commons has produced, a most capable man of business, and indefatigable in assiduous attention to its details. He possessed great tact in infl See also:fencing the conduct of the house and in removing See also:personal jealousies on critical occasions, and he excelled as a party leader in choosing and directing the course of policy, and in keeping his followers united and organized in its prosecution, as well as in stimulating and guiding popular opinion outside in its support. The frequent appeals to the nation by protestations, oaths of association and popular petitions, were a very striking feature in Pym's policy, one of the chief See also:sources of his strength, and new in English history. We may indeed perhaps see in these and in the canvassing of constituencies conducted by Pym and Hampden the beginnings of party government. His eloquence See also:lay rather in the clearness of his expression and in the See also:depth and solidity of his ideas than in the more showy arts of See also:oratory. Much of his success as a leader was the result of the confidence inspired by his high character, his well-tried courage and resolution at critical moments, his skill and vigilance in unmasking and frustrating the designs of the opposite See also:faction.

But Pym was not only great as a party leader; he had the real See also:

instinct of construction, the true test of the statesman. This construction, he believed, in the spirit of genuine conservatism, must always be progress along the lines of natural development, and not by the methcds of revolutionary or extraneous innovation. It was Pym's chief See also:charge against Charles, Strafford and Laud that they had arrested this progress, and were thus leading the nation to ruin and dissolution. Such was the theory and conviction, inherited from Bacon and passed on to See also:Halifax and See also:Burke, which underlay and inspired Pym's policy. The See also:article on Pym by S. R. See also:Gardiner, in the See also:Diet. Nat. Biog. with its references to authorities, must be supplemented by the same author's Hist. of England and of the See also:Civil War. Pym's See also:life has also been written at length by J. See also:Forster in See also:Lardner's See also:Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Eminent See also:British Statesmen, vol. iii., and by See also:Wood in Atli. oxon. iii. 72, who adds a list of Pym's printed speeches.

His character, See also:

drawn by Clarendon, Hist. 30 and vii. 409, is inaccurate and obviously prejudiced. See also J. Forster's Grand Re-See also:monstrance, See also:Arrest of the Five Members, Life of Sir J. Eliot; See also:Verney's Notes of the Long Parliament; See also:Whitelocke's Memorials, (needing corroboration of other authorities); R. Baillie's Letters; Eng. Hist. Rev. xvii. 736; See also:Rushworth's Collections; See also:Thomason Tracts, E 153 (10), 63 (8), 172 (14), 164 (3), 200 (13) (26) (37) (49) (65), 199 (24) (49), 78 (13); See also:Somers Tracts iv. 217, 355, 461, 466; Affaniae and Death's Sermon, by C. Fitzgeffrey; Add.

See also:

MSS. Brit. See also:Mus. 14,827; 11,692; Lords and Commons See also:Journals. There are a large number of references to Pym in Calendars of State Papers Dom. 1619-1643, and Colonial See also:Series 1574-1660, and in the Hist. MSS. See also:Comm. Series; but the supposed notebook of Pym mentioned in See also:Rep. x. app. vi. 82, has been shown by Gardiner to be that of another person (Eng. Hist. Rev., See also:Jan.

1895, p. 105). (P. C.

End of Article: PYM, JOHN (1584-1643)

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