ABSTRACT
The Long Parliament opened on 3 November 1640 in much the same fashion as had the Short Parliament six months before. Instead of the usual progress through the streets of London, that the citizens expected, Charles had himself rowed down the Thames the few hundred yards from White-hall to Westminster Steps, walking through the privacy of the Hall to the Lords’ chamber, He had little stomach for another parliament. The omens looked bad. A few days earlier a mob screaming ‘No bishops’ stormed the Court of High Commission as it sat at St Paul’s. Laud’s portrait unaccountably fell from his study wall, just as Buckingham’s had a few days before his murder. At Cambridge, that most sober university, it was reported that the River Cam ran red as blood, and angels were seen fighting over the college roof-tops. 1
