ABSTRACT
The clash between Parliament and King, with the ultimate victory of Parliament, was the grand political issue of seventeenth-century England. At nineteen Charles Fox entered Parliament. Filial-minded, high-spirited, abominably spoiled, he began his career in the worst possible way: as an instantaneous parliamentary success, pledged to the wrong party and the wrong ideals. He supported the King; he supported the oligarchy; he supported everything that betokened privilege. The capricious move had the effect of deepening the King's dislike of him into intense hostility. The King had disliked Fox's father; the moral and frugal sovereign was bound on principle to dislike the dissolute and spendthrift son; he had a personal reason to dislike him. Descended from cavalier kings, he had a cavalier's spirit; and he had as well much of that recklessness which derives from having a perfect sense of security.
