ABSTRACT
In March 1642, the struggle to control the militia came to a head. The two Houses of Parliament passed a bill that would have deprived the king of his control over the army and the navy, vesting it instead in its own appointees. He vetoed the bill, on the grounds that such powers were, and always had been, fundamental to monarchical authority in England. However, they declared that it was the constitutional duty of the Lords and the Commons, as representatives of the people of England, to do all that was necessary to protect the people’s lives and liberties if the king could no longer be trusted to do so. 1 Charles then left for the north of England for fear of being taken back to London by force, thus finally removing the fiction that king and Parliament were cooperating to govern England, but a month passed before either decided to test the other’s resolution. The flash point was Hull, where much of the arms and ammunition collected to fight the Scots in 1640 was stored. With the king by that time at York, only 30 miles away, the two Houses made the first move. They declared it their intention to transfer the Hull magazine to London. The justification was that it was needed to equip the regiments being raised to put down the revolt in Ireland.
