Allegiance in The Civil War
It can be difficult to find out which side Harrison really favoured when it came to a question of choosing sides between King and Parliament during the English Civil War. He himself, charged by the Parliamentarians with favouring the Royal cause, pointed to the fact that he had used "a strong hand" in checking certain movements in favour of the King. There is little doubt that he made a money present to Charles I when the King was in Leeds, but that may have been no more than a mark of generous sympathy towards a man in sore need and trouble. There is a tale that when the King was imprisoned in Leeds, Harrison called upon Charles I at Red Hall on the evening of his arrival and wished to present his Majesty with a cup of ale, which he had brought in a silver, lidded tankard. The King accepted Harrison's hospitality, and lifting the lid of the tankard, found it filled, not with liquor, but with gold coins, "which", says one of the retailers of this story, "his Majesty did, with much celerity, hasten to secrete about his royal person". It is more certain that Harrison lent money to the Parliamentarians. Amongst the British Museum manuscripts is the following Memorandum, which enhances knowledge on events of that time :
Whereas by Ordinance of Parliament bearing date the 24th day of November, 1642, The right honble Ferdinando Ld Fairfax (or whom he should appoint Treasurer for that purpose) was enabled to engage the public faith of the Kingdom for all such Plate, Money, Armes and Horse as should be voluntarily lent or raysed for the service of the State in the Northern Counties. In pursuance of the said ordinance John Harrison of Leeds Esq., did in the yeare of our Lord 1642 furnish and lende the Sume of fower score and Ten poundes in money and also on Horse and Armes, being valued at Twenty Poundes, in all amounting to the sume of One Hundred and Ten Poundes, the Publique Faith of the Nation is to bee engaged unto the said John Harrison. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto put my hand and seale. —W. Harrison, Treasurer, SourceRead more about this topic: John Harrison (Leeds)
Famous quotes containing the words allegiance, civil and/or war:
“Mine honesty and I begin to square.
The loyalty well held to fools does make
Our faith mere folly; yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fall’n lord
Does conquer him that did his master conquer
And earns a place i’ the story.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The essence of the modern state is that the universal be bound up with the complete freedom of its particular members and with private well-being, that thus the interests of family and civil society must concentrate themselves on the state.... It is only when both these moments subsist in their strength that the state can be regarded as articulated and genuinely organized.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be made a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is a war to found an empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us if we do not make it a war to establish the negro in freedom—against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)