king’s demand for a money loan that as a punishment he was ordered to attend Lord Chichester into Germany at his own charge.²⁷  Sir Dudley Digges, who was despatched on the king’s service to Russia in 1618, and to Holland in 1620, had been imprisoned for a short time in 1614 for words used in debate. But in 1621 he energetically attacked monopolies and defended the independence of Parliament; and later was loud in expressing the general dislike of the Spanish match. Sir Heneage Finch ²⁸  also, though otherwise distinguished for his subserviency to the king, proposed in the debate on the Spanish match to petition the king against it. Sir Edwin Sandys, who was elected to represent Rochester in 1614, Sandwich in 1620-1, and the shire in 1623-4, was a moving spirit in the committee appointed to consider impositions, and after the dissolution in 1614 had been summoned before the Privy Council to answer for expressions he had used in debate as to English monarchical rights. In 1621 he drew attention to the spread of Catholicism,²⁹  and in 1624 made a speech attacking the Earl of Middlesex. The same spirit was manifested in Charles’s early parliaments. Sir Peter Heyman, still representing Hythe, was charged with refractoriness and punished, being committed to the Tower in 1629 for the conspicuous part he had taken in the attack on the government, and was kept closely confined. Sir Dudley Digges was committed to the Fleet in 1626 and 1627 for the part he had taken in debate. He was then representing Tewkesbury, but in 1628 sat for Kent, and took an active part in drawing up the Petition of Right. Sir John Finch,³⁰  elected member for Canterbury in 1614, and again in 1625, was member for that place when he was elected Speaker in 1628. On the bench he was distinguished for the height to which he carried the royal prerogative. According to Clarendon he was mainly responsible for the judge’s favourable decision as to ship money. One of the first acts of the Long Parliament was to impeach him for his arbitrary conduct as Speaker; but nevertheless, even he, in 1628, presented a petition against billeting soldiers on private persons,³¹  and his speech to the throne of 1627, loyal as it was, contained petitions for the immunity of members from arrest, respect for freedom of debate, and free access to the royal person.
   Feeling was exasperated in Kent in 1620 by the impressing of 100 mariners there for an expedition against pirates, although ‘the ordinary prestors were not employed because of the misery occasioned by their oppression and corruption.’³²  But nothing could have prepared a worse state of feeling for Charles to find in existence in the county on his accession, than the arrival at Dover in December 1624 of the wretched forces collected for Count Mansfeld’s expedition. As neither food had been provided for them, nor ships for their embarkation, the county suffered much at their hands as they wandered about robbing and thieving. On Christmas Day 1624, Sir John Hippisley, mayor of Dover, Sir Nicholas Tufton, and Sir Peter Heyman wrote to the Council that 8,000 foot and some horse were arrived at the town, which could
   ²⁷  Ibid. 366.                                  ²⁸  Elected Speaker, 6 February 1625-6.
   ²⁹  He is said to have obtained his election ‘by crying down his rivals Sir Nicholas Tufton and Sir Dudley Digges as papist and royalist’ (Cal. S.P. Dom. 1623-5, p. 150), and was defeated in 1625 and 1626 for the country. In March 1627-8, he stood for Sandwich, but failed in spite of, or possibly in consequence of. Buckingham’s support.
   ³⁰  Baron Finch of Fordwych, Lord Keeper.
   ³¹  In August East Kent petitioned complaining of the ’rude and barbarous carriage of the Irish soldiers, being recusants, billeted among them.’ Cal. S.P. Dom. 1628-9, p. 280
   ³²  Ibid. 1619-23, p. 170.