The Fourth Earl of Dorset and the Personal Rule of Charles I
The assembly of the Long Parliament in November 1640 witnessed an outburst of passionate hostility toward recent royal policies in church and state. “The Common-wealth hath bin miserably torne and macerated,” declared Harbottle Grimston, “and all the proprieties and liberties shaken: the Church distracted, the Gospell and Professors of it persecuted, and the whole Kingdome over-run with multitudes and swarmes of projecting cater-wormes and caterpillars, the worst of all the Aegyptian plagues.” Yet, as Kevin Sharpe has recently reminded us, “to those on the road during the 1630s, the journey seemed far from a headlong rush towards conflict.” Sir Henry Wotton could write in 1633 that “we know not what a Rebel is; what a Plotter against the Common-weal: nor what that is, which Grammarian[s] call Treason: the names themselves are antiquated with the things.” To resolve this flat contradiction requires much further research into the politics and government of Charles I's Personal Rule. In particular, a clear picture of the political behavior, relationships, and attitudes of many public figures is still lacking. This article therefore presents a case study of one prominent individual: Edward Sackville, fourth earl of Dorset, privy councillor and lord chamberlain to Henrietta Maria. These offices gave Dorset an exceptional opportunity during the 1630s to “see more clearly into [the king's] intents and actions.” Moreover, both official sources and personal correspondence should reveal his activities during the Personal Rule and his attitudes toward it. What follows will examine in turn Dorset's duties as the queen's lord chamberlain, the political influence that this office conferred, his work as a privy councillor, his relations with various factions, and his private opinions of the regime and of Charles I and Henrietta Maria.
The Personal Rule II
The year 1637 marked the high-water mark of Charles’s personal rule. In the Hampden case, he established his right to continue collecting ship money. Earlier in the year in an equally celebrated case the Court of Star Chamber crushed three opponents of his religious policies (John Bastwick, Henry Burton, and William Prynne). Observing these events, the Venetian ambassador in London concluded that Charles had ‘changed the principles by which his predecessors reigned’. It was still too early to know ‘if the road he has taken will lead him to absolute royalty, which is definitely the goal he has set himself. Considering how upset the English were over their loss of liberty and changes in religion, the ambassador thought that Charles would be Very fortunate if he does not fall into some great upheaval’. None the less, success was possible ‘if his Majesty adopts gentle methods in his government and in religion’.1 The treatment of Bastwick, Burton, and Prynne was far from gentle. All three had their ears cut off. Prynne (whose ears had already been cropped as a result of a previous prosecution) also had the initials ‘SL’ for Seditious Libeller branded on both cheeks. All three men were next transported to remote prisons where the intention was to keep them isolated from the outside world for the rest of their lives.2 In the higher circles of English society there was concern that gentlemen from three respected professions (a physician, clergyman, and lawyer) could be treated so harshly; but the case aroused more widespread sympathies too.
Treatment of oily wastewater by organic–inorganic composite tubular ultrafiltration (UF) membranes
A tubular UF module equipped with polyvinylidene fluoride membranes modified by inorganic nano-sized alumina particles was used to purify oily wastewater from an oil field. The membrane water permeations of the UF process were analyzed. Retentions of chemical oxygen demand and total organic carbon were more than 90% and 98%, respectively. The results indicate that after UF treatment, oil content was below 1 mg/L, suspended solids content was below 1 mg/L, and solid particle median diameters were less than 2 μm. The quality of the permeation water met the requirement by oilfield injection or drainage. Fouled membranes and washed membranes were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, and fouled membranes were backwashed with different solutions. Results show that the addition of nanosized alumina particles improved membrane antifouling performance, and the flux recovery ratio of modified membranes reached 100% washing with 1 wt% of OP-10 surfactant solution (pH 10).