Randolph kept
busily at work, and seems to have persuaded the Bishop of London that
if the charter could be annulled, episcopacy might be established in
Massachusetts as in England. In February, 1682, a letter came from the
king demanding submission and threatening legal proceedings against the
charter. Dudley was then sent as agent to London, and with him was sent
a Mr. Richards, of the extreme clerical party, to watch him. [Sidenote:
Massachusetts answers the king]
Meanwhile the king's position at home had been changing. He had made
up his mind to follow his father's example and try the experiment of
setting his people at defiance and governing without a parliament. This
could not be done without a great supply of money. Louis XIV. had
plenty of money, for there was no constitution in France to prevent his
squeezing what he wanted out of the pockets of an oppressed people.
France was thriving greatly now, for Colbert had introduced a
comparatively free system of trade between the provinces and inaugurated
an era of prosperity soon to be cut short by the expulsion of the
Huguenots. Louis could get money enough for the asking, and would be
delighted to foment civil disturbances in England, so as to tie the
hands of the only power which at that moment could interfere with his
seizing Alsace and Lorraine and invading Flanders.
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