‘A French army, a Papist army, will not aid your cause,’ John said earnestly. ‘There are many men and women in the country who do not understand the rights and wrongs of this quarrel between you and Parliament; but they will see a French army as their enemy. People will speak ill of the queen if they think she has summoned the French against her own people, English people. Those that love her and love you now will not accept a French army. You will lose their love and trust.’

Charles looked thoughtful as if he had never had such counsel before. ‘You believe this, Gardener Tradescant?’

‘I know these people,’ John urged. ‘They are simple people. They don’t always understand arguments, they often cannot read. But they can see the evidence of their own eyes. If they see a French army marching on the English Parliament they will think we have been invaded and that their right course of action is to fight against the French. My own father went with your friend, the Duke of Buckingham, to make war against the French. They have been our enemies for years. Country people will think that the French have invaded us, and they will take up arms against them.’

‘I had not seen it that way.’ Charles looked undecided. ‘But I must have an army and I must have munitions and H … Hull has the mightiest store of weapons outside of London …’

‘Only if you have to fight a war,’ John said persuasively. ‘You only need arms if you fight. But if you could come to an agreement …’

‘I l … long to come to an agreement,’ the king said. ‘I have sent them m … message after message offering talks and concessions.’

John thought of the queen’s tempestuous demands that the Members of Parliament should be hanged before she would return to her city.

‘I shall take Hull, and then I shall be able to make concessions,’ the king said decisively.

John felt the sense of frustration that all the king’s advisors were learning to endure.

‘If you came to an agreement you would not have to take Hull,’ he pointed out. ‘If you could agree with Parliament, then the country would be at peace and there would be no need for a fort, Hull or any other. There would be no need for a position of strength.’

‘She wants me to take Hull,’ the king said stubbornly. ‘And it is mine own. I am claiming nothing but what is mine by right.’

Tradescant bowed. When the king started speaking of his rights it was difficult to make any headway. By right everything in the four kingdoms was his; but in practice the countries were ruled by all sorts of compromises. Once the king assumed the voice he used in his masques and spoke grandly of his rights nothing could be agreed.

‘When do we go to Hull?’ John asked resignedly.