Civil War.—When war broke out, Pym remained at head quarters in control of the parliament and executive, and on July 4 was appointed to the committee of safety which directed the movements of the parliamentary forces. His attitude was firm but moderate. He opposed the attempt to prevent Colepepper giving the king's message to the house on Aug. 27 when Charles declined to receive the petition of parliament and advanced on London Pym proposed (Oct. 20) the parliamentary covenant, and that those who refused it should be "cast out of the House." He succeeded in overcoming the opposition in the city to the heavy taxation now imposed. After repeated efforts to secure peace had failed, he proposed in order to carry on the war an excise, hitherto unknown in England, which met with the same violent hostility afterwards aroused by Walpole's scheme. In March he published a "Declaration and Vindication" of his public conduct, in which he threw the whole blame of the appeal to arms on the opposite party, and expressed his fidelity to the Church and constitution. In May he entered, together with the other leaders, into resultless negotiations with the queen, and on the 23rd he took up her impeachment to the Lords. In June he reported on Waller's plot, which exposed the insincerity of Charles's negotiations, and on June 26 wrote a "sharp letter" to Essex on his inaction. In July, after the defeat at Adwalton Moor, he prevented the house from again initiating negotiations for peace, which he declared "full of hazard and full of danger," and on Aug. 3, after having visited Essex at Kingston, persuaded him to separate himself from the peace propositions of the Lords and to march to relieve Gloucester. He thus incurred the hatred of the peace party, and on Aug. 9 a mob of women surrounded the house calling for Pym's destruction, and were not dispersed with out some bloodshed.
Pym had already proposed (Jan. 3) to the house an alliance with the Scots, and the Royalist victories now induced parlia ment to consent to what had before been rejected. The establish ment of Presbyterianism was accepted by Pym as a disagreeable necessity, and he was one of the first to take the covenant (Sept. 25). This alliance, which was afterwards destined to have so decisive an influence on the military campaign, and was the first occasion on which the two nations had united in public action, closes Pym's career. He was made master of the ordnance on Nov.
8, but died Dec. 8 at Derby House. He received a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, whence his body was ejected at the Resto ration. A sum of f io,000 was voted by the parliament to pay Pym's debts and provide for his family. About 1614 Pym married Anne Hooke, or Hooker (d. 162o), by whom he had five children, including two sons, Alexander, who died unmarried, and Charles, who was created a baronet; this title, together with Pym's male line, became extinct in the person of Pym's grandson Charles in 1688, Brymore then passing to his sister Mary, wife of Sir Thomas Hales, Bart.
Character.—Pym had little of the Puritan in his character or demeanour. His good humour, humanity and cheerfulness in all circumstances, "his pleasant countenance and sweet behaviour," were marked characteristics ; the aspersions, however, on his morals, as well as the accusations of bribery, are completely un substantiated and discredited. Pym's eloquence lay rather in the clearness of his expression and in the depth and solidity of his ideas than in the more showy arts of oratory.
with its references to authorities, must be supplemented by the same author's Hist. of England and of the Civil War. Pym's life has also been written at length by J. Forster in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Eminent British Statesmen, vol. iii., and by Wood in Ath. oxon. iii. 72, who adds a list of Pym's printed speeches. His character, drawn by Clarendon, Hist. iii. 3o and vii. 4o9, is inaccurate and obviously prejudiced. See also J. Forster's Grand Re monstrance, Arrest of the Five Members, Life of Sir J. Eliot; Ver ney's Notes of the Long Parliament; Whitelocke's (needing corroboration of other authorities) ; R. Baillie's Letters; Eng. Hist. Rev. xvii. 736; Rushworth's Collections; Thomason Tracts, E 153 (so), 63 (8),.172 (14), 164 (3)/ 03) (26) (37) (49) (65), 199 (24) (49), 78 03); Somers Tracts iv. 217, 355, 461, 466; Affaniae and Death's Sermon, by C. ; Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. 14,827; 11,692 ; Lords and Commons Journals. There are a large number of references to Pym in Calendars of State Papers Dom. 1619-1643, and Colonial Series 1574-1660, and in the Hist. MSS. Comm. Series; but i the supposed notebook of Pym mentioned Rep. x. app. vi. 82, has been shown by Gardiner to be that of another person (Eng. Hat. Rev., Jan. 1895, p. io5).