1625-1629 Flashcards
Describe Charles’s character
On the 27th of March, 1625, Charles became Charles I, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland.
He was the fourth of seven children of King James but the time he was 12, only he and his older sister Elizabeth were still alive. His parents had left him behind in England, because his health was so poor they feared he might not survive the journey to London.
Even as an adult he failed to shake off his Scottish accent which made him feel rather ill at ease among the polished Englishman of the royal court. He was also very short and he had a stutter, which meant that he disliked the long, rambling conversations with courtiers and politicians.
He was not comfortable in a boisterous argumentative court like his father and did not stand out to be particularly intellectual. However, he was sensitive and cultured young man who had a passion for visual arts.
What were Charles’s aims?
Maintain law and order within his kingdoms
Defend his kingdoms from external threats
Provide effective religious leadership
Ensure financial and economic wellbeing
Describe Henrietta
Her marriage to Charles was contracted for complex political and religious reasons. The French king Louis XIII hoped to use the match to strengthen an anti Spanish alliance with England while at the same time preventing the English sponsorship of French Protestant rebels.
Her mother was a fervent Catholic who hoped that her daughter would protect English Catholics and potentially even draw England back to Rome.
Her Catholicism posed a major obstacle to her acceptance by the country at large resulting in significant slights such as the queen’s exclusion from a formal coronation.
She had the ability to create a unique court culture as she was an exuberant participant in masques.
Describe Buckingham
His physical attributes, charm and fluid sexuality meant that he had been able to dominate King James without having to work steadily up a more recognisable career ladder.
Buckingham’s influence had nearly destroyed the functionally of the inner sanctum because he had effectively replaced the king as the front of patronage.
What was the royal court?
The royal court was at the heart of Tudor and Stuart government and at the centre of the court was the inner sanctum of private rooms and personal space in which the king lived, ate, slept and consulted with his closest friends and advisers. Gaining access to this privileged world was a prize aimed at by everyone of ambition because it would bring them as close as possible to real power.
The court which Charles inherited was notoriously immoral, corrupted by drunkenness and sexual immorality
How did Charles reform the court?
It became moral and orderly
Charles instructed the gentry to spend less time in London and more time fulfilling their duties in their regions
How did Charles demonstrate Royal authority ?
Charles was very attuned to the way that the visual arts and architecture could convey his power and authority. He thus invested heavily in adding to the palace’s already fine stock of paintings, furniture and tapestries.
He remodelled his London Palace by Inigo Jones. He invested in a wonderful ceiling which consisted of two enormous canvasses across which were painted.
What was the Divine Right of Kings?
The idea that the monarch was chosen by God and therefore to challenge the authority of the King was to challenge God himself
Who opposed the Divine Right of Kings?
Parliament- removed their independent authority
Catholics- refused to accept that the Pope’s authority could be displaced
What were Charles’s financial policies?
Tonnage and Poundage
The Forced Loan
Describe Tonnage and Poundage
1625
Was a tax on imports and exports which was used to support the navy because of their role in patrolling the English Seas and ensuring that trading ships could cross the waters unimpeded.
It was calculated per ton of wine and pound of other produce
It was awarded by parliament
Normally confirmed just once, allowing the monarch to collect it for the duration of the reign
Charles was granted only one years right to collect tonnage and poundage and this money was insufficient to give Charles freedom to conduct a foreign policy of his choice. Charles regarded the limited grant of tonnage and poundage as a direct attack on his own Divine Right and Prerogative, he decided to ignore Parliament and ordered his tax collection to continue collecting it beyond the first year.
Describe the Forced Loan
1626
Without adequate parliamentary funds Charles resorted to asking the country at large for a benevolence, a voluntary gift of money which the king could request through his prerogative in times of emergency.
In 1626 however, very few volunteered money for Charles . He therefore decided upon another form of prerogative income that was easier to demand, a forced loan, to help him finance war against Spain and France.
All liable were summoned to public meetings where they were individually pressed to pay. This public manner of collections made any refusal to pay a very open act of opposition, creating what was effectively a test of loyalty to the new king.
What opposition did the forced loan face?
In 1627, Thomas Scot, MP for Kent, attacked Buckingham in print, writing that subjects may disobey and refuse an unworthy king’s command if what he wants goes beyond the normal duty owed by a subject to a king.
Some judges refused to endorse the legality of the forced loan and one of Charles’s judges, Chief Justice Carew, was dismissed as a result.
George Abbot, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was suspended by Charles for refusing to license a sermon which defended the forced loan
The Five Knights Case 1627
What was the Five Knights Case of 1627?
The imprisonment of 76 gentry and the Earl of Lincoln who had refused to pay.
The 5 of the 76 decided to force a confrontation with the king by issuing a writ of Habeas Corpus. Under this ancient right they had to be tried for an offence or be released. Charles therefore, had no choice but to take them to trial, creating a test case which shone a spotlight on the constitutional controversy around the king’s authority to raise the loan and to jail its opponents.
What was the York House Conference ?
1626
Buckingham chaired a theological debate at his London Home , York House .
The conference initially focused on the writings of Richard Montague, an Arminian clergyman. He wrote a very divisive book called, An Old Gag for a New Goose, in which he pointed out the similarities between Catholicism and the Church of England.
The York House conference examined his ideas in detail to try to establish whether his doctrine was sufficiently in line with mainstream Anglicanism to allow him to continue in office.
