1625-29

Question 1

Political situation in 1625

Answer 1

March - Charles becomes King - empty treasury and dwindling credit

• £60,000 loan - City of London Merchants = not enough
• Faced parliament

Meeting in June - quarrels destroys co-op between king and parliament

Question 2

Where was the attention of MPs focused on from 1625-29?

Answer 2

• Taxation
• Defence of common law
• Attempts to bring ‘evil counsellors’ to book through impeachment

Question 3

Why are there quarrels between king and parliament in 1625?

What alternative did MPs suggest to Charles’s demand?

Answer 3

Commons refused to grant Charles right to collect an excise tax + Tonnage and Poundage - due to Mansfeld campaign

• MPs suggest - 1-year grant - to force regular parliaments

Question 4

Significance of Henrietta Maria

Answer 4

Arrived in 1625

• Catholic court of advisers
• Charles is already an Arminian sympathiser - he offered position at court to Richard Montagu

Question 5

Foreign policy failures of king in 1625

Answer 5

• Conscription + forced billeting of troops during a plague outbreak
• Late 1625 - Naval expedition to attack port of Cadiz, Spain - poorly trained and equipped - badly led by Viscount Wimbledon (appointed by Buckingham)

Question 6

How do parliament respond to failed attack on Cadiz?

Answer 6

• Impeachment proceedings against Buckingham = Charles dissolves parliament

Question 7

What does Charles do in early 1626?

Answer 7

• Calls another parliament - wants more money - they meet - attacks on Buckingham by Commons, Lords and court rivals
• Dissolved again

Question 8

What happens when parliament is dissolved again in 1626?

Answer 8

• Forced loan from all taxpayers - if refused to pay = conscription or imprisonment
• For many - direct challenge to law and parliament - Lord Chief Justice Carew refused to endorse

Question 9

Five Knights case

Answer 9

1627 - 5 knights refused to pay loan - imprisoned - sued for release under habeas corpus
- Refused to go to court - king claimed right to emergency power of arrest

Question 10

What happened when there was a deterioration in relations with France?

Answer 10

1628 - another parliament summoned for funds for national defence

• Charles sought further subsidies - attacks on Buckingham in parliament, abandoned - due to fear of dissolution
• Commons voted total of 5 subsidies in taxation - but were preparing the Petition of Right

Question 11

Why did relations with France deteriorate in 1628?

Answer 11

• Buckingham’s inept diplomacy - led to war and failed attempt to support protestant rebellion in La Rochelle

Question 12

Petition of Right

Answer 12

1628 - offered to king - asked to reverse 5 knights decision

Demanded that citizens would not be asked to pay forced loans, imprisoned w/out trial, subject to martial law or forced to provide lodgings for soldiers

Charles published revised version - asserted right to collect Tonnage and Poundage w/out parliament

Question 13

How did Buckingham die?

Answer 13

• Assassinated by John Felton, disgruntled army officer - 1628

Question 14

Reaction of death of Buckingham?

Answer 14

• Public celebrations - and by MPs when parliament returned in Jan 1629

Question 15

What happened when parliament looked at the breaches of the Petition of Right by Charles?

Answer 15

• Adjourned
• Day of adjournment: group of MPs - led by Denzil Holes and Sir John Elliot - demanded passing of 3 resolutions against growing Arminianism, T&P and actions of those who paid it
• Speaker refused to delay adjournment - held in chair until passed