1653-78: PARLIAMENT ASSERTIVENESS/ROLE OF MINISTERS Flashcards
line of arg/thesis
+ve of CII and royal govt to 1667 (Clarendon)
- Declaration of Breda (1660) was good- promised pay of army arrears, Act of Indemn. + Obl … (widely assumed this was drafted by Clarendon)
- ‘Clarendon Code’ designed to consolidate authority + dominance of Anglican Church- good for stability – but idea of a uniform church conflicted with charles.
-ve of Cabal
- Ideological divisions: parliamentary idealism of Ashley, autocratic absolutism of Lauderdale. Arlington + Buck despised each other. Note: Clifford and Ashely sometimes worked well.
–> (although helped by Charles playing ministers against each other) This definitely caused/ exacerbated the development of ‘Court’ and ‘Country’ political divisions in the PN. - Finance used to restrict Charles granting more rel freedom to his subjects – i.e. it was made clear that no funds would be allocated from Parl if used to broaden the church doctrine- EG- commons refusal to give Ch £300,000 forced him to issue a more rigid Second Conventicle Act, 1670 – clamped down on secret religious meetings by imposing fines – contributed to lack of stability and crown-parl tensions (cabal to blame)
- Extending their prerog: Royal Declaration of Indulgence, 1672: all penal laws against dissenters and Catholics would be suspended – created MAJOR conflict: led parl to announce that no such power had been claimed by any previous English monarch and that only Parl held the constitutional right to suspend penal laws (ChII to blame for initiating religious issue, but Parl exacerbated this).
+ve of govt under Danby (1674-8)
- Danby (although aided by trade boom on Continent) as Lord Treasurer increased ordinary revenue from £840,000 in 1671 to average of £1.4 mill from 1674-7 (Danby success)
- (also fpol but) Danby guided a bill through Parl which raised £600,000 for Crown on condition that Charles would join alliance w/ Dutch to prove his intent to resist French aggression on the Continent (Danby success)
–> CA: ChII DISMAYED at this- saw it as an invasion of his royal prerog- even tho he agreed.
-ve of Danby
Emergence of Court and Country parties: polarisation of the nobility and gentry class into 2 groups in the CW: Cavaliers (support of relatively unlimited monarchy) and Roundheads (support monarchy restrained by parl) – developed into court v country by 1660-70s
- Danby was a key cause of emergence of court/country parties:
–> Court: he used patronage to develop a group of Commons MPs completely subservient to him (fears of falling to power like Clarendon + CABAL). By late 1675, 30 MPs were receiving crown pensions + letters from Danby, and he used proxy voting to manage the passing of legislation.
–> Country: the est of this court party also created a rival party of those who resented Danby’s influence- this resentment was ^ when knowledge came out that Danby acquiesced to Charles/ continuing communications w/ Louis XIV, despite telling Parl that England was allied with Dutch against France.
-ve of Cavalier Parl (1661-79)
- Increasing disharmony between Charles+ Cavalier parl: passing acts like Conventicle act, ’64 which included harsher legislation on dissenters and Catholic, which conflicted with ChII more tolerant view
+ve of Convention Parl
- passed Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, 1660 – intending to reunite the nation under restored monarchy by pardoning. This act also promised the arrears of the army- leading to its peaceful disband.
–> CA: Convention parl basically took this back- 1661 MPs decided 49 of 104 pardoned should be subject to capital punishment.
example of resentment from Royalists
- felt ChII was “far too willing to forgive his enemies and forget his friends”
