An experiment in Absolutism: 1629-1640 (Charles's Personal Rule) Flashcards
What is Personal Rule?
Charles governed by using only his monarchical rights without consulting parliament.
What was the Catholic fraction?
Charles redistributed the vast number of titles and offices that the Duke had been held.
This meant political influence began to be concentrated within an elite group and well defined targets when opposition gained strength.
Privy Council- consisted of 35 members, drawn from England’s noble families whose role was to support and advise the monarch through regular sessions.
What methods of government did Charles use?
He used prerogative courts to secure law and order during the Personal Rule
Star Chamber- Privy Councillors selected by the monarch. Defendants were questioned in private and fined, imprisoned or forced to undergo corporal punishment.
Court of High Commission- Enforce conformity to canon law (laws which apply within the church)
Privy Council- Advisory body which could act as a prerogative court
Book of Orders- Consisted of 8 orders and and 12 directions. Directions prevented vagrancy by repairing roads and allocating poor children to apprenticeships. Orders outlined new working practices for the JPs such as sending monthly reports about their meetings to the sheriff and a penalty was added for non compliance.
How much debt was Charles in, in 1629 ?
£2 million
What were Charles’s sources of income?
What were Charles’s sources of income?
What is ship money?
A prerogative form of income that a monarch could levy on coastal towns to provide emergency funds in time of conflict or threat, in order to defend coastal regions and equip the fleet. He raised £300,000 pa with initially 90% compliance.
Describe the Hampden case?
1637
John Hampden was taken to court for failing to pay his ship money dues.
The verdict in the case was close with 5 judges out of 12 agreeing with him that ship money was unlawful.
The Hampden case reduced the speed of Ship Money collection from 98% to 25%.
Which 2 particular factors reduced the privy council’s effectiveness ?
Charles only attended the twice weekly meetings a handful of occasions.
Charles allowed within the council, identified as the Spanish Faction to gain influence. It increasingly appeared that Charles was being steered in a pro Catholic direction.
Who counselled Charles to cut expenditure in 1629?
Lord Treasurer Weston and Chancellor Cottington
They said to cut expenditure by
- reducing spending on foreign affairs by concluding peace with France and Spain
What was the story of Prynne, Burton and Bastwick?
Star Chamber had found them guilty of writing pamphlets attacking the policies of Archbishop William Laud.
- William Prynne lost his ears entirely and had the letters SL burned onto his cheeks.
- All men had their heads and arms fixed in pillories which was not traditionally a punishment for gentlemen which seemed to suggest that William Laud was not respectful of society’s hierarchies and tradition.
Appointment of Laud
- Charles I admired Laud’s desire for order and ceremonial in the church.
-Charles thus promoted him rapidly to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. - Theologically Laud was Arminian but he developed and executed his own particular vision and thus the term ‘Laudian’ is more appropriate
Describe Laudianism
- By the end of the decade most protestants were able to unite against Laudianism as a common enemy. It was seen as a direct attack to Puritan beliefs.
- Moved the Altar (altar policy)
- Politicised the clergy
- Established conformity
- Beauty of Holiness
- Book of Sport
Abolition of Feoffes - Established Laudianism in Scotland
Altar Controversy
Laud insisted on a new altar policy.
- North South alignment of the communion table against the easternmost wall of the church
- Chancel, where the altar stands, raised by steps and separated by a rail from the rest of the church
- Covered with a decorated embroidered cloth
- Enforcement checked by annual visitations
What were the consequences of the Altar Policy?
- Many felt by such a dramatic break with tradition.
- Strict enforcement narrowed the broad tolerance that was essential for religious stability.
- Some thought that this might be a sign for a return to the Catholic mass
Describe the politicisation of the clergy
Laudianism emphasises the status of the Clergy was matched by the way Charles promoted many of them into others areas of public life
- All Scottish Bishops were made Justices of the Peace
- Laud himself became Chancellor of Oxford University
What was the effect of promotion of Clergy?
- Allowed an overlap between religious and political spheres, which allowed Charles allowed his circle of advisors to narrow further.
- Clerical confidence grew and churchmen began to feel more powerful
How did Laud establish conformity?
Laud set out to enforce greater discipline and conformity within the church.
- Laud Tightened the use of worship. Clergy were given renewed instructions about the format and words to use in each service
- Laud ordered all Bishops to return to their parish and take responsibility for ensuring that their parish priests were obeying instructions. This was done through visitations and presentment bills.
- Star Chamber and Court of High Commissions were used more frequently and punishments were harsher.
What was the presentment bills?
Reported directly to the Archdeacon and listed failings in church buildings, conduct of clergy or behaviour of parishioners
How was Laudianism established in Scotland?
- Beauty of Holiness
- Conformity
- Book of Sport
- Abolition of Feoffes
Describe Beauty of Holiness
- The physical setting of the church as the holy house of God
- In Scotland Charles wanted St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh to be refurbished
How did Charles ensure Scottish conformity?
Charles raised the bar for conformity to a new height by producing a new set of Scottish Canons.
- All Scottish subjects were told that they had to kneel to take communion in the parish church
- These new canons were to be imposed on the church without needing to be ratified by the Scottish General Assembly
- There would be a new Prayer Book which everyone had to use.
What was the Book of Sport?
It said that activity on Sundays were a matter for the Church to decide which directly challenged Puritan theology.
- It was reissued in 1633 which outlined a range of sports and activities, including Morris dancing, that people could do after attending the compulsory Sunday morning service.
- This directly challenged the Puritan idea of the purpose of Sundays which they believed to be prayerfulness and bible reading.
Describe the abolition of Feoffees
- An old church law stated that a member of the laity could buy the right to collect that tax that everyone in the parish had to pay in order to finance their minister, provided that they arranged and paid for a suitable minister for that parish. In the past it had been used as a way for a rich person to gain control of their local church so it was quite open to corruption.
- Laud used Star Chamber to abolish the Feoffes in 1633
Why did fear for Catholicism grow in the 1630s?
- Henrietta Maria: She was catholic and a new catholic chapel commissioned by Charles for his queen.
- Laudianism
How did Puritan opposition grow?
Puritans expressed their opposition to Laudianism in a number of different ways:
- Emigration
- Pamphlets
- Resistance
Describe how Puritanism grew through emigration
- Some Puritans emigrated, particularly to the American Colonies, to escape Laudianism.
Describe how Puritanism grew through Pamphlets
- Bolder Puritans committed their opposition to Laudianism in print with pamphlets describing bishops as ‘tigers’, ‘vipers’, ‘bloodsuckers’ and ‘cruel stepfathers of the church’.
Describe how puritanism grew through resistance
- Some Puritans simply attempted to refuse to conform
- E.g Parishioners of St Gregory’s Church in London resisted the required move of their communion table.
- E.g Henry Sherfield was prosecuted for destroying a stained glass window that he felt to be idolatrous
Thomas Wentworth
- Opponent of Buckingham
- Imprisoned for not paying the forced loan
- One of the MPs who devised the Petition of Right
However, later in the year he was given the royal appointment of Presidency of Council of the North. This dramatic shift gave him the nickname the Grand Apostate which a person who abandons a religious or political belief
Describe Thorough
- Laud and Wentworth demanded great work ethic from sheriffs, JPs, Bishops and Judges.
- They believed corruption should be rooted out of public life and order should return to the church and state
- Non conformity was a challenge to the King’s authority and that should be cancelled.
- Wanted to monitor officials and what they were doing as they wanted them to take responsibility for their actions
Policies in England
- Insisted on conformity to the Book of Orders which improved lives of lower class subjects. However, gentry families resented their loss in power.
Policies in Ireland
- Wentworth had three overreaching goals for Ireland
1. Impose authority of the English Crown
2. Impose religious uniformity and conformity in a Laudian style on the Irish Church
3. To make Ireland profitable for the King
Reactions in England
- Provoked opposition because it meant the King’s authority reached further into the localities than had previously been possible and disrupted local communities
Reactions in Ireland
- Ireland was more profitable, more efficiently administered and with a reformed church
- However, every group in Irish society had been negatively impacted in multiple ways by his policies
- Within two years, the tension that had developed during his tenure would erupt into rebellion.
Prayer Book Revolt
The kirk was ordered to use a new prayer book from 1637 onwards. Knowing the strength of popular opposition, some priests took pistols with them to church in case they needed to defend themselves.
- Resistance grew and further riots broke out
- Convinced that the authority of the crown would prevail, Charles issued a new proclamation that made it treason to protest against the prayer book
What was the National Covenant?
- A small group from within the Scottish Parliament drew up a National Covenant 1638
- It was a solemn promise made by the people of Scotland to the King that they would not comply with his requirement that the kirk be transformed
- Hundreds of thousands of Scots put their names to the Covenant and thus became known as Covenanters.
Describe the First Bishop’s War
- By April 1639 war was imminent and when it began was known as the Bishops War
Describe the difference between the covenanters and King’s army in speed of mobilisation
Covenanters = Rapid
King’s Army = Patchy and Slow
Describe the difference between the covenanters and King’s army in resources
Covenanters = Support for the covenant was so strong that local committees were able to raise hugely increased taxes in order to fund mobilisation
King’s Army = Charles struggled to fund his army due to only accessing non parliamentary finance and ship money receipts dropped.
Describe the difference between the covenanters and King’s army in size and leadership
Covenanters = Around 12,000 men led by a veteran of the Thirty Years War with professional soldiers
King’s Army = Around 15,000 men
Describe the difference between the covenanters and King’s army in discipline and order
Covenanters = Well disciplined, highly motivated and expertly commanded
King’s Army = Disorderly and ill prepared
Describe the pacification of Berwick
- The English Army gathered at Berwick-upon-Tweed and prepared to enter Scotland
- Charles gave the command to advance, but Lord Holland allowed his cavalry to run too far ahead into the Scottish Army
- The Scottish Army had cleverly to make them look much stronger than they were and Lord’s cavalry turned back and spread exaggerated stories of Scottish strength
- Running out of money, having failed to intimidate the Scottish and having a poor quality army, Charles negotiated the Pacification of Berwick which contained an agreement from both sides
Describe the Second Bishop War
- Despite the Pacification of Berwick, neither King or Covenant disbanded their armies.
- Charles decided to renew the war against Scotland.
- The Scottish army launched a pre-emptive attack on Northumberland in 1640
- The English Army was leaderless as Strafford was ill with gout
- The Covenanters took Newcastle and began to advance to York
- With no options remaining Charles called an ancient institution, a council of peers which met in York. The councillors advised making peace swiftly so in October, the King signed the Treaty of Rippon with the covenanters
What was the impact of the Scottish Wars?
- Impact was very mixed in England
- Anxiety
- Optimism: some believed the Bishop’s Wars would force Charles to recall parliament
