An experiment in Absolutism Part 2 Flashcards
The link between the policy of Thorough and not being absolutist
The Personal Rule was a temporary measure aimed at strengthening central government to enable England to compete with the powerful states on the continent
The King’s right to dissolve Parliament
When Charles dissolved Parliament, he was not being innovative or radical. This is because he was exerting his right as king to rule as he saw fit.
What was the aim of the use of prerogative courts
They were seen as tools that gave the monarch too much power without accountability. It aimed to govern the country more efficiently in an age when government was becoming increasingly centralised.
What was the purpose of local government?
To maintain the king’s peace so that communities could enjoy stability and order
What was the bases of local governance?
The entire infrastructure of local government rested on cooperation between local families and the king, and thus communication and goodwill were vital.
Achievement of the Book of Orders of 1631
The Directions from within offered instructions for preventing vagrancy, allocating poor children to apprenticeships.
What was the aim of the Book of Orders of 1631
An attempt by Charles to remind local entry of their God-given duty to protect the weak and vulnerable in their communities.
What was the significance of the Personal Rule lacked legitimate authority to rule
It meant that when Charles ran into his first major crisis during the Personal Rule, which was the Scottish Rebellion and failure of the First Bishops’ War, he could expect no assistance from Parliament in raising desperately needed funds for an army and military campaign.
Why did Charles dissolve Parliament in 1629?
Parliament was exploiting his need for financial help to impose what he felt to be unacceptable limitation on kingly power.
What did Charles have to do in order to sustain his Personal Rule financially?
Charles needed to replace his reliance on extraordinary taxation granted by Parliament by exploiting the ordinary, private income of the Crown, while making savings.
What was the Book of Rates and how did it raise money for Charles to ease his debt?
• Custom duty
It indicated the value of each product and the amount of tax levied on it. Charles order the Book of Rates to be revalued in 1635, which enabled him to immediately and dramatically increase the revenue he would receive from Customs.
The decision to rule without Parliament
• Money
It forced the government to find prerogative means to raise money that were surprising successful, providing royal revenues of £1million per annual by 1637, with 90% compliance with Ship Money, even when it was extended to inland counties in 1634.
The decision to rule without Parliament
• Foreign policy
Charles now had no choice but to make peace with Spain and France, and this in turn provided the foundation for sound financial management under Lord Treasurer Weston and Chancellor of the Exchequer Francis Cottington.
Result of the Hampden case 1637
Five judges out of twelve agreed with him that Ship Money was unlawful.
What was the king’s argument in collecting Ship Money of 1637
It was his rights and duty to provide for the country’s security, with or without Parliament’s consent.
Success of the Ship Money 1634
He raised around £300,000 pa, which was equivalent of three Parliamentary subsidies. It had 90% of compliance as well.
What was the Ship Money in detail?
Charles levied Ship Money in October 1634 on coastal towns and cities, and extended it to the whole of England in 1635.
Charles’s debt by 1629
Charles had a debt of £2m by 1629, exceeding his income
What was fiscal feudalism?
Non Parliamentary methods for raising finances, and custom duty and monopoly grant
What was so alarming about the fact that Laud was an Arminian?
It appeared to many that he was Catholic sympathisers which made Parliamentarians worry that the king was attracted by Catholicism and that this attraction might intensify
What was the Beauty of Holiness?
It emphasised the physical setting of the church as the holy house of God. This was executed through the decoration of churches.
What was the problem with the Beauty of Holiness?
It laid the Church open to charges of churches being Catholic in appearance.
What was the aim of the Book of Common Prayer of 1631
Laud set about enforcing greater discipline and conformity within the Church.
It was intended to tighten up local government
Example of the Book of Common Prayer of 1631
Laud tightened up on the use of liturgy as a way of creating uniformity in church services.
What was the consequences of the repositioning of altars?
Opened to charges of being Catholic because Catholicism also put a very high value on sacraments. It implied a dangerous innovation and a lack of respect or tradition and the social status quo.
What was significant about Charles’s approach to religion during the Personal Rule?
The Laudian reforms led many Puritans to question whether they could support the regime or stay within the realm. This had subsequently led to a strengthening of the Puritan network, which would provide organised opposition to Charles during the mouting crisis from 1637.
Why did Laudianism antagonise Puritanism?
Laudianism specifically challenged beliefs and practices central to Puritanism.
Many Laudian practices were distasteful to Puritans and directly attack Puritan beliefs
What was the Book of Sports of 1633?
It outlined the range of sports and activities that people could do after attending the compulsory Sunday morning service.
How did the Book of Sports of 1633 antagonise Puritan ideas?
It had directly challenged the Puritan idea of the purpose of Sundays, which they believed to be prayerfulness and Bible reading.
How was the Book of Sports in 1633 enforced?
In 1633, enforcement was administered more effectively through visitations and Presentment Bills.
The abolition of the Feoffees for Impropriation by Laud in 1633
•Puritan oppositon
Laud had in effect tipped the governance of the Church away from Puritanism.
What was the convention of the role of Feoffees?
Old Church law stated that a member of the laity could buy the right to collect the tithe of a parish, provided that they arranged and paid for a suitable minister for that parish.
What were Feoffees?
A group of Puritan merchants and landowners began to buy up the right to collect tithes so that they could put well-trained Puritan ministers into parishes.
Example of resistance to Laudianism and how it failed?
Parishioners of St Gregory’s Church in London resisted the required move of their communion table. Nonetheless, Charles brought them to account in front of the Privy Council in 1633, enforcing conformity.
