Bullet Point 1: The Personal Rule Flashcards
Why did Charles rule without parliament after 1629?
The ending of the war:
- Removed the need for extra money as well as the display of national unity
Financial Stability:
- Summons of parliament would jeopardize this as it would reopen discussion of impositions and tonnage and poundage - the two main sources of royal income
- Charles was able to fund armies without parliamentary financial assistance, thus making parliament redundant
Charles’ relationship with Parliament:
- Mistrusted it, thought it was set on reducing his power
- Less pressure within his council to resummon parliament due to the death of political moderates
Sources Of Income during the Personal Rule
Forrest Fines Nuisances Distraint of Knighthood Monopolies Tonnage and Poundage Enclosure Fines Wardship Credit Purveyance Rents from Crown lands
Forest Fines
Government researched the extent of Royal forests in the medieval times for the purpose of fining landowners whose estates now encroached on the ancient boundaries.
Many landowners could not produce title deeds for land held by their families for centuries - it was a tax on population growth and improvement that fell on the rich and powerful.
Nuisances
In the same way as Forest fines, those who had built houses outside London’s city walls without parliaments permission were fined - ancient laws widely believed to be exploiting the growth of London
Distraint of Knighthood
James I had sold knighthoods for £30, now landowners who refused to pay for a knighthood were fined instead - Oliver Cromwell was among the victims
Monopolies
Selling corporations the sole right to produce import or sell products - had been illegal since 1624 for individuals
Led to charges of corruption at court - Lord Treasures Sir Richard Weston gave a soap monopoly to his friends, the product was derided as ‘Popish soap’
Tonnage and Poundage
Customs duties on imports and exports - as trade revived after the wars with France and Spain, the value of customs duties rose quickly
Had not been approved by parliament - and been a running sore with them ever since 1625
Enclosure Fines
Fines imposed on land owners for fencing off open fields and common land for conversion from arable to pasture
Wardship
When a landowner dies leaving a child heir, the crown had the right to administer the estate until the heir came of age
Crown frequently accused of exploiting vulnerable estates
Credit
Borrowing money from the city of London and other financiers - the crown Jewels were pawned in the Netherlands in the 1620s
Sire Richard Weston and Bishop of London William Juxon worked to wean the crown off borrowed money
Purveyance
The crown’s right to purchase food and other necessities at below market value - met with widespread resistance in the counties
Rents from Crown lands
Income received from the rented crown land, usually over a term of 99 years - inflation had eaten away at the real value of rents at fixed rates and the crown had sold a lot of land in the 1550s
Ship Money
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The Book of Orders
1631
Aimed to establish oversight of the local Justices of the Peace in their enforcement of existing laws regarding the poor, vagabonds, idleness and drunkenness
Plan broke down in practice, JP’s were reporting on themselves and the Privy council had no Independence source of information to judge their veracity - some places resented the book as an encroachment of their local autonomy
A limited failure in Charles’ Social policy
‘Exact Militia’ and the Nobillity
Charles’ attempts to create an ‘exact militia’ were widely perceived as another example of central interference
Military reform intended to make the nobility and gentry discharge their local responsibilities more energetically - a goal close to Charles’ heart
In 1626, 1637, 1630 and 1632 he issued proclamations commanding the nobility and gentry to leave London and go the counties - naturally caused ill will
Fenland Drainage
To do later
Context of religion in England
- Church of England - dating from the Elizabethan settlement of 1559 - tried to create a Church in which all but the most extreme Catholics and Protestants could worship together
!603- James was coming under Puritan pressure to enforce anti=-catholic Penal laws more strictly - James believed that the real threat came from the puritans who would drive catholic to extremism - Puritans believed all Catholics to be traitors already
Catholics themselves were mostly loyal subjects who were compromised by extremism - e.g. the gunpowder plot in 1605 and the Spanish Armada - all this comes under the protestant fear of Catholicism - the ‘Popish threat’ similar tot eh ‘red scare’ in 1950s America
The Church of England - Protestant Aspects
- Monarch rules the church
- English Bible
- Service in English
- Holy scripture is all that is needed for salvation
- ‘Justification by faith’
- ministers can marry
- Sermons delivered from a pulpit
- Communion tables instead of altars
- Approved doctrine of the Church set out in the thirty- nine articles of faith
- Catholic salvation rituals: Confession, absolution and penance were totally rejected
The Church of England: Catholic Aspects
- Monarch is ‘governor’ not head
- Episcopal system
- Ministers wore vestments
- Holy communion open to a Catholic interpretation
- Ceremony encouraged
- Iconoclasm discouraged
- Sign of the cross and bowing at the name of Christ
Charles’ approach to Religion
Identified with the more conservative, and more popular, wing of the church.
Shown by the elevation William Laud to the bishopric of London in 1638 and to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1633
He and other Arminians found favour under Charles and this provoked opposition from the Puritans.
Puritans were also angered by what they saw as the increasing influence of Catholics at court - Charles’ approach to recusancy was to see it as a useful source of income rather than to eradicate it.
COE in 1625 - The Puritans
- Pro-predestination
- No distinctive socio-economic philosophy
- attended informal religious discussion groups
- wanted a moral reformation - sabbatarians and believed England would prosper if sin was removed
- Iconoclastic
COE in 1625 - ‘Mainstream Conformists’ or ‘Prayer Book Protestants’
- Largest of the three groups
- nominally predestinarian - limited understanding of this doctrine
- ‘Book of common prayer’ at the centre of mainstream religion
- Looked favorably upon the Church of England, James’ reign and rejected proposals for radical reform
