Ch6 State of Relations between Crown & Parliament by 1629 & Reaction of Political Nation

Question 1

-What had the 1628 Petition of Rights failed to address? (2 fundamental points of disagreement between Charles & Parliament)

Answer 1

• did not explicitly mention the customs duty, imposition, or tonnage & poundage; as result Charles claimed he has not surrendered his rights to collect these
• Charles’ open favour to anti-Calvinists; e.g. summer of 1628 William Laud & Richard Montagu were appointed as bishops as Charles was clearly indicating his continued support for Arminianism (many regarded as close to Catholicism)

Question 2

-Why was distrust caused over the 1628 Petition of Rights?

Answer 2

• at first Charles did not reply in the proper legal way; though the commons insisted on the correct response, which Charles eventually gave
• Charles had told the royal printer to deface the statute number, throwing doubt on the documents legality; so MPs wondered if Charles could be trusted to rule by the ambiguity of the unwritten constitution

Question 3

-What happened with the Three Resolutions 1629? And how did Charles respond?

Answer 3

• radical MPs (Denzil Holles & Benjamin Valentine) held down the Speaker of the House of Commons until 3 resolutions were passed all condemning the king’s conduct
• expressed opposition to Arminianism & to the collection of tonnage & poundage without parliamentary approval
• Charles responded by dissolving Parliament 2 days later & had his leading critics e.g. John Eliot, Holles & Valentine arrested for treason; realised the passing of the Three Resolutions was a revolutionary act & for the next 11 years governed without ever calling parliament

Question 4

-What did Conrad Russel argue was most important in contributing to relations between Crown & Parliament?

Answer 4

-placed more emphasis on the ‘burden of war’, believing that ‘war & Buckingham brought relations between central & local government, & hence between king & Parliament, to the point of collapse in 1629’

Question 5

-What did L. J. Reeve argue was most important in contributing to relations between Crown & Parliament?

Answer 5

• by 1629 ‘there was overwhelming evidence to justify the deepest suspicions of Charles among the Political Nation’
• and that ‘Buckingham’s financial & foreign policy failures had combined with a fundamental conflict over religion to produce a constitutional breakdown; thus in 1629 those excluded by the inner circle of the court were forced into opposition’

Question 6

-Summary of relations with Crown & Parliament under James & Charles

Answer 6

• tensions of James I’s later parliaments derived from the interrelated issues of religion, foreign policy, favourites & finance; his resistance in the Thirty Years War meant he was able to manage the tension from these issues
• contrastingly, Charles I’s decision to intervene in the European conflict escalated the tension with Parliament over these issues, particularly in the light of the failures of Charles I’s foreign policy; while there was undoubtedly tension between Charles & the Political Nation in 1629, the fundamental breakdown in the relationship did not come until the outbreak of civil war in 1642