Chapter 3 Flashcards
Charles I First Parliament
- Also called useless parliament
- sitting only from June until August 1625
- Only gave Charles right to collect T & P for 1 year, along with £140,000 for Spain war
Tonnage and Poundage
- Tax on imports and exports
- Used since 1547 to support Royal Navy
- Calculated per ton of wine and pound of other produce
- Normally confirmed once at beginning of monarch’s reign
Why did Parliament refuse to grant T&P 1625 and what was impact
- Disliked influence of Buckingham (as Lord High Admiral)
- They wanted to reform duties and so granted Charles one year pending reform
- HoL blocked bill so Charles recieved no T&P at all
- Inspired by DKOK he ignored Parliament all together
The Treaty of Southampton
- September 8
- Makes an alliance between England and the Dutch Republic, against Spain
Forced Loan
- Charles needed money for finance foreign policy
- Most of substantial opposition was anonymous
- Thomas Scot MP attacked Buckingham in print
- Chief Justice Carew was dismissed because he refused to endorse legality
- Archbishop Abbot was suspended for refusing to license Sibthorpe’s sermon defending it
- Led to the Five Knights Case
Cadiz Expedition
- Set sail in September 1625
- Intended to open a second front to distract Spanish away from Palatinate, and to target Spanish treasure ships
- Financed by Queen’s £120,000 dowry
- Worked with the Dutch
- Failed because soldiers got drunk
- MPs started impeachment proceedings against Buckingham
- Charles blamed failure on lack of Parliamentary funds
Attempted impeachment of Buckingham
- Started after Cadiz Expedition
- Directed by Sir John Eliot & Dugley Digges
- Testimony of Earl of Bristol (ambassador to Spain in 1623)
- On 15 June, Charles dissolved 1626 Parliament before it had voted him new money in order to prevent Buckingham being impeached
- Charles had Digges and Eliot arrested at the door of the House
- In May Charles nominated Buckingham as Chancellor of Cambridge in show of support
Treaty of the Hague
- December 9
- The Netherlands and England sign military peace treaty for providing economical aid to King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, during his military campaigns in Germany.
Define Impeachment
A charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office
main points of importance from Charles’ speech to HoC on 28 March 1626
- Assertion of royal authority reflects Charles’s belief in DROK and his resistance to parliamentary encroachments on his power
- His warning underscores his intolerance of dissent
- Threat of disillusionment reflects Charles’s willingness to use his prerogative powers to maintain control over the political process
Main quotes from Charles’ speech to HoC on 28 March 1626
- “you begin to set the dice and make your own game”
- “Remember that if instead of mending your errors, by delay you persist in them, you make them greater and irreconcilable”
To all English Freeholders from a Well-Wisher of Theirs
published in late 1626
Anonymous but Probably circulated by the Earl of Lincoln (Puritan opposed to Charles)
Beware and consider what you do concerning these subsidies and loans which are now demanded of you, in case you give away not only your money but your liberty and property. For even if it is promised that it shall not set a precedent against you, yet it will lead to most dangerous consequences and that is its real aim as well as money, the gaining of a precedent to raise money without law, which will lead to the overthrow of Parliament. If this happens, we shall be ourselves the instruments of slavery and the loss of the privilege which we have enjoyed: that our goods cannot be taken from us without consent of Parliament.
The Five Knights Case 1627
- King ordered the imprisonment of 76 gentry and the Earl of Lincoln, who all refused to pay the Forced Loan
- In November 1627 five issued a writ of habeas corpus, forcing Charles to take them to trial
- Judgement upheld Charles’ prerogative to imprison without trial those who did not pay this particular loan
- Setting a dangerous precedent for arbitrary detention
- Resistance to royal authority and imposition of arbitrary taxation inspired sympathy and support
- Heightened awareness of the potential abuses of royal power and fueled debates over the limits of royal prerogative
