Chapter 9 Flashcards
Opening of the Short Parliament
- Began 13 April 1640
- Charles wanted Parliament to grant subsidies first, then he would listen to grievances
- King had letter from Covenanters to French king
- Parliament would want to stop French support for Scots
Why did the Short Parliament dissolve 5 May
- Charles thought he could get money from Spain or Pope
- Stafford suggested using the Irish Army to put down Covenanters
- Strafford was ill & couldn’t help king politically
- Some Parliamentarians sympathised with Covenanters
- Many MPs did not trust Charles to keep word
Opening of Long Parliament
- Recalled 3 November 1640 because of Truce of Rippon
- Charles was politically, financially, & military weak
- Did not formally dissolve until 1660
Source of King’s strength 1640
- Support in HoL
- Supremacy in the legal system
- Command of the army
- Censorship of the press
- Authority over foreign policy
- Effective ministers (Laud and Strafford)
- Resources of 3 kingdoms
Goals the HoL & HoC shared in Short Parliament & 1st session of Long Parliament
- Remedy the abuses of the Personal Rule
- Revive the relationship between King & Country, represented in Parliament
Grievances from the Personal Rule
- Star Court & High Commission
- Ship Money, tonnage, & poundage
- ‘evil counsellors’ Strafford & Laud
- Laudian excesses from Anglican Church
- Lack of Regular Parliaments
- Dissolution without consent
Measures taken to resolve grievances from the Personal Rule
- Habeas Corpus Act 1640
- Triennial Act February 1641
- Ship Money Act 1640
- Tonnage & Poundage Act June 1641
- Strafford impeached Nov 1640
- Laud impeached Dec 1640
- Prynne, Bastick, & Burton released from prison
- Root & Branch petition presented to HoC Dec 1640
- Triennial Act 15 Feb 1641
- Act against Dissolution May 1641
Root and Branch petition
- called on Parliament to abolish episcopacy from the ‘roots’ and in all its ‘branches’
- presented to the Long Parliament on 11 December 1640.
- signed by 15,000 Londoners
- Led to Root and Branch Bill
Bridge Appointments
- Would prodive Charles with financial settlement in return for holding regular Parliaments, abolishing most hated tools of Personal Rule, & replacing Laud & Strafford with Bedford & Pym
- Didn’t work because Bed was collaborating with Covenanters, and their demands were too much.
- Bedford died from smallpox in May 1642
The Ten Propositions
- Disbandment of army in North
- Parliamentary input in Privy Council
- Oversight of Queen’s Household
- Parliamentary control over education of Royal Children
Long Parliament with Church with England in 1641
- Pym presented petition from Mrs Burton & Bastick to release husbands
- Pym introduced measure to remove Catholics from London
- Sought right to appoint Dean of Durham Cathedral
Root and Branch Bill
- intended to “root out episcopacy, root and branch”
- Wanted to abolish archbishop & bishop offices
- Shelved in August 1641
Extract from Charles’ speech to Parliament16 February 1641, the day on which he gave Royal Assent to the Triennial Act
Hitherto you have done what concerns yourselves, to amend and secure the things that are profitable to yourselves, neither were they things that merely concern the strength of this kingdom or the state in any one particular… You have taken the government almost to pieces, and, I may say, it is almost off the hinges.