charles 1 1625-1646 Flashcards
personal rule: financial policies 9
Sources of revenue: Forgotten laws, lapsed practises and medieval precedents were exploited to raise income
- Distraint of Knighthood (not employed since the early Tudors) £170,000
- Revival of Forest laws (landowners fined for encroaching on the ancient boundaries)
- Charles raised taxes without Parliament’s consent (clear violation of Magna Carta) eg. forced loan of 1626 £260,000 raised
- extension of Ship Money to the whole kingdom, June 1635. provoked hostility. £190,000 raised
- rents from crown lands
- purveyance (met with widespread resistance)
- wardship £50,000
- monopolies (led to some claims of corruption)
- enclosure fines (seen by landowners as a penalty for trying to improve their estates)
- abolition of feeofees for impropriation
- money from the city of london for not being able to occupy londonderry (ireland)
- 1627 sale of crown lands £350,000
- capturing french ships 1627, £50,000
all of charles methods of raising money were seen as absolutist and old fashioned, attempt to make the crown completely separate from parliament
religious policies: personal rule
1640 New ecclestial canons issued including an endorsement of the divine right of kings.
charles - arminian
led to divisions between king and parliament and was very unpopular with the public as arminiasm was seen as dangerously close to catholicism
Altar table moved permanently to the east and railed off
- Metropolitian visits
- Policy of ‘thorough’ which included bishops living in their dioceses and checking on the clergy
- Book of sports reissued
- Prayer book introduced
- Strict obedience to the 39 articles
- High court and star chamber used to enforce religious conformity
social policies of the personal rule
ship money levied on the whole country and general resentment of paying taxes / ways of making omney during the personal rule
fears of a catholic plot encouraged by henrietta maria
personal rule: the court
The court distanced the king from his subjects by emphasizing the divine right of kings. Strafford heavily used the prerogative courts. Prynne, Bastwick and Burton imprisoned for publishing phamplets against bishops. Trial of John Hampden who didn’t pay ship money
Led to a country wide perception that the court was immoral and corrupt and further established Charles as an absolutist king. Opposition to Presbyterian system
the personal rule: scots
1639 Declared war on Scotland
Charles thought he could defeat Scotland as England hadn’t lost a war with scotland since 1314 and he was technically in control of both kingdoms
Prayer book introduced into Scotland caused riots and unrest, (Edingbrugh, St Giles church) July 1637
england defeated in the first bishops war
The Tables – an emergency group chosen from the Scottish parliament, the covenanters Lord Saye and Sele Earl of Arundel and Earl of Essex (captain general and his support)
- signed the solemn league and covenant , contact with Puritan network,
strafford / Ireland
Old English:
Had to pay subsidies amounting to £120,000 in return for 3 graces essentially letting them practice their own religion (relaxation of oath of supremacy, titles allowed by land owners of more than 60 years, and recusancy fines not imposed)
New English:
Took lands of many new Irish by bypassing old laws and giving these lands to the crown for revenue
Imposed laudianism
1637 introduced the 39 articles instead of the irish 14 articles
relations with parliament
Parliament granted tonnage and poundage only for 1 year in Charles’s parliament of 1621 due to plague in London and parliament being in Oxford whereas was usually granted for life
1628 - the petition of rights
1628-9 holding down of the speaker
1641 - the grand remonstrance
1641 - 10 propositions
1642 - the nineteen propositions (related to parl. privilege, divine right of kings, religion, king’s household)
1642 - militia ordinance
opposition to the personal rule
1635 - trial of the city of london, way in which more money could be collected but permanently disenfranchised london from more revenue sources
1637 Burton, bastwick, pyrnne, sent to the tower and hung, drawn and quartered. Published material against Charles
1638 - Hampden court case. Appealed that ship money wasn’t legal, was ruled in his favour. Led to ship money collection dropping by 20%
Earl of Salisbury
Petitions signed and sent to the privy council
Gentry – particularly due to distraint of knighthoods and the imprisonment of burne, bastwick and pryne
foreign policy
mostly led by Buckingham until his assasination by John Felton in August 1628
1625 – mansfeld
1626 – cadiz
162 – isle de rhe, la Rochelle x 2
1629 – treaty of susa
1630 – treaty of madrid
situation in europe when charles was in power
outbreak of the 30 year war
Charles had to uphold an Anti-Hapsburg alliance with the Dutch and German which meant subsidising their army
dodgy relations with France, problems with foreign policies, Henrietta Maria, they made peace with Spain
the short parliament
1640
after 1st bishops war
speech by John Pym addressing all of parliaments grievances
only lasted three weeks
the long parliament
November 1640 - after 1st bishops war as more funds needed - test of parl/monarchy relationship
two subsidies voted (necessity due to scots invasion)
Pym repeated his speech
strafford and laud imprisoned (showed Charles had absolutely no control over government)
finch and windebank (secretary of state) fled
parl’s actions:
removes power from charles (tonnage and poundage,
forest laws, ship money, high court and star chamber)
reverting of religious reforms (destruction of images in churches)
triennal act
Strafford declared guilty
grand remonstrance
disagreements over bishops
July - parl raises army of 10 000 volunteers
root and branch petition
position of charles before the long parliament
broken relationships with parliament, scotland / covenanters. They were potentially working together
Opposition from city of London and many counties within England. eg. 86 contested elections before parliament came into sitting.
position of charles after long parliament
constitutional royalists began to emerge wishing to eradicate changes from personal rule and establish better relations with parliament
puritans wanted to work with parliament against popery (charles arminiasm seen as popish)
junto succesfully leading parliament and turning mp’s against him into a parliamentarian party
the junto
dominated parliament by the long parliament
were an opportunity for Charles to negotiate and could have solved divisions within parliament
included: lord saye and selle pym denzil holles earl of beford
- collected petitions and used them to stir opposition
- part of many committees
- present in house of commons and lords
had effective measures that they would implement if allowed power, as well as recognising some of the faults of the personal rule.
- adequate parliamentary revenue with ship money collection
- religious reforms reversing the laudian reforms
parl of 1625
took place in Oxford due to the plague in London
was called as charles wanted money for a war against spain
2 x subsidies of £140,000
tonnage and poundage granted for a year
Charles collected customs duties without the permission of parliament
charles tried to call the parliament again 3 weeks later which angered them
charles not respectful of the relationship between parl and government + unrealistic demands
parliament of 1626
preempted by failed trip to Cadiz
Charles encroached on parliamentary privilege by removing some prominent opponents to him by making them sheriffs eg. sir edward coke
york house conference (showed Charles’s favours to Arminiasm)
parliament prepared to impeach Buckingham but Charles dissolved them before they could
didn’t vote on any subsidies
led to the forced loan and five knights case
