Charles' personal rule 1629-40

Question 1

what was alexander leighton arrested for in 1630

Answer 1

he was arrested for his publishing his pro-puritan pamphlet which attacked the episcopacy

Question 2

why did charles end the war with France in 1629 and Spain in 1630

Answer 2

with the treaty of Suza and treaty of Madrid, Charles ended the war with France and Spain as they were expensive and if he were to rule without parliament, he would need to stay out of costly wars

Question 3

what was the financial policy of the “distraint of knighthood”?

Answer 3

• this was Charles’ first main policy of his personal rule. in 1630, exchequer judges supported the policy which fined anyone who earned more than £40 a year from land and refused to be knighted. this was a resurrected law from over a century ago
• collected a total pf £175,000 from 9,000 people

Question 4

what was the book of orders 1631?

Answer 4

• extended the regular contact with JPs who now had to regularly feed back to London about their local area.
• it was seen by many as unnecessary interference

Question 5

when did Laud replace Abbot as the arch-bishop of canterbury?

Answer 5

August 1633

Question 6

what was the book of sports 1633?

Answer 6

• a re-issued policy which was made by James
• it allowed recreational games such as archery and dancing to occur on sundays
• in the context of laudian reforms, it was seen as a further move towards catholicism

Question 7

how did laud make the physical church more catholic?

Answer 7

• Beauty of holiness - restored stained glass windows, statues and carvings
• Altar policy - moved communion tables to the east end of the church and railed them in. by 1640, 80% had been railed in.
• ritualised church services - communion replaced the sermon as the main feature of service

Question 8

how did laud make the church in general more catholic?

Answer 8

• changed supplement sermons which many puritans attended with set question-and-answer sessions (catechising)
• abolished the feofees for impropriations in 1633 which funded protestant church lecturers

Question 9

why were lauds reforms so unpopular?

Answer 9

• seen as popery - Braddick - ‘they looked catholic’
• they were aggresiviely promoted - those who did not follow reforms were punished - Richard Drake excluded over 100 parishioners from taking communion because they would not come up to the rail to take it.
• they were disruptive and expensive - messed around with seating arrangements and costed £1,300 alone in 1635 to repair churches in east yorkshire

Question 10

how else did Charles seem repressive

Answer 10

• 1632 - fined William Palmer MP £1,000 for staying in london when he was told to go home
• 1634 - William Prynne sentenced to have ear cut off because he condemned ‘female actors’ in a theatre - it was seen as an attack on the queen
• 1637 - Burton, Bastwick and Prynne mutilated for attacks on laudian bishops

Question 11

what was Ship money?

Answer 11

• it was an emergency levy on all coastal towns in 1634 in order to fund the expansion of the navy
• it demanded around roughly £200,000 p.a
• in aug 1635, it was extended to include all counties which angered many
• majority of money was spent on Navy
• a pay rate of 90% until 1639

Question 12

what were forest fines

Answer 12

• from 1634 onwards, 1558 maps were used to define ‘royal land’ and fined anyone who ‘encroached’ on this land
• raised £40,000 in total
• caused wide ranging resentment because it questioned validity of nobility titles and land

Question 13

what was the scottish prayer book and what was the reaction

Answer 13

• 1637 - a new prayer book was issued to the scots which depicted many ‘catholic’ images such a angels
• it was enforced without pre consultation
• 1st read in st giles church, edinburgh where people ran out and there were riots
• in 1638, the scottish national assembly issues a national covenant abolishing the new prayer book
• later, they also abolished the bishops

Question 14

what was the hampden case?

Answer 14

• John hampden refused to pay ship money
• Charles prosecuted to clarify that it was his part of his ‘ordinary prerogative’ to collect it.
• even though Charles had picked they judges, they only agreed with him 7-5, showing how fractured his support and ideas had become

Question 15

what were Charles’ other fiscal policys?

Answer 15

• increased recusancy fines up from £5,300 in 1623 to £27,000 in 1634. it included all of the CofE not just catholics, causing tension
• although it was illegal to do so so, Charles raised an estimated £100,000 in the late 30s from granting monopolies. agitated the public because they were charged higher prices by monopoly owners.
• Charles was collecting around £1m p.a which was a 50% increase on normal crown revenue

Question 16

what was the book of rates?

Answer 16

• this was a book of new taxes on a wide range of new items
• before the book in 1634, he crown was collecting roughly £270,000 p.a in impositions. by 1638, this had risen to £425,000

Question 17

why did the first bishops war occur?

Answer 17

• due to Charles and Laud’s attempts to bring scotland’s church in line with the CofE through reforms and the New prayer book, there was significant scottish opposition.
• Charles’ unwillingness to negotiate properly with the scots led to a break down in relations and led to the Scottish invading england.
• Charle’s could not afford to pay the army to fight the scots, and thus had to call parliament, ending the personal rule.

Question 18

why did the second bishops war occur?

Answer 18

• because no supply could be reached with Charles and the short parliament, so the scots invaded again and they captured newcastle
• Charles finally decided to end the war by signing the treaty of Ripon, which meant he had to pay scots £850 a day until settlement
• this meant Charles had to call parliament for good now. the ‘long parliament’ began

Question 19

How did the hampden case lead to increased opposition

Answer 19

In 1638, 80% of ship money was collected. After the hampden case, this fell to 25% in 1639