Dissolution of Parliament / Start of Personal Rule

Question 1

Dissolution of Parliament:

Date

Answer 1

1629

Question 2

Dissolution of Parliament / Start of Personal Rule:

Summary

Answer 2

First few years of the Personal Rule remarkably calm and orderly.

• BUT could be argued that without a parliament, there was no obvious arena where a principled challenge to the King’s policies could be mounted. Calm deceptive.

Charles proved to be an effective ruler.

• Devoted many hours to the daily business of gov.
• Met regularly with a Privy Council led by two efficient administrators, William Laud, who became Archbishop of Canterbury later, and Sir Thomas Wentworth, later Lord Strafford.

Question 3

Dissolution of Parliament / Start of Personal Rule:

Causation

Answer 3

Parliaments investigation into breaches of P of R.

Actions of MPs who forcibly passed three resolutions.

Question 4

Dissolution of Parliament / Start of Personal Rule:

Consequence

Answer 4

Across the country, dissolution provoked very little reaction, in part because the behaviour of the MPs who forced the Three Resolutions through the House seemed to justify it.

Question 5

Dissolution of Parliament / Start of Personal Rule:

Significance

Answer 5

Considered by some historians to mark a turning point in the development of the conflict that led eventually to civil war.

Argued that Charles sought to create an absolute monarchy, similar to those that existed in Spain and later in France under Louis XIV. In their view, the dissolution of 1629 and the Personal Rule that followed constituted a deliberate attempt to destroy parliament as an institution and govern entirely by the authority of a divine right monarch, responsible only to God.

• BUT could be argued that Charles intended in these years was to create an efficient and stable system of gov., based on his own political and religious beliefs