James I: the finances of the Crown and attempts at reform Flashcards
what were the sources of Crown revenue and what are they?
Ordinary revenue - was annual income for the Crown that did not depend on parliamentary grants
- included: crown lands, customs revenue, wardship and monopolies
what are crown lands?
- leased out for rent, but often on long leases that did not keep up with inflation.
- Income had also declined because of sales of land by Elizabeth.
- increasingly diminished in importance as successive lord treasurers saw the sale of land as being the quickest, easiest way to raise money
what are customs revenue?
- Tonnage and Poundage: taxes on imports and exports, normally granted to the King for life by his first Parliament.
- New impositions: new import duties which the King was entitled to raise to protect English trade and industry.
- by 1621, customs revenues brought in three times as much income as crown lands
what is wardship?
- the king’s right to act as guardians to the children of tenants who died before the child was old enough to inherit
- Profits could be made from administrating the estate and from profitable marriages and dowries.
- feudal tenures and wardship had lost importance but not financial usefulness
what are monopolies?
- the King’s right to grant exclusive rights to make and sell goods of particular kinds.
what were the initiatives for reform?
- the sale of noble titles was a huge success
-> estimated that between 1603 and 1629, the minimum profit earned by the Crown in this way was £620,000 - the sale of monopolies was condemned by Parliamentarians - whilst it provided James with income, it created artificially high prices, put up barriers to trade and innovation in technique, and preserved profits for a clique of royal hangers-on
what were the main systematic reasons for James’ insolvency (broke)?
- years of inflation and sale of Crown lands to finance the war with Spain ( Elizabeth had sold over £800,000 worth)
- ensured that royal income was insufficient to meet the demands of the government
- Elizabeth had failed to update tax assessments in line with inflation, so James had inherited a tax system that was entirely unfit for purpose -> it allowed the gentry to assess their own liability to pay tax
- Elizabeth had bequeathed a debt of £420,000 to her successor
what were the two main consequences of the Crown’s financial weakness?
- increasingly difficult for the Crown to govern efficiently and to conduct an aggressive foreign policy
- in wartime, the Crown had no alternative but to devise new means of raising money when forced loans were not approved by Parliament. In the PN, the Crown was intent on destroying the right of Parliament to raise taxes
- the Crown’s financial weakness thus threatened to become a serious political problem
how was James’ insolvency compounded by his extravagance?
- Elizabeth had spent less than £300,000 in peacetime; under James this rose almost immediately to £400,000 and peaked at £522,000 in 1622
- when he took the throne, he saw England as a land of plenty in comparison to Scotland so was determined to enjoy the greater wealth of his new country
- spent extravagantly and was generous to his courtiers
- his extravagance had gone onto conspicuous consumption and in the hands of the hated Scots which angered Parliament
how much money had the Scottish received from James in figures?
- by 1610, nearly £90,000 had been given to the Scots in gifts and a further £10,000 paid in pensions
- in an average year, Scottish followers based in the royal court received £40,000 in total, whilst English equivalents received £10,000
- James considered it perfectly acceptable to pay off their debts before his own - did so in 1607 when he paid off the debts of three men at the cost of £44,000
what positive results were there from James’ spending?
patronage was crucial to the political system, especially in buying goodwill for a monarch upon coming to the throne and given the nature of James’ ascension
how was Parliament divided into two houses?
- the great landowners, backed by bishops, sat in the Lords
- the country gentry, merchants, lawyers and financiers drawn from the towns, sat in the Commons
- a convention that is deeply rooted in British politics
what was Parliament’s role?
- hear the king’s needs and provide appropriate counsel
- provide financial supply when requested (known as subsidies)
- provided a forum in which the political nation could gather and make its views known to the King
what were taxation granted by Parliament called and what were they?
- direct taxes/ extraordinary revenue
- tenths and fifths, subsidies, poll tax, ship money
what were tenths and fifths?
a tax on moveable goods (except personal clothing) , paid by all
what were subsidies?
a tax on income for landowners, office-holders and wage-earners, or moveable property for merchants, craftsmen and tenant-farmers. It was not levied on the poor.
what was a poll tax?
a tax paid by individuals (rare).
what was ship money?
a tax levied in wartime from coastal areas for building ships.
why was Parliament’s role changing after 1603?
- Parliamentarians were beginning to get excited that their remit could begin to extend beyond Crown finances -> wanted to be involved in:
- foreign policy (with particular regard to Spain)
- the Crown’s sale of monopolies
- the Crown’s taxation of imports (‘impositions’)
- religious issues
what excuse gave Parliament the right to make demands?
the financial state of the monarchy now arguably gave parliament more leverage to make additional demands about their role in Parliament
what was James’ view on monarchy with quotes?
- James was a firm believer in the theory of the divine right of kings
- believed he was only answerable to God and not any earthly authority
- believed he was God’s lieutenant on Earth
‘the state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth
what was James’ main issue with his First Parliament of 1604-1611 and what was it known as?
- 1604-1611 Parliament was known as the ‘Blessed Parliament’
- mainly dissolved due to James’ view that it is not right for the House of Commons to make so many complaints against their king, and that their behaviour has delayed the capacity of the king to collect sufficient revenue
outline the Goodwin case in 1604:
- in 1604 Sir Francis Goodwin, a known outlaw [criminal], was elected to Parliament as MP for the constituency of Buckinghamshire
- The election of outlaws had been prohibited by royal proclamation and James demanded that the Commons exclude Goodwin from its membership, placing Sir John Fortescue as the new MP
- However, the Commons claimed it should be the judge of its own election results and after some time, James pragmatically backed down
- this event created some animosity between the Crown and Parliament
- although a compromise was reached, James’s conduct during this and the union dispute raised concerns among some MPs.
- led to the drafting of a protest called ‘The Form of Apology and Satisfaction’ at the end of the 1604 Parliamentary session
- the document expressed worries that while royal prerogatives were expanding, the privileges of MPs remained constant.
- Although the Commons ultimately decided not to present the protest to the King, its creation highlighted fears that parliamentary rights were at risk from a monarch who believed in his divine right to govern.
what did James’ first parliament of 1604-1611 set the tone for?
- James’ first Parliament set the tone that was to prevail for the next 40 years
- James’ first Parliament sat for four sessions over the course of 6 years until he broke it up in 1611
- only part of the money he demanded was voted and the Commons spent much time discussing his domestic and foreign policy
- James responded by ordering them to leave affairs of State to the King and Privy Council -> he argued were the only people qualified to understand them
- Of James’s four Parliaments only the first possessed any longevity, finally collapsing over the Great Contract - a scheme to reform the royal finances.
what were the overall reasons for the failure of the first Parliament?
- dominated by the Bate’s case, debt and Robert Cecil’s failed Great
- it failed over the Great Contract and impositions
what quotes show opposing views towards kingship by James and Parliament in 1610?
- James’ position: ‘As to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so it is sedition in subjects to dispute what a King may do in height of his power. I will not be content that my power be disputed on’
- Parliament’s position: ‘We hold it in an ancient, general and undoubted right of Parliament to debate freely all matters which properly concern the subject and his right or state.
describe the tensions that emerged between the Crown and Parliament?
- as James saw it, Parliament existed principally for the collection of tax revenue
so their duty would be to vote ‘subsidies’ or ‘supply’ for the King - Parliament felt that increased taxes could only be justified if it were able to exercise influence upon James’ conduct of government business
