John Hampden Ship Money case

Question 1

John Hampden Ship Money case:

Date

Answer 1

1636-1638

Question 2

John Hampden Ship Money case:

Summary

Answer 2

1636: Hampden refused to pay his Ship Money and initiated a legal challenge

1637: Charles used this as a test case. St. John acted as Hampden’s counsel- was part of the Puritan gentry.

1638: Judges (Court of the King’s Bench) found in the king’s favour. Decision was narrow 7-5.

Question 3

John Hampden Ship Money case:

Causation

Answer 3

The first attempts at organised resistance from a group of Puritan gentry and nobility who had been active in parliament before 1629 and maintained contact through the Providence Island Company.

• Leaders: John Pym, the Earl of Warwick, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Saye and Sele.
• Contacts stretched to the lawyer St. John + Buckinghamshire gentleman named John Hampden.

Question 4

John Hampden Ship Money case:

Consequence

Answer 4

Judges (Court of the King’s Bench) found in the king’s favour. Decision was narrow 7-5.

Reaction of the gentry in various parts of the country was generally hostile according to the future moderate royalist, Sir Edward Hyde.

Case represented a defeat for the opposition, and once again the lack of a parliament to speak for them and revealed the weakness of their position. Those who did attempt to speak out were quickly silenced by action from the Privy Council and Prerogative Courts.

Still a moral victory for Hampden, if not physically.

Question 5

John Hampden Ship Money case:

Significance

Answer 5

Opposition to Ship Money increased and the yield fell to just 20% of expected money in 1639 (before was 80% in 1638)

• BUT not because resistance was stronger or better organised, but because the Privy Council and county sheriffs were distracted and overburdened by the need to raise an army to fight in Scotland.