Parlimentary Radicalism Flashcards
Parliament in the 20s
- In the 20s parliament consisted of compétant lawyers who were democratic and argumentative
John Pym
- Very prominent puritan.
- Opposed Buckingham, particularly the pro Spanish/ catholic ideasand helped the impeachment of 26.
- His particular focus was religious issues eg limiting changes to the Elizabethan settlement (Protestantism)
John Elliot
- leading critic of Buckingham,
- refused to pay the forced loan and was imprisoned in 29 until his death after his part in the commons protestation.
-Known to stand up for liberty and ancient rights
Edward Coke
-Very intelligent lawyer who opposed the div right of kings and drafted two acts against Charles’s usage of royal prerogative.
- Secretary of State and the communicator between Charles and parliament in 28.
Denzil Holles
- : Childhood friend of Charles
- instead of accompanying him to Madrid he joined coke
- holding the speaker down during the commmons protestation.
1628 recall of parliament
- Charles’s hoped for a fresh, peaceful start w parliament for money but also peace.
- He let coke be the communicator to show respect to the commmons.
- Rudyard spoke of a crisis and a need for mutual trust or parliament would die.
- Buckingham reconciled with some enemies.
- Charles told parliament he would continue to act under royal prerogative unless adequately funded and thus parliament gave him 5 subsidies and t+p.
In exchange for this funding, parliment expected response to their concerns about
- ship money and t+p as well as all parliamentary taxation
- response to concerns about billeting households being underfunded (places holding soldiers as they prepared for moving.)
- The use of marital law in billeting areas undermining the legal system and cloaking absolutism.
- The usage of haebeus corpus around the forced loan the kings legal officer lying post 5 knights and claiming he’d been given the right to unlawful imprisonment in general when it was only in that one case.
Robert heath + haebeus corpus;
-the kings legal officer lied post 5 knights and claimed Charles had been given the right to unlawful imprisonment in general when it was only in that one case.
-He had tried to give Charles huge powers without parliamentary approval.
- MPs were furious- Elliot and others suggested a legally binding bill of rights but parliament conservatively settled on a petition of rights drafted by coke.
Petition of rights 28
Drafted by coke. Asked king to confirm basic precepts of English gov created by the maggy c.
Statements in the 28 petition of rights
- Subjects could be taxed only byParliamentary consent.
- 2 Subjects could be imprisoned only if just cause was demonstrated in court.
- 3 The imposition of billeting on the population was illegal.
- The imposition ofmartial law on the civilian population was illegal.
Response to the petition of rights
- The kings officials promised their word of the king but no formal promise.
- It had to be agreed by commons and lords and some lords tried to compromise for the sake of the kings prerogative but the lords ultimately gave in and supported the petition.
- Charles, desperate for money and support, agreed to the petition.
Conséquences of the petition of rights
The mutual trust hoped between crown and parliament evaporated as it took Charles several attempts to avoid thre legal binding of agreement before he accepted the petition
Increase if tensions in 28 post petition:
-In June, 3 weeks post petition, Charles prorogued parliament
-.John Elliot produced as remonstrance against Buckingham over his military failure.
-Commons supported subjects against t+p and drafted another remonstrance.
Buckinghams death
- August 28 as he was leaving an inn Buckingham was stabbed in the chest by an army lieutenant john Felton who had been one of his soldiers in the La Rochelle raids and had been plunged into debt and depression post.
- Huge celebrations at his death meant a quiet and secret burial.
Conséquences of Buckinghams death
-Charles blamed parlimentent after Felton claimed he’d been inspired by the remonstrance/petitions of June.
-Charles fell deeply in love w HM and had 5 children.
- Charles felt hugely betrayed by his subjects as they celebrated the death and distanced himself from the public.
-He was able to allocate huge amounts of titles and patronage to a new inner circle who would be his key advisers.
-With the lenient MPs joining the kings circle and coke retiring, commons became very radical and angry.
- Now there was no scapegoat and criticism was directed towards Charles only.
