Political Divisions: The Personal Rule And The Short Parliament Flashcards
1
Q
What led to the personal rule from 1629 onwards?
A
- the collapse in the relationship between Charles and the political nation by 1629
- Charles’ belief in the divine right to rule
2
Q
Why was Charles’ personal rule problematic?
A
- there wasn’t a parliament to govern, so the privy council gained even greater importance
- his personal rule led to opposition and discontent in England, Scotland and Ireland
3
Q
Who were some of the dominant figures in the privy council?
A
- sir Richard Weston
- William laud
- William juxon
4
Q
What were the two prerogative courts used to enforce Charles’ will?
A
- court of star chamber - made up of privy councillors selected by the monarch
- court of high commission - chief court under the church used by laud to enforce conformity
5
Q
How much was Charles in debt by 1629?
A
- £2 million
6
Q
How were savings achieved at the beginning of personal rule?
A
- securing peace with France (1629) -treaty of Susa
- securing peace with Spain (1630) - treaty of Madrid
- Weston’s reform of court finance in order to lower the costs of running Charles’ courts
- both measures had negative political consequences - Charles’ withdraw from the thirty years war was opposed by many, especially the puritans who regarded the destruction of Catholicism as a crusade
7
Q
How did custom duties help to raise revenue?
A
- continued the collection of T+P - between 1631-35, this form of income brought Charles £270,000 a year
- 1635- a new book of rates updated the amount paid on goods as customs duty to be more in line with market value (due to inflation)
- by end of 1630s - custom duties had risen to £425,000 a year = providing a great source of income
8
Q
Ho did feudal dues help to raise revenue?
A
- crown had the right to run any estate inherited by an heir under 21 years old
-during personal rule, income from warship increased by a third to about £75,000 a year
9
Q
How did monopolies raise revenue?
A
- loophole in the monopoly act allowed grants to corporations - eg the granting of the monopoly for soap to a group of catholics (popish soap)
- earned Charles £33,000
10
Q
How did recusancy fines raise revenue?
A
- income from from these fines increased from £5300 in 1620s to £26,900 in 1634
11
Q
How did distraint from knighthood increase income?
A
- anyone holding land with an income of £40 per year or more who had not yet received a knighthood at Charles’ coronation was find
- Charles had raised nearly £175,000 by 1635 this way
12
Q
What other fines helped Charles increase revenue?
A
- forest fines - fines for any landowners accused of encroaching on areas of royal forests, Charles used dubious maps and documents to imposes fines on major landowners
- land titles - fines imposed on those who rented land from the crown but lacked a clear title to the land or could not prove continuous occupation for the next 60 years
- enclosure fines - fines imposed on those who had illegally enclosed or closed off common land
13
Q
What was fiscal feudalism ?
A
- the methods Charles used to increase income through royal prerogative
14
Q
How much did Charles gain from exploiting his prerogative ?
A
- his annual income during personal rule was raised from £600,000 to £900,000
15
Q
Why did forest fines prove to be problematic ?
A
- only raised £3,667 - at the great cost of alienating landowners
- many people depending on forest lands as part of their income ; provided timber etc
- between 1626-32 - riots in places like Gloucestershire
16
Q
Who was William Noy and what was he tasked with?
A
- digging through forgotten English laws and find loopholes to enable Charles to raise income
17
Q
What was ship money ?
A
- prerogative form of income levied in times of emergency to fund the navy
18
Q
When was ship money levied in coastal towns and counties?
A
August 1635 + extended to inland counties and levied annually until 1639
19
Q
How much did ship money raise?
A
- average of £200,000 a year
20
Q
What was Charles’ aim?
A
- to make England a serious blue water power
21
Q
What was sovereign of the seas in August 1634?
A
- personal initiative from Charles to build a large ship - bolster English crown
22
Q
What was the collection rate for ship money?
A
- between 1643-38 - 90% of ship money demanded pay
23
Q
What was the 1637 hampden case?
A
- opposition to ship money collection
- had previously been imprisoned for refusing to pay the forced loan in 1626 -
- stood for trial due to his refusal to pay ship money
24
Q
What were the consequences of the 1637 hampden case?
A
- 5 out of the 12 judges gave verdict against the crown
- made it possible for opposition against Charles to become more organised and determined
- key turning point during personal rule
25
What did Charles aim to achieve in personal rule?
- financial independence
- upholding royal authority
26
Why did the Scot’s dislike the English?
- long term antagonism
- England was richer
- many Scots disliked English invaders
- Protestant had gone further in Scotland than England
27
Why was Scotland an issue for Charles?
- had their own private army (maintained by Scottish landlords)
- these armies were mobilised for the Protestant cause in the 30 years war
- potential threat to Charles
28
Why was England militarily unprepared?
- more focus on the navy
- Charles had declared neutrality in thirty years war
29
What was the 1635 act of revocation?
- prerogative act passed by Charles that reclaimed royal and church property that had been given away since 1540s
- this took land from the Scottish elite -aim was to acquire their tithes in order to raise funds for the Scottish church
- this act annoyed the clergy and united sectors of the nobility against Charles
30
When did Charles visit Edinburgh ?
- 1633 - he was appalled by the Presbyterian lack of ceremony
31
What happened in July 1637 when the new prayer book was read out in Scotland?
- a riot broke out in St Giles cathedral
- jenny geddes through her stool at the dean
- further riots broke out in Glasgow + Charles’ Scottish privy council was forced to abandon Edinburgh in October 1637
- Charles would not back down in response to the revolts + consequently pushed moderates to become radicals
32
What was the February 1638 Scottish national covenant?
- written mainly by Presbyterian radicals eg Archibald Johnston
- Decleration of allegiance that bound together Scottish nationals and Calvinists
- manifesto to unite those against Charles’ religious policies and maintain Presbyterianism as the main Scottish religion - those who signed up to the manifesto were known as the Covenators
- rallying point for a broad Protestant movement - but became more radical due to Charles himself
33
What did Charles do in order to give himself more time to raise an army?
- allowed the Scots to call a religious general assembly in September 1638
- in November - this proceeded to annul the canon laws and abolish episcopacy
34
Why did Charles have issues raising an army against the Scots?
- his army was not ready until April 1639 - encountered real problems in collecting ship money
- by then - Scots were even more prepared to face the king’s 15,000 untrained and unruly soldiers
35
What was the consequence of the first bishop war?
- Charles had underestimated the Scots - they were prepared to fight
- Charles had failed to mobilise public opinion
- he did not have full support of his own nobility
- London merchants refused to lend him money to raise an army against
- English army were in no state to fight the Scots
36
What was the 1639 truce of Berwick?
- not wanting to recall parliament to resolve his financial issues - negotiated the truce of Berwick
- this agreed to a meeting of a general assembly of the Church of Scotland at Edinburgh and parliament as well as the disbandment of both armies
- Covenators did not trust Charles - so they did not disband their army + Edinburgh assembly + Scottish parliament set about reducing royal power in Scotland
37
What did Charles do in the face of continuing crisis in Scotland in September 1649?
- recalled Thomas wentworth
- he advised Charles to call an English Parliament as the only means of raising money to fight the Scots
- this Parliament became known as the short Parliament - because Charles refused to compromise and dissolved it
38
When did the Scots enter england and when did the second bishops war begin?
- June 1640
-August 1640 - after a minor encounter, they managed to occupy Newcastle
39
What was the October 1640 treaty of Ripon?
- stated that Charles would pay the Scottish army’s living costs while they occupied English soil - (£850 a day) - Charles had to ask the council of peers for this money, however they refused unless he called another parliament
- Scots yet again imposed their own terms on Charles
40
What were the consequences of the conflicts in Scotland?
- managed to act as a source of opposition to Charles in England too - they undermined his aims of employing religious uniformity through a common, shared church + religion + also undermined his attempts to be financially independent from parliament
41
Why did the king lose the first bishops war?
- deficient English military system - England was caught in the transition from medieval, private armies to modern public armies ;old feudal system no longer existed and had not even replaced by something better
- poorly trained and unequipped
- unpopularity of the war: leading puritans ie Lord says was against the war, + people across England were too - they had no desire to fight the Scots and some saw it as a godly country, abused by England’s new policies
- absence of parliament - no English king in recent times had fought a war without parliamentary support - Charles had to try and finance the war himself
42
When and why was the short parliament called?
- called April 1940 - lasted 3 weeks
- Charles’ advisers eg privy council + Wentworth advised he calls parliament to help fund the war against the Scots
- parliament - ran by hampden + ppm - hated Charles’ personal rule - refused to help Charles financially
43
What was the significance of the failure of the short parliament?
- organised opposition began to form
- pym gave a long speech in regards to the HOC’s refusal to grant Charles subsidies - also expressed his disapproval of riyal abuses
- both commons + lords - demanded limits to the king’s powers + expressed griviences esp in regards to laudianism - mirroring the session in 1629
- parl dismissed after 3 weeks,nothing was achieved
44
Why did the Scottish rebellion help to end personal rule?
- Charles managed to create a situation whereby English nobles and MPs sided with the Scots against their own king
- forced to call elections that would become known as the long Parliament - November 1640
45
What was Scotland’s constitutional revolution?
- 1640 sermon in Scottish parliament - called without the king’s approval, caused a constitutional revolution
- this act removed bishops from parliament
- also foreign figures from sitting in parliament
- triennial act - requires parliament to meet at least once every 3 years
46
What groups were the Irish divided into by 1629?
- Irish catholics ; native Gaelic speaking Irish
- Catholic old English - catholics descended from the original English settlers
- Protestant new English - Protestants descended from English settlers after the reformation
- Presbyterian Scot’s - predominately based in the plantation of ulster in the north of Ireland
47
What was the policy of plantation in Ireland?
- land was taken by the English crown and given to English settlers -brought in more English Protestants from 1608
48
Where was English control in Ireland limited to in the early 1600s?
- limited to Dublin + pale
- beyond the pale, the Irish Catholic traditional ruling elite still controlled most of the country
49
When was Thomas wentworth appointed as Lord deputy of Ireland?
- 1632
- his role was to stand outside the different factions Ireland in order to rule them
50
When was Thomas Wentworth made the earl of strafford?
- 1640
51
What was meant by thorough?
- an attempt to increase royal authority through imposing religious conformity and using prerogative courts
- also meant making a profit out of Ireland
- given that Wentworth was on the privy council - his policy began to be feared in England
- this is because many English people regarded Wentworth’s rule in Ireland as a test ground for future policies in England
- he was regarded by many in parliament as a central figure that would allow Charles to impose a truly absolutist regime
52
What financial reforms did wentworth make in Ireland?
- new book of rates imposed = caused custom duties to rise from £25,000 in 1633-34 to £57,000 by 1637-8
- Irish parliament granted a total of 10 subsidies
- all revenue went directly to the English Parliament
- new trade with Spain - promotion of linen manufacture
53
What religious reforms did wentworth make in Ireland?
- imposed laudianism to the church of Ireland
-established thirty nine articles of religion
- established an Irish high court to deal with clergy who refused to obey the new rules
- he refused to honour the “graces” which were concessions previously offered to the Irish which had including relaxation of recusancy fines and guarantees of land tenure
- policy of expelling native Irish catholics from their lands extended
54
What was the William fiennes case?
- he had opposed ship money
- went as far as to start legal action against the crown deliberately with the aim of creating a show trial over the issue
- Charles chose not to give him such a platform and merely ignored his refusal to pay ship money
55
What was the providence island company?
- a colonisation company - john pym was heavily involved
- one way opponents expressed their discontent with Charles’ policies - emigration
- men met and discussed the political situation under the guise of meeting to discuss company business
56
What was the petition of twelve peers august 1640?
- addressed grievances against the crown ; eg innovation in religions, increase in popery
- brought up by members of the House of Lords eg Warwick
57
