4.1 Economic and Political Context

Question 1

the political context

who was Charles I?

Answer 1

• became King of England, Scotland, and Ireland at 12 years after his brother Henry died at the age of 18 and his father, James, died.

Question 2

the political context

What did Charles’ approach to government finance lead to?

Answer 2

• the dissolving of parliament for 11 years (Charles I ruled alone)
• he recalled parliament in 1640 to persuade them to fund his war with the scots who rebelled.

Question 3

the political context

What was Charles’ religous policy? why was it controversial?

Answer 3

• he formed it with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it seemed catholic
• During the 11 years, many MPs were Puritan, and became suspicious.

Question 4

the political context

what was Ship Money? How did Charles alter it?

tax, country.

Answer 4

• traditionally, levied on coastal counties and towns to provide for the fleet
• Charles extended this nationally, resulting in financial demands being made of the inland gentry and those living by the coast.

Question 5

the political context

Debates 1640-1642? what did Charles attempt to do?

Answer 5

• he attempted to arrest 5 leading MPs who wanted to restrict his powers
• they fled, and Charles left London to raise an army in ‘self defence’
• the civil war started in August 1642.

Question 6

the political context

what did parliament assemble in 1645

NMA

Answer 6

the New Model Army
(national army made up of former parliamentary regiments)

Question 7

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

What was Suffolk’s role in the Civil War? How were residents particularly effected?

Answer 7

• Suffolk served as Parliament’s main recruiting ground in the Civil War
• Mortality rates were already high
• this caused more deaths, as 20% were leaving villages/towns to fight

Question 8

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

Eg. Margery Sparham

effect of the civil war

Answer 8

• confessed to entertaining the Devil’s imps in the shape of a mole and 2 blackbirds
• it was recorded by the court she was alone and vulerable, since her husband went to fight in the war.

Question 9

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

what did men dying mean for witches across suffolk and other eastern counties?

Answer 9

• witches discovered in WIngfield, Westhorpe, and Stradbroke appeared to be connected with radical puritans who believed women could be viewed as equal to men

Question 10

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

1645 stories reaching East Anglia?

Answer 10

• strange occurences
• Eg. royalist women in lancashire reproted to have given birth to a headless baby
• Eg. across the region, many women were starting to drink and swear like men

Question 11

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

decline in power for 2 symbols of continuity and power due to the war?

TA, LG

Answer 11

1. Traditional Authority: undesirable ministers were ejected from their churches and replaced by Puritans
2. local gentry left their estates. Those with royalist sympathies faced arrest and confiscation of their estates.

Question 12

the impact of the breakdown of traditional authority

how did this lead to witchcraft?

Answer 12

• fears increased
• fear of the enemy developed to a fear of ‘enemies within’
• ministers in pulpits no longer exclusively preached about the dangers associated with the royalists and their catholic allies, but also about spies in parliamentarians.

Question 13

legal structures in East Anglia

how were the legal structures dismantled?

Answer 13

• the courts couldn’t function normally
• often undermined by local magistrates and other individuals with no legal experience

Question 14

legal structures in East Anglia

1645 one woman wrote?

justice, rule of law

Answer 14

• with no authority from the king, normal laws could be defied and no true justice could be served until the war ended.

Question 15

legal structures in East Anglia

Victory June 1945 Northamptonshire

NMA, Somerset?

Answer 15

• confirmed how powerful the New Model Army could be
• followed by another parliamentarian victory in Somerset in July

Question 16

legal structures in East Anglia

How did Charles persist?

Rupert, assize courts.

Answer 16

• commander Prince Rupert (Charles’ nephew) told him to renegotiate peace, but Charles persisted towards East Anglia
• the assize courts were disrupted because it was too dangerous for judges to travel from London.

Question 17

legal structures in East Anglia

July 1645: The Earl of Warwick? what did was he commissioned to do?

oversee (?) what was the result?

Answer 17

oversee the Essex summer assizes at Chelmsford
- he had little legal experience
- so relied on local magistrates Sir John Barrington, Sir Martin Lumley, Sir Henry Holcroft, Sir Henry Mildmay, and William Conyers
- Warwick sentenced 19 women to hang.

Question 18

legal structures in East Anglia

What happened next in Cambridge? What happened to the courts and the prisoners?

Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, John Godbolt.

Answer 18

• It reached cambridge that troops were being mobilised in East Anglia to engage Charles’ forces at Huntingdon.
• It was decidied assizes at Bury St Edmunds, 25 miles east of Cambridge would be suspended
• prisoners would be immediately executed and those awaiting trial would be sent back to cells
• commission established at Bury was presided over by John Godbolt, a barrister.

Question 19

legal structures in East Anglia

what was the result of legal chaos? who did villages look to? What was their role?

MH and JS

Answer 19

• Mathew Hopkins and John Stearne
• because they provided ‘legitimate’ legal knowledge and efficiency when this was rare
• they interrogated suspects and collected evidence in order to take cases to court
• this resulted in a 42% conviction rate.
• this of course only intensified fear and spread the craze

Question 20

Economic crises: crop failure

why were crops failing? what was the result?

1646 and prices.

Answer 20

• wet summers and freezing winters
• 1646 summer was very wet, and wheat and rye crops were rotted with ergot
• the price of meat and cheese then rose dramatically despite Charles’ surrender that year. The price of wheat still rose 20%

Question 21

Economic crises: crop failure

October 1645 and 1646

weather? crops? puritans?

Answer 21

• heavy rain caused crops to rot and fields to be trodden into mud
• purtians took this as a sign that Charles should not be returned to the throne, and witches were blamed.

Question 22

Economic crises: changing land use

what happened to charity

inequality, land enclosures, etc.

Answer 22

• what was once offered by wealthier inhabitants such as bread/beer, was rare
• increasing inequality adn inflation came from the enclosure of common land: the rich acquired more land to feed their cattle, but poorer residents felt shut out from any prosperity.

Question 23

Economic crises: changing land use

landlords and making more money

land use

Answer 23

• landlords were increasingly tempted by the increase in profit they would have for evicting tenants and enclosing land to focus on agriculture.

Question 24

Economic crises: changing land use

wealthier residents were also expected to pay..?

Answer 24

poor rates to support the poor
- increased resentment
- idleness was a sign of sin in the minds of the wealthy.

Question 25

# Economic crises: changing land use **Eg.** Isle of Ely: landlords particular aggressive closure of land

Answer 25

- in the **1620s** - Sir Miles Sandys - he acquired large estates and at Sutton enclosed 4000 acres of common land - this deprived the poor of grazing land and a source of fuel

Question 26

# Economic crises: changing land use **Eg.** Isle of Ely: what did the poor do about it? | cottages, petition, riots.

Answer 26

- 30 families had built cottages on the land they were evicted from, so they presented a petition to the Court of Chancery with 100 signatures to allow them to continue using the land - this didn't work - so, they rioted in the late **1630s** - a number of suspected witches in Ely in **1647** had connections with the earlier unrest.

Question 27

# Economic crises: changing land use further tension between the rich and the poor

Answer 27

- even when they donated to the poor, donors viewed recipients with suspicion - the better off continued to fear they might us magic in revenge for not recieving enough

Question 28

# Economic crises: Impact of the Civil War how much did the price of livestock and grain increase? Why?

Answer 28

- livestock: 12% - grain: 15% soldiers required huge resources, horses were regularly confiscted and food was taken in large quantities. - wages did not increase.

Question 29

# Economic crises: Impact of the Civil War **1643** parliament introduced what?

Answer 29

- weekly assessment tax to meet the cost of the war - this was 12x higher in eastern counties than the loathed Ship Money in the **1630s**

Question 30

# Economic crises: Impact of the Civil War **Eg.** Margaret Moone

Answer 30

- one of the first witches accused in the hunt from Thorpe-le-Spoken - she had been evicted from her cottage - she started begging - she was blamed for the deaths of livestock and crop failures, as well as the murder of a child.