The Failure Of Monarchical Government 1625-49 Flashcards
(6 cards)
Describe the power of the monarchy in 1625 and limitations to this power.
. The king had divine right, which stated that he was a representative of god on earth and was carrying out god’s will.
. The king held the power of royal prerogative, through which he could award titles, conduct foreign policy, appoint judges, call and dismiss Parliaments, choose his advisors who made up the Privy Council, collect certain taxes and issue royal proclamations on certain matters.
. The king was also head of the Anglican Church of England, and able to appoint bishops and archbishops who controlled the lower clergy.
. The king also had prerogative courts, run by privy councillors to exercise his will e.g - the Star Chamber in London.
. However, the highest recognised form of law was statute law, made by the king in parliament. This took precedence over royal prerogative.
. The king could not collect taxes in peacetime to support the royal household.
. The ‘ancien constitution’ established general laws and had done so for centuries, therefore not even the king could change this.
. The king also had to attend to his father’s (James 1) war with Spain, this led to the calling of regular parliaments to gain funding through taxes, and discuss how the war should be conducted.
. Though parliament were happy to grant taxes for the king, due to the strong anti-catholic sentiment in England at the time.
Describe Charles’ relationship with parliament in 1625-29, and how this led to personal rule.
. The Privy Council was unpopular amongst parliament due to the fact that some of Charles’ advisors promoted Arminianism or Catholicism e.g - Buckingham, who supported Laud, an Arminian bishop. Parliament feared the formation of Catholic plots from within Charles’ Privy Council.
. Charles’ wife, Henrietta Maria of France was a devout Catholic, even bringing her own Catholic priests to England with her. Charles did not demonstrate any opposition to this, with parliament fearing that he might extend religious toleration to Catholics in England.
. Charles delayed the opening of the first Parliament in order to marry Henrietta Maria without opposition. This demonstrated his belief in royal prerogative over parliamentary power.
. In the 1625 and 1626 Parliaments, Charles didn’t feel the need to discuss his foreign policy involving war with Spain, yet expected Parliament to grant the funding that he needed anyway.
. Parliament demonstrated opposition to this and the influence that Buckingham enjoyed as Charles’ lead advisor, through granting Charles limited funding for his war and only granting Charles the right to collect tonnage and poundage (customs duties) for one year, when usually this would be granted to the monarch for life.
. Parliament later sought to remove Buckingham due to a failed expedition in Spain at his lead.
. In response, Charles dissolved Parliament to protect Buckingham.
. Between Parliaments, Charles felt that it was within his royal prerogative to collect taxes regardless, to continue to fund his war.
. He achieved this through forced loans on the nobility - which received a great deal of backlash.
. An example being the Five Knights Case, which led to the notion amongst the Royal Court that the king was beginning to abuse his power.
. Another method that the king used to collect funding was the Act of Revocation (1625), this involved Charles taking back former church land in Scotland from Scottish nobles.
. This also saw great opposition due to the worry that Charles was re-establishing the influence of the Anglican Church of England in Scotland after its fall during reformation.
. After another failed expedition led by Buckingham, support for the war began to erode and Charles once again needed to recall Parliament.
. The 1628-29 Parliament began with Parliament issuing a Petition of Right, in opposition to the king’s abuse of royal prerogative between Parliaments.
. The Petition of Right prevented Charles from imprisoning subjects without clear cause and collecting taxes without the consent of Parliament.
. Parliament tied this in with much needed subsidies to force Charles to accept.
. Buckingham was assassinated in 1628 to the enjoyment of Parliament.
. Parliament also openly noted their opposition to Charles continuing to collect tonnage and poundage after they had prevented him from doing so.
. This caused Charles to dissolve Parliament in 1629 and establish an 11 year period of personal rule.
Describe Charles period of personal rule 1629-40.
. Some historians propose that Charles’ dissolution of Parliament in 1629 and establishment of personal rule was an attempt to destroy Parliament as an institution and create an absolute monarchy, through which he would run the country with only a responsibility to god.
. Evidence for this would be the imprisonment of parliamentary opponents, most notably John Elliot, who died in the Tower of London in 1632.
. However others disagree, stating that Charles’ establishment of personal rule was an attempt to reform government based on his own political and religious beliefs.
. War with Spain - by 1630 Charles had made peace with both France and Spain. This significant change in foreign policy allowed for Charles to drastically cut expenditure from £500,000 in the years 1625-29 to £70,000 in 1630, reducing his reliance on Parliament for funding. Charles also separated England from foreign affairs in European in an attempt to avoid further conflict.
. However, this narrowed the focus of the English people to matters at home, putting more pressure on Charles to rule in a manner that was favourable to the English people at the time.
. Charles began to gain income from sources outside of Parliamentary taxes or grants under royal prerogative. These methods included:
. Levying ship money - originally collected from coastal regions during times of war to fund the navy, Charles extended the ship money tax inland in 1635 and made it permanent, collecting funding through ship money even during peacetime. This proved to be Charles’ most effective source of revenue, bringing in £200,000 annually.
. The Hampden case - in 1636, a Buckinghamshire gentleman named John Hampden refused to pay the ship money tax, initiating a legal challenge against the king. Charles used this to form a test case in 1637, in early 1638 the result was a narrow 7 to 5 votes in the king’s favour, demonstrating the significant opposition that had grown within the King’s court.
. Ship money yield also fell to 20% of its original amount in 1639 due to growing opposition.
. Royal forests - over time, the boundaries of royal forests had been reduced as land had been sold for development of housing. Charles extended these boundaries allowing him to charge rent to anyone living on royal land.
. The knighting fine - traditionally, subjects who had collected a certain amount of wealth had to report to the palace to be knighted. Those who were late to their knighting ceremony would be fined. Charles now gave subjects who were going to be knighted an unrealistic time in which they had to attend the ceremony in order to avoid this fine.
. These methods produced discontent amongst Charles’ subjects, especially as money levied would go to the royal treasury and not towards national interests.
. However this discontent remained under the surface due to the fact that no one would oppose Charles’ divine right as a representative of god on earth, and opposition would likely result in imprisonment e.g - John Elliot.
. The closed nature of the Royal Court exacerbated this discontent. Without parliament the public could not voice their discontent towards the king’s methods of ruling the country.
. Rumours of a popish plot began to circulate amongst the people, with the absence of parliament, the people were not able to gain the response of the king to these rumours, resulting in reinforcement amongst the people.
. Another factor for growing discontent amongst the people towards Charles was his open favouritism for the Arminian bishop William Laud, who Charles made Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the established Church of England and in a prominent position on Charles’ Privy Council.
. This caused discontent as many people associated Arminianism with Catholicism, with the majority view in England still very much anti-Catholic at the time.
. Laud’s views and policies also strongly opposed the established Anglican Church.
. Laudian reforms - involved a change in the layout and services of the established church to suit Arminian beliefs. Many saw this as a gradual restoration of Catholic practices within England, causing great opposition from the people to Laud and Charles, who had associated himself with him.
. In 1637, under the command of Laud, the Star Chamber sentenced three Puritan writers, branding them on the cheek and cutting off their ears. This case demonstrated the influence of Laudian bishops within the Royal Court, and their extreme nature.
. Thomas Wentworth became a key advisor to the king and was made Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632.
. Wentworth and Laud were closely associated through their Policy of Thorough:
. Established the Book of Orders in England in January 1631.
. This was distributed to all JPs to avoid them neglecting their duties in enforcing law under Charles’ interests.
JPs were to report monthly to the Privy Council or face punishment under the Star Chamber.
. The Book of Orders included instructions on how to deal with beggars for example, and can be viewed as alleviating the worst social consequences caused by economic recession and the poor harvest of 1629-30.
. Another policy of Thorough in England was reform of the Militia, involving training and equipping of the militia during peacetime, viewed by some as a waste of resources due to the insignificance of the militia during war with France and Spain.
. Wentworth conducted Thorough in Ireland, aiming to make Ireland financially independent to England and raise funds for the crown.
. He achieved this through converting all doubtful land claims into tenures from the crown, increasing revenue from crown lands.
. He also doubled income from customs duties.
. Though through challenging existing land ownership and importing Protestant populations to Ireland, Wentworth alienated the Old English who had settled there, with this being apparent in their rebellion of 1641.
. Though he also alienated the New English who had settled in Ireland within the past 5 years through his imposing of Laudian reforms.
. Wentworth was recalled from Ireland in 1639, creating a power vacuum that led to the Irish rebellion in 1641.
. The Scottish Covenant and the Bishop’s Wars:
. After urges from Laud, in 1637, Charles attempted to introduce the English Book of Prayer to Scotland.
. The response was a series of riots breaking out across Scotland, and a group of Scottish nobles and clergy establishing a government and signing a covenant, swearing to never allow Charles to impose changes on their traditional church.
. They aimed to request the king to negotiate and accept the traditional Presbyterian Scottish Church.
. Charles saw this as an attempt to oppose his divine right, and raised an army to forcefully impose the practices of Laud’s Arminian Church of England on Scotland.
. This marked the beginning of the Bishop’s Wars.
. Due to the widely spread unpopularity of Laud, many sympathised with the Scots, and he received a total lack of funding, forcing him to once again recall Parliament.
. In 1640, Charles’ period of personal rule was brought to an end.
Describe the return of parliament after Charles declared war with the Scots.
. The 1640 Parliament immediately made their grievances known e.g - Charles’ collection of ship money.
. Shortly after its recall, Charles dissolved Parliament due to parliamentary opposition to his personal rule. This would be known as the Short Parliament.
. Due to a lack of funding and a poorly trained army, Charles was humiliated by the Scots, losing both Bishop’s wars , the 2nd defeat resulting in him being forced to pay the Scots £850 a day not to advance further after their occupation of Newcastle.
. To do so, he had to recall Parliament once again.
. This Parliament would bring an end to monarchical government and would be known as the ‘long Parliament’.
Describe the growing power of Parliament after its recall in 1640 and limitations to this power.
. The existence of Parliament was ensured as long as the Scots remained in the North.
. Led by Pym in a group known later by historians as ‘Pym’s Junto’, Parliament aimed to ensure its continued involvement whilst limiting the power of the king.
. The early months of Parliament saw the arrest and impeachment of Laud, Wentworth and Strafford, Charles’ closest advisor.
. The Act of Attainder allowed Pym’s Junto to execute Strafford without a trial, knowing that the House of Lords would acquit him.
. Parliament forced Charles to sign the Act of Attainder after he had promised to protect Strafford.
. Parliament passed the Triennial Act in 1641, enforcing that Parliament must be called at least once every 3 years, ensuring their continued existence.
. The collection of ship money and all other feudal sources of income were declared illegal.
. The king’s Prerogative Courts were abolished.
. The Perpetuity Act was passed stating that Parliament could not be dissolved without the consent of all MPs.
. However, Pym could not gain the consent from Charles to appoint new ministers.
. Divisions in Parliament became apparent, with the emergence of moderate constitutional royalists.
. The Root and Branch Bill to abolish episcopacy (the governing of the church by bishops) was discussed, however Pym diverted Parliament’s attention onto other issues to ensure that they remained united against the king.
. Rumours circulated that the Irish rebellion of 1641 had amounted to a full scale Irish invasion. Parliament, worried that English Catholics would join the Irish, wanted to raise an army to combat the threat.
. In reality, these were just rumours, yet Parliament feared that Charles would use the army against them.
. The Militia Bill was proposed to create an army under the control of Parliament, yet this caused outraged moderates to flock to Charles’ side.
. In January 1642, rumours reached Charles that Pym was planning to impeach the queen, in response, he ordered the House of Lords to begin impeachment proceedings of the opposition leaders.
. Charles, backed by 300 soldiers, confronted Parliament with a warrant for the arrest of 5 leading members including Pym and Hampden, however the leaders had been alerted and fled.
. In June 1642, Parliament drew up the 19 propositions that Charles would sign as part of a negotiation, including the right to appoint the king’s advisers (to protect themselves from royal vengeance), the right to assume control of the armed forces, the right to limit his wife’s Catholicism, and oversee the education of his children.
. Charles refused to accept, raising a standard against Parliament in Nottingham in August 1642.
. This marked the beginning of the civil war.
Describe the civil wars and events leading up to the execution of the king.
. Charles was greatly limited in his ability to tax the poor areas of Northern England that he controlled, Parliament did not experience this limitation through their occupation of London and richer areas of Southern England.
. Despite this, the Royalists initially held the upper hand as Parliament were divided - some wanted an outright victory and the king’s death, whereas others wanted to negotiate.
. However, as it became clear that the king wanted an absolute victory over Parliament, they hardened their resolve and introduced measures to prevent this:
. They made an alliance with the Scots before Pym’s death, through the Solemn League and Covenant, promising to implement the Presbyterian church in England.
. They reformed the tax system, allowing for taxes to be collected more efficiently, increasing funding for the army.
. The army was reformed into the New Model Army, and included new measures such as promoting officers based on merit not economic status, leading to the appointment of skilled generals such as Cromwell and Fairfax, giving Parliament an advantage.
. After two decisive Parliamentarian victories, Charles was ready to surrender.
. Charles planned to take advantage of divisions within Parliament, waiting to gain a better offer that allowed him to retain power, an example being his initial surrender to the Scots.
. However, Parliaments harsh taxation and poor treatment of its army during the first civil war had given rise to mass spread resentment towards them.
. This led to revolts breaking out over the country, and Charles making a deal with the Scots, promising to implement religious reform where Parliament had failed.
. Charles invaded England with the Scots, leading to the second civil war.
. However, his army was quickly defeated by the newly coordinated New Model Army, who had proceeded to put down revolts around the country.
. An army officer named Pride, angry at the king for causing more bloodshed and angry at Parliament for continuing to negotiate, prevented MPs who favoured negotiation from entering parliament using the army, leaving a ‘rump house’.
. This event became known as Pride’s Purge.
. The Rump house voted and put the king on trial for treason, who refused to accept the legitimacy of the court, arguing that he only answered to god.
. The Rump had lost any faith that the king would accept any sentence other than death, with him being executed in the 30th January 1649.
