Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Personal Rule
(1629-1640)
- Government
- Charles' Style
- private, shy, family man,
not fan of publicity
- hunting, travelling between palaces
- 1630 = Charles born
- interest in drama - often took part
(themes of order over chaos)
- Enforcing Royal Authority
- use of prerogative
courts - Star Chamber,
High Commission,
Council of North
- Book of Orders - Justices of Peace
JPs write reports to PC
centralisation of power = unpopular
- Style of Government
- not intellectual, disliked argument
- surrounded by men
with same views
- attended PC occasionally -
left day-to-day to ministers
- decisions made privately with
advisors
- Weston/Cottingham,
Laud/Wentworth, Henrietta Maria
groups
- Government Finance
- crown debts = £1,000,000
- royal income not match
expenditure
- crown lands, law courts, customs duties, feudal dues
- first steps = peace
with France (1629)
and Spain (1630)
- Reducing Government Expenditure
- royal household = 1,800 - 2,600
people (cost = £260,000 pa)
- Weston stopped costs rising but not spending
- Customs Revenue
- continued collecting T & P
- revenue increased during peace
(Europe @ war so weapons trade
open)
- Monopolies
- Act of 1624 = illegal for
individuals to have them
but not companies
- 1630s = Weston's soap company
- £29,000 pa by 1635
- Richard Weston
- 1628: Lord
Treasurer
- 1633: Earl of
Portland
- 1635: Died
- suspected Catholic supporter
- Francis Cottingham
- Chancellor of the Exchequer
- had Catholic sympathies
- Royal Prerogative (fiscal feudalism)
- Distraint of Knighthood (fines)
- landowners with £40 of land pa had to
be knights @ coronation (if refused -
fined)
- not used since 1550, affected many but raised £170,000
- Forest Fines
- landowners fined for encroaching on
medieval forests (hit many)
- Wardships
- enforced more harshly
- income increase: £35,000pa
(1617-22) to £83,000pa (late 1630s)
- Ship Money
- tax on property - paid on coast in emergency (pay for navy)
- 1634: collected 1635: collected inland as
well by sheriffs (over £200,000 = 98%)
- 1636: collected again (£190,000) = "most
profitable tax ever collected in peace time"
- 1637: £180,000 collected - John Hampden refused to pay (illegal tax)
- 1637: Hampden case - 12 judges @ Court of Exchequer
- 1638: Hampden verdict = guilty by 7:5
- 1638: 80% collected but rate
collapsed in 1639
- Situation in 1637
- crown solvent - income = expenditure
- still faced large debts
- Laud and the Church
- Background
- growing Arminiansim as
well as fears of popery
- 1633: laud - Archbishop Canterbury
(changed = Laudiansim)
- important political & religious
figure with seat on PC
- 1st politically powerful churchman since Wolsey
- Laud and 'Thorough'
- wanted to impose uniformity, order & obedience
- used bishops - enforce obedience
- Puritans disciplined through
warnings/suspensions/expulsions in Court of High
Commission
- Suppression of Preaching
- 1633:
Feoffees for
Imprepriations
abolished
(financed
Puritan
preachers)
- 1639: Puritan lectures banned
- sermons replaced with 'Catechisms'
- official doctrine had to be obeyed
- Church Services
- strict follow - Book of Common
Prayer, 'priest', stained-glass
windows, embroidered cloth etc
- measures = 'beauty is holiness'
- 1633: Book of Sports reissued
- fears of popery increased - narrowed C of E's support
- Recovery of Tithes
- tithe = traditional tax on
income (10%) - pay for
ministers & church
- Church finances = poor situation
- church buildings in bad repair, poor
quality clergy, disorderly & disrespectful
congregations
- Laud = plans to recover
'impropriated' tithes -
protests from landowners
- Puritan Opposition
- no mass protests etc
- emigration grew - esp. to America
- pamphlets - bishops = bloodsuckers
- Prynne, Bastwick & Burton Case, 1637
- Court of Star Chamber
- found guilty - involved in
pamphlets: ears cropped,
fined & imprisoned
- treatment unpopular = inv. humiliation &
punishment of gentlemen
- 1637: Bishop of Lincoln tried
in Star Chamber (suspended
& imprisoned - didn't fully
support Laud)
- John Lilburne, Puritan, wrote pamphlet
criticising Queens love of drama = fined
and imprisoned after whipped
- Charles, Laud and Catholics
- recusancy fines imposed
- Catholic worship allowed @ court
- people @ Court, inc. Laud,
suspected of being Catholic
- rumours that Pope offered Laud, Cardinalship
- Charles' neutrality during Thirty Years' War
interpreted as favouritism towards Catholics
- Situation in 1637
- fears of popery grown among
Protestants (as well as
Puritans)
- difficult to measure strength/
extent of opposition
- Strafford
- Background
- Wentworth = Yorkshire gentry & MP
in early P's (critic of government)
- 1628: accepted President of Council of
North after Buckingham's death
- Character
- able, arrogant, determined, ruthless
- made easy enemies &
believed 'end justified
means'
- order, authority
& obedience to
crown =
important -
prevent
breakdown of
law, order &
society
- ever @ centre of power -
moved lots & never really
trusted by Charles
- President of the Council of North (1628-32)
- job = strengthen royal authority - traditionally hard to do
- enforced laws thoroughly - Poor Law, laws
against enclosures = unpopular
- removed corrupt government officials
- made fortune through this = led to accusations
- Lord Deputy of Ireland (1633-40)
- ruthlessly brought country under
stronger royal control then ever
before
- controlled Irish Parliament - interfered with
elections = P cooperatively approved taxes
- placed corrupt officials (had been
undermining Royal authority)
- improved finances =
turned annual deficit
of £20,000 into profit
- exploited divisions between
Irish Catholics & Protestants
to avoid attacks on him
- encouraged industry inc. glass,
linen & horses = more jobs - fewer
poor = more taxes collected
- reduced smuggling =
increased payment of
customs duties
- roads built, bridges repaired =
more jobs and easier travel for
merchants/army
- introduced Poor Law measures
- regained church & crown lands,
improving finances of church & state
- Arminian reforms pursued in Protestant
Church of Ireland, inc. Court of High
Commission (reforms affected Irish Protestants
and Presbyterians)
- Catholics largely left
alone by religious
policies
- plantations
continued - spread
to Western Ireland,
dispossessing
Catholics
- improved navy & built full-time army of 9,000
men = many Catholics (English army =
occasional and unprofessional)
- Conclusion
- some thought reforms of
Ireland = blueprint for England
- Irish Catholic Army =
widespread fears
- army used against Protestant
rebellions in England
- Scottish Crisis
- Riots against Prayer Book
- 23rd July: riots in St Giles'
Cathedral in Edinburgh
when Prayer Book used
- bishops houses attacked, protests
nationwide led by nobles, landowners
and clergy
- nationwide support - united by hatred
of Catholicism, foreigners and bishops
- Charles I = needed to
supress revolt to
prevent growth in
pressure from
opponents in England &
Ireland
- Background
- James I = 1st monarch to rule entire British Isles
- Scot = Presbyterian church
- der C = Act of Revocation
enforced (church lands
recovered) - faced strong
opposition
- 1633: C travelled to Scot for 1st
time as king - stayed for 2
weeks, attended Pres church =
appalled & determined to reform
Scot Church
- relied on advice from Scot
bishops& PC - not Scottish P
- planned to introduce new canons & Prayer
Book - drawn up by Scot bishops
- 1634: Court of High Commission set up
- 1635: new canons
published based on
those in C of E, inc. C
as Head of Church
- May 1637: new Prayer Book published
- National Covenant, Feb 1638
- Scot national leaders drew up
National Covenant = response to
Charles declaration all rebels =
traitors
- contained demands & oaths
- defend "true reformed religion" with lives
- abolish Scot bishops
- demand calling of
Scot P & meeting
of General
Assembly of
Church @ same
time
- declared loyalty to
C as king (opposed
bishops & advisors)
- hundreds of thousands of
Scots signed it
- Glasgow Assembly, Nov-Dec 1638
- joint meeting of Scot P &
General Assembly
- C agreed = playing for time but Scots
= stronger position& voted to abolish
Prayer Book, canons, Court of High
Commission & bishops
- no agreement reached - both sides prepared for war
- First Bishops' War, June 1639
- Scots
- commander = Leslie
(experienced soldier)
- army = 22,000
well-trained men ,
paid, determined &
united
- support = popular,
taxes, many
volunteered
- English
- commander =
Charles, Howard
(no experience)
- army = 21,000
untrained men,
unenthusiastic, unpaid
- support = unpopular,
refused taxes, £17,000 of
£70,000 of SM paid
- Treaty of Berwick, June 1639
- C= agreed to hold peace talks
- signed treaty
- both sides = disband army
- C = meet with Scot P & General
Assembly to reach settlement
- neither side disbanded armies - leaders not
willing to compromise ( C = playing for time to
raise army)
- Scot P & General Assembly met -
abolished bishops & Prayer Book
- Recall of Wentworth, Sept 1639
- Thomas Wentworth recalled from Ireland:
appointed to PC = earl of Strafford
- advised Charles to:
defeat Scots & recall P
as patriotic MPs would
approve taxes
- C opposed @ 1st - on 5th
Dec recalled P to meet April
1640
- Situation in 1638
- 1638: looked like
Charles could rule
without P for
foreseeable future
- many Parliamentary critics of C = dead
- no sense of impending crisis - country calm & no protests
- concerns growing under
surface: Arminianism in church
taxation (landowners)
centralisation of power