Chapter 8: Personal Rule and Short Parliament

• Personal Rule

  The period from 1629 to 1640 when King Charles I ruled without Parliament; his prerogative allowed this
• What were the Star Chamber and High Commission Courts?

  • Star Chamber: made up of privy councillors chosen by the monarch; Charles could hold cases in secret before this court.
  • High Commission: chief court used by Laud to enforce conformity.
  • If someone was found guilty here, they were sentenced by the Star Chamber (Laud was also a member).
• What was royal debt by 1629?

  £2 million
• How were savings achieved>

  • securing peace with France (1629) and Spain (1630) through the treaties of Susa and Madrid.
  • withdrawal from Thirty Years War sat uncomfortably with many
  • Weston’s reform of court finance in order to lower the costs of running Charles’ court.
  • alienated those who were used to the decadence of James I’s court
• What was fiscal feudalism?

  Charles had several methods he could raise income through by using his prerogative
• Examples of fiscal feudalism

  • Customs duties (including tonnage and poundage): 1631-1635 tonnage and poundage earned Charles about £270,000 per year
  • Feudal dues (including wardship): wardship earned about £75,000 a year
  • Monopolies: a loophole let Charles earn £33,000 a year
  • Recusancy fines: £26,866 a year in 1634
  • Distraint of knighthood: earned Charles £175,000 in this way.
• Other fines of fiscal feudalism

  • Forest fines: for any landowner said to have encroached on areas of royal forest.
  • Land titles: fines imposed on those who rented Crown land but had no title.
  • Enclosure fines: imposed on those who had illegally enclosed, or closed off, common land.
• What was an example of a consequence of fiscal feudalism?

  Charles alienated landowners to only earn £38,667 from forest fines
• What was ship money?

  A prerogative form of income levied in times of emergency to fund the navy 
• Progess of the levying of ship money

  • October 1634: levied on coastal towns and counties
  • August 1635: extended to inland counties
  • Levied until 1639
  • Seen as a financial success on the surface
• What caused the alienation of the Scots?

  Caused by Charles’ imposition of religious uniformity, especially with the role of bishops. 
• Uprising at St Giles Cathedral


  An organised protest turned into a full-blown riot when the new Laudian prayer book was read for the first time
• October 1637: Charles’ Scottish Privy Council was forced to abandon Edinburgh due to riots. 
• What was the Scottish National Covenant (Feb 1636)?

  • written mainly by Presbyterian radicals Johnston and Henderson.
  • was a manifesto to untie those against Charles’ religious policy and to maintain Presbyterianism as the main Scottish religion. Those who signed were known as the Covenanters.
• Why was opposition to ship money brought into the open?

  Charles sought legal confirmation of his right to collect ship money to secure funds for war against the Covenanters
• Significance of the Bishops' Wars (1639-40)

  Seen as the turning point of the Scottish rebellion to armed conflict
• Key Events of the Bishops' Wars

  • September 1638: Charles allowed the Scots to call a religious General Assembly at Glasgow in order to buy time for himself to raise an army.
  • November 1638: the Assembly annulled the canon laws and abolished episcopacy (government of a church by bishops).
  • April 1639: Charles’ army was not ready until then because he faced problems collecting ship money. Had a force 15,000 of untrained and unruly soldiers.
• What was the Treaty of Berwick (June 1639)?

  • Charles 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
  • Negotiated this as he did not want to call Parliament
• How did Short Parliament come about?

  • Sept 1639 - Charles recalls Wentworth from Ireland
  • Wentworth advised him to call a Parliament to raise money to fight the Scots
• August 1640: Scots crossed the river Tweed and entered England with little to no resistance. 
• What was the Treaty of Ripon (Oct 1640)?

  • Charles reluctantly agreed to pay the Scottish army’s living costs while they occupied English soil 
  • Had to call another Parliament as a result
• Historian David Farr on Scottish opposition to Charles

  “It was the continuing opposition in Scotland that really changed Charles’ position in England.”
• What was the state of Ireland in 1629?

  It was politically divided into 4 groups: Irish Catholics, Catholic Old English, Protestant New English, and Presbyterian Scots
• Where was English control in Ireland?

  Limited to Dublin and the surrounding area known as the Pale
• 1632: Thomas Wentworth appointed as Lord Deputy of Ireland.
• Wentworth's achievements in Ireland

  • enhancing the authority of the English Crown and Church over the Irish
  • allowing the English Crown to profit more from Ireland by increasing customs duty.
• Irish reaction to the imposition of Laudianism


  Irish Protestants’ negative sentiments towards Laudianism were worse because they were already a minority in Ireland. 
• What caused the Irish Rebellion (Oct 1641)?

  • Tensions rose as Wentworth alienated all the different groups in Scotland
  • Prompted by Scottish Rebellion and Wentworth's return to England
• Motivations of the Irish Catholic to rebel

  • Presbyterian Scots were controlling Scotland and were in alliance with English Puritans. Their growing influence threatened Catholic Ireland
  • with Wentworth removed, the Irish sought to pre-emptively prevent radical outsiders imposing harsh Protestant rules on them.
• How long did the Irish Rebellion last?

  lasted over the winter of 1641-42
• Example of violence in the Irish Rebellion

  Ulster massacre - Irish Catholics massacred at least 3000 Protestants in Ulster in a pre-emptive attack. 
• Why was 1637 seen as the turning point of Charles I's reign?

  English opposition to his financial and religious policies occurred against the backdrop of the Scottish Rebellion
• Who was William Fiennes

  • A noble who opposed ship money; started legal action against the Crown deliberately with the aim of creating a show trial over the issue.
  • HOWEVER: didn’t amount to much as Charles simply ignored his refusal to pay the tax.
• What was the Hampden Case (Nov 1637)?

  Charles took Hampden to court for refusing to pay ship money; wanted to make Hampden an example
• Consequences of the Hampden Case

  • The widely circulated facts of the case fanned the debate on wider constitutional issues.
  • The judgement for the Crown by a narrow majority, seven judges to five, was too politically costly a victory for Charles.
  • Evidence for how Charles’ Personal Rule was under strain.
• What was the role of the English gentry?

  Despite being organised in their visible opposition to the policies of the Personal Rule, it could be argued that without Parliament they made no impact on Charles’ Personal Rule. 

  • Evidence: William Fiennes made serious preparations to emigrate to America, a most telling sign of his despair. 
• What caused the failure of Personal Rule?

  The continued rebellion of the Scottish Covenanters in 1637 to 1640, not individual opposition in England and Ireland
• Historian Conrad Russell on the events leading to Civil War


  The years 1637-42 were the “Collapse of the British Monarchies”. 
• Why was Short Parliament called what it was?

  Derives its name from the fact that it lasted less than a month, from 13th April 1640 until 5th May 1640
• Issues with Short Parliament

  • Despite unity in wanting to end the abuses of Personal Rule, there was limited organisation among the MPs.
  • Charles won support as he could rely on the majority in favour of him in the House of Lords and won over the Commons when he announced the illegality of ship money in order to secure 12 subsidies to fight the Scots.
  • However: MPs weren’t going to grant him subsidies to fight the Bishops’ Wars.