Charles’ Personal Rule

• Charles potentially trying to establish a absolutist monarchy.

  Charles proved to be an effective ruler, devoting many hours to the daily business of government and meeting regularly with a Privy Council led by two efficient administrators, William Laud, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, and Sir Thomas Wentworth, later Lord Strafford. This shows that despite Parliaments apprehensions and Charles‘ clear lack of decision making in the past, he was able to govern the country independently and efficiently.
• Charles signed the Treaty of Madrid in 1630, ending hostilities with Spain. This would lead to Charles annual spending on war reducing from £500,000 in the years 1625-29 to less than £70,000 in the 1630s. Therefore, Charles was able to control his finances more sufficiently, alongside becoming a step closer to being independent from Parliament on a more permanent basis.
• Charles gave his attention to the Crown's finances, reorganising the management of Crown lands, adding new impositions to the collection of Tonnage and Poundage and reviving a number of feudal payments, such as fines for building on, or otherwise encroaching on, royal forests. Therefore, Charles was not only able to reduce his yearly spending by signing the Treaty of Madrid but also able to establish a substantial and reliable yearly income with these new impositions, therefore becoming more financially independent without a Parliament.
• The practice of selling monopoly licenses was revived. In 1634, Charles issued a monopoly patent for the production of soap. It generated considerable resentment and became the subject of public debate in 1641, when opponents claimed that many people had been driven out of business and prices to the public had significantly increased in order to benefit the king's revenues. Thus, Charles’ work with finance clearly went too far for the public and appeared absolutist to some-yet doesn’t hinder the fact Charles was able to establish substantial funds during his personal rule.
• The establishment of an annual levy of Ship Money across the country, eventually worth about £200,000 a year to the Exchequer. Most monarchs had levied Ship Money once or twice during their reign. The difference with Charles was that he introduced it as an annual tax, and levied it across the entire country, thereby greatly increasing its value. Charles was able to use his new position with Ship Money to increase his power and finances across Britain.
• 1634, was carried out in the traditional way, and provoked little comment.

  But, in 1635, it was repeated and extended to the inland counties.

  By 1636, it had become an annual tax, with the capability of providing a regular income that was independent of any parliament.

  Charles’ extensive financial breaches provided him with extensive finances, however at the cost of seeming absolutist.
• If the king had no need of parliamentary grants, then he had no need of parliaments. Even if they were called, they would have little power to influence the government, due to the king's new extensive financial powers.
• Other financial devices included distraint of knighthood, a medieval custom whereby all those with land worth over £40 per annum were expected to be knighted by the monarch. If they had failed to present themselves at Charles' coronation, they were fined. Charles was this able to use his constitutional powers as a form to earn money as a form to become independent from Parliament.
• 9,000 individuals were charged, and a brief campaign against the tax began in Yorkshire in 1634, but gained little support when the

  Exchequer judges supported Charles right to collect the tax. This shows Charles constitutional power and the power he had in his prerogative courts.
• The promotion of Arminians like Laud brought a new insistence on control of the clergy by the bishops. Charles and Laud demanded strict adherence to rules, if they failed to conform, they were deprived of their livings. 


  This illustrates the strong grasp Charles had not only on his country but also the religious lines.
• Charles' Church policies

  • Emphasis on order, formality and hierarchy
  • Well-ordered regime with an emphasis on hierarchy and ceremony designed to instil respect for monarchy and emphasise the religious roots of his power
• Church decoration

  1. Statues and colour added

  2. Organs restored

  3. Altar moved to the east end of the Church

  4. Traditional communion to take place
• Catholic tendencies apparent


  Decreased faith in the monarch due to strong links to absolutism
• The queen's influence had also become considerable. Not only did she maintain her own chapel and Catholic clergy, she actively encouraged others, including her children, to participate in Catholic worship.

  From 1635. Charles welcomed to his court an ambassador from the pope. Emphasised links to absolutism
• Opposition to personal rule- leaders of the group were John Pym, the Earl of Warwick, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Saye, Sele, John Hampden. 


  Hampden refused to pay his Ship Money in 1636 and initiated a legal challenge, which Charles decided to use as a test case in 1637.
• Unsurprisingly, the judges in the Court of the Kings Bench found in the king favour when they made their decision in early 1638


  but the margin of their decision was a narrow seven to five. Shows the decreasing faith in the monarch people had.
• Nevertheless, the case represented a defeat for the opposition, and once again the lack of a parliament to speak for them revealed the weakness of their position.

  Those who did attempt

  to speak out were quickly silenced ov action from the Privy

  Council and Prerogative Courts.
• The defendants, Henry Burton, John Bastwick and William Prynne, became notorious. Their cheeks were branded, ears cut off and imprisoned at the kings pleasure 


  That the sentence had been imposed by Laud emphasised the increasing influence of the Laudian bishops
• Although opposition to Ship Money increased, and the yield fell to just 20 percent of expected money in 1639

  county sheritts were increasingly

  distracted and overburdened ov the need to raise an army to fight in Scotland
• If Charles had ever formed a conscious intention to establish an absolute monarchy, his decision to extend his programme of reform to Scotland ensured his failure.

  In provoking a war that he could not sustain, he weakened his grip on government and demonstrated an inability to understand the impact of his decisions in the three kingdoms.
• In 1636, Charles issued a Book of Canons to the Scottish clergy.


  This listed instructions as to how they should lay out their churches and introduced a number of practices associated with the Church of England.
• In 1637, Charles introduced the English Prayer Book to Scottish churches. When the book was first read in St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, a riot broke out.


  1638, the Scottish clergy and nobility met and drew up a National Covenant to defend the Kirk and restore their religious rights.
• Both Charles and the Covenanters raised armies, but Charles. lacking money, had to rely on the county militias from England. 


  Charles signed the Treaty of Berwick in 1639, ending what became known as the First Bishops' War.
• 'taxpayers' strike in the years 1639-40.


  Lacking funds, and unable to borrow money from the London merchants, Charles turned to Wentworth, who advised him to call a parliament.
• Short Parliament assembled in April 1640, amid a flood of petitions against various aspects of personal rule. 


  Charles had the opportunity to save the situation by making concessions. Instead, after Charles demanded money from parliament, the Commons entered into a series of debates, and he was compelled to dissolve parliament after only three weeks
• Charles collected together an ill-organised and under-equipped force in order to fight a Second

  Bishops' War


  Most of his soldiers actually sympathised with the Scots, and occupied themselves burning altar rails and other symbols associated with Catholicism. This shows the declining faith in Charles and his ever growing links to Catholicism.
• Charles was defeated at the Battle of Newburn, near Newcastle, and under the terms of the subsequent Treaty of Ripon in October 1640 he was forced to pay the Scots £850 a day while they occupied Newcastle.