Charles I: Parliament

• CHARLES’ AIMS  


  To attempt to fulfil aims would be expensive – they would cost about one million. He needed parliament funds
• WHY WAS THERE TENSION WITH PARLIAMENT?

  Opposition to Buckingham

  Foreign policy failures

  Finance

  Charles’ attitude to parliaments rights and privileges

  • Charles’ personality
• ROYAL PREROGATIVE


  After the FIVE KNIGHTS CASE, judges favoured the king and the five were put in prison

  • Charles was seen as having too much power because he could imprison people when he wanted to
• BILLETING SOLDIERS

  • Normally soldiers were trained but Charles ran out of money for this, and many were unpaid, and untrained.
• MARTIAL LAW

  • Trail by court martial and summary sentences were now carried out without the right to appeal
• 1625 Parliament  

  • Even with the change, the themes of foreign policy, religion, finance and favourites remained central to the discourse. However, there was more pressure because Charles was less compromising. James’ old actions surrounding finance and religion also made tensions worse. Other issues were Buckingham, he had immense power since he became a favourite in 1616 and Arminianism.  Charles would not make concessions, did not consult the court’s most influential supporters in the countryside and did not engage with leading figures in the commons. He dissolved it within two months
• 1625: CADIZ EXPEDITION  

  • Naval expedition against Spain from England and Dutch
  • The aims were to capture Spanish treasure, loot towns, weaken Spanish supply chains and present parliament with a victory
  • However, many troops died from starvation or disease. A lot looted while drunk. It costs £250,000 and barely achieved anything. Charles was forced to call another parliament. 
• 1626 Parliament

  Charles immediately antagonised the 1626 parliament by asking Laud to preach the opening sermon, he stressed obedience to the king. Charles got rid of opposition through ensuring those like Wentworth and Coke were made into sheriffs so they could not stand for election. Parliament wanted to impeach Buckingham after the Cadiz failure and did not approve the huge funds needed for war with Spain
• Buckingham also tried to reinforce his positions by removing anyone at court he regarded as a threat
• Parliament in 1626 wanted to blame Cadiz on Buckingham but Charles argued it was the fault of inadequate funding. They did not want to approve huge sums needed to win the against Spain and preferred to think in terms of limited naval engagements. MPs reluctance to grant subsidies was a sign that their calls for war were rhetoric
• In 1626, Eliot directly attacked Buckingham in the commons. They wanted to impeach him but Charles dissolved them so they couldn't
• TROUBLEMAKERS IN 1626

  • Charles wanted to raise one million
  • He had to recall parliament in 1626, the MPs were annoyed by Charles’ attempts to keep opposition out of court like Digges
  • This parliament was a failure; Digges was locked up in the Tower of London after he drew a list of charges for Charles’ impeachment
• 1627 WAR WITH FRANCE

  War seemed likely and Charles needed money, City of London only offered him £20,000

  He made £240,000 from forced loans

  • Eliot, Hampden and Wentworth refused to pay and were imprisoned
• LA ROCHELLE 1627 

  • France used English ships to expel Huguenots, this was a foreign political disaster because they broke the agreement to only use ships on Catholics. Buckingham planned an attack, but it failed because scaling ladders used were too short. The king of France had already made peace with the Huguenots. Out of 7833 soldiers only 2989 returned. Signalled that Britain was now at war with Spain and France. However, Charles had run out of money, he had to call another parliament. 
• FIVE KNIGHT’S CASE NOVEMBER 1627

  • 76 people were imprisoned for refusing to pay the forced loan. Five of the main resisted Charles’ imprisonment, Charles took them to trail. 5/12 judges agreed with the five knights. Although the five knights were released, the commons’ opposed Charles when they found out he was faking judgement in the case records. In response the demanded actions to prevent this from happening again. This led to the petition of right, mainly created by Coke.
• Petition of Right

  1628
• Petition of Right


  • A response to the concern that Charles could not be trusted to rule without a written constitution
  • For MPs like Coke, Charles' actions in the years 1625 to 1628 showed his power needed to be restricted
• Main points of Petition of Right

  • Parliament had to consent to tax
  • People could only be imprisoned for a just reason
  • Martial and billeting law on the population was illegal
• Charles accepted the petition in June 1628


  Because he wanted funding for foreign policy
• Charles did not originally use the traditional royal assent method which raised questions about his levels of trust
• Coke later called Buckingham "the cause of all our miseries"
• A remonstrance was written which attacked Buckingham

  June 1628
• Charles continued to collect tonnage and poundage which went against the petition
• BUCKINGHAM’S ASSASSINATION AUGUST 1628

  -Buckingham was killed by solider John Felton. Many in parliament rejoiced at his death.-Charles blamed parliament for his death. He started to take more advice from his catholic wife, this caused tension because parliament want anti-Catholic. They disapproved of the marriage. 
• RELATIONS IN 1629

  -In 1628 the petition of right failed to address custom duties and impositions as well as Charles’ open favour of anti-Calvinists. There was also the question of trust in Charles.
• THREE RESOLUTIONS 1629

  -Despite Charles’ dishonesty, there were still MPs who wanted to compromise. In March 1629 however, the speaker of the house of commons was reading the royal order to suspend parliament. Holles and Valentine held down the speaker until three resolutions were passed condemning the king’s conduct. It expressed opposition to Arminianism and to the collection of tonnage and poundage. Charles dissolved parliament 2 days later and arrested Eliot, Holles and Valentine for treason.
• -Relations between the crown and parliament in the period 1604-1629 were complex and escalated conflict. The Union, finance, favourites, foreign policy and religion caused tension. Charles’ aggressive defence of divine right prerogative raised questions whether he could be trusted by parliament.