CHARLES I., 1625-1649 Charles and at his accession was in his 25th year. He had thoroughly imbibed his father's political principles. His chief counsellor was Buckingham, who retained with the son all the influence which he had possessed with the father. While yet prince, Charles had engaged England in war with Spain. He was also at war with the emperor, whom he could attack only by subsidizing his enemies. Charles called a parliament which met in June 1625. Zeal for the Spanish war had cooled when there was no longer the possibility of a Spanish queen. Wishing to enforce a settlement of the dispute about im positions, the Commons withheld the usual grant of customs, tunnage and poundage to a new king for the term of his life. At tached to Puritan theology the Commons saw with alarm the rise of an Anglo-Catholic (or Arminian) school of divines, who insisted on the absolute authority of the Crown because they looked to the Crown for protection.
Charles soon dissolved the parliament. In the autumn an ex pedition against Cadiz failed and brought obloquy upon Buck ingham who, as lord high admiral, was held accountable for the defects of the fleet, although he had not taken command. Charles had to call another parliament in 1626. Led by the eloquent Sir John Eliot, the Commons impeached Buckingham and Charles dissolved the parliament to save his friend. Again he had secured no grant. Since his accession he had levied customs, tunnage, poundage and impositions by his own authority. He resorted to doubtful expedients, especially a forced loan, and punished with imprisonment or otherwise those who refused to contribute. He obtained a decision of the judges in favour of his right to im prison at discretion. Meanwhile, largely through disputes arising out of the marriage treaty, Charles had drifted into war with France. An expedition led by Buckingham to occupy the Isle of Re, near the Huguenot stronghold of Rochelle, had failed with heavy loss. He was thus forced to call a third parliament. The Commons adopted a petition of right by which they condemned arbitrary taxation and imprisonment, the enforcement of martial law and the billeting of soldiers as contrary to the law of the land. Charles first gave an evasive answer and then assented in the usual form. In return the Commons made a grant. In the course of the following recess Buckingham was murdered by a fanatic, and one of the ablest leaders of the Commons, Sir Thomas Wentworth, went over to the king's side. When parliament re assembled, the king and the Commons entered on a dispute about the levy of tunnage and poundage by prerogative, and the Com mons spent much time in discussing the affairs of the Church. At last the king commanded the House to adjourn. Before it obeyed it passed resolutions declaring all who favoured Arminianism or paid duties not granted by parliament to be enemies of their country. Charles replied with a dissolution and sent nine members to prison. Sir John Eliot died in the Tower.
Personal Government.—The king resolved to summon no more parliaments until he could be sure of their compliance. For the next i r years he ruled as an absolute monarch. He shaped his own policy, for nobody succeeded to Buckingham's influence. He made peace with Spain in 1629 and with France in 163o and, although he tried diplomatic means to help his sister and her children, he took no military measures against the emperor. In order to meet necessary expenses he had to go on levying cus toms, tunnage, poundage and impositions, and to adopt obsolete or questionable expedients for raising revenue. In i 634 he levied shipmoney, although he was not at war, and in 1635 levied it, not merely on the coast towns and counties, but on the whole kingdom. Twice consulted, the judges twice declared that this action was legal; but the judges were liable to be dismissed at the king's pleasure. Even so, when John Hampden (q.v.) forced a decision in the court of exchequer chamber, five out of the 12 judges decided in his favour. At the same time the king sought to extirpate Puritanism. A devout Anglo-Catholic, he gave his confidence to William Laud, bishop of St. David's, who became in 1628 bishop of London and in 1633 archbishop of Canterbury. By a metropolitan visitation prolonged over three years, Laud enforced the Anglo-Catholic standard of doctrine and ritual. With the help of the court of high commission he made it impossible for any honest Puritan minister to keep his living. When Puritan indignation burst forth in furious pamphlets, the authors were hunted down and punished without mercy in the Star Chamber.
The Scottish Revolt.—It was in Scotland, however, that the religious revolt began. Scotland was still a feudal country where men cared little about politics. But in Scotland the Reformation had been a popular movement, the Kirk had a democratic organ ization, and the influence of the ministers over the Lowland popu lation was prodigious. James had restored episcopacy and broken the power of the General Assembly. Charles continued his pol icy. In 1637 he sent down to Scotland a liturgy closely resem bling the Anglican. The first reading in St. Giles' cathedral in Edinburgh caused a riot. Organized resistance followed. A Na tional Covenant binding the subscribers to uphold the king's authority and the purity of the Kirk was signed by multitudes. Charles thought it necessary to allow the meeting of a General As sembly which abolished episcopacy. Then Charles prepared for war. But his army was untrained and spiritless, while the army of the Covenanters was full of enthusiasm and contained many who had gained experience as soldiers of fortune on the Continent. Charles, therefore, consented to negotiate. By the treaty of Ber wick everything was referred to a new parliament and General Assembly. But fresh disputes followed. Resolved to continue the war, Charles was driven by want of money to summon the English parliament. Even Wentworth who, as president of the Council of the North and as lord deputy in Ireland, had ruled with great ability and in the most despotic temper (and about this time was created earl of Strafford, q.v.), advised this step, trusting to the old national grudge of Englishmen against Scotsmen. When parlia ment met, the Commons proceeded at once to the redress of griev ances. The king insisted that they must first supply his wants, but having heard that the leaders of the Commons were negotiat ing with the Scots, he hastily dissolved the parliament. The arbi trary measures recommended by Strafford did not avail, however, to fill the Treasury. The Scots invaded England and occupied Northumberland and Durham. Then i 2 peers petitioned the king to call a new parliament. He preferred to call a great council of the peers at York. The peers negotiated with the Scots the treaty of Ripon. But the calling of a new parliament could not be avoided.
The Long Parliament.—The parliament met on Nov. 3, 164o. The king was at its mercy, for both the English and the Scottish armies in the north had to be maintained out of the English reve nue. The parliament was resolved, first to punish the king's coun cillors and, secondly, to make personal government impossible. Finch, the lord keeper, and Windebank, the secretary, saved them selves by flight. Led by Pym (q.v.) and Hampden, the Commons impeached Strafford and the archbishop. Under a forced construc tion of the law Strafford was charged with treason, but the evi dence was weak, and the impeachment was exchanged for a bill of attainder. The assent of the Lords and the king was extorted by fear of popular violence, and Strafford was executed on May i 2, 1641. Acts were passed forbidding all the unparliamentary modes of taxation employed by the king. Other acts suppressed all the extraordinary courts which had been the most effective weapons of the Crown, the Star Chamber, the Council of the North, the Council of Wales and the Court of High Commission. An act was passed to ensure that parliaments should never again be inter mitted for more than three years : it was also enacted that the existing parliament should not be dissolved without its own con sent. But upon ecclesiastical questions there was no agreement. A bill to abolish episcopacy was brought into the Commons, but went no further. A bill to remove the bishops from parliament passed the Commons, but was lost in the Lords. Many desired in dulgence for Puritan scruples about rites and ceremonies, while some would have liked to abolish the Book of Common Prayer. None was prepared to grant unlimited freedom of conscience which was to be a dream for many years to come.
In Sept. 164 i Charles visited Scotland with the vain hope of conciliating all parties in that country. Before his return a rebel lion broke out in Ireland. Its causes were national sentiment, the hatred inspired by the policy of plantation and fear for the Catholic religion. Strafford's death, and the disbandment of the army which he had formed, gave the opportunity. Beginning in Ulster, the revolt soon spread over most of Ireland and was marked by much cruelty. To raise armies and appoint commanders was the king's prerogative. But the parliament dared not trust the king with an army. The leaders of the Commons brought in the Grand Remonstrance which recited all the misdeeds of his reign, real or imaginary, and ended with a petition for the appointment of ministers whom parliament could trust. The Remonstrance was carried by a majority of i i only. From this time the division of parties in parliament was irreconcilable. The king in his reply claimed full freedom to choose his advisers. Somewhat later his personal attempt to arrest five members, Pym, Hampden, Holles, Hazlerigg and Strode, on a charge of treason embittered the conflict. In order, however, to gain time for sending the queen to the Continent, he assented to a bill for the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords. When she was gone he pro ceeded to York, where the northern nobility and gentry flocked round him. There followed an interchange of manifestos ending with the Nineteen Propositions in which the parliament claimed amongst other things that its approbation should be necessary for the appointment of privy councillors, ministers of State and chiefs of the courts of common law. The king refused these demands. Both parties prepared for war and the king raised his standard at Nottingham on Aug. 1642.
After the first battle at Edgehill and an unsuccessful attempt on London, the king established himself in Oxford, which became his capital for the rest of the war. His friends were so successful that by the autumn of he was master of three-fourths of the kingdom. The parliament then sought the help of the Scots who had hitherto been neutral, but who felt that the Kirk could not be secure unless Presbyterianism prevailed in England. By the Solemn League and Covenant the Scots undertook to help in the war, while the parliament promised, or seemed to promise, that it would adopt the Presbyterian system. The trial and execution of Archbishop Laud were a result of this alliance. Early in 1644 the Scots invaded England. With the help of a parliamentary army they gained the battle of Marston Moor (July 2), which ended the king's power in the north. His own successes in the south could not counterbalance this disaster, but drove the parliament to make a really effective army. By the Self-denying Ordinance it required all members of either House to resign their commissions, thus get ting rid of several incapable leaders. It resolved to raise a new army, the famous New Model, composed of men who should undertake to serve until the end of the war and to go whither soever they should be required. The command-in-chief was given to Sir Thomas Fairfax; the second in command was Oliver Crom well. At Naseby, June 14, 1645, Fairfax won a victory which drove the king out of the midlands. He then conquered the south west, and in the spring of 1646 returned to besiege Oxford. Charles fled from Oxford in disguise and took refuge with the Scottish army. Thus ended the first Civil War.