How did the Long Parliament dismantle the Personal Rule?

The Long Parliament

1st session: 3rd November 1640-August 1641:

-Parliament had significant leverage over the King and expected political and religious reform.

-Parliament curbed the King's powers and there was generous agreement.

2nd session: October 1641-August 1642:

-The opposition programme became more radical, demanding fundamental constitutional changes.

-In response a Royalist party began to emerge.

-England drifted towards a bloody civil war-something which nobody had envisaged.

The Scottish dimension

- 2nd June 1640- the Scottish Parliament re-assembled, without royal assent and within 10 days they had begun a constitutional revolution which included:

-A Triennial Act (Parliament could meet automatically every three years.

-Abolition of the clerical estate (bishops).

The English Parliament would go on to pass their own Triennial Act 8 months after the Scots had passed theirs.

What was the English Triennial Act?

It was passed on the 5th of February 1641, and accepted by Charles on the 15th of February.

The Act limited the royal prerogative by requiring that Parliament meet for at least a fifty-day session once every three years.

Opposition to 'evil counsellors'

William Laud- Archbishops of Canterbury from 1633

Sir Thomas Wentworth- Earl of Strafford- he was sent to the Tower of London in November 1640 (pending a trial for treason).

The significance of Strafford's execution

The case against Strafford hinged upon an accusation that he had treasonably advised the King that the Irish army could be used against his opponents in England as well as the Scots.

Pym led the prosecution and when it looked as if Strafford would be acquitted, Pym and his supporters resorted to the Bill of Attainder.

Pym accomplished two things through the Bill of Attainder:

1: He avoided a verdict in the House of Lords that might have found Strafford not guilty (the Bill meant that Strafford was guilty with/without the evidence)

2: He forced the King to take personal responsibility for Strafford's death.

When was Strafford executed?

On the 12th of May 1641

Charles' reaction to Strafford's execution- turning point?

Charles believed that abandoning Strafford was the one true sin of his life, for which he and the kingdom were punished by God through Civil War.

End of the first session of the Long Parliament- August 1641

The arbitrary powers of the Personal Rule had been dismantled:

-Prerogative income had been limited (fiscal feudalism abandoned) so that Charles could not be financially independent.

-The prerogative courts were abolished so that Charles could not use power arbitrarily to outmanoeuvre or silence opposition.

-The Triennial Act prevented a Personal Rule for longer than 3 years.

The Death of the Earl of Bedford- turning point in Crown-Parliament relations?

November 1640- when the Long Parliament met, he was regarded as the leader of Parliament.

February 1641- he was made privy councillor, and during negotiations with Charles he was promised the office of Lord High Treasurer.

Bedford was a moderate man and seemed quite anxious to settle the question of royal revenue in a satisfactory manner. He did not wish to radically alter the structure of the Church and was on good terms with Archbishop Laud.

He died in May 1641 of smallpox.

'King Pym'

The Earl of Bedford's death allowed the Puritan MP, John Pym to become the undisputed leader of the Parliamentary opposition to Charles.

Pym was a man driven by religious fanaticism-a resolute serious Puritan:

-He argued against religious policy, taxation and the use of prerogative courts.

-Accused the government of absolutist rule in Ireland

-Attacked the plan to use the Irish army to reduce England to order.

Pym wanted Parliament to have the power- and it was he who had initiated the legal attacks on Strafford and Laud.

1641 context

-The ending of censorship and persecution in 1641 had led to the flourishing of a huge variety of religious opinion and practices, above all in London.

Charles duplicitous personality

-April-May 1641- the Army Plot: evidence emerged that Queen Henrietta Maria had been conspiring with some army officers to put down Parliament by force. Charles had sent troops to the Tower of London to release Strafford.

-10th May 1641- in retaliation, the Lords passed the Act of Attainder, thereby sealing the fate of Strafford.