Personal Rule

Introduction

• 11 years of personal rule ((11 yrs of tyranny)) was a deliberate blueprint by Charles I to establish an absolute monarchy and dismantle English constitutional liberties.

• Historians like Kevin Sharpe argue Charles was rather an administrative conservative trying to make the existing system function during an era of war and parliamentary obstruction and constitutional deadlock.

• Charles systematic subversion of fiscal and regs norms inevitably provoked deep seated anxieties within the political nation

Financial Policies and Gentry Alienation

Charles needed money for court upkeep and administrative costs. By bypassing parliament, he weaponised ancient royal perogatives

• Distraint of Knighthood (1630) was a £40 fine to landowners per year for failure to be knighted at Charles’ coronation. (Raised £170k)

  • This targets the people who ran the local govt - JPs and local gentry , turning local elites against Westminster

• Ship Money (1635) was traditionally an emergency tax on coastal ports in wartime , Charles made it annual and nationwide levy during peacetime. This yielded about £200k

  • Direct violation of Petition of Right (1628) and Magna Carta because it looks like a permanent unparliamentary income tax.

The Constitutional Crisis of John Hampden’s case (1637)

• MP John Hampden of Buckinghamshire refused to pay his Ship Money Tax. This led to an Exechequer trial that became a national referendum of royal power. The Crown won 7-5

• The 5 judges in favor of Hampden argued property rights superseded royal perogative in peacetime. Their dissenting argument circulated nationwide and compliance with Ship Tax collapsed post-1637 below 20% by ‘39

• "Hampden’s Case exposed the fundamental fragility of prerogative finance; while Charles technically secured a legal victory in the Court of Exchequer, it was a pyrrhic triumph that shattered the moral legitimacy of the regime and transformed tax evasion into a patriotic duty."

Religious Polarisation : Laudian Ascendancy

Charles appointed Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633. His goal was rlgs uniformity and the beauty of holiness but to contemporaries it looked like the re-catholicisation of England.

• Laudian Reforms included

  • Moving communion tables to the east end and enclosing them with rails , treating them as altars which puritans associated with Popery and transubstantiation

  • Enforcing strict adherence to clerical vestements and bowing in the name of Jesus

• Perogative Courts Brutality (Star Chamber & High Commission)

  • These were used to crush rlgs opposition without juries.

  • Trial of Prynne Burton and Bastwick in 1637 - these were three Puritan radicals who published anti Laudian ideals. They were publicly pilloried and imprisoned for life.

  • Historically , pillory was reserved for commoners not gentlemen/clergy. This horrified the political nation and turned them into Protestant martyrs.

• "Laud’s insistence on ceremonial uniformity conflated religious nonconformity with political treason, alienating moderate Calvinists and forging a dangerous ideological unity between aggrieved gentry and persecuted Puritans."

Then The Scots Came

• Scottis Prayer Book Crisis (1637)

  • Charles and Laud attempted to impose a Scottish Laudian Prayer Book without consulting Scottish Parliament or the Kirk , triggering riots in St. Gieles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh

• National Covenant (1638)

  • Scots signed binding national oath that swore to send the Presbyterian religion against innovations - declaration of war.

• Bishops Wars (1639-40)

  • 1st War (1639) : Charles raised an ill prepared army made up of untrained conscripts raised by local militia. They were poorly equipped and plagued by disease vs the highly disciplined and technologically superior Covenants.

    • Charles signed the Pacification of Berwick where both sides agreed to disband their army , allow Kirk and Scottish parliament resolve the rlgs issue,

  • Revitalisation of War - Scottish Gen Assembly met in 1639 and reached no compromise and abolish episcopacy. The Scot Prlmnt met and stripped the King of veto power and Charles viewed these acts as open treasonous assault on his royal perogative

    • On Wentworth’s advice , Charles called Prlmnt to raise subsidies for a new war. John pym and MPs refused to grant a single penny until Charles addressed the 11 yrs of grievances. Charles then dissolves the short parliament,

    • Charles obtained an intercepted letter sent by Scottish Covenanters to the King of France (Louis XIII) asking for military support. Charles tried to use this to prove the Scots were guilty of high treason and treasonous collusion with a foreign power, using it as a justification to re-ignite the war.

  • 2nd War (1640) : The Covenanters invaded Englan and occupied Newcastle to cut off Londons coal supply which left Londoners freezing in winter w/ no fuel and demanded £850/day to stay out

• Financial Bankruptcy

  • Ship Money compliance collapsed and credit exhausted, Charles had no financial reserves left to fund an army and in order to pay off the Scots , he was forced to summon parliament in April 1640

• "The Pacification of Berwick was merely an armed truce that allowed both sides to regroup; the revitalisation of the conflict in 1640 was rendered inevitable by the Scottish Covenanters' total abolition of episcopacy and Wentworth’s disastrous miscalculation regarding English anti-Scottish sentiment."

  "The Treaty of Ripon marked the structural death of the Personal Rule; by imposing a £850-per-day indemnity on the Crown, the Covenanters weaponised royal financial insolvency and held the monarch constitutionally hostage to an English Parliament."