BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

innovations to outmaneuver the nobility. The household staff rose beyond

mere servitude: Henry eschewed public appearances, therefore, staff members

were the few persons Henry saw on a regular basis. He created the Committee

of the Privy Council ,a forerunner of the modern cabinet) as an executive

advisory board; he established the Court of the Star Chamber to increase

royal involvement in civil and criminal cases; and as an alternative to a

revenue tax disbursement from Parliament, he imposed forced loans and

grants on the nobility. Henry's mistrust of the nobility derived from his

experiences in the Wars of the Roses - a majority remained dangerously

neutral until the very end. His skill at by-passing Parliament (and thus,

the will of the nobility) played a crucial role in his success at

renovating government.

Henry's political acumen was also evident in his handling of foreign

affairs. He played Spain off of France by arranging the marriage of his

eldest son, Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and

Isabella. Arthur died within months and Henry secured a papal dispensation

for Catherine to marry Arthur's brother, the future Henry VIII; this single

event had the widest-ranging effect of all Henry's actions: Henry VIII's

annulment from Catherine was the impetus for the separation of the Church

of England from the body of Roman Catholicism. The marriage of Henry's

daughter, Margaret, to James IV of Scotland would also have later

repercussions, as the marriage connected the royal families of both England

and Scotland, leading the Stuarts to the throne after the extinction of the

Tudor dynasty. Henry encouraged trade and commerce by subsidizing ship

building and entering into lucrative trade agreements, thereby increasing

the wealth of both crown and nation.

Henry failed to appeal to the general populace: he maintained a distance

between king and subject. He brought the nobility to heel out of necessity

to transform the medieval government that he inherited into an efficient

tool for conducting royal business. Law and trade replaced feudal

obligation as the Middle Ages began evolving into the modern world. Francis

Bacon, in his history of Henry VII, described the king as such: "He was of

a high mind, and loved his own will and his own way; as one that revered

himself, and would reign indeed. Had he been a private man he would have

been termed proud: But in a wise Prince, it was but keeping of distance;

which indeed he did towards all; not admitting any near or full approach

either to his power or to his secrets. For he was governed by none."

HENRY VIII (1509-47 AD)

Henry VIII, born in 1491, was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth

of York. The significance of Henry's reign is, at times, overshadowed by

his six marriages: dispensing with these forthwith enables a deeper search

into the major themes of the reign. He married Catherine of Aragon (widow

of his brother, Arthur) in 1509, divorcing her in 1533; the union produced

one daughter, Mary. Henry married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in 1533; she

gave him another daughter, Elizabeth, but was executed for infidelity (a

treasonous charge in the king's consort) in May 1536. He married Jane

Seymour by the end of the same month, who died giving birth to Henry's lone

male heir, Edward, in October 1536. Early in 1540, Henry arranged a

marriage with Anne of Cleves, after viewing Hans Holbein's beautiful

portrait of the German princess. In person, alas, Henry found her homely

and the marriage was never consummated. In July 1540, he married the

adulterous Catherine Howard - she was executed for infidelity in March

1542. Catherine Parr became his wife in 1543, providing for the needs of

both Henry and his children until his death in 1547.

The court life initiated by his father evolved into a cornerstone of

Tudor government in the reign of Henry VIII. After his father's staunch,

stolid rule, the energetic, youthful and handsome king avoided governing in

person, much preferring to journey the countryside hunting and reviewing

his subjects. Matters of state were left in the hands of others, most

notably Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Cardinal Wolsey virtually ruled

England until his failure to secure the papal annulment that Henry needed

to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533. Wolsey was quite capable as Lord Chancellor,

but his own interests were served more than that of the king: as powerful

as he was, he still was subject to Henry's favor - losing Henry's

confidence proved to be his downfall. The early part of Henry's reign,

however, saw the young king invade France, defeat Scottish forces at the

Battle of Foldden Field (in which James IV of Scotland was slain), and

write a treatise denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the

pope awarded Henry the title "Defender of the Faith".

The 1530's witnessed Henry's growing involvement in government, and a

series of events which greatly altered England, as well as the whole of

Western Christendom: the separation of the Church of England from Roman

Catholicism. The separation was actually a by-product of Henry's obsession

with producing a male heir; Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male

and the need to maintain dynastic legitimacy forced Henry to seek an

annulment from the pope in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey tried

repeatedly to secure a legal annulment from Pope Clement VII, but Clement

was beholden to the Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and nephew of Catherine.

Henry summoned the Reformation Parliament in 1529, which passed 137

statutes in seven years and exercised an influence in political and

ecclesiastic affairs which was unknown to feudal parliaments. Religious

reform movements had already taken hold in England, but on a small scale:

the Lollards had been in existence since the mid-fourteenth century and the

ideas of Luther and Zwingli circulated within intellectual groups, but

continental Protestantism had yet to find favor with the English people.

The break from Rome was accomplished through law, not social outcry; Henry,

as Supreme Head of the Church of England, acknowledged this by slight

alterations in worship ritual instead of a wholesale reworking of religious

dogma. England moved into an era of "conformity of mind" with the new royal

supremacy (much akin to the absolutism of France's Louis XIV): by 1536, all

ecclesiastical and government officials were required to publicly approve

of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty. The king moved away

from the medieval idea of ruler as chief lawmaker and overseer of civil

behavior, to the modern idea of ruler as the ideological icon of the state.

The remainder of Henry's reign was anticlimactic. Anne Boleyn lasted only

three years before her execution; she was replaced by Jane Seymour, who

laid Henry's dynastic problems to rest with the birth of Edward VI.

Fragmented noble factions involved in the Wars of the Roses found

themselves reduced to vying for the king's favor in court. Reformist

factions won the king's confidence and vastly benefiting from Henry's

dissolution of the monasteries, as monastic lands and revenues went either

to the crown or the nobility. The royal staff continued the rise in status

that began under Henry VII, eventually to rival the power of the nobility.

Two men, in particular, were prominent figures through the latter stages of

Henry's reign: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Cromwell, an efficient

administrator, succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, creating new

governmental departments for the varying types of revenue and establishing

parish priest's duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths.

Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, dealt with and guided changes in

ecclesiastical policy and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries.

Henry VIII built upon the innovations instituted by his father. The break

with Rome, coupled with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to the

royal supremacy that would last until the execution of Charles I and the

establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred years after Henry's death.

Henry was beloved by his subjects, facing only one major insurrection, the

Pilgrimage of Grace, enacted by the northernmost counties in retaliation to

the break with Rome and the poor economic state of the region. History

remembers Henry in much the same way as Piero Pasqualigo, a Venetian

ambassador: "... he is in every respect a most accomplished prince."

EDWARD VI (1547-1553 AD)

Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was born in 1537. He

ascended the throne at age nine, upon the death of his father. He was

betrothed to his cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, but deteriorating English-

Scot relations prohibited their marriage. The frail, Protestant boy died of

consumption at age sixteen having never married. Edward's reign was beset

by problems from the onset. Ascending the throne while stillin his minority

presented a backdrop for factional in fighting and power plays. Henry VIII,

in his last days, sought to eliminate this potential problem by decreeing

that a Council of Regency would govern until the child came of age, but

Edward Seymour (Edward VI's uncle) gained the upper hand. The Council

offered Seymour the Protectorship of the realm and the Dukedom of Somerset;

he genuinely cared for both the boy and the realm, but used the

Protectorship, as well as Edward's religious radicalism, to further his

Protestant interests. The Book of Common Prayer, the eloquent work of

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, was instituted in 1549 as a handbook to the new

style of worship that skated controversial issues in an effort to pacify

Catholics. Henrician treason and heresy laws were repealed, transforming

England into a haven for continental heretics. Catholics were pleased with

the softer version of Protestantism, but radical Protestants clamored for

further reforms, adding to the ever-present factional discord. Economic

hardship plagued England during Edward's rule and foreign relations were in

a state of disarray. The new faith and the dissolution of the monasteries

left a considerable amount of ecclesiastical officials out of work, at a

time when unemployment soared; enclosure of monastic lands deprived many

peasants of their means of subsistence. The coinage lost value as new coins

were minted from inferior metals, as specie from the New World flooded

English markets. A French/Scottish alliance threatened England, prompting

Somerset to invade Scotland, where Scottish forces were trounced at Pinkie.

Then general unrest and factional maneuvering proved Somerset's undoing; he

was executed in September 1552. Thus began one of the most corrupt eras of

English political history. The author of this corruption was the Earl of

Warwick, John Dudley. Dudley was an ambitious political survivor driven by

the desire to become the largest landowner in England. Dudley coerced

Edward by claiming that the boy had reached manhood on his 12th birthday

and was now ready to rule; Dudley also held Edward's purse strings. Dudley

was created Duke of Northumberland and virtually ruled England, although he

had no official title. The Council, under his leadership, systematically

confiscated church territories, as the recent wave of radical Protestantism

seemed a logical, and justifiable, continuation of Henrician reform.

Northumberland's ambitions grew in proportion to his gains of power: he

desperately sought to connect himself to the royal family. Northumberland

was given the opportunity to indulge in king making - the practice by which

an influential noble named the next successor, such as Richard Neville

during the Wars of the Roses - when Edward was diagnosed with consumption

in January 1553. Henry VIII named the line of succession in his will;next

in line after Edward were his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, followed by the

descendants of Henry's sister, Mary: Frances Grey and her children.

Northumberland convinced Edward that his Catholic sister, Mary, would ruin

the Protestant reforms enacted throughout the reign; in actuality, he knew

Mary would restore Catholicism and return the confiscated Church

territories which were making the Council very rich. Northumberland's

appeal to Edward's radicalism worked as intended: the dying lad declared

his sisters to be bastards and passed the succession to Frances Grey's

daughter, Lady Jane Grey, one of the boy's only true friends.

Northumberland impelled the Greys to consent to a marriage between his son,

Guildford and Lady Jane. Edward died on July 6, 1553, leaving a disputed

succession. Jane, against her wishes, was declared queen by the Council.

Mary retreated to Framlingham in Suffolk and claimed the throne.

Northumberland took an army to capture Mary, but bungled the escapade. The

Council abandoned Northumberland as Mary collected popular support and rode

triumphantly into London. Jane after a reign of only nine days, was

imprisoned in the Tower of London until her 1554 execution at the hands of

her cousin Mary. Edward was a highly intellectual and pious lad who fell

prey to the machinations of his powerful Council of Regency. His frailty

led to an early death. Had he lived into manhood, he potentially could have

become one of England's greatest kings. Jane Austen wrote, "This Man was on

the whole of a very amiable character...", to which Beckett added, " as

docile as a lamb, if indeed his gentleness did not amount to absolute

sheepishness."

LADY JANE GREY (10-19 July 1553)

The Accession of Lady Jane Grey was engineered by the powerful Duke of

Northumberland, President of the King's Council, in the interests of

promoting his own dynastic line. Northumberland persuaded the sickly Edward

VI to name Lady Jane Grey as his heir. As one of Henry VIII's great-nieces,

the young girl was a genuine claimant to the throne. Northumberland then

married his own son, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane. On the death of

Edward, Jane assumed the throne and her claim was recognised by the

Council. Despite this, the country rallied to Mary, Catherine of Aragon's

daughter and a devout Roman Catholic. Jane reigned for only nine days and

was later executed with her husband in 1554.

MARY I (1553-1558)

Mary I was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own

right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and

stubborn, her character was moulded by her earlier years: an Act of

Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the

succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother

Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death),

whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English

Protestant Church.

Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme

Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow

reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary also revived the old heresy laws to

secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a

religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different

religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). As a

result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart

from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and

author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics

were mostly poor and self-taught people. Apart from making Mary deeply

unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for

the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of

Mary's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests

of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off

after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these

possessions voluntarily as Mary invited them to do.

Aged 37 at her accession, Mary wished to marry and have children, thus

leaving a Catholic heir to consolidate her religious reforms, and removing

her half-sister Elizabeth (a focus for Protestant opposition) from direct

succession. Mary's decision to marry Philip, King of Spain from 1556, in

1554 was very unpopular; the protest from the Commons prompted Mary's reply

that Parliament was 'not accustomed to use such language to the Kings of

England' and that in her marriage 'she would choose as God inspired her'.

The marriage was childless, Philip spent most of it on the continent,

England obtained no share in the Spanish monopolies in New World trade and

the alliance with Spain dragged England into a war with France. Popular

discontent grew when Calais, the last vestige of England's possessions in

France dating from William the Conqueror's time, was captured by the French

in 1558. Dogged by ill health, Mary died later that year, possibly from

cancer, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH I (1558-1603)

Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7

September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne

Boleyn. Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of

succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward

was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-

sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her

illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a

failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November

1558. She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had

inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness from both parents. Her

45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English

history. During it a secure Church of England was established. Its

doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between

Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Elizabeth herself refused to 'make

windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the

rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity. Most of

her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her

church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those

which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century.

Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political

judgement and chose her ministers well; these included Burghley (Secretary

of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of

intelligence and also a Secretary of State). Overall, Elizabeth's

administration consisted of some 600 officials administering the great

offices of state, and a similar number dealing with the Crown lands (which

funded the administrative costs). Social and economic regulation and law

and order remained in the hands of the sheriffs at local level, supported

by unpaid justices of the peace.

Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, including

those of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly

to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of

colonisation and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by

establishing the East India Company in 1600.

The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as

Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high

point, theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The image of Elizabeth's reign is

one of triumph and success. The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana',

'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen'. Investing in expensive clothes

and jewellery (to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns), she

cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as

'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth

made at least 25 progresses during her reign.

However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty

for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from

France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-

70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from

their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after

plots against her life were discovered. One such plot involved Mary, Queen

of Scots, who had fled to England in 1568 after her second husband's murder

and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his

murder. As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as

Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible

assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586. Mary was also a

temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. In a letter of 1586 to

Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned ... to take my life and ruin my

kingdom ... I never proceeded so harshly against you.' Despite Elizabeth's

reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her

advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587.

In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory

over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The

Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman

Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the

English throne through his marriage to Mary.

During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices

and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the

1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had

been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though

she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts

to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost

over Ј5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not

match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to

some Ј392,000. Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged

war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16

sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the

period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto

legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define

Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he

would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages (as

in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain); marrying a fellow

countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth

used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic

policies. However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who

sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was,

in essence, 'married'. Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the

so-called 'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs: 'There is no jewel, be

it of never so high a price, which I set before this jewel; I mean your

love.' She seems to have been very popular with the vast majority of her

subjects.

Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive

leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home

and abroad. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a

legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession was a national holiday

for two hundred years.

THE STUARTS

The Stuarts were the first kings of the United Kingdom. King James I of

England who began the period was also King James VI of Scotland, thus

combining the two thrones for the first time.

The Stuart dynasty reigned in England and Scotland from 1603 to 1714, a

period which saw a flourishing Court culture but also much upheaval and

instability, of plague, fire and war. It was an age of intense religious

debate and radical politics. Both contributed to a bloody civil war in the

mid-seventeenth century between Crown and Parliament (the Cavaliers and the

Roundheads), resulting in a parliamentary victory for Oliver Cromwell and

the dramatic execution of King Charles I. There was a short-lived republic,

the first time that the country had experienced such an event. The

Restoration of the Crown was soon followed by another 'Glorious'

Revolution. William and Mary of Orange ascended the throne as joint

monarchs and defenders of Protestantism, followed by Queen Anne, the second

of James II's daughters.

The end of the Stuart line with the death of Queen Anne led to the

drawing up of the Act of Settlement in 1701, which provided that only

Protestants could hold the throne. The next in line according to the

provisions of this act was George of Hanover, yet Stuart princes remained

in the wings. The Stuart legacy was to linger on in the form of claimants

to the Crown for another century.

JAMES I (1603-25 AD)

James I was born in 1566 to Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband,

Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He descended from the Tudors through Margaret,

daughter of Henry VII : both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were

grandchildren of Margaret Tudor. James ascended the Scottish throne upon

the abdication of his mother in 1567, but Scotland was ruled by regent

untilJames reached his majority. He married Anne of Denmark in 1589, who

bore him three sons and four daughters: Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret,

Charles, Robert, Mary and Sophia. He was named successor to the English

throne by his cousin, Elizabeth I and ascended that throne in 1603. James

died of a stroke in 1625 after ruling Scotland for 58 years and England for

22 years.

James was profoundly affected by his years as a boy in Scottish court.

Murder and intrigue had plagued the Scottish throne throughout the reigns

of his mother and grandfather (James V) and had no less bearing during

James's rule. His father had been butchered mere months after James' birth

by enemies of Mary and Mary, because of her indiscretions and Catholic

faith, was forced to abdicate the throne. Thus, James developed a guarded

manner. He was thrilled to take the English crown and leave the strictures

and poverty of the Scottish court.

James' twenty-nine years of Scottish kingship did little to prepare him

for the English monarchy: England and Scotland, rivals for superiority on

the island since the first emigration of the Anglo-Saxon races, virtually

hated each other. This inherent mistrust, combined with Catholic-Protestant

and Episcopal-Puritan tensions, severely limited James' prospects of a

truly successful reign. His personality also caused problems: he was witty

and well-read, fiercely believed in the divine right of kingship and his

own importance, but found great difficulty in gaining acceptance from an

English society that found his rough-hewn manners and natural paranoia

quite unbecoming. James saw little use for Parliament. His extravagant

spending habits and nonchalant ignoring of the nobility's grievances kept

king and Parliament constantly at odds. He came to the thrown at the zenith

of monarchical power, but never truly grasped the depth and scope of that

power.

Religious dissension was the basis of an event that confirmed and fueled

James' paranoia: the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes and

four other Catholic dissenters were caught attempting to blow up the House

of Lords on a day in which the king was to open the session. The

conspirators were executed, but a fresh wave of anti-Catholic sentiments

washed across England. James also disliked the Puritans who became

excessive in their demands on the king, resulting in the first wave of

English immigrants to North America. James, however, did manage to

commission an Authorized Version of the Bible, printed in English in 1611.

The relationship between king and Parliament steadily eroded. Extravagant

spending (particularly on James' favorites), inflation and bungled foreign

policies discredited James in the eyes of Parliament. Parliament flatly

refused to disburse funds to a king who ignored their concerns and were

annoyed by rewards lavished on favorites and great amounts spent on

decoration. James awarded over 200 peerages (landed titles) as,

essentially, bribes designed to win loyalty, the most controversial of

which was his creation of George Villiers (his closest advisor and

homosexual partner) as Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was highly

influential in foreign policy, which failed miserably. James tried to

kindle Spanish relations by seeking a marriage between his son Charles and

the Spanish Infanta (who was less than receptive to the clumsy overtures of

Charles and Buckingham), and by executing Sir Walter Raleigh at the behest

of Spain.

James was not wholly unsuccessful as king, but his Scottish background

failed to translate well into a changing English society. He is described,

albeit humorously, in 1066 and All That, as such: "James I slobbered at the

mouth and had favourites; he was thus a bad king"; Sir Anthony Weldon made

a more somber observation: "He was very crafty and cunning in petty things,

as the circumventing any great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. inasmuch

as a very wise man was wont to say, he believed him the very wisest fool in

Christendom."

CHARLES I (1625-49)

Charles I was born in Fife on 19 November 1600, the second son of James

VI of Scotland (from 1603 also James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He

became heir to the throne on the death of his brother, Prince Henry, in

1612. He succeeded, as the second Stuart King of England, in 1625.

Controversy and disputes dogged Charles throughout his reign. They

eventually led to civil wars, first with the Scots from 1637 and later in

England (1642-46 and 1648). The Civil Wars deeply divided people at the

time, and historians still disagree about the real causes of the conflict,

but it is clear that Charles was not a successful ruler.

Charles was reserved (he had a residual stammer), self-righteous and had

a high concept of royal authority, believing in the divine right of kings.

He was a good linguist and a sensitive man of refined tastes. He spent a

lot on the arts, inviting the artists Van Dyck and Rubens to work in

England, and buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian

(this collection was later dispersed under Cromwell). His expenditure on

his court and his picture collection greatly increased the crown's debts.

Indeed, crippling lack of money was a key problem for both the early Stuart

monarchs.

Charles was also deeply religious. He favoured the high Anglican form of

worship, with much ritual, while many of his subjects, particularly in

Scotland, wanted plainer forms. Charles found himself ever more in

disagreement on religious and financial matters with many leading citizens.

Having broken an engagement to the Spanish infanta, he had married a Roman

Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, and this only made matters worse.

Although Charles had promised Parliament in 1624 that there would be no

advantages for recusants (people refusing to attend Church of England

services), were he to marry a Roman Catholic bride, the French insisted on

a commitment to remove all disabilities upon Roman Catholic subjects.

Charles's lack of scruple was shown by the fact that this commitment was

secretly added to the marriage treaty, despite his promise to Parliament.

Charles had inherited disagreements with Parliament from his father, but

his own actions (particularly engaging in ill-fated wars with France and

Spain at the same time) eventually brought about a crisis in 1628-29. Two

expeditions to France failed - one of which had been led by Buckingham, a

royal favourite of both James I and Charles I, who had gained political

influence and military power. Such was the general dislike of Buckingham,

that he was impeached by Parliament in 1628, although he was murdered by a

fanatic before he could lead the second expedition to France. The political

controversy over Buckingham demonstrated that, although the monarch's right

to choose his own Ministers was accepted as an essential part of the royal

prerogative, Ministers had to be acceptable to Parliament or there would be

repeated confrontations. The King's chief opponent in Parliament until 1629

was Sir John Eliot, who was finally imprisoned in the Tower of London until

his death in 1632.

Tensions between the King and Parliament centred around finances, made

worse by the costs of war abroad, and by religious suspicions at home

(Charles's marriage was seen as ominous, at a time when plots against

Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot in James I's reign were still fresh in

the collective memory, and when the Protestant cause was going badly in the

war in Europe). In the first four years of his rule, Charles was faced with

the alternative of either obtaining parliamentary funding and having his

policies questioned by argumentative Parliaments who linked the issue of

supply to remedying their grievances, or conducting a war without subsidies

from Parliament. Charles dismissed his fourth Parliament in March 1629 and

decided to make do without either its advice or the taxes which it alone

could grant legally.

Although opponents later called this period 'the Eleven Years' Tyranny',

Charles's decision to rule without Parliament was technically within the

King's royal prerogative, and the absence of a Parliament was less of a

grievance to many people than the efforts to raise revenue by non-

parliamentary means. Charles's leading advisers, including William Laud,

Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, were efficient but

disliked. For much of the 1630s, the King gained most of the income he

needed from such measures as impositions, exploitation of forest laws,

forced loans, wardship and, above all, ship money (extended in 1635 from

ports to the whole country). These measures made him very unpopular,

alienating many who were the natural supporters of the Crown.

Scotland (which Charles had left at the age of 3, returning only for his

coronation in 1633) proved the catalyst for rebellion. Charles's attempt to

impose a High Church liturgy and prayer book in Scotland had prompted a

riot in 1637 in Edinburgh which escalated into general unrest. Charles had

to recall Parliament; however, the Short Parliament of April 1640 queried

Charles's request for funds for war against the Scots and was dissolved

within weeks. The Scots occupied Newcastle and, under the treaty of Ripon,

stayed in occupation of Northumberland and Durham and they were to be paid

a subsidy until their grievances were redressed.

Charles was finally forced to call another Parliament in November 1640.

This one, which came to be known as The Long Parliament, started with the

imprisonment of Laud and Strafford (the latter was executed within six

months, after a Bill of Attainder which did not allow for a defence), and

the abolition of the King's Council (Star Chamber), and moved on to declare

ship money and other fines illegal. The King agreed that Parliament could

not be dissolved without its own consent, and the Triennial Act of 1641

meant that no more than three years could elapse between Parliaments.

The Irish uprising of October 1641 raised tensions between the King and

Parliament over the command of the Army. Parliament issued a Grand

Remonstrance repeating their grievances, impeached 12 bishops and attempted

to impeach the Queen. Charles responded by entering the Commons in a failed

attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament, who had fled before his

arrival. Parliament reacted by passing a Militia Bill allowing troops to be

raised only under officers approved by Parliament. Finally, on 22 August

1642 at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard calling for loyal

subjects to support him (Oxford was to be the King's capital during the

war). The Civil War, what Sir William Waller (a Parliamentary general and

moderate) called 'this war without an enemy', had begun.

The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 showed that early on the fighting

was even. Broadly speaking, Charles retained the north, west and south-west

of the country, and Parliament had London, East Anglia and the south-east,

although there were pockets of resistance everywhere, ranging from solitary

garrisons to whole cities. However, the Navy sided with Parliament (which

made continental aid difficult), and Charles lacked the resources to hire

substantial mercenary help.

Parliament had entered an armed alliance with the predominant Scottish

Presbyterian group under the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and from

1644 onwards Parliament's armies gained the upper hand - particularly with

the improved training and discipline of the New Model Army. The Self-

Denying Ordinance was passed to exclude Members of Parliament from holding

army commands, thereby getting rid of vacillating or incompetent earlier

Parliamentary generals. Under strong generals like Sir Thomas Fairfax and

Oliver Cromwell, Parliament won victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby

(1645). The capture of the King's secret correspondence after Naseby showed

the extent to which he had been seeking help from Ireland and from the

Continent, which alienated many moderate supporters.

In May 1646, Charles placed himself in the hands of the Scottish Army

(who handed him to the English Parliament after nine months in return for

arrears of payment - the Scots had failed to win Charles's support for

establishing Presbyterianism in England). Charles did not see his action as

surrender, but as an opportunity to regain lost ground by playing one group

off against another; he saw the monarchy as the source of stability and

told parliamentary commanders 'you cannot be without me: you will fall to

ruin if I do not sustain you'. In Scotland and Ireland, factions were

arguing, whilst in England there were signs of division in Parliament

between the Presbyterians and the Independents, with alienation from the

Army (where radical doctrines such as that of the Levellers were

threatening commanders' authority). Charles's negotiations continued from

his captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight (to which he had

'escaped' from Hampton Court in November 1647) and led to the Engagement

with the Scots, under which the Scots would provide an army for Charles in

exchange for the imposition of the Covenant on England. This led to the

second Civil War of 1648, which ended with Cromwell's victory at Preston in

August.

The Army, concluding that permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles

lived, decided that the King must be put on trial and executed. In

December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on

the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in

the first week of January 1649. On 20 January, Charles was charged with

high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead,

saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had

been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of

Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).

The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles

was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall,

London. The King asked for warm clothing before his execution: 'the season

is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine

proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.' On the scaffold, he

repeated his case: 'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the

people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life

and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in

Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a

sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an

arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the

Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I

am the martyr of the people.' His final words were 'I go from a corruptible

to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'

The King was buried on 9 February at Windsor, rather than Westminster

Abbey, to avoid public disorder. To avoid the automatic succession of

Charles I's son Charles, an Act was passed on 30 January forbidding the

proclaiming of another monarch. On 7 February 1649, the office of King was

formally abolished.

The Civil Wars were essentially confrontations between the monarchy and

Parliament over the definitions of the powers of the monarchy and

Parliament's authority. These constitutional disagreements were made worse

by religious animosities and financial disputes. Both sides claimed that

they stood for the rule of law, yet civil war was by definition a matter of

force. Charles I, in his unwavering belief that he stood for constitutional

and social stability, and the right of the people to enjoy the benefits of

that stability, fatally weakened his position by failing to negotiate a

compromise with Parliament and paid the price. To many, Charles was seen as

a martyr for his people and, to this day, wreaths of remembrance are laid

by his supporters on the anniversary of his death at his statue, which

faces down Whitehall to the site of his execution.

THE COMMONWEALTH INTERREGNUM (1649-1660)

Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649),

Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles

I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in

Scotland.

From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known

as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments

followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a

workable constitution without a monarchy.

Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a

troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the

issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious

toleration. In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of

Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer

of the throne. Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one

stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major

generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son

Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited

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