Personal Rule

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  • Personal Rule 1629-40
    • Finance
      • Methods of collecting money
        • Ship Money 1635
          • Most profitable collection of money - £190,000 py brought in
          • Usually levied in times of emergency, only on coastal settlements
            • Charles imposed it in peacetime on whole nation. Continued to collect it each year - new form of taxation?
              • Financial absolutism according to Whigs
              • Falls to only 25% collection in 1639 - unpopularity of it
        • 1629 - £2million crown debt due to foreign policy and wars
          • Legally Justified
            • Customs Revenues - collected T&P w/out parliamentary consent. Allowed to w/ prerogative but uncommon
              • Crown revenue increased to £2000,000 py due to customs
            • Reducing expenditure - entrenchment. e.g. Ends Spanish war 1630 and French war 1629
            • Monopolies and Grants - could grant to companies through loophole e.g. 'Popish soap' granted soap monopoly to Catholic company = resentment
          • Fiscal Feudalism - Arbituary
            • Prerogative rights which had fallen into disuse
            • Commission for Defective Titles - raised rent of crown lands
            • Distraint of Knighthood - strained allegiance to crown. Yielded £170,000
            • Application of Forest Law - dubious. Extended boundaries of royal forests - could be fined for imposing on new boundaries. Yielded £40,000
      • Opposition
        • Hampden Case 1637
          • Gentry, refused to pay, national importance - huge public interest.
          • King only narrowly won the case - sparked dozens of petitions against SM = 1639 'tax revolt'
        • Some support Charles collection of money as he is king e.g. Kentish Gentry
          • However others complained of attack on personal liberties e.g. tenants of Earl of Warwick
    • Religion
      • Laudian Reforms
        • Abolished family pews, sign of status = angered gentry
        • Enforced visitations by bishops into running of Parish churches
        • Altar Reform - to be placed at east end of Church and railed off so separated priest from congregation
        • Book of Common Prayer to be enforced, 39 Articles and Catechism
        • Discipline and uniformity enforced across country
        • Beauty of Holiness - cultural and artistic reforms - elaborate furnishings
        • Believed in high church and salvation
        • Book of Sports 1633 - anti-sabbatarian - upset Puritans
        • Feofees for impropriation1633 - Puritan trustees taken to court and banned - attack on Puritans
        • Censorship of hostile pamphlets, preachers freedom of expression reduced, uniform rituals and practices enforced
        • 1640 Canons - affirm DR of K, Etcetera Oath to C of E - angers puritans
      • Arminianism
        • Fear of absolutism - obedience to state emphasised, use of prerogative courts
          • Puritans fear destruction - seemingly personal attacks e.g. Feoffees
        • Fear of Catholicism e.g. ritual, lead to absolutist monarchs
        • Crossover from religion into politics - Lord Treasure is Catholic
        • Gentry fear social disorder due to men of high status being challenged
      • Laud
        • Low-born, merchants son, resented by gentry
        • Fast promotion from Bishop of St.Davids 1625 to AB of C 1633
        • Rude, not likeable, bureaucrat, figure of ridicule
        • Some see Laud's reforms as downfall of Staurts
      • Opposition
        • Prynne, Bastwick and Burton 1637
          • Prynne denounced Bishops in 'News from Ipswich' and called female actors 'notorious whores'
            • Prosecuted by Star Chamber - ears cropped, imprisoned for life, £5000 fine
            • Burton and Bastwick prosecuted by Star Chamber for attacking Bishops in pamphlets
              • Made to stand in pillory, fined, SL branded on cheek, life imprisonment
            • People began to challenge PR - seen as tyrannical, blamed Laud. Huge public sympathy for PB&B - crowds cheered them on - seen as attack on gentry, public humiliation
        • Created political and social impacts
    • Thorough
      • Wentworth in Ireland
        • Plantations created by Protestant settlers off the Catholic pop - affecting native Irish and Old English settlers
          • Ireland previously a burden - deficit of £20,000 py, made them profitable from customs duties and exploiting Irish parl into granting him subsidies under Poyning's Law
          • Elevated king's prerogative and central authority but alienated people
          • Achieved strict control in Ireland but collapsed after he leaves
          • Imposed Laudian uniformity on the Church - introduced 39 Anglican articles 1634
            • Opposed by all four sections of society (old english, new english, native Irish and Ulster Prebysterians) + religious problems too deep-seated to  solve.
              • English feared policies as blueprint for absolutism in England
          • Created an Irish army, financed by the Irish
          • Restored alienated crown and church lands by intimidating juries and frightening opponents, capitalised on divisions to gain money
      • Council of the North
        • Extended royal rule by curtailing power of regional magnates
        • Enforced good poor relief and was fair to them, didn't favour the rich
        • Introduces Book of Orders 1631 - efficiency and thorough implemented
          • Created opposition - absolutist, interfering with local tradition of governance
    • Scottish Policy
      • 1st Bishops' War
        • Kirk meets 1638 - bans liturgy, ecclesiasticalcanons and bishops
        • C wants Scotland to choose King over religion = choose religion = war
        • C goes to war with scotland - unprecedented - usually call parliament before going to war
          • His army is inadequate, underestimates Scots' power, needs finances for war effort = has to call parliament = Short Parliament
            • Army reluctant to fight scots, people reluctant to pay taxes to fund war, poorly trained and equipped local armies
              • Treaty of Berwick - failed negotiations to disband armies = 2nd Bishops' War = Long Parliament
      • Religion in Scotland
        • Scottish Kirk = calvinist, low church, Presbyterian - powerful body in Scotland
        • Neglected by Charles and revokes grants of land in 1625 = discontent
        • Prayer book 1637 seen as attack on Scottish nationalism = united opposition against king
          • The Covenant forms 1638 - swift and organised opposition - abolished Bishops & national rebellion begins
            • Pledge for nationalism and calvinism
        • 1635 new liturgy = St Giles Cathedral riot in Edinburgh when new service read - too high church
    • Nature of Personal Rule
      • Charles' Court
        • Patronage of Catholic artists, factions, French Catholics due to HM,
          • raised suspicions of Arminianism - very 'political court'
          • Many pictures of himself around Court - fear of absolutist monarchy
          • Aim of dignity, morality and discipline - formal and rigid
          • Formal and private, inward looking
          • Maasques (spectacles, plays) disdained by Protestants - immoral
      • Local Government
        • Charles = conservative, no structural overhaul
        • Tried to increase uniformity and efficiency
        • Communities disliked outside intervention
          • Corruption of JPs and seen as absolutist
      • Law Courts
        • Star Chamber - non political, trivial matters - seen as despotic
          • Used to attack anyone opposed to gov policy
        • Increased revenue by imposing fines on 'criminals'
        • Staffed by Privy Council - bias towards King
      • Severe sentences, torture etc - tyrannical
      • Privy Council
        • Main organ of government in Personal Rule
          • Staffed prerogative courts and punished offenders
          • Advising monarch less important, Charles advised by closest advisors only
          • Charles rarely attended any meetings - absolutist?

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