Charles I - Complete Fact File

On the 1st 1625 May Charles married Henrietta Maria. He was not at the ceremony.

Charles refused to go to his coronation as it was a Protestant ceremony. 

Charles ignored Parliament and continued to collect Tonnage and Poundage.

Charles seemed unable to understand different viewpoints from his own. 

Charles was a weakling brought up in the shadow of an accomplished older brother who died on smallpox when he was 12.

Charles was shy and hampered by a speech defect. Both led to him being unapproachable and, more damaging, uncommunicative with Parliament.

In the 1625 Parliament, they only granted Charles two subsidies worth £140k, Tonnage & Poundage for one year. Charles would have to keep calling Parliament.

Charles response to Parliamentary criticism of Buckingham and Montagu was to dissolve Parliament.

The Godly Network was strengthened through blood and marriage.

By 1635 the total for military & naval preparations was £66k. Whereas in 1620’s had seen about £500k spent

In 1635 - £213k was collected for ship money 98% of what was predicted to be raised.

For Charles’s marriage, he received a payment, dowry, of £240,000.

Charles tried to please parliament by ordering the punishment of Recusants and threatening the return of English ships used against the Protestant French Huguenot’s of La Rochelle and therefore sparking a possible war against the French.

The Old English Catholics in Ireland had been granted 3 ‘graces’ in 1628 (a relaxation of the use of the oath of supremacy) in return for paying subsidies worth £120,000 over three years.

Sir Edward coke and Thomas Wentworth had been removed from parliament by ensuring they will pick as Sheriffs. Sheriffs were responsible for organising the polls and therefore could not stand for elections.

The English fleet under the command of Edward Cecil in September but failed to take the Spanish port of Cadiz or capture the Spanish treasure fleet. More English troops were actually lost at Cadiz to local Spanish wine and lack of food then enemy gunfire.

The troops for the German mercenary, were raised by force and shipped to Holland with no training & limited equipment. 4k and 6k troops died of disease & starvation.

Buckingham chaired a theological debate at his London home (York House) in February 1626. The focus was on the writings of Montagu. Charles did not attend.

At court, figures like Lord keeper John Williams and the Earl of Arundel, who were not supporters of Buckingham, were respectively dismissed and arrested.

Charles immediately antagonised the 1626 parliament by getting the Calvinist William Lord to preach the open sermon. In his sermon, Lord stressed obedience the king.

Charles dissolution of Parliament in 1629 was merely the formal ending of a relationship that had already collapsed.

Charles’s drive to collect the forced loan alienated some of his subjects so much so they were no longer prepared to trust the King. 

Charles resorted to a benevolence – voluntary payment in times of need using King’s prerogative. In 1626, few volunteered. 

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