Unit 1C - Britain, 1625-1701: conflict, revolution and settlement
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To what extent did the failures of the English government in the years 1625-42
arise from a lack of money?
Between 1625 and 1642, King Charles l and his parliament continually challenged one
another, steadily worsening the strain on the British government. In fact, not once did they
have a productive meeting, which did not follow with Charles dissolving parliament. This
was caused by a multitude of faults: for instance, parliament’s harsh intolerance and
uncooperative stature, Charles’ religious views and his chosen advisors. The most consistent
concern, however, was the crown’s financial lacking, as parliament relentlessly denied the
King taxation, creating a chain reaction of disasters, and making it the primary reason for
governmental failure.
Arguably, the issues between King Charles l and parliament began in June 1625, when they
met for the first time. The crown had a practically empty treasury once Charles was
coronated, due to his father’s inability to solve the country’s deficient economic situation
following Elizabeth’s hypercautious reign, as well as the ongoing expensive wars with Spain
and France. So, he called parliament to gain the customary Tonnage and Poundage for life,
but was shocked by their decision to only grant him this right for one year. Charles, known
to have been arrogant by nature and his firm belief in Divine Right, regarded this as an insult
which aimed to challenge his authority. This, therefore caused a bitter beginning to
governmental relations, and galvanised their spiral of failures. However, it could also be said
that it was Charles’ poor primary choices which led to parliament’s strict manner. The new
king and his military advisers launched the disastrous Mansfield Campaign, which failed
tremendously, causing English Parliament to doubt the capabilities of those Charles gave
authority to. Not only this, the monarch chose to marry the French, and Catholic, Henrietta
Maria in May 1925; enraging the Protestant parliament who saw this as extremely
disreputable, due to England’s rocky past with Catholics (e.g. the gunpowder plot of 1605),
as well as their current feud with France. Despite this, it was parliaments restriction of
Tonnage and Poundage which prevented initial success of the British Government, as it had
no money to make any significant improvements in the country.
Another example of finance causing problems for 17th century British politics was Charles’
employment of forced loans. Following the King’s second failed request for funding in 1626,
he resorts to the illegal method of forcing his subjects to give money to the crown, with the
threat of arrest if they refused. This led to the ‘Five Knights Case’ of 1627, when five knights
were incarcerated after ignoring the King’s order, becoming a fairly public outrage;
subsequently allowing parliament to bribe Charles with a small amount of money, seeing his
desperation, to sign a ‘Petition of Rights’. It wasn’t so simple however, as Charles revised the
document, as well as only agreeing to sign it if they granted him Tonnage and Pondage for
life. Parliament accepted this, and the new set of rules were instated, including one officially
banning forced loans. This shows parliament seeming to use Charles’ lack of money as a
bargaining chip for extending their own power, which caused the King to later lash out due
to his frustration, by promoting his advisor most hated by the MPs, the Duke of
Buckingham, but this only led to even more ultimatums from parliament. Although, Charles
also began to ignore the ‘Petition of Rights’ and request more forced loans, even with
Tonnage and Poundage. This of course received opposition from parliament as he was
beginning to seem tyrannical, which resulted in the revoking of funding, and successively
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