Episode 459: Personal Rule

and take up an active role in his government. And all throughout the realm it seems like the servants of the Crown were doing their duties. At the beginning of March, William Laud preached at Paul's Cross in celebration of the sixth anniversary of the King's ascension. He remarked that quote some are so woppishly set to sting that nothing can please their ears until it sharpened their edge against authority. I hope I shall offend none by praying for the

King end quote. But there are other counsilors going on. Sir Thomas Wentworth a name that we'll have to know. He had been dispatched to York as the Lord President of the North to curb disorder. But at the beginning of sixteen thirty two, he was further promoted to now the Lord Deputy of Ireland. The Lord Deputy of Ireland

was a critical position. Ireland was, for all practical purposes, a colony of Great Britain at this point, and as a consequence he was there to rule over the rebellious, not only Irish, but what we'll call the old English, who will get to in short enough term here now Wentworth, like lawd believed that only royal sovereignty could bring order

out of disorder and plan out of anarchy. As Lord Deputy of Ireland, therefore, he was inclined to drive himself over any opposition to consolidate the authority of the King to lead the people, and in particular the recent English settlers, the new English, into the pastors of obedience and docility. He believed fully in the powers of the King, and he believed them like scripture. Interestingly enough, it was Lawed

the preacher that was more practical than Wentworth. All the facets of royal power, by virtue of the fact that Parliament wasn't going to be called for eleven years, had to grow in stature. During this period. Proclamations of the Privy Council were now given legislative authority. There wasn't another choice, and Privy councilors could make laws on those matters which

actual courts neglected or simply avoided. The Star Chamber, that old institution that was developed under Henry the eighth, also enjoyed new authority with its enforcement of proclamations from the Council and his pursuit of any transgressors of royal prerogative. Now, of all the people who began to follow the law, there were, of course many who did not, and one

of the most prominent public offenders was William Prine. He had already aroused controversy throughout this period of independent rule with his strongly Puritan opinions. He was also a writer, and in the late autumn of sixteen thirty two Prinn's History Max a Scourge of stage players, launched a general assault upon the plays and players of London, with a particular attack upon the practice of boys playing female roles, of any women at all appearing on stage. This was

one of those sort of common targets of Puritans. He wrote that actresses were quote unquote notorious whores and asked quote if any Christian woman be so more than horrishly imputed to act to speak publicly on stage in presence of sundry men and women end quote. Now this was a very unfortunate sentence for Prine to write, because the Queen, Henrietta Maria, had only just taken part in a theatrical production entitled The Shepherd's Paradise, and did it just a

few weeks after this tract came out. The play itself was totally mild. It was recorded that it's audience that quote, my Lord Chamberlain saith that no chamber maids shall enter unless she sit cross legged on top of a bulk end quote. Nevertheless, Prine's attack upon female characters was reinterpreted in royal circles as an attack upon the Queen herself. He also denounced dancing as the cause of shame and wickedness. It was also well known that the Queen was quite

fond of dancing. Prine was ultimately sent to the Tower, where he faced prosecution by the Star Chamber and by the High Commission on Religious Affairs. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life, find five thousand pounds and expelled from London's Inn, where he had practiced law. The severity of this judgment was enhanced by the brutal order that both of his ears should be cut off, and the sentence was duly carried out. One of his ears was sent

to Westminster, the other Cheapside. In the spring of sixteen thirty three, the king returned to his homeland, Scotland. He made a leisurely journey northward and reached Edinburgh by the middle of June. His relations with Scotland in the past had not been entirely happy, but on this occasion he was crowned the King of Scotland in due order on the eighteenth of June. The coronation itself marked by ritual

and formal ceremony, and nobody was interested in this. Most of the Scots, brought up in the Presbyterian faith thought this looked a little bit too much like Roman popery. One of the complaints advanced by the Scots concerned the introduction of English ritual into their service. Yet the chief proponent of that ritual was about to be raised to the highest papal see in England when Bishop Laud came into the King's presence for the first time. After the

journey to Scotland. He was greeted with unfamiliar words quote, my Lord's Grace of Canterbury, you are most welcome quote. Charles had just heard of the death of George Abbott, the previous Archbishop of Canterbury. As Bishop of London, lud had been the King's principal religious adviser, but his authority had been ill defined. Now as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Laud became the source and spring of all English religion, with an energy and purpose that the King himself lacked.

Lord was an interesting man, prone to bouts of anxiety and small in stature. His harshness and rigor quickly made him enemies, particularly among the Puritans, whom he hated. To them, he was known as quote unquote the Shrimp. But soon enough, despite his size, his influence would be felt. In October of sixteen thirty three, he and the King caused to be republished King james Declaration of Sports, which had granted

a degree of entertainment and recreation on the sabbath. This indicated that the King's people should not be discouraged from dancing or archery, while the sports of leaping and vaulting would also be permitted for Calvinists and the stricter Sorts of Protestants. The declaration of Sorts was an anathema, and it was set to destroy the true religion. Lines were already being drawn. There were further provocations for the Puritans.

In the same period. The church authorities determined that the plain communion table should be moved from the middle of the church to the eastern end, where it was to be railed off. It then more closely resembled the altars of the old Roman Catholic faith. In addition, the priests now bowed towards it, and some of them employed the sign of the Cross to bless it, angering strict Calvinists

even further. The Archbishop Lowed was concerned to augment the beauty and the holiness of the rites of the church, inducing respect, if not awe. Laudianism as it has been known by historians, though wasn't Roman Catholicism. The archbishop in fact had a distaste for the Roman religion, and that distaste was genuine. Indeed, what lawd wanted more than anything else was to create a truly national church, void of zelotry and intolerance of the Puritans, as well as all

the superstitions of the Papists. He honestly didn't care a lot for theological argument, And on that everlasting debate that had plagued the Church since Martin Luther between free will and predestination, he said only that quote something about these controversies is unmasterable in this life end quote that being said, Laude clearly was choosing a side in this fight. He appointed only bishops who were firmly anti Calvinist. Now it

was believed also that he needed more. I guess you'd call them bureaucratic bishops, Bishops much more in the mold of a late medieval cleric, someone who could be a justice of the peace as well as being a bishop, a way to augment clerical power, to increase the strength of corporations of cathedral towns, a way to get those who were invested in the church back in the lifeblood of the government of England in a way that they truly had not been since Henry the Eighth and the

break with Rome. In addition, Laud decided to bring back the old processions and festivals of the late medieval period. With the republication of the Declaration of Sports, came a general relaxing of social custom. The ritual of quote unquote beating the bounds was soon followed by the parishes of London. Holy days like all Saints were celebrated for the first time since Henry the Eighth Day. The custom of the Lord of misrule returned, and with the attendant atmosphere of party, games, dancing,

and drinking of spiced ale. These feasts had never totally died away, but in this new atmosphere that was decidedly anti Puritan, they flourished, and as they flourished, they incensed the Puritans ever more. Now the king was to further test the loyalty of his nation in other ways, and the autumn of sixteen thirty four, writs of ship money were issued yet again for the first time ever, though

in a period of peace. The proximate cause for the reintroduction of this tax was the prospect of new alliances in Europe. The French and the Dutch had entered into an unlikely alliance to dominate the continent, and a secret treaty between England and Spain was deemed necessary by many at court to counterbalance it. There was no hope, however, that the members of the king's own council would countenance the fact of an English force taking the part of

Spain against the Dutch. How many asked, could the King of England the pre eminent Protestant power in Europe, or at least that's the way England liked to think of itself, ally with the pre eminent Catholic power, and attack a Protestant republic, It's just anathema. Once again, Charles relied upon intrigue with any or every party that seemed likely to favor him. He had to conceal his alliance with Spain and pretend that the ships were being prepared as a

defense against a potential attack from all directions. It was said that we needed to protect English trade not from Spain, but from Tunis and Turkey Is maybe as much as France. So the King claimed the right of sovereignty in all of his sees, including the English Channel and of course the North Sea. The first writs of ship money were dispatched only to the ports into the towns along the coast. They were ordered to provide a sum sufficient to fit out a certain number of ships, as well as to

maintain them and their crews for six months. The money was to be given to a collector appointed by the crown. London alone attempted to oppose this tax, having been required to raise one fifth of the total, but the town council and mayor were quickly subdued with threats and talks of treason. That's not going to work forever. Again, the question kept coming up, though, what was the purpose of

this fleet that was being prepared. In the spring of sixteen thirty five, the first fleet raised by ship money

finally took sale. The forty two vessels, nineteen of them over fifty tons, set forth with orders to curb piracy, protect English traders, prevent the Dutch from fishing in English waters, and, according to one news writer Edward Rossingham, quote, to preserve the sovereignty of the narrow seas from the French king, who had the design, longed to take it from us, and therefore he hath provided a very great navy unquote. In other words, what were these ships intended to do?

The answer might come everything. The answer might also come nothing. So the ship money had been raised in the end, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of loyalty, and the success of the tax ensured survival in the following year, ship money was again required, this time not by just the towns and ports on the water, by the whole country. It was argued that since counties and urban corporations were interested in the honor, profit and safety of the English seas,

that was appropriate that everybody should chip in. The appeal worked, and the tax of sixteen thirty five became the model for the next five years, in which eighty percent of the money that was demanded by the king was paid. This, however, as we're about to see, would be one of the few long term success stories of Charles's finance during his period a personal rule. In the summer of sixteen thirty six,

Charles and Henrietta Maria paid a visit to Oxford. It was now, in essence, you could just rename it to Lawd University. The archbishop had that much power over what went on there. Yet only the academic officials paid homage to the royal couple as they rode through the streets. There were no calls of God save the King. The scholars and the citizens alike stood silent, and this didn't bode well, And it was a little reminder that personal

rule was building up steadily grievances amongst Charles's people. The fines for encroaching on royal forests had quote brought more prejudice upon the court and more discontent upon the King from the considerable parts of the nobility and gentry in England than any one action that it had its rise from the King's will and pleasure. Charles had alienated his subjects in a lot of different ways, many of them religious. He had unilaterally published a book of canons, which he

required to be adopted by the Scottish Church. Now could receive the sacrament except on his or her knees. No man was allowed to cover his head during the divine service. No person was allowed to engage in spontaneous prayer. The clergy was not allowed to hold private meetings to explain and expound upon the scriptures. This was detested by many in England, and certainly by the Presbyterians in Scotland, and

soon enough that bill would become due. In the spring of sixteen thirty seven, a new service book for Scotland was published by the King. It applied much of the English Book of Common Prayer and abolished most of John Knoxus's Book of Common Order. It was in effect another English imposition, bearing all the marks of the intervention of Archbishop Laud. It was first read in public at Saint Giles,

recently become the Cathedral Church of Edinburgh. The dean ascended the pulpit, but when he began to recite the words of the new book, shouts of abuse came from the women of the congregation. The shouts sounded the mass is entered upon us, but all is in the church. The Bishop of Edinburgh then stepped forward to try to calm the angry women and begged them to desist from profaning holy ground. This was not a phrase to be used in front of a Puritan assembly, and further abuse was

screamed against him. He was denounced as a fox, as a wolf, as a belly god. One of the women hurled her stool at him. It missed him barely and almost managed to hit the dean of the college behind him. The magistrates were then called to clear the church, but the women, once ejected, surrounded the building. Its great doors were pummeled and stones were flung in its windows. As the unhappy ceremony proceeded to its end, cries could be heard outside of quote a pape, a pape antichrist stone him,

pull him down. Quote. When the bishop came out, the women shouted to kill the man. Now what's fascinating about this whole episode is that it is not a spontaneous action. It's not this random confluence of events that takes place to bring this into being. Really, what this was was an organized assault on the new service Book that the

Presbyterians already knew was coming. Certain nonconformist gentry and clergy had been planning this event for about three months, and even though the scale of the riot was not perhaps and has anticipated regardless, the incident quickly became known both in Scotland and down in England as Stony Sunday. Now, on hearing the news of the riots in Edinburgh, the King ordered the immediate suppression of the malcontents in a city where the majority of the populace was on their side.

This frankly wasn't possible. Laud asked the Scottish bishops if they were ready to quote cast down the milk they had given because a few milkmaids had scolded them. I hope they will be better advised end quote. Yet it was Archbishop Laud here who was in need of advice. The Edinburgh magistrates stated that no member of the clergy would be able to read the new service. Most of the ministers adherd its contents, and all of them feared

further riot. Petitions were now arriving from all parts of Scotland, deploring these new papist intentions, this new prayer book that was so far from the old form of worship of Scotland. The Scottish Council wrote to the King that the interventions were simply unprecedented and not acceptable. Their remonstrances became all the more urgent when a second riot broke out in Edinburgh. The news had spread that the Lord Provest had tried to prevent a petition against the service book from ever

reaching London. The petitioners, as they became known, were now the largest contingent in this very rebellious city. Charles back in London, he didn't know what to do. He had not anticipated such an unwelcome act of defiance. It's referred that his very first words were quote, I mean to be obeyed end quote. But how is he going to enforce his will? He didn't have an army and only

unwilling support from his representatives in Scotland. A solution to the immediate impasse was then suggested by members of the Scottish Privy Council. The petitioners would leave Edinburgh and return to their homes, leaving a group of commissioners to speak

and act in their names. It was clear that these commissioners, as they will be called, and as I'm going to refer to them, are going to essentially become the government of Scotland from this point forward in our story, and as possible to see all of these incidents in Edinburgh as a prelude to the more fatal incidents that are going to lead to a civil war in England. I mean, but that is ex post facto, like there's no way that anybody at the time could have looked at this

and seen that coming. I mean, let's be honest. This was a minor uprising in Scotland. To put it mildly, it was religious in nature, but nobody had refused to pay any taxes. Yet there wasn't a complete abrogation of royal authority. This was a group of individuals that was upset about the imposition of religious change. Again in the sixteenth seventeenth centuries. There's nothing new here. This is you know, rinse and repeat. Charles should have been able to deal

with this. The only problem is he was not the man for the hour, folks, as we're going to see. Instead, Scotland had set an example of defiance that was regarded by admiration in England, at least by some Now another great controversy concerning the king's authority now emerged in London. In the summer of sixteen thirty seven, the King decided to call John Hampton before the Court of Exchequer for

refusing to pay his portion of ship money. Hampden having been imprisoned for ten years earlier for declining the King's forced loan. You know, but he didn't seem to have cared that experience didn't curb his independence, and so at the beginning of the year twelve senior judges declared that, in the face of danger to the nation, the King had a perfectly fine right to order his subjects to

finance the preparation of a fleet. In addition, they declared that in the event of the refusal, the King was entitled to use compulsion. One contemporary historian wrote, quote the judges could not have delivered a more important decision. It is one of the great events of English history. Quote. The royal prerogative of ship money had become essentially the

foundation and cornerstone of Charles's entire government. Another would write that, if indeed it could be exacted lawfully, quote, the King, upon like pretense, might gather the same sum ten twelve or one hundred times redoubled, and so to infinite proportions to anyone shire, when and as often as he pleased, And so no man was in conclusion worthy of anything end quote. It was a powerful argument and one that was going to be tested in the trial of John Hampton.

The court case lasted from November of sixteen thirty seven all the way through the following summer of sixteen thirty eight. It was watched with extreme interest by the political nation. This was really a test of power between sovereign and subject. Was considered to be one of the the most significant cases ever put to judgment. The prosecution essentially rested upon two points. The Crown contended that all precedents from the time of the Anglo Saxons were going back to the

Anglo Saxons. Guys allowed the King to gather money for his navy. Okay, that's relatively undisputed. Hampton in turn argued back that previous methods of taxation had in no way resembled the recent rips for ship money that had been sent to inland counties. Now the Crown turned back and defended the reasonableness of its claim for financial assistance in face of foreign danger. By the time, I mean, after all,

it took so long for Parliament to be assembled. By the time it got there to debate the member that the country could be an attacked. Heck, England itself could be invaded. There wasn't time to put these questions to Parliament. This is why you had an executive. The King had to act. Now turned around and argued that, well, you know what, but the rits had been sent out six months before any ships were fitted, and honestly, guys, there

was ample time for an assembly at Westminster. Besides, the writs were, in any case contrary to statutes forbidding any tax without the consent of Parliament. So what's the big deal here? Now? As this all went back and forth, the court was packed with spectators. A squire from Norfolk had come to London simply to attend the trial. But when he arrived the crowd was already so great that he could only get two three yards from the door, and this was at dawn. Those who did obtain entrance

seemed largely to have been on Hamden's side. When one of his councils, Oliver Sinjin, opened the defense, he was, according to a Puritan observer quote, much applauded and hummed by the bystanders, though my Lord Finch, the Chief Justice, signified his displeasure for it end quote. At the close of sin John's argument, everyone applauded again. The argument continued beyond the walls of the court. Debates between the opposing

sides were fierce. They were spilling out. They were in the streets, they were in the markets, they were in the taverns. Everybody was talking about Hampton in his defense. This had become, I guess, the oj trial, except there wasn't a murder. People used to argue about ship money. Isn't that quaint? The judges deliberated and eventually gave a

decision in favor of the court seven to five. It was the smallest of all possible majorities for the King Nevertheless, the words of the Chief Justice and his support were repeated throughout the country. Finch declared, and he was going to eat these words. Don't worry that quote acts of Parliament to take away royal power in the defense ends of the kingdom are void end quote, or as another judge put it rather inadvisedly, quote rex st lex. The king is the law. Now it seemed the ancient rights

of the Englishmen were of no importance. The declarations of the Magna Carta and the petition of right had become inconsequential. Neither law nor parliament could bind the king's power. In our next episode we see just how it long that principle can last.