In the first five years
of his reign Charles
I summoned and
dissolved Parliament three times. Charles now tried to rule England
without Parliament. For the next eleven years no Parliaments were
held. The king's main adviser was William Laud,
the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Laud argued that the king ruled by Divine
Right. He claimed
that the king had been appointed by God and people who disagreed with
him were bad Christians. Laud believed that Church reforms had gone
too far. Anglicans tended to support
the policies of Laud but the Puritans
strongly disagreed with
him. When Laud gave instructions that the wooden communion tables
in churches should be replaced by stone altars. Puritans accused Laud
of trying to reintroduce Catholicism.
William
Laud also upset the Presbyterians
in Scotland
when he insisted they had to use the English Prayer Book. Scottish
Presbyterians were furious and made it clear they were willing to
fight to protect their religion.
In 1639 the Scottish army marched on England. Charles, unable to raise
a strong army, was forced to agree not to interfere with religion
in Scotland. Charles also agreed to pay the Scottish war expenses.
Charles
I did not have
the money to pay the Scots and so he had to ask Parliament for help.
The Parliament summoned in 1640 lasted for twenty years and is therefore
usually known as The Long Parliament. This time Parliament was determined
to restrict the powers of the king.
The king's two senior advisers,
William Laud and Thomas
Wentworth were arrested and sent to the Tower
of London. Charged
with treason, Wentworth's trial opened on 22nd March, 1641. The case
could not be proved and so his enemies in the House
of Commons, led by John Pym, Arthur
Haselrig and Henry Vane, resorted to
a Bill of Attainder. Charles
I gave his consent
to the Bill of Attainder and Thomas
Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was executed on 12th May 1641.
Parliament then passed
a law that gave members control over the king's ministers.
Charles I was
furious and decided it was time to retaliate. On 4 January 1642, Charles
sent his soldiers to arrest Arthur Haselrig,
John Pym, John
Hampden, Denzil Holles and William
Strode. The five
men managed to escape before the soldiers arrived.
When the king demanded
to know where the Five Members were
the Speaker, William Lenthall, famously
replied: "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to
see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this House is pleased
to direct me, whose servant I am here; and humbly beg your Majesty's
pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your
Majesty is pleased to demand of me".
Members of Parliament no
longer felt safe from Charles and decided to form their own army.
After failing to arrest the Five Members, Charles fled from London.
Aware that Civil
War
was inevitable, Charles
began to form an army.
(1)
The Journal of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1642)
About 3 of the clock we
had notice that his majesty was coming from Whitehall
to Westminster with a great company of armed men but it proved otherwise
in the issue that they were only some of the officers who served in
his majesty's late
army and some other loose persons to the number of about some
400.
Mr. Pym and the other
4 members of our House who stood accused by his majesty's attorney
of high treason knowing that his majesty was coming to the House of
Commons did withdraw out of it. The House leaving it to their own
liberty whether they would withdraw or stay within, and it was a pretty
whiles before Mr. Strode could be persuaded to it. His majesty came
into the House with Charles Prince Elector Palatine with him a little
after three of the clock in the afternoon, who all stood up and uncovered
our heads and the Speaker stood up just before his chair. His majesty
as he came up along the House came for the most part of the way uncovered
also bowing to either side of the House and we all bowed again towards
him and so he went to the Speaker's chair on the left hand of it coming
up close by the place where I sat between the south end of the clerk's
table and me; he first spoke to the Speaker saying "Mr. Speaker
I must for a time make bold with your chair" . . . when he asked
for Mr. Pym whether he were present or not and when there followed
a general silence that nobody would answer him he then asked for Mr.
Holles whether he were present and when nobody answered him he pressed
the Speaker to tell him who kneeling down did very wisely desire his
majesty to pardon him saying that he could neither see nor speak but
by command of the House to which the king answered 'well well this
no matter I think my eyes are as good as anothers' and then he looked
round about the House a pretty whiles to see if he could spy any of
them.
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