The long parliament

1
The long parliament
2
1st session Nov 1640-Sept 1641

• Marked by unity
• Even figures like Lord Falkland and Sir Edward
  Hyde (later leaders of a parliamentary Royalist
  party), supported attempts to restrain the royal
  prerogative remove the evil counsellors

3
Pyms initial tactics

• Blame evil advisers not king himself for
  steering nation towards absolutism Catholicism
• Desire to restore traditional balance of the
  constitution
• Delay any permanent settlement with the Scots
  underwrote a Crown loan from the City in Nov
  provided 2 subsidies in Dec (only enough to keep
  Scots paid)

4

• Triennial Act Feb 1641 parliament would meet
  every 3 years for minimum of 50 days
• Act preventing the dissolution of parliament
  without its consent (10 May 1641)
• Straffords execution impeached trial
  cumulative treason Bill of Attainder (Commons
  204-59 Lords 26-19) under pressure of mob
  Charles signed
• Laud Wren also impeached
• Windebank Finch fled to avoid similar fate

5

• "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons
  of men, for in them there is no salvation"
  (Strafford's words on hearing Charles had
  forsaken him)
• Yet, for all this, God forbid that I should be
  so ill a Christian as not to say God's judgments
  are just upon me. Many times he does pay justice
  by an unjust sentence, that is ordinary. I will
  only say this, that an unjust sentence
  (Strafford) that I suffered for to take effect,
  is punished now by an unjust sentence upon me.
  That is, so far as I have said, to show you that
  I am an innocent man. (speech of Charles I on
  the scaffold)

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Destroying the prerogative first signs of
disunity

• Prerogative Courts of Star Chamber High
  Commission abolished
• Ship money distraint of Knighthood declared
  illegal
• Collection of tonnage poundage without
  parliamentary consent outlawed
• Problem facing Pym how to safeguard initial
  achievements?

9

• Collapse of Bridge Scheme
• Deaths of Bedford (May) and Strafford (could have
  involved offices for Bedford, Earl of Essex, Lord
  Saye Sele, Pym, Denzil Holles Oliver St John)
• Bedford was the one person for whom Charles had
  any measure of trust remaining chance of
  compromise removed by the oppositions refusal to
  spare Strafford

10

• Root Branch Petition (debated Feb 1641)
• Called for abolition of episcopacy
• Many MPs feared removal of bishops would have
  dangerous implications belief in hierarchy
  (removal in church could influence secular
  society)
• Heated debate only agreement was to limit role
  of bishops in Government (even this rejected by
  Lords)

11

• Ten Propositions (June 1641)
• Passed in both Houses
• Called for Parliamentary approval of kings
  ministers (could not be presented as a correction
  of an imbalance of power that had emerged during
  the 1630s!)
• Danger!!! Charles left England to secure a peace
  treaty with Scots in Aug 1641

12
2nd Session Oct 1641-Jan 42

• Irish Rebellion
• Grand Remonstrance

13
(No Transcript)