Contextual Studies 3 (The Double Dealer)

England in the early 17th century (1)

1603- King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. He ended the war with the Spanish in 1604, and in 1611 had published his on translation of the bible "The King James Version". He also survived an assassination attempt "The Gunpowder Plot" in 1605.

1625- King James dies,and his son Charles I becomes king. From the beginning of his ruling, he had many a disagreements with parliament,due to his beliefs that he shared with his father, which was known as "The Divine Rights Of Kings". Charles was married to French Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria, but this was a wrong move in the eyes of the Puritans. Due to the unsuccessful wars Charles led, his parliament refused to raise taxes to pay for the Spanish war, in return Charles was angered by this and dissolved the parliament, then raised money by levying loans, if you didn't pay he would have you imprisoned without a trial. However by 1628 Charles was in desperate need of money , due to the costs of war, he regathered his parliament, and this time MPs drew up a petition that meant he could not levy taxes without the parliaments consent. Later The King and his parliament fell out over Religion, which was a concern back then as religion was a large part of day to day life in the 17th century. 1629 William Laud was the Bishop of London, and him and Charles shared the same opposing views when it came to the Puritans, this did not bode well with the parliament and so they refused to grant the King his taxes for a year, which ended in the parliament once again being dissolved.

1633- William Laud was made the Archbishop of Canterbury, and made it his mission to repress the Puritans, sending commissioners into parish's to make sure the churches were in line. He also tried to put a stop on the Puritan Preaches, also known as Lectures, however he only made a small dent on the Puritan's, and after he emphasized ceremony's and decoration within churches, the Puritans did worry that Catholicism would soon take over completely in England.   

Meanwhile Charles was still ruling without a Parliament for 11 years, which was know as 11 years of tyranny. Charles had many ways to raise money such as, making men who owned property that was worth a large sum knights. However in 1637, when The King started levying ship money, he was able to have ships made whenever he needed to due the the traditional tax system used in coastal towns. Eventually Charles started levying ship money in inland areas, and a squire from Buckinghamshire refused to pay this, which resulted in him being taken to court in 1637. Later that year Charles and Laud proposed religious changes on the Scots, this ended in Scotland becoming furious, a new pray book was introduced, and riots began in Edinburgh. Charles had to try and stop the Scots, and the ended in two humiliating attempts.

April 1640- Charles summons a Parliament once again, this was because he was in desperate need of their help to raise money, to be used in his Scottish Campaign, instead the Parliament just told him about the cons of the Campaign, and so in May Charles dissolves the Parliament once again. After followed the second bishops war, and in August of 1640 Charles was forced to make peace with the Scottish, after they invaded England and captured Newcastle, he dropped all the changes to religion in Scotland in return for the Scots to dive back Newcastle. Then in November Charles brings back his parliament as he is in dire need of raising more money. Parliament then made it clear that they could not be dissolved without their own consent, and also made it illegal for Fining owners to be made Knights, and ship money was also abolished. The parliament also passed Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stafford as a traitor, and as a result Wentworth was executed, as Charles was forced to sign off on the act.

(1) http://www.localhistories.org/17thcent.html