Charles I / ABSOLUTISM “The State of monarchy is the supreme thing on Earth.... As to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so is it treason in subjects to dispute what a king may do...” 1625 King Charles I married Henrietta Maris, a French Catholic princess. 1626 Parliament tried to discredit the Duke of Buckingham. He was the king's advisor and he was not trusted by Parliament. Charles reacted by sending two MPs to prison. 1628 Parliament was supposed to vote for taxes, but because it wanted the king to agree to certain reforms, it voted against letting him collect a tax called the Customs Duty. Charles went ahead and collected this tax anyway. 1629 Charles dissolved Parliament. Since the MPs were causing him so much trouble, he decided to rule without them. The king did not allow Parliament to meet for the next eleven years. 1634 Charles needed money but there was no Parliament to vote new taxes. He looked back for forgotten taxes which had been voted in the past. There existed a Ship Money tax which was paid by counties on the coast in time of war, to be used for ship construction only. 1635 Charles changed the rules about the Ship Money tax. He started to collect it from all counties during peacetime. 1637 Charles tried to force Laud's new Prayer Book, which was influenced by Catholicism, on the people of Scotland. The Scots, who were very much Puritan, refused to accept it, and war broke out. 1640 Charles needed money to pay for the war he had provoked. He was forced to recall Parliament, but Parliament would not vote to help the king unless he agreed to certain reforms. 1641 The House of Commons made a list of demands for reform. These included that the king should only appoint ministers who had been approved by Parliament, and that Bishops should have less power. These and other demands became known as the Grand Remonstrance which was passed in |Parliament by a narrow majority. In the same year, the Irish Catholics rebelled against the English Protestants who were ruling Ireland at the time. In England, it was widely suspected that the king was on the side of the Irish and was trying to make England Catholic. 1642 Charles sent 400 soldiers to Parliament to arrest five of the leading MPs . The MPs had been warned that he was coming and had already left the building before the king arrived. “I see the

birds have flown,” said the King. Parliament was angry and voted to throw the Bishops out of the House of Lords. The MPs disagreed with the Church reforms which Archbishop Laud had proposed. Charles still needed an army to fight the Irish. Parliament did not trust the king to be in control of the army. On the other hand, the king refused to let Parliament control it. Charles moved his court to Nottingham and both king and Parliament raised their own armies. Parliament set out more demands for reform which became know as the Nineteen Propositions. Charles refused to accept them because they gave much of his power to Parliament. Both sides mobilized their armies and the Civil War began.

What were the reasons that each side had for going to war? $ / Taxes Charles I

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