Marriage Ruined The Rule Of King Charles I

By: Rotich Wilson
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:26
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Marriage to Henrietta Maria of France, provided a template for the problems that forced King Charles I (1600- 1649) who was the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-1649) to dissolve parliament and recall it eleven years later.

Kings Charles I was listed in the Guinness book of records as the nation’s shortest king who was unable to walk or talk at the age of three.

The young democratic nations of Africa with energized opposition scoring a marginal win in the game of numbers, must learn to avoid the pitfalls of the personal rule of King Charles I. Charles fuelled hostility and not reconciliation with his parliament

The first parliament that King Charles opened in May, 1625 was strongly opposed to his marriage to Henrietta Maria, a Roman catholic because it feared that Charles would lift restrictions on Roman Catholics and undermine the official establishment of Protestantism(Williamson, D. 1998).

James VI king of Scots successfully requested parliament to sanction the marriage between his son Charles and Maria Henrietta of France. This was not only because it was as normal as a blue berry pie but also because she was the daughter of the former French king Henry IV and the sister of the then current king Louis XIII.

The couple did their colorful wedding on June 13, 1625 in Canterbury. However Charles was crowned on February 2, 1626 at Westminster Abbey but without the company of his wife due to the controversy.

King Charles prioritized foreign policy during his early reign. He treaded along paths of his marital relationship. Frederick V, Elector palatine his sister Elizabeth’s husband had lost his hereditary lands in the palatinate to the thirty years war. Originally it was only a war to keep the Catholic Habsburgs hegemonic as the elected kings of Bohemia though it spiralled out of control into a civil and confessional war between Protestants and Catholic in Europe.

Charles was committed to help his brother-in-law regain the palatinate by waging a war with the Catholic Spain king Phillip IV; he hoped he could force him to intercede with the emperor on his behalf.

Basing on the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis of itself, parliament preferred an inexpensive naval attack on Spanish colonies in the New World hoping that the capture of the Spanish treasure fleets could finance the war. However King Charles chose a more aggressive and consequently more expensive action on the continent

Therefore parliament voted to grant a subsidy of 140,000 pounds which according to Charles was insufficient. The House of Commons also graciously agreed to allow the king to collect tonnage and poundage, two varieties of custom duties only for a period of one year. This was a contract which could be renewed every year by the House of Commons which targeted to keep check on the powers of Charles.

However the allies of King Charles in the House of Lords under the leadership of Duke of Buckingham did not refuse to pass the Bill. Despite this failure to obtain parliamentary authority Charles continued to collect the tonnage and poundage anyway.

In a bid to keep his enemies out of parliament Charles appointed them sheriffs. As officers of the crown they were immediately disqualified from service in the House of Commons. He refused to grant a Writ of Summons, without which no person could be admitted to the House of Lords to John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol. He also Jailed Henry Howard, whom he charged with a misdemeanor.

The attempts of King Charles I to deprive parliamentarians of their office and freedom without affording them due process of the law and taxation without representation infuriated many members of parliament.

King Charles opened the second session of the parliament which had been prorogued in June 1628. He hoped that parliament would finally cooperate with him and grant him further subsidies. To his utter surprise, members of the House of Commons began to voice their opposition to the levying of tonnage and poundage without parliamentary consent.

When he requested a parliamentary adjournment in March, members held the speaker down in his chair whilst three resolutions against Charles were read aloud.

The last of those resolutions declared that anyone who paid tonnage or poundage not authorized by parliament would be reputed a betrayer of the liberties of England and an enemy to the same. Many members declared their approval though the resolution was not formally passed.

When Charles could no longer withstand the obnoxious measures passed on him by the House of Commons, he commanded the dissolution of parliament on March 10th 1629. The following eleven years in which king Charles ruled without a parliament have been known as the eleven years of Tyranny or the personal rule of Charles I. There were disputes concerning the interpretation of the peace treaty between Charles and the Church of Scotland. King Charles I needed more money in order to subdue the Scots. Therefore he recalled parliament in April 1640.

However that parliament proved unmovable and demanded the discussion of various abuses of power during the personal rule of Charles. Because it was unpalatable for Charles he dissolved it in May 1640, less than a month after it assembled. It was labeled the short parliament.

Following the advice of the magnum concillium the ancient council of all the Peers of the Realm who were considered to be the king’s hereditary Counselors Charles summoned another parliament which came to be known as the long parliament That long parliament was recalled in November 1640 led by John Pym. It was as difficult to negotiate with as the short parliament.

In a bid to prevent King Charles from dissolving it at will the long parliament passed the Triennial Act to which the “Royal Assent” was granted in February 1641. The act provided that parliament was to be summoned at least once every three years and that when the king failed to issue proper summons the members could assemble on their own.

In May 1641 king Charles assented to another Act which provided that parliament could not be dissolved without its own consent. This allowed that parliament to exist from 1640 until it was forcibly disbanded in 1653 by Oliver Cromwell who succeeded Charles I.

When the House of Commons armed with security of tenure threatened to impeach Charles catholic Queen Henrietta Maria king Charles took a desperate move. King Charles stormed the House of Commons with an armed force on January 4th 1642 but found that his opponents had already escaped. This hostility between him and parliament made the country so ungovernable that he had to be forced to exit power.

Article source: Expert Articles