Charles I and His First Three Parliaments
by Charles I was the son of James I. He ruled over England for about 24 years (1625 to 1649).
His struggle with the Parliament is the most important event of his reign. Like, his father Charles picked up quarrel with each one of his Parliaments but went one step ahead in carrying it to a painful extreme.
And for that he had to sign his death warrant. So it will not be very much wrong to say that James I sowed the seeds of the wind and Charles I reaped the whirlwind.
Causes of the quarrel:
First, there was the religious difficulty. Charles I was enlightened high churchman and he was much friendlier than his father to Roman Catholics and equally opposed to the puritans. Like him, his queen was out and out a Roman Catholic.
She was assured by the king to help the English Roman Catholics for removing their disabilities on the other hand, the Parliament was dominated by the puritans and, therefore it was strongly anti-catholic. Hence the quarrel between the king and the Parliament became inevitable.
Secondly, the Parliament distrusted advisers who were all unworthy and more so the Duke of Buckingham, who happened to be the principal adviser and great favourite of Charles I.
Thirdly, the inglorious and ineffective foreign policy of Charles made the Parliament indignant and restive.
Lastly, Charles I, brought up as he was in the principle of the Divine Right to kingship, believed in the absolute right of his position. But Parliament was not prepared to yield to this principle, for it had at ready known its power, rights and privileges.
So the question arose once more over the old issue whether the sovereignty lay with, the kings or with the Parliament.’ All those factors led the quarrel afoot between Charles I and his Parliament.
The old quarrel merely broke out afresh.
Charles and His First Three Parliament:
Charles I summoned three Parliaments during the first four years of his reign and to his misfortune, each one of them fell out with king.
First Parliament (1625 A.D.):
In the year of his accession, Charles I summoned his first Parliament mainly for two reasons- First, he expected the Parliament would grant him tonnage and poundage for life. Tonnage was a source of revenue which was levied in the form of import duty on every ton of wine. Poundage was one in which a duty was imposed on every pound of imported dry goods both were collected by the king. But this was an indirect taxation that could be levied only by authority of the Parliament.
In the Second Place, Charles I intended that a grant of money be made to him for a war against Spain.
He had a strong belief that both his expectations would be fulfilled. But the Parliament did not act as he expected.
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