Early reign of Charles I

Prince Charles c. 1616

Charles & Buckingham

The accession of Charles

Charles was a quiet, shy child and he remained reticent all his life - unable and unwilling to explain his actions to others. One of his first orders as monarch was that no one should be admitted to his presence without his specific permission. Charles I's court was far more formal than his father's had been.

Charles in 1620

Charles was unimaginative as well as uncommunicative, and always suspected those who disagreed with him of the worst motives.

Although Charles had not got on especially well with his father, he did inherit his views on the absolute power of monarchs. Unlike in James' case, his high theory of the Divine Right of Kings was not offset by early experience of the rough practicalities of Scottish politics. Throughout his life, Charles was dogmatic and unwilling to compromise.

Henrietta Maria,
as painted by Sir Peter Lely

Charles' and Buckingham's anti-Spanish stance after the failed wooing of the Infanta soon found its outlet in an alliance with France. The bond of the new partnership was Charles' marriage to Henrietta Maria (1609-69) - the daughter of Henry IV and Marie de Medici.

In order to obtain the alliance, Charles and Buckingham put pressure on James to make important (secret) concessions in the Marriage Treaty of 1624. Not only were Henrietta Maria and her household permitted to practice their Catholic faith, but it was also agreed to suspend the laws against English Catholics.

"The Queen, howsoever little of stature, is of spirit and vigor, and seems of more than ordinary resolution"

Charles and Henrietta were married by proxy in May 1625: She was fifteen and he was twenty-five. Henrietta Maria was pretty, but she also liked to get her own way, and initially her relations with Charles were strained. In 1626, Charles sent most of her French attendants back to France.

Within a couple of years, however, Charles and Henrietta patched over their differences and soon became a close and affectionate couple.

The finding of Moses,
by Orazio Gentileschi (one of Henrietta Maria's clients).

Henrietta Maria was a patron of artists, and liked to organize court pageants. Her taste for acting in masques played a part in the punishment of William Prynne for his attack on the theater.

The intimacy of Charles and Buckingham was not diminished by Charles' marriage. If anything, Buckingham's power increased as he took charge of the preparation for war with Spain.

The parliaments of Charles I
Parliament	Sessions
1625	18 June - 11 July 1625 1 - 12 August 1625
1626	6 February - 15 June 1626
1628	17 March - 26 June 1628 20 January - 10 March 1629
1640 "The Short Parliament"	13 April - 5 May 1640
1640 "The Long Parliament"	3 November 1640 - 20 April 1653
(1644 The Oxford anti-Parliament)	22 January - 16 April 1644

The Parliament of 1625

Charles hurriedly summoned Parliament - convinced that it would readily vote large sums for the war with Spain. Unfortunately for Charles, the fall of Breda (26 May 1625) made it difficult for the Dutch (natural anti-Spanish allies) to support him actively.

At home, the concessions to English Catholics ordered by Charles on his marriage, made parliament suspicious and uncooperative. The Speaker of the House of Commons first plea to the King was "really to execute the laws against the wicked generation of Jesuits, seminary priests and incendiaries, ever lying wait to blow the coals of contention".

Suspicion of Charles' soundness in religious matters and doubts about how the taxation voted in 1624 had been spent, led the Commons to vote only about £140,000.

" ... the promises and declarations of the last parliament were in respect of a war. We know yet of no war nor of any enemy. We have yet no account of the money which they say is ready: but what account is to be given of 20,000 men, of many hundred thousands of treasure, which have been expended without any success of honor or profit?"

(Sir Robert Phelips MP, June 1625)

Buckingham was annoyed, believing that parliament had egged him and Charles onto war and were now reneging on their commitments after he and Charles had made promises in good faith. His open display of this annoyance only increased the Commons' doubt about his suitability to organize a major campaign.

While Parliament was sitting, an outbreak of Plague spread in London. Parliament was temporarily suspended and resumed sitting in Oxford in August.

Charles tried to extract more money. Buckingham was sent personally to plead for their foreign policy to the MPs. But Buckingham's grandiose speech only made them more fearful that he was assuming excessive powers, and the Commons refused to vote additional taxation unless its members could supervise its expenditure.

Christchurch Hall, Oxford, where Buckingham addressed the Commons

Not only did the Commons refuse to give Charles adequate money for a serious war-effort, it voted tonnage and poundage (the customs duties traditionally granted for life at the monarch's accession) for only one year. The House of Lords considered this so insulting to Charles that they refused to endorse the Act.

The Commons may well only have meant this vote as an interim measure until further discussions could resolve disagreements. But Charles dissolved the parliament (as Plague had now reached Oxford) and simply took tonnage and poundage without parliamentary authority. This produced another grievance that - along with his continued collection of impositions - disrupted his future relations with parliament.