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The death of Buckingham
and after
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By 1628, George Villiers, Duke
of Buckingham was the most unpopular
man in England. He was widely blamed for exercising undue
influence over Charles and for the failure of the Cadiz and Rhé
expeditions. |
| John Felton was the son of a
Suffolk gentleman who pursued Catholic recusants for a living. John
served on the Cadiz expedition, and then joined the Isle of Rhé
expedition in its last disastrous days. He returned to England,
wounded, depressed and with a deep grievance against the Duke of
Buckingham for preventing his promotion. The House of Commons' attacks
on Buckingham convinced Felton that he was not Buckingham's only
victim.
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Felton decided to kill Buckingham. He wrote a
declaration of his intentions and sewed it inside his hat |
| [That man is
cowardly, base and deserveth not the name of a gentleman or
soldier, that is not willing to sacrifice his life for the
honour of his God, his King and his country. Let no man
commend me for doing of it, but rather discommend themselves
as the cause of it. For if God had not taken away our hearts
for our sins, he would not have gone so long unpunished.] |
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On 23 August 1628,
Felton went to the Greyhound Inn, Portsmouth and stabbed
Buckingham in the chest. He was soon seized Throughout his
interrogation, Felton insisted that he had acted alone.
Felton was executed on Tyburn Hill, 29 November 1628. His body
was taken back to Portsmouth and publicly hung up in chains |
The Greyhound |
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Felton was hanged, but his
deed was toasted throughout Britain; crowds flocked to his prison and
called down God's blessing; poets waxed lyrical on his glorious deed.
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Thomas Wentworth |
| After Buckingham's death, no one man took his place as favorite.
Instead, Henrietta Maria gradually gained a greater share of her
husband's affections.
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Thomas Wentworth
"... became a champion
patriot on all occasions. He might seem to have a casting
voice in the House of Commons, for where he pleased to dispose
his yea or nay, there went the affirmative or negative. It was
not long before the court gained from the country, and then
honours and offices were heaped on him ..."
[Fuller's Worthies} |
One minister whose power increased was Thomas Wentworth. He was
made a Viscount and President of the Council of the North in
December 1628. Wentworth had opposed the Forced Loan and protested
powerfully in the Parliament of 1628. But Wentworth wanted the king
to run government efficiently and regularly - he did not want the House of Commons to control policy. |
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| The death of Buckingham also paved the way to Charles'
reconciliation with John Digby, Earl of Bristol.
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John Cosin's Book of
Devotions
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Yet Buckingham's death did nothing to improve
relations with the House of Commons. This was in part because of
the policies Charles followed in the Church of England. He
pardoned and promoted Maynwaring, and made Montagu a bishop.
Charles and his chief bishops also encouraged and protected John
Cosin, whose Book of Devotions outraged many English
Protestants as crypto-Catholic. |
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James I had stymied puritan
attempts to reform English Church worship and government, but he had
been an orthodox Calvinist in his doctrine. Charles, in contrast,
supported churchmen who voiced doubts about the Calvinist doctrine of
predestination.
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To the 1628 Articles of Religion, Charles
prefaced a declaration forbidding the clergy to preach
or publish on the issue of predestination. In practice, this
was used to prevent the publication of books in its favor,
whilst anti-Calvinist works were not obstructed. The
Declaration also stated that the King in the Convocation of
clergy should govern the church (ignoring Parliament). |
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Charles I's chief advisor in religious matters
was William Laud, who in July 1628 was promoted to the Bishopric of
London. Almost all English books were printed in London, and so - as
Bishop - Laud now controlled which books were licensed. |
| The tensions on religious matters - along with many others -
erupted when Charles recalled parliament, 20 January 1629.
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John Selden |
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| The moment that parliamentary session commenced the famous
lawyer, John Selden was on his feet complaining that the Petition
of Right had already been infringed. The issue of the collection
of tonnage and poundage without parliamentary grant also provoked
immediate complaint. |
| Charles tried to mollify the House and it seemed a compromise
on tonnage and poundage was in sight, but then the religious
question was raised by Francis Rous (1580-1659), the puritan
step-brother of John Pym.
| Many MPs feared that dangerous innovations
were being made in the Church of England. In a few places,
clergymen had railed in their communion tables at the east
end of the church and begun to call these "altars". The
advocates of railed altars thought this simply displayed
proper respect. Their puritan opponents regarded the
practice as a return to popery - if not outright idolatry.
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Facing east to pray:
"is abominable, as being used by the Manichees and Pagans
(both which worshipped the sun-rising) by the antichristian
papists in their idolatrous Mass, and by necromancers and
sorcerers, when they act their enchantments. For surely it
little becomes Christians to follow witches and conjurors,
in their superstitious and devilish devotions, preferring
east before west, it being a ceremony of all others most
deserving to be rejected, as being heretical, papistical,
paganical, and magical."
[Peter Smart on
the Durham Cathedral altar] |
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Most of the House of Commons supported this
desperate move, and the few that wished to leave were prevented when
one enterprising Member (Miles Hobart) closed the doors and pocketed
the key. |
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Sir John Eliot then tried to introduce a series
of resolutions.
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"There
is in this paper, a protestation against those persons that
are innovators in religion; against those that are introducers
of any new customs; and a protestation against those that
shall execute such commands for tonnage and poundage; and a
protestation against merchants that, if any merchant shall pay
such duties, he as all the rest shall be as capital enemies of
the State, and whensoever we shall sit here again, if I be
here - as I think I shall - I will deliver myself more at
large, and fall upon the person of that man".
{Sir John Eliot, 2 March 1629] |
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Although there was no formal vote, much of the
House shouted its approval, before adjourning itself. |
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Charles immediately dissolved the Parliament
and soon after published a Declaration defending his actions, and
blaming the problems on a few troublemakers.
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"It hath
so happened that by the disobedient and seditious carriage of
those said ill-affected persons of the House of Commons, that we
and our regal authority and commandment have been so highly
contemned as our kingly office cannot bear, nor any former age
can parallel"
[Charles I, Declaration of the causes which
moved him to dissolve the last Parliament, 1629] |
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John Eliot, Denzil Holles,
William Valentine, William Strode, John Selden, Miles Hobart,
William Coryton, Peter Heyman, and Walter Long were all arrested for
their defiance of royal commands - (despite the fact that words and
actions in parliament were privileged, making it impossible for
Charles to bring them to trial). |
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All spent some time in prison.
Selden and others submitted and were released quickly. William Strode
and William Valentine stood firm on their legal rights and
parliamentary privilege, and remained confined until 1640. Denzil
Holles was fined and released on bail. John Eliot refused to admit his
guilt, insisted on parliamentary privilege, and died in the Tower of
London, 27 November 1632.
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"I refuse
to answer, because I hold that it is against the privilege of
the House of Parliament to speak of anything which was done in
the House."
[John Eliot to his interrogators] |
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