Necessity, however, compelled the King to call a new Parliament. when it met, the Commons, under the lead of Sir John Eliot and other eminent men, proceeded to draw up articles of impeachment, accusing the Duke of Buckingham of mismanagement (SS243, 425).  To save his favorite from being brought to trial, the King dissolved Parliament (1626), and as no supplies of money had been voted, Charles now proceeded to levy illegal taxes and to extort illegal loans.  Sir John Eliot, Sir Edmund Hampden, cousin of the famous John Hampden (S436), and Thomas Wentworth refused (1627) to lend his Majesty the sum asked for.  For this refusal they were thrown into prison.  This led to increased agitation and discontent.  At length the King found himself again forced to summon Parliament; to the Parliament, Eliot and Wentworth, with others who sympathized with them, were elected.

432.  ThePetition of Right, 1628.

Shortly after assembling, the House of Commons, led by Sir Thomas Wentworth and John Pym, drew up the Petition of Right, which passed the Lords and was presented to the King for his signature.  The Petition was a law reaffirming some of the chief provisions of the Great Charter, which the nation, more than four centuries earlier, had extorted from King John (S199).  It stipulated in particular, that no taxes whatever should be levied without the consent of Parliament, and that no one should be unlawfully imprisoned for refusing to pay such taxes.  In the petition there was not an angry word, but as a member of the Commons declared, “We say no more than what a worm trodden upon would say if he could speak:  I pray thee tread on me no more.”

433.  Charles signs the Petition of Right, 1628; but he revives Monopolies.

Charles refused to sign the Petition; but finding that money could be got on no other terms, he at length gave his signature, 1628.[1] But for Charles to pledge his royal word to the nation meant its direct and open violation.  The King now revived the “monopolies,” which had been abolished under Elizabeth (S388).

[1] Petition of Right:  See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xvi, S17, and p. xxix.

By these grants certain persons bought the sole right of dealing in nearly every article of food, drink, fuel, and clothing.  The Commons denounced this outrage.  One member said:  “The `monopolists’ have seized everything.  They sip in our cup, they sup in our dish, they sit by our fire.”

434.  Eliot’s Remonstrance (1629).

Sir John Eliot (S431) drew up a remonstrance against these new acts of royal tyranny, but the Speaker of the House of Commons, acting under the King’s order, refused to put the measure to vote, and endeavored to adjourn.

Several members sprang forward and held him in his chair until the resolutions were passed, which declared that whoever levied or paid any taxes not voted by Parliament, or attempted to make any change in religion, was an enemy to the kingdom.  In revenge Charles sent Eliot to close confinement in the Tower.  He died there three years later, a martyr in the cause of liberty.