435.  The King rules without Parliament; “Thorough.”

For the next eleven years (1629-1640) the King ruled without a Parliament.  The obnoxious Buckingham (S431) had led an expedition against France which resulted in miserable failure.  He was about setting out on a second expedition to aid the Huguenots, who had rebelled against the French King, when he was assassinated (1628).  His successor was Sir Thomas Wentworth, who later (1640) became Earl of Strafford.  Wentworth had signed the Petition of Right (S432), but he was now a renegade to liberty, and wholly devoted to the King.  By means of the Court of Star Chamber (S330) and his scheme called “Thorough,” which meant that he would stop at nothing to make Charles absolute, Strafford labored to establish a complete despotism.

Archbishop Laud worked with Strafford through the High Commission Court (S382).  Together, the two exercised a crushing and merciless system of political and religious tyranny; the Star Chamber fining and imprisoning those who refused the illegal demands for money made upon them, the High Commission Court showing itself equally zealous in punishing those who could not conscientiously conform to the Established Church of England.[1]

[1] To strengthen the hands of Archbishop Laud and to secure absolute uniformity of faith, Charles issued (1628) a Declaration (still found in the English editions of the Book of Common Prayer), which forbade any one to understand or explain the Thirty-Nine Articles (S383) in any sense except that established by the bishops and the King.

Charles exasperated the Puritans (S378) still further by reissuing (1633) his father’s Declaration of Sunday Sports, which had never really been enforced.  This Declaration encouraged parishioners to dance, play games, and practice archery in the churchyards after divine service.  Laud used it as a test, and turned all clergymen out of their livings who refused to read it from their pulpits.  When the Puritans finally got the upper hand (1644) they publicly burned the Declaration.

436.  “Ship Money”; John Hampden refuses to pay it, 1637.

To obtain means with which to equip a standing army, the King forced the whole country to pay a tax known as “ship money,” on the pretext that it was needed to free the English coast from the depredations of Algerine pirates.  During previous reigns an impost of this kind on the coast towns in time of war might have been considered legitimate, since its original object was to provide ships for the national defense.

In time of peace, however, such a demand could not be rightfully made, especially on the inland towns, as the Petition of Right (S432) expressly provided that no money should be demanded from the country without the consent of its representatives in Parliament.  John Hampden, a wealthy farmer in Buckinghamshire, refused to pay the twenty shillings required from him.  He did not grudge the money, but he would not tamely submit to have even that trifling sum taken from him contrary to law.  The case was brought to trial (1637), and the corrupt judges decided for the King.