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Charles I, the Privy Council and the Parliament of 1628

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Richard Cust
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Extract

Those present in the council chamber around teatime on Friday, 4 April 1628 would have witnessed one of the more hopeful scenes in die politics of die late 1620s. Sir John Coke, Secretary of State, arrived hotfoot from die House of Commons to announce diat it had voted to grant die crown five subsidies. The king, who had been waiting for die news, expressed ‘joy and contentment, saying he was more happy than any of die kings his predecessors …’;

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Research Article
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 2 , December 1992 , pp. 25 - 50
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Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1992

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References

1 Court and Tunes of Charles I, 2 vols., ed. Birch, T. (1848), I. 337Google Scholar.

2 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, 6 vols., eds. Johnson, R. C., Keeler, M. F., Cole, M. J. and Bidwell, W. B. (New Haven, 1977–1983), II. 324–5Google Scholar.

3 Ibid, II. 327; Court and Times, I. 338–40; Col. State Papers Venetian 1628–9, 60.

4 This literature includes: Gardiner, S. R., History of England, 1603–1642, 10 vols. (1883–1884), VI. 230–338Google Scholar: Relf, F. H., The Petition of Right (Minneapolis, 1917)Google Scholar; Russell, C. S. R., Parliaments and English Politics 1621–1629 (Oxford, 1979), 323–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Guy, J. A., ‘The origins of the Petition of Right reconsidered’, Historical Journal, XXV (1982), 289–312CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Flemion, J. S., ‘“A savings to satisfy all”: the House of Lords and the Petition of Right’, Parliamentary History, X (1991), 27–44Google Scholar. Gardiner and Russell take most account of the general development of royal policy.

5 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 58; Cust, R. P., The Forced Loan and English Politics 1626–1628 (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar.

6 Proceeding in Parliament 1628, II. 325.

7 Cust, , Farced Loan, 72–85Google Scholar.

8 Proceedings in Parliament 1610, 2 vols., ed. Foster, E. R. (New Haven, 1966), I. 276Google Scholar. The earliest instance of this which I am aware of is Robert Cecil's linking of the activities of those agitating against monopolies in 1601 with ‘popularity’: Neale, J. E., Elizabeth I and her Parliaments 1584–1601 (1957), 386Google Scholar. Cecil and his allies deployed a similar rhetoric against those MPs who complained about purveyance in 1605–6: Croft, P., ‘Parliament, purveyance and the City of London 1589–1608’, Parl. Hut., IV (1988), 25Google Scholar, 34n; Willson, D.H., ‘The Earl of Salisbury and the “court” party in parliament, 1604 10’, American Historical Review, XXXVI (1931), 279Google Scholar.

9 For council discussions and memoranda from 1613, 1615 and 1620 in which these views were advanced, see Spedding, J. A., Life and Letters of Francis Bacon, 7 vols. (1861–1874), IV. 366–73Google Scholar, V, 181, 190, VII. 116; Willson, D. H., ‘Summoning and dissolving parliament, 1603–25: the council's advice to James I’, American Hist. Rev., xlv (1940), 279–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For 1625 and 1626, see Hacket, J., Scrinia Reserata. A Memorial of John Williams D.D., 2 parts in 1 vol. (1693), II. 17, 20Google Scholar; Cust, , Forced Loan, 17–18Google Scholar.

10 Public Record Office, S.P. 16/94/88.

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13 Ibid, S.P. 16/94/88.

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22 Russell, Parliaments and English Politics, chap. v. For example on 2 April Phelips carefully steered the House away from Eliot's proposal for considering ‘ill counsels’: Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 251. It was also significant that the Commons did not take more vigorous action against Attorney-General Heath after revelations that he had altered the King's Bench controlment roll in the Five Knights Case: Guy, ‘Origins of the Petition of Right’, 296–9; Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 231.

23 Cogswell, T. E., ‘A low road to extinction? Supply and redress of grievances in the parliaments of the 1620s’, Hist. Jnl, XXXIII (1990), 283–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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26 Ibid., II. 228, 301 2.

27 Ibid., II. 301–2.

28 Ibid., II. 97, 278.

29 P.R.O, L.C. 5/132, p. 6.

30 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, VI. 106; P. R. O., S. P. 16/100/25.

31 P. R. O., S.P. 16/98/53; 16/100/21, 48, 69. For a later draft of a royal message by Coke, see S.P. 16/103/8.

32 The Duke of Buckingham his speech to the King in Parliament (1628) (Short Title Cat. no. 24739); Court and Times, I. 339; Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 411–12, 416.

33 For the reactions of the earl of Dorset and Buckingham's client Sir James Bagge, see: Proceedings in Parliament 1628, VI, 205; P.R.O., S.P. 16/100/55.

34 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, VI. 189. Sir Richard Hutton, the Justice of Common Pleas, also recorded in his diary that Buckingham had done his best to get the parliament dissolved: The Diary of Sir Richard Hutton 1614–1639, ed. Prest, W. R. (Selden Society, Supp. Ser., LX, 1991), 73Google Scholar.

35 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 325–6.

36 Court and Times, I. 337–9.

37 Cal. Stale Papers Venetian 1628–9, 59.

38 Russell, , Parliaments and English Politics, 296–7Google Scholar.

39 The two speeches were probably published at Buckingham's behest. He had much to gain from demonstrating that he was in favour of parliaments, as his clients recognised: Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 277; P. R. O., S.P. 16/108/71. He also took pains to publish accounts of his actions on other occasions: Cogswell, T. E., ‘The politics of propaganda: Charles I and the people in the 1620s’, Journal of British Studies, XXIX (1990), 202–4Google Scholar.

40 Tyacke, N. R. N., Anti-Cahinists. The Rise of English Arminianism c. 1590–1640 (Oxford, 1987), 168–70Google Scholar; Cust, , Forced Loan, 74–5Google Scholar; Russell, , Parliaments and English Politics, 30–1Google Scholar, 298.

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42 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, V. 97–8. On Hall and Davenant, see Lake, P. G., ‘Calvinism and the English Church 1570–1635’, Past and Present, no. 114 (1987), 32–76Google Scholar.

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44 This was particularly important at this time because a high proportion of the Lenten preachers at court, March– April 1628, were anti-Calvinists or Arminians: P. R. O., L. C. 5/132, ‘Lent preachers 1627 and 1628’.

45 Russell, , Parliaments and English Politics, 360, 391Google Scholar; Cal. State Papers Domestic 1628–9, 67–8.

46 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, III. 372.

47 Ibid., II. 399, 401, 403, 408.

48 Ibid., II. 430–3; Court and Times, I. 344–5.

49 Acts of the Privy Council 1627–8, 375.

50 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, V. 315–16, 321–3, 330; Flemion, , ‘A Savings to Satisfy All’, 32–4, 40Google Scholar.

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52 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, III. 125; Guy, , ‘Origins of the Petition of Right’, 305–6Google Scholar.

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54 Ibid., VI. 176, 188; Court and Times, I. 346; The Letters of John Hoiks, 1587–1637, ed. Seddon, P. R., 3 vols. (1975–1986), III. 382Google Scholar.

55 This document is P.R.O., S.P. 16/138/45i. A full transcript is provided in Cust, R. P., ‘Charles I and a draft Declaration for the 1628 Parliament’, Historical Research, lxiii (1990), 157–61Google Scholar.

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59 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, III. 126–9.

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62 Ibid., 154, 160.

63 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, II. 372–3.

64 Ibid., VI. 176; Col. Stale Papers Dom. 1628–9, 120.

65 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, III. 125–6n. Rudyerd's speech and Hall's letter, were quickly in circulation as ‘separates’; ibid., VI. 185.

66 P.R.O., S.P. 77/19, fos. 181–2.

67 Cust, , Forced Lean, 30–1, 45, 77Google Scholar.

68 Russell, , Parliaments and English Politics, 371–4Google Scholar. I prefer Russell's account of these events to the reinterpretation in Hemion, ‘A Savings to Satisfy All’, 27–44. Flemion is unable to present any positive evidence prior to the passage of the Petition of Right that the king and council believed that the prerogative would remain untouched by it. On the contrary they continued to argue that it would be a very damaging concession. See, for example, the speeches by Dorset and Buckingham on 24 May: Proceedings in Parliament 1628, V 522–6; or the private reaction of the earl of Banbury: P. R. O., S. P. 16/107/89.

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73 P.R.O., S.P. 16/106/71; H.M.C., Cowper, I. 347; see also, Acts of the Pray Council 1627–8, 481.

74 P.R.O., S.P. 16/106/71.

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77 Ibid., IV. 243.

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83 Proceedings in Parliament 1628, IV. 352–3; Court and Times, I. 366.

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