Anglais juridique : Civil Wars

Anglais Juridique

Cours 3

Other consequences of the Civil Wars :

1. Religion : The Wars ushered in an era of more tolerance and less tolerance at once :

● End of the monopoly of the Church Of England on worship ; tolerance for Puritanism, and for Scottish-style Presbyterianism.

● But brutal suppression of, and discrimination against, what did not fit. Protestant, Christianity, namely Roman Catholicism (no Muslims or Hindus at the time).

→ Ireland would pay a heavy price for this intolerance.

1. The Wars set the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament :

→ Rejection of French Bourbon-style Absolutism.

1. 1st step in establishing the principle that Parliament should be the ruling power of England an idea legally established more than 30 years later, with the Glorious Revolution.

1. BACKGROUND TO THE 1st WAR

● 1603 : Death of Queen Elizbeth I, end of the Elizabethan Age.

● Succession : Elizabeth's cousin, James VI of Scotland, who thus became James I of England 1st personal union of the Scottish and English thrones.

● As a result of ascending the English throne, he also became King of Ireland.

● His son Charles I succeeded him in 1625.

How did the first 2 Stuarts rule ?

● James had a lavish and extravagant lifestyle... which meant he was always shaking Parliament down for money, or trying to find other sources of income.

● James'dream was to unite the 3 Kingdoms into one, which did not please Parliamentatirans.

● Like their French and Spanish counterparts, James and Charles believed in the divine rights of kings, « little Gods on Earth », as James I once said...

What were the prerogatives of the English Parliament at the time ?

● Post-Elizabethan age : Parliament was little more than a temporary advisory Committee, summoned only if and when the Monarch wanted to ;

● The Monarch could dissolve it any time.

Yet...

Parliament had acquired significant powers over the previous decades :

● Ability to raise taxes in the towns and in the countryside.

● Only the Gentry had the ability and authority to collect taxes : The King needed to cooperate.

→ Thus, the King allowed the gentry to sit in the House Of Commons .

● Officially, the House of Commons was only here to sanction (approve) the King's tax decisions

● However, the Mps could debate, and send policy proposals to the King : Bills

… the Parliamentarians had no practical or legal means of forcing their will upon the monarch, apart from the veiled threat of withholding taxes.

The « Gentry » : definition

To understand the war + the Parliamentarians, one needs to understand what the Gentry was :

● The British upper classes consist of two entities, the peerage and the Landed Gentry.

● In the British peerage, only the eldest son inherits a substantive tittle (duke, marquess, viscount, baron...) ; these are referred to as Peers Of Lords) allowed to sit in the House of Lords.

● The rest of the nobility form part of the « landed genty » (abbreviated « gentry »). The members of the gentry usually bear no titles but can be described as Esquire or Gentleman.

● Landed Gentry = « Gentlemen » in the original sense ; not the ones who pay the restaurant check on a first date, but those who owned land and didn't have to work.

So...

● Were the members of the gentry aristocrats, nobles ?

→ Hard to tell...

● One needs to understand that this term has been and still is used quite loosely by historians.

First Disagreements

In the 1620's, Parliamentarians started mistrusting King Charles I for 2 reasons :

● 1625 : he had married a Roman Catholic French woman, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henri IV

the gentry were never too keen on seeing Catholics joining the Royal Family.

● In 1628, the King sent a fleet to get involved in the Siège de La Rochelle, without the consent of Parliament- a total failure.

→ As a result of Parliamentarians discontent, Charles dissolved parliament.

The Petitions Of Rights

● In 1628, Charles assembled a new Parliament.

● This Parliament presented him with a Petition Of Rights, referencing Magna Carta.

● To fund European Wars, Charles I had resorted to « forced loans » without Parliament's consent (extorsion, basically) and arbitrary imprisonment of those who refused to pay.

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