17th Century England

Lesson 2: Meet the King and the main personalities.

Other Significant Players

JOHN PYM - John Pym entered Parliament in the reign of James I. He was Member for Calne in Charles's Parliament and had originally studied law at Oxford University. Pym came from the South West, from an ancient family.

Nicknamed "The OX" due to his shaggy appearence, Pym was quietly intelligent. He was a strong character with determination, but from the outside this was not apparent. He was quite thickset and stocky, with raggy hair and a moustache and beard. Puritan in outlook, Pym was plain in his appearance and religion.

EARL OF STRAFFORD - Born in the late 16th century as Thomas Wentworth, here was a powerful and intelligent man, destined to go far. Born into a family of 10, he was left to become head of the family on the death of his older brother and inherited lands and responsibility in Yorkshire. As C V Wedgwood says in The King's Peace, "...he was tall, dark, very blunt and rarely humerous, but he was strong in nature and could use his sharp knowledge to produce the most rousing of speeches."

Educated at St John’s, Cambridge and the Inner Temple, he arrived at King James I’s court aged 18, after doing the usual travels of Europe. Soon after, he was knighted and married a daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, but he was far from being a King’s man.

In the new reign of Charles I, he lined up with Charles’s early opponents in Parliament, refusing the crown’s presumption of raising taxes without Parliament and went to prison. But Charles saw the potential in his opponent and began to court him, giving him responsibilities and Wentworth became more familiar with the King until he was given a Barony in 1628, then made Lord President of the North and in 1629, a Privy Councillor. In 1639, he was made Earl of Strafford.

Though Charles found him too abrasive and rough to count as a friend, he trusted him implacably and greatly valued his immense services. Strafford's towering success with Governing Ireland and the North of England made him dangerous to the King's opponents.

ARCHBISHOP LAUD – William Laud was born in 1573 and was the common son of a Reading tradesman. He was fussy, argumentative, tactless and many did not get on with him including Strafford and the King. He often shouted and flung his hands around in discussion.

He was small of stature with a red face, provoking the mockery of some. He moved quickly through the church hierarchy under James I and Charles I, both of whom shared his Armenien religious views. From Bishop of St Davids in 1621 to Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1626, then Bishop of London in 1628 and finally Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633.

Laud, like the King, hated Puritans, but was immensely devout, retiring seven times per day to pray no matter how important his business. Beneath all of this though, he was a hard working man who was sincere in his religious aims, though he could be harsh. His performance in the Star Chamber shows he was sympathetic to the poor, but not at all bothered about using the court to sentence Puritans to have their ears chopped off or to receive huge fines.

Laud's Armenienism was a branch of Protestantism, though with more of the ritual and beautifying of churches than the strictly austere Puritanism.

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