17th Century England

Lesson 3: Events Leading up to War

Parliament is Summoned

Parliament was summoned for November, 1640. While the elections were ongoing, a treaty with the Scots ensured that they were to be paid £850 per day by the King, and to receive this, they remained on English soil.

The leading man in Parliament, John Pym, rode with John Hampden around England's Puritan houses to rally support and then headed to Scotland to confer with the rebelling Covenanters.

Pym gained control of the committee of privileges, which scrutinised fairness in elections and he managed to disqualify many Royalist sympathising members.

As Charles surveyed the names of the 493 members who were elected (who, incidentally, were richer in cumulative wealth than the peers who sat in the House of Lords), he would have been able to see where his support lay. The members sympathising with the King came from areas of Wales, Rutland, Somerset, Westmoreland and Cumberland, Cornwall, Hereford and Shropshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. These were the North, North West, West and South West parts of the country. But the richest and most populated parts of England had declared opposition members.

In the House of Lords, there were 124 peers - these included the 24 Bishops and 2 Archbishops who would be supportive of the King.

Charles opened Parliament by advising them of two main aims - the first to draw the rebel Scots out of the country and the second, to address the Parliament's grievances. He then asked Parliament, as he would do himself, to lay aside suspicion of each other.

Again the King was demanding and not flattering of the members, for the King saw issues in black and white. Charles eventually apologised for the reference of Scots as rebels.

Parliament was adamant in addressing its grievances. Under Pym's leadership, they were planning to stop the raising of illegal taxes, stop the King from imprisoning subjects without trial, curb the ancient courts which upheld the King's lawful power, reform the Church to become more austere and Puritan, and make Parliament independent of the Monarch.

First and foremost, they would direct their attack against the Earl of Strafford in a replay of what had happened with Buckingham.

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