17th Century England

Lesson 4: Summary

The King's Situation

By 1640, Charles could see that he had to give way on taxation and work with a Parliament, after nearly 15 years rule. He did not, however, realise the dangerous and vulnerable position he was in with regards to his lawful power.

It had been a case of needs must, to pass any taxation bill and give up raising illegal taxes, to get the Scots out of England. It was when Parliament went further that he felt threatened and rightly annoyed at the incursion into the Monarch's power and prerogative.

And whenever the King felt his authority questioned, he became stubborn, which, mixed with the agressiveness of the current Parliament, would not end the matter.

He became mistrustful of Parliament's intentions and once illegal power had been given over, he then saw that he needed to stand for the laws and institutions as they had always been.

This was the point when the balance of power needed to be restored to its original and lawful historic level with the King the basic embodiment of the lawful Church and laws.

The culmination of years of mishandling of Parliament had exploded on the Monarchy, but it looked dangerously like Parliament were going to take enough rope to hang themselves. For Charles had granted enough to secure their position, yet they wanted to go further.

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