On the Edge of Illegality:
To What Extent was
Charles’s Personal Rule
Tyrannical?
Identifying the strengths and weakness of Charles’s
Personal Rule in the years 1629-40
,Considering success:
what makes a reign
successful?
Contents:
1. Approach to government finances: How
did Charles raise money?
2. Approach to administration: How did
Charles structure justice?
3. Approach to religion: How did Charles
structure the Church?
4. Answering questions on tyranny: What
makes a monarch tyrannical?
5. Why did the personal rule end?
, 1. Approach to Government Finance: How did
Charles Raise Money?
oRents from crown lands oDistraint of knighthood oShip money
Old taxes:
dubious methods:
Downright illegal? Constitutionally
Regular methods of income:
•Inflation ate away at their value •Fines on landowners with •Traditionally a levy on coastal
•Much sold since the 1550s property worth over £40 who towns in wartime, Charles
(especially under Mary I) hadn't presented themselves for controversially extended it to
•Wardship knighthood. inland areas in peacetime as an
•People felt caught out by an annual tax. (only inland precedent
•Feudal right to manage the
outdated law (Oliver Cromwell = Spanish armada 1588)
estates of underage heirs,
including selling guardianship. amongst them) •Tonnage and Poundage
•Crown accused of exploiting •Forest Laws •Customs duties on imports and
vulnerable estates •Fines for encroachment on exports traditionally granted by
ancient royal forests based on Parliament, although Charles
•Credit
outdated boundaries. collected it without Parliament’s
•Borrowing money from the City consent
of London and other financiers. •Incredibly tyrannical and unfair –
people had built lives there – Earl •Monopolies
•Lord Treasurer Richard Weston
of Salisbury fined £20000 •Technically outlawed by the 1624
had worked hard to wean the
•Fines for enclosure Statute of Monopolies, but
Crown off borrowing – reduce
•fined those who enclosed land Charles sold monopolies under
interest on loans
without proper licence, often legal loopholes or to
exploiting unclear legal 'corporations.'
precedent.
*NOTE: underlined points are solid evidence of a tyrannical government
To What Extent was
Charles’s Personal Rule
Tyrannical?
Identifying the strengths and weakness of Charles’s
Personal Rule in the years 1629-40
,Considering success:
what makes a reign
successful?
Contents:
1. Approach to government finances: How
did Charles raise money?
2. Approach to administration: How did
Charles structure justice?
3. Approach to religion: How did Charles
structure the Church?
4. Answering questions on tyranny: What
makes a monarch tyrannical?
5. Why did the personal rule end?
, 1. Approach to Government Finance: How did
Charles Raise Money?
oRents from crown lands oDistraint of knighthood oShip money
Old taxes:
dubious methods:
Downright illegal? Constitutionally
Regular methods of income:
•Inflation ate away at their value •Fines on landowners with •Traditionally a levy on coastal
•Much sold since the 1550s property worth over £40 who towns in wartime, Charles
(especially under Mary I) hadn't presented themselves for controversially extended it to
•Wardship knighthood. inland areas in peacetime as an
•People felt caught out by an annual tax. (only inland precedent
•Feudal right to manage the
outdated law (Oliver Cromwell = Spanish armada 1588)
estates of underage heirs,
including selling guardianship. amongst them) •Tonnage and Poundage
•Crown accused of exploiting •Forest Laws •Customs duties on imports and
vulnerable estates •Fines for encroachment on exports traditionally granted by
ancient royal forests based on Parliament, although Charles
•Credit
outdated boundaries. collected it without Parliament’s
•Borrowing money from the City consent
of London and other financiers. •Incredibly tyrannical and unfair –
people had built lives there – Earl •Monopolies
•Lord Treasurer Richard Weston
of Salisbury fined £20000 •Technically outlawed by the 1624
had worked hard to wean the
•Fines for enclosure Statute of Monopolies, but
Crown off borrowing – reduce
•fined those who enclosed land Charles sold monopolies under
interest on loans
without proper licence, often legal loopholes or to
exploiting unclear legal 'corporations.'
precedent.
*NOTE: underlined points are solid evidence of a tyrannical government
