Why did King Charles I Resort to Personal Rule in 1629

Why did King Charles I Resort to Personal Rule in 1629?

The Personal Rule came about when King Charles I dissolved parliament

in 1629. It was symbolic of a time when the King felt that any joint

governing of the country was impossible. Right from the start of

Charles' reign, relations had been poor with Parliament. But the time

leading up to the start of the Personal Rule, or the "Eleven Year

Tyranny" as it is sometimes referred, marked a low point. So for what

reasons did Charles embark on the Personal Rule, and whose fault was

it? These issues will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The broad overall reason for the collapse of relations between

Parliament and the King is the conflict of the ancient feudal system

under the King against the system that Parliament was trying to impose

of increased parliamentary power and increasingly joint rule. The will

of Parliament for change represented a new era. Although no-one would

dare go against the established belief that the King was above

everyone else in the Kingdom, the extent to which they believed in

Royal Prerogative, the Divine Right of Kings and other such feudal

principles was becoming less clear cut. Parliament realised that the

King could make mistakes and that some Kings were a lot better than

others. Charles, on the other hand, believed in Royal Prerogative and

the Divine Right of Kings with such a reverence not seen for

centuries. With such conflicting beliefs of the two parties concerned,

it is not difficult to see why these were such troublesome times for

the Monarchy and the development of the English Constitution. This

period also marks a very important, but of...

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...t accounted for all of the actions that made Parliament

believe that it could not work with him at all. Parliament could have

been a lot more generous with granting the King subsides, but perhaps

it had good reason to. Again, the Divine Right of Kings was a strong

reason why so little money was granted: Parliament needed to leash the

King. The King failed to concede that the feudal system was becoming

obsolete in a time when England was trying to lay the foundations of a

more democratic system and technology was advancing quickly (it would

be less than 150 years until the start of the Industrial Revolution).

The influence of Buckingham can not be forgotten. He was responsible

for a weakening of England's military power and reputation with it, as

well as the cause of financial disagreements with the King and

Parliament.