Chapter III (3)
King Charles I of England and Scotland
Charles I, Trafalgar Square, London.
The year 1625 was an Annus Horribilis for England.
The 24-year-old Protestant Charles I of England and Scotland married 15-year-old Catholic Princess Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Catherine de Medici and the youngest sister of King Louis XIII of France. It was both a confessional and a political alliance, uniting France and England against the Habsburg-Spanish Empire. Before leaving France, Henrietta Maria was reminded that God was sending her to Britain to promote Catholic interests and do her best to convert her husband to the Catholic faith and a return to the glorious days of his Catholic grandmother, Mary, Queen of Scots. To mark the event, there was little celebration in 1625, as England suffered a severe outbreak of plague. And before the ink was dry, tensions arose between the Stuart-Bourbon alliance. The legacy James I left behind him still followed through. Religion, in many ways, still affected politics and society across the three kingdoms: England, Scotland and Ireland. In this period, church and state were deeply intertwined. The monarch was expected to defend and uphold the “true religion”; each kingdom believed it held the true religion. That will prove to be the bugbear throughout Charles’ rule. Charles, unlike his father, ran shallow; he was never cut from the same cloth.
It is worthwhile at this stage to provide some background on each of the three protagonists in our story and how they intertwined their religion with their political outlook. Charles was born on 19 November 1600. Unfortunately, he was nobody’s favourite. He was left with foster parents when his Parents left for England to take the English crown. He was a weak, rickets-afflicted child. He was short, bow-legged, with decaying teeth and bullied by his brother, Henry, at every opportunity. The Court painter, the Dutch Van Dyck, always seated a dwarf next to him, so that Charles looked bigger. His people never loved him; he was stubborn and protective. Historians agree that the man was the principal cause of the ensuing civil war.
Another case to answer was that of his archbishop, the troubling William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, in common with Charles’s wife, Henrietta Maria, both motivated by their separative and divisive religious convictions. Maud was eager to promote ceremonial procedures within the Church of England, in the form of altar rails and reverence for the Eucharist (high church Anglicanism), and worst of all, he was all for dismantling the central doctrine of Calvinism, namely predestination, and reintroducing icons and crosses. For the Godly (the Puritans called themselves), come hell or high water, were having none of it. England was being run by the emissary of hell, and the king was doing nothing to stop him, and was headed straight into the arms of Rome. In Stuart England, religion often led politics.
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury
Born 7 October 1573, Reading, Berkshire, England - Died 10 January 1645, Tower Hill, London, England
As for Henrietta Maria, the trouble began when, on a July day in 1626, coming back from a stroll in St James’s Park, she made a pilgrimage to Tyburn tree to pray for Catholics executed there at the scaffolds (today’s Marble Arch). People considered this as recognition of a sacred site, a Wailing Wall, and an affront to royal dignity, making the place holy. But the greater fear was that, through her influence, many of the inner circles converted to Catholicism. Catholic icons such as rosaries, crucifixes, and papistical pictures are being sold openly in the streets. Henrietta had no intention of keeping her religion private or under wraps.
Opening his first session of Parliament, Charles made it clear that, due to his stutter, he was not a man of words. In his maiden speech, he requested sufficient funds for a large-scale offensive against Spain to finance a shift from his father's pacific policy to an aggressive Protestant foreign policy, driven by personal humiliation from a failed Spanish marriage alliance in 1623 and a desire to help recover the Electorate of the Palatinate. Parliament did not concede to such demands because England could not afford another war with Spain. Besides, Parliament had grievances with Charles concerning the Duke of Buckingham, George Villiers. Chief advisor to the King and a recent convert to Catholicism. He monopolised political affairs, acted as the overlord in encouraging wars against Spain and France, and was appointed the King's right-hand man. But his principal crime was in partnership with Archbishop William Laud of Canterbury, who used all means possible to streamline the Prayer Book into a common Protestant worship throughout England and Scotland.
Despite Parliament's refusal to finance a major offensive, Buckingham ordered impressment, the forced subscription by intimidation and coercion into military service, a harebrained idea for his first offensive against Spain. Seeing Parliament's refusal to finance a war, Charles saw fit to raise finance by exploiting royal credits, staking his own jewels as surety and raiding Henrietta Maria’s dowry to overcome Parliament’s refusal to finance the war. Without a firm strategy, he assembled a fleet of ships setting sail from Portsmouth carrying drunken and untrained sailors. to arrive at Cadiz, Spain. Arrived there without a firm aim, in the middle of a storm, the whole expedition was an absolute fiasco. England became the laughing stock of Europe. Spain, in retaliation for this misadventure and for Charles's failure to marry the Spanish infanta, prepared, with the help of an Irish contingent, to invade England. Despite all the pomp that never materialised. For Spain, correctly, it was a stretch too far, having to deal with the ongoing Dutch revolt as well as the Castilian rebellion.
Here is an example of a distinctive piece of writing describing the situation soon after the Cadiz incident, putting the situation in context:
“Britain stood on the top of her white cliffs triumphing, London on tiptoe, overlooking all other cities in her swelling pride of her approaching fortunes, but never was such a sudden joy changed into so sudden a lamentation as the devastating impact of plague mortality at home and compounded by naval defeat at sea”. The plague at this time was causing a devastating death toll, especially in London.
Back-to-back, England was taken to task on other fronts. The Anglo-French relations also went downhill. Hardly had the marriage been consummated before an argument broke out between Charles and King Francis. Adding fuel to the opening wounds, Henrietta, as a Catholic, was unwilling to attend her husband’s coronation as the procedures were in accordance with the Protestant faith. Also, the French accused Charles of infringing the marriage treaty by not easing the conditions of Catholics in England but allowing renewed persecution, against those in minority, seeing that Charles had ordered all Henrietta’s catholic household out of the country “driving them like so many wild beasts until you have shipped them, and so the Devil go with them” he ordered a courtier.
Henrietta Maria of France, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
Born 25 November 1609, Louvre Palace, France Died 10 September 1669, from an opium overdose, Colombes, France
Needless to say, after the naval fiasco, many MPs demanded Buckingham's impeachment, while to the public in the street, the Duke of ‘Fuckingham’ became a target and a hated figure. Charles, growing frustrated by such attacks on his closest advisor, described MPs’ demands as an inquisition and reminded them that parliament is there to obey him and that it is in his power to convene or not. The man's arrogance and authoritativeness were beginning to show their ugly colours. The word subtle is completely alien to him. Consequently, Buckingham became a point of contention, and Charles imprisoned several MPs at the Tower of London and dissolved Parliament for their disobedience. Many MPs insisted that it was vital for Parliament to continue sitting so that it could hold the court to account. By now, parliamentary troubles were looming, and calls were being made to restore the old laws of Magna Carta with vigour: new petitions of rights by Parliament were being hailed. By now, mainly due to Buckingham's swashbuckling activities, the royal coffers were empty, and Parliament was insisting on sitting, but Charles refused to budge.
Duke of Buckingham
Born 20 August 1592, Brooksby, Leicestershire, Died 23 August 1628, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
In August 1628, the Duke of Buckingham was stabbed to death by one of his seamen who served in the disastrous expedition to Cadiz. He was buried during the hours of darkness to minimise disruptions.
Tact, subtlety, and the art of cultivating goodwill were never strong points that one could credit to Charles. With Parliament dissolved, Charles resorted to personal rule, raising money through Royal prerogatives, a situation that was to last for 11 years of “tyranny”. At this time, it is worth bearing in mind that the war in Europe was at its height, and the Puritan exodus from England to America was underway following the Mayflower expedition. Lack of Money meant England had no role in the European arena, was unable to come to the aid of the persecuted Huguenots (French Protestants) in France (see below), nor to help restore his sister to the Protestant Bohemian throne. Literally, England was outside the world's orbit; its only concerns were domestic and raising revenue. In 1929, Parliament convened, but fearing an abrupt termination, MPs physically held down the speaker in his chair, with the objective that anyone who called out for raising money against Parliament's wishes would be considered an enemy of the Kingdom. Charles again dissolved Parliament immediately and ordered the arrest of some dozen MPs accused of destructive activities and sedition.
Meanwhile, in France, technically still at war with England, with so many MP’s debasing their king, the French described the English King as “blind, lame and impotent beggar”; he “can bark but can’t bite.” Adding insult to injury, it was a London-based French Huguenot who bought the Stuart crown jewels from a pawnbroker in Amsterdam and brought them back to England. But England’s continued war in France brought a silver lining: in true juggling fashion, peace treaties were signed with Spain, and this time there was no insistence on improving the conditions of English Catholics. Spain, with added measure, described England as a nullity, that it can neither do good nor harm. England, however, decided to remain neutral in the war raging in Europe, with King Charles, in defiance of the English Parliament, dismissing all efforts to side with the Protestants. Unsuspecting, though, England maintained a substantial naval fleet ready to come in and reap the benefits at the end when all others were exhausted. However, it was ridiculed by others who criticised the opportunity to stand aside as spectators, enjoying the tragedy of others.
After Buckingham’s assassination, Charles's relationship with his wife, Henrietta Maria, and her brother, the King of France, was no longer on a collision course. Soon enough, Hanrietta announced she was pregnant with the future Charles II, born in 1630. At about this time, the relationship between the Caroline court (King Charles Court) and the Papacy was also warming up through the efforts of Henrietta Maria. That was the first contact between England and the Papacy since the Reformation had severed it.
That was a red rag to a bull. Anti-Catholic resentment was growing among MPs, directed against Charles for his Catholic leanings and for the continued use of royal prerogative in applying taxes to raise revenue. The tool being used is the issuance of writs for ‘Ship Money,’ for instance, ostensibly to support the Navy. That was viewed as a violation of his subjects' liberty, since the Navy was at its best at the time, and England was at peace with the world. It was suspected that money was spent to bribe Spain to secure the restitution of Elizabeth, Charles's sister, to regain her crown of Bohemia; unknowingly, the King of Spain had already assigned her territory to Catholic Maximilian of Bavaria. Finding that Spain had closed all avenues, King Charles, in contrast with his father’s pacifist nature, had no doubt in engaging in hostilities. Parliament, however, had no such concerns and was not willing to finance a military expedition. Elizabeth’s two sons and King Charles' nephews, Charles Louis and his younger brother, Rupert, came over to England to plead their cause, but, again, England was not ready for Military intervention. Parliament stood its ground.
Parliament’s chief worry was the mounting number of high-profile subjects in the Carolyn court who were converting to Catholicism. Talk of Catholic scripture, ceremonies and mass attendance was becoming de rigueur. It was feared England was being drawn to the Catholic faith. The king was hopeful that such signals would be received in Rome. The alternative to declaring war on Spain, King Charles was increasingly hopeful that the Papacy would exert pressure on the Habsburgs for his sister’s restitution. While entertaining the Holy See’s representative at the Royal Court, a sign of closer Anglo-Papal relations was being firmly established. The rapprochement failed. Charles was seriously considering Military intervention using the Royal Prerogatives without parliamentary funding. British naval power at the time was represented by ‘The Sovereign of the Seas’, a great symbol of English sea power; its construction had cost over £65,000 (£50,000 over budget, not unlike the modern HS2, currently tens of billions of pounds over budget and around a decade behind schedule). As chickens come home to roost, so the restitution objective was abandoned, the ship remained unmanned and in harbour. Charles had more serious problems to deal with in Presbyterian Scotland.
In his efforts to revise church canons, King Charles introduced a new prayer book in 1637, intended to promote Protestant uniformity throughout the country. The congregation in Scotland considered such an introduction as Popish Anglican interference in their religion and was thrown out by the Scottish Parliament. The rejection was formalised by ‘The National Covenant’ to protect Scottish worship, rejecting any attempt at re-establishing any form of ‘Popish religion and tyranny and the ruin of the new Reformed religion’. The King, in his unsubtle way, was insisting that Royal policy must be obeyed and saw the National Covenant as a drain on his power, saying, “I would rather die than suffer.” So, the King ordered the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament, but that was ignored. Instead, it voted to abolish the office of Bishops (Presbyterianism did not believe in a hierarchical system of bishops and archbishops, unlike Episcopacy, Anglicanism, and Catholicism, which are based on such a system). From then on, things became complicated, and Charles's royal authority was under strain. The situation disintegrated; the question was no longer religious reform but royal authority. No longer a question of Bishops and Episcopacy but whether “I am King or not”.
Rebellions were not the exclusive rights of the Scots. Revolts in Catalonia, Portugal, as well as the rebellion of the Irish. Nations were turning upside down, suffering the turmoil of different kinds. Civil wars, wars of independence, and multiple border and religious conflicts were taking place across Europe. The only language dominated by Europeans is War. In England, there was a rumour that Charles was organising an army of foreign mercenaries to confront the Scots. The growing print culture was having a field day in inflaming the situation, insinuating there is no shortage of European powers that might come to the aid of a beleaguered King of England. There were Charles’s brother-in-law, the King of France; his uncle, Christian IV of Denmark; and the Dutch. Such an alarming misconception lit the fuse of the Scots to retaliate in kind, and the Catholic Irish took advantage of an opportune moment to rebel, which was eventually to cause a catastrophic number of deaths and destruction.
Before things could get out of hand, starting to affect the three kingdoms, the Irish rebellion needed to be suppressed. Charles played down the idea that France was helping the Irish, as well as dismissing rumours that the Spanish might be helping since they had their own problems with the French, Portuguese, the Catalonians, as well as the Dutch to deal with. English MPs were in two minds whether to raise an army jointly with the Scots. England’s Parliamentarians were concerned that joining with the Scottish Army would self proclaim to much credit, enough to claim victory as well as to claim territory in Ireland as payment for intervention. The Scotts, on the other hand, considered the rebellion an English responsibility and were not prepared to incur costs in deploying an army. The problem escalated when one of the leaders of the Irish rebellion produced a document (not known at the time as a forgery), which King Charles had authorised Irish Catholics to take up arms against their Protestant neighbours. Massacres of Irish Protestants followed until the Irish were brutally and viciously suppressed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649, leading to a blood bath on the pretence of doing God’s work against devil worshippers. More of that in the next chapter.
Domestic troubles in England were never far away. In 1641, MPs were demanding a significant reduction in episcopal power in Parliament and for Charles to reject such demands. But, in defiance, Bishops were prevented from sitting in the House of Lords, and some were charged with treason and imprisoned for challenging the supremacy of Parliament. Noises were getting louder; unless Charles accepted these demands, Civil war was not far away. There followed further drama and humiliation when Charles entered Parliament, accompanied by an armed entourage to arrest five MPs, only to find they had escaped the chamber. The MPs no longer sat in Parliament and refused to hand over the wanted MPs, but relocated to the Guildhall. In the streets, all outside jovial appearances to the King had disappeared, and many put up shutters and stood outside with swords in hand. The King, fearing for his own safety, fled with his family to Hampton Court. The MPs returned to Westminster in Triumph and changed the locks of all doors.
Charles would not return to London until a week before his execution.
Some interesting notes for readers to take away.
The Huguenots
The Huguenots were French Calvinist Protestants who faced centuries of persecution, most notably leading to massacres like the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, an event that saw thousands of Huguenots massacred in Paris and across France, forcing many to flee.
They also later suffered widespread persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had granted them religious freedoms. Many Huguenots fled France for other countries, arriving in England in several waves between the 16th and 18th centuries, where they were welcomed for their skills in various crafts and trades and made significant contributions to British society. (taken from Wikipedia)
The Thirty Years' War 1618 - 1648.
I start with the fact that it was not just about religion, but also about the nature of government and the balance of power in Europe. It pitted Catholics against Protestants, Catholics against Catholics, Lutherans against Calvinists, across the entire Holy Roman Empire. It lasted for thirty years, from the Defenestration in Prague to the Peace Treaty of Westphalia. The Holy Roman Empire was not a monarchy; it was not just a confederation of territories, but a feudal association bound to an elected emperor. The big question was who would elect the emperor, who, after all, was the guardian of Christianity.
A war with such devastation, the likes of which had never been seen for the next 300 years.
The Covenanters
According to tradition, when an Anglican minister began reading from the new prayer book, an Edinburgh vegetable seller named Jenny Geddes shouted out “Daur ye say Mass in my lug?” (“Dare you say Mass in my ear?”) and hurled her stool at him. A riot broke out in the cathedral, and after the rioters were ejected, the rioting spread into the city's streets. As the unrest spread, Scots demanded that the Anglican liturgy (which they regarded as “papist”) be discontinued and that no changes to the worship services in Scotland be implemented without the consent of the Church of Scotland. This single act of defiance sparked a massive riot that eventually led to the formation of the Covenanters, a religious and political movement that arguably changed British history.
In 1638, a gathering of Presbyterians swore a solemn covenant in Edinburgh, Scotland, joined by an estimated 300,000 members, an extraordinary show of defiant unity that declared the people were subject to the king, but the King was subject to God. His duty was to maintain the Scottish Presbyterian religion. The movement was similar to how the Reformation reached Scotland, mainly by a process of rebellion in their break with Rome. It was more of a political rebellion against the Catholic Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland, and later acting as regent for her daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.
No comments:
Post a Comment