2. Parliament
Function
 Support, enhance royal power
 Represent electors
 Expression of public opinion
 Gentry and ‘middling sort’
 Increasingly Protestant
 Stood for rule of law and
liberties of subjects
 Symbolised legal limits of
royal power
Powers
 Largely negative:
 Could refuse to formalise or
finance King’s decisions
 Could restrict Crown finance
 Law at its highest made in, and
with Parliament
 Since Reformation legislated on
religion, succession and
monarch’s powers
 Additional taxation such as
customs duties for life
 MPs could try to initiate
legislation / discuss key issues

3. James I in Parliament

4. The Crown
 Monarch head of the Church of England
 Royal Prerogative:
 Included foreign policy, making war, signing
peace treaties, ultimate source of justice, coinage, roads
 Links with localities
 Appointed JPs and Lords Lieutenant
 Prerogative Courts
 Law courts whose authority came directly
from King
 Favoured the King’s interests
 Could initiate legislation and laws
 Patronage
 Land, offices, important posts, Privy Council

5. Elizabeth I’s Legacy
 Reformation
 Parliament used to pass necessary legislation
 Issue of freedom of speech for MPs
 QEI made it clear what they could NOT discuss
 Some MPs arrested for disobeying especially over religion,
Queen’s marriage and accession
 Huge row with Parliament over monopoly rights
 Threat of refusing grant taxation
 Queen apologised 1601
 Nevertheless successfully controlled Parliament
 Especially via Lord Burleigh (Sir William Cecil)

6. Religion – Again
 Protestantism
 Positive impact on literacy plus…
 Increasing reliance on educated ‘middling sorts’ by Tudors
 Gentry larger, more articulate, more influential
 Many with strong religious views
 Fear of Catholicism
 War with Spain 1585-1604
 Catholic Counter-Reformation
 QEI’s Religious Settlement traces
of Catholicism
 Catholic plots against QEI
 Gunpowder Plot 1605

7. James I & Parliament’s Concerns
 Desire to unite England and Scotland
 Create new country, new laws
 Influx of Scottish nobility feared
 James’s preference for Scots – very generous
 And handsome young men
 Favourites – Duke of Buckingham
 Stance on Catholicism
 In Scotland softened Presbyterianism
 Got them to accept bishops
 Strong defence of Divine Right of Kings 1610
 Suspending of Parliament
 Proposed Spanish marriage alliance
 James in debt – reputation of court