Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- BOOK VI GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND WITHOUT THE PARLIAMENT. TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND
- BOOK VII CONNEXION BETWEEN THE TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND AND THOSE IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE
- BOOK VIII THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE KING, DOWN TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR
- BOOK IX THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR, 1642—1646
- BOOK X INDEPENDENTS AND PRESBYTERIANS. FATE OF THE KING
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAP. I Flight of the King to the Scots
- CHAP. II Charles I at Newcastle
- CHAP. III The Parliament and Army at variance
- CHAP. IV Influence of the Agitators
- CHAP. V The so-called Second Civil War
CHAP. III - The Parliament and Army at variance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- BOOK VI GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND WITHOUT THE PARLIAMENT. TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND
- BOOK VII CONNEXION BETWEEN THE TROUBLES IN SCOTLAND AND THOSE IN ENGLAND AND ELSEWHERE
- BOOK VIII THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE KING, DOWN TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR
- BOOK IX THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR, 1642—1646
- BOOK X INDEPENDENTS AND PRESBYTERIANS. FATE OF THE KING
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAP. I Flight of the King to the Scots
- CHAP. II Charles I at Newcastle
- CHAP. III The Parliament and Army at variance
- CHAP. IV Influence of the Agitators
- CHAP. V The so-called Second Civil War
Summary
It has always been a matter of surprise, both at the time and since, that King Charles attached so much importance to the maintenance of Episcopacy, even more than to the preservation of his military prerogative. In one of his letters to his wife he writes that a King of England, even if he remains in possession of military power, will have but little enjoyment of it, so long as obedience is not preached from the pulpits, and that this can never be obtained from the Presbyterians: for their view was to wrest from the crown its ecclesiastical authority, and place it in the hands of Parliament, and also to introduce the doctrine that the supreme power belongs to the people, that the prince may be called to account and punished by them, and that resistance to him is a lawful thing. To these views and doctrines Charles I would not submit, being every moment conscious that he was contending for right by the grace of God, for the old personal authority of the crown.
Even in the condition of strict imprisonment in which he was kept, he still possessed power, and felt it. The Lower House changed a number of the propositions rejected by him—for instance the abolition of Episcopacy, and the arrangements about the military authority—into ordinances; but laws they could not become without the King's assent: it was felt to be of some importance to obtain it from him.
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- A History of EnglandPrincipally in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 480 - 494Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1875