The reign of Charles I saw the complete breakdown of political consensus in his three kingdoms, the reluctant resort to armed conflict and the most extensive bloodshed. While historians, it would seem, are as far as ever from agreement about the reasons for these events, the period shows no sign of losing its ability to fascinate historian and reader alike. On one level the intrinsic interest of the Caroline regime derives from the fact of its collapse. To seek to understand the causes of the civil wars is natural enough. Yet this book, while it may shed some light on those later events, is not aimed directly at explaining the history of the 1640s. It focuses, rather, on those years during the late 1620s and early 1630s when Charles's rule was becoming established and its distinct character emerged. The intention is to achieve some understanding of the nature of that regime by investigating the problem of how it came into being. Beyond this, the course and collapse of Charles's rule were largely the products of its initial creation. And in this sense the book may also help to illuminate the Caroline period as a whole.

This study is built around the intersection of two basic themes: the interaction of political and ideological developments and the two-way relationship between English and international affairs. The evidence has encouraged me to view the problems of the period in these terms.