The “Thorough" Policy of Wentworth and Laud

Wentworth was made president of the Council of the North in 1628, and became a member of the Privy Council the next year. Having been appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632, he at once applied his policy of "thorough" ; that is, he undertook to reform the Irish system without regard for the private interests of any one. He attempted to bring order and efficiency out of chaos and corruption. He reorganized the army, suppressed pirates, enforced discipline, and encouraged manufactures and commerce. His motives were excellent, but his methods were questionable. He bullied the Irish parliament, fined juries that decided against him, abused Irish officials, and constantly interfered with the customs of the Irish tribes, particularly in the matter of their lands. The result was that, though for seven years he gave Ireland peace and order, he destroyed every vestige of self-government, and on his withdrawal, in 1639, left the island seething with discontent. Wentworth had tried to demonstrate that an absolute ruler with good intentions is better than constitution, law, and local custom.

Meanwhile in England Laud was trying to do for the church what Wentworth was attempting to do for Ireland. Having definite ideas as to what the doctrine, ritual, and organization of the church should be, he was determined to force these ideas upon others. Inasmuch as he was a member of the PrivyCouncil and sat regularly on the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, he was able to make these bodies the instruments of a religious tyranny. The king enlarged the powers of these courts at his pleasure, and through them Laud harried Puritans, and Presbyterians and all who by word or deed differed with him. After 1633, when he was made archbishop of Canterbury, he became "thorough" in the strictest sense of the word. He deserves credit in that he restored order and decency in thechurches and ennobled the ritual. But, on the other hand, he persecuted Puritan divines ; imprisoned and mutilated writers like Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton, who in their pamphlets attacked the stage, court life, and church ceremonial; and horrified Puritans generally by persuading the king to issue the declaration of sports, restoring Sunday amusements. The excitement prevailing in England was intense; the emigration of Puritans to America increased; and those who remained might well have echoed the prayer in Bastwick's Litany, "From bishops, priests, and deacons, Good Lord, deliver us."

Financial Measures of the King

Having no money by parliamentary grant, the king had to employ all sorts of financial expedients to raise it. He levied tonnage and poundage, but the returns from this source proved wholly insufficient. Therefore he revived old feudal obligations, and compelled every freeholder having land worth £40 a year to become a knight or, in case of refusal, to pay a fine. He sent commissioners to trace the boundaries of the "forests," and by enlarging these boundaries, compelled all whose lands fell within the new limits to pay large amounts for the release of their estates. He sold to incorporated companies monopolies of coal, soap, starch, iron, gunpowder, tobacco, salt, and the like, thus injuring legitimate trade and increasing the costs of living. By the knighthood fines he estranged the well-to-do gentry; by enlarging the forests he offended the nobility and men of quality ; by the sale of monopolies he made the lot of the wage-earners more, burdensome. The only classes not affected were the very poor and the unemployed. Both in Ireland and in England the government made exceptionally successful efforts to carry out the poor laws, and to relieve the poor from the oppression. the rich. The Privy Council enforced the law of apprentices, suppressed vagrancy, gave work to the unemployed, and protected the destitute. A competent writer says that during the period from 1631 to 1640, there was more poor relief in England than at any other time in English history.

ARCHBISHOP LAUD.

From a copy of Van Dyck's painting at Lambeth.

Finally Charles made a demand for ship-money, seeing in it “a spring and magazine that should have no bottom and an everlasting supply on all occasions." He caused a writ to be directed to the sheriff of every county in England, instructing him to provide a ship of war for the king's service, or in lieu thereof to pay a sum of money into the king's treasury. The royal navy was small and in bad condition; it was rarely repaired or improved, and it was manned by men better fitted to be gardeners and barbers than sailors, and by officers hopelessly corrupt. Formerly, in time of war, it had been customary to levy ship money on the seaports; but the king's attorney-general, Noy, suggested that the practice be revived in times of peace. In 1634 the first levies were made on London and a few other ports; in 1635 a second levy was made on the inland counties; in 1636 a third; and in 1637 a fourth. There was grumbling, but the majority of those assessed paid the tax. In 1636, however, John Hampden, a wealthy gentleman of Buckinghamshire, resisted payment, and the case was tried in 1637 before the judges of the Court of the Exchequer. Seven decided for the king, five against. Charles was delighted with the result, and continued to levy the tax; but it was ominous that the majority of judges was only two, and that in the minds of the people the defenders of Hampden had the better of the argument.