Abstract: The period of government without parliaments from 1629 to 1640, variously described as the ‘eleven years tyranny’ and ‘The Personal Rule of Charles I’, has been little studied (at least as far as the central government is concerned) since Gardiner completed his commanding narrative nearly a century ago.1 Yet the 1630s is not only a decade of unusual fascination, worthy of investigation in itself. Because we may learn from those years so much about King Charles, so much about the nature and problems of early Stuart government, a study of the Personal Rule is also essential for an understanding of the crises which led to civil war. To some, perhaps, the place of that decade in the story of civil war is clear: the period of government without parliament intensified the conflicts between crown and subjects which had been set in motion since the succession of James I; accelerated, that is, the fateful journey towards civil war past many a milestone of divisive controversy. As Professor Rabb has recently put it, ‘the attempt to do without parliament in the 1630s was in the long run untenable … Resistance to Charles’s policy was inevitable’.2
Publication Year: 1992
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Language: en
Type: book
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Cited By Count: 164
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