Parliament did not sit regularly and had to be called into
session by the king. The convention that emerged after the
Magna Carta was that the king was required to convene
Parliament to get assent for new taxes. Charles I came to
the throne in 1625, declined to call Parliament after 1629,
and intensified James I’s efforts to build a more solidly
absolutist regime. He induced forced loans, meaning that
people had to “lend” him money, and he unilaterally
changed the terms of loans and refused to repay his debts.
He created and sold monopolies in the one dimension that
the Statute of Monopolies had left to him: overseas trading
ventures. He also undermined the independence of the
judiciary and attempted to intervene to influence the
outcome of legal cases. He levied many fines and charges,
the most contentious of which was “ship money”—in 1634
taxing the coastal counties to pay for the support of the
Royal Navy and, in 1635, extending the levy to the inland
counties. Ship money was levied each year until 1640.
Charles’s increasingly absolutist behavior and extractive
policies created resentment and resistance throughout the
country. In 1640 he faced conflict with Scotland and, without
enough money to put a proper army into the field, was
forced to call Parliament to ask for more taxes. The so-
called Short Parliament sat for only three weeks. The
parliamentarians who came to London refused to talk about
taxes, but aired many grievances, until Charles dismissed
them. The Scots realized that Charles did not have the
support of the nation and invaded England, occupying the
city of Newcastle. Charles opened negotiations, and the
Scots demanded that Parliament be involved. This induced
Charles to call what then became known as the Long
Parliament, because it continued to sit until 1648, refusing
to dissolve even when Charles demanded it do so.
In 1642 the Civil War broke out between Charles and
Parliament, even though there were many in Parliament
who sided with the Crown. The pattern of conflicts reflected
the struggle over economic and political institutions.
Parliament wanted an end to absolutist political institutions;
the king wanted them strengthened. These conflicts were
rooted in economics. Many supported the Crown because
they had been granted lucrative monopolies. For example,
the local monopolies controlled by the rich and powerful