Folger Institute Stress Site

A Summer 2003 NEH Institute.
Directed by David Cressy
and Lori Anne Ferrell.

	Parliament Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677). Civitatis Westmonasteriensis Pars, 1647. • The Duke of Buckingham and Parliament Parliament, the People and Physical Space in the 1641-1642 Petitioning Campaigns Succession in Elizabethan Parliamentary Culture Women and Parliament in Seventeenth-Century England: The Examples of Lady Eleanor Davies and the Leveller Petitioners Full-text of The Citizens of London's Humble Petition to the Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons House in Parliament, 1641. Full-text of A Bloody Masacre Plotted by the Papists, 1641. Full-text of Lady Eleanor Davies's Samsons Fall (1624). Full-text transcription of John Hales's A Declaratyon of the Successyon of the Crowne Imperyall of England, 1563. Includes study questions. Full-text of An Acte whereby certayne offences be made treason, 1571. Includes study questions.				The Duke of Buckingham and Parliament as a Site of Stress The 1620s were a time of particular stress for both the Crown and the Parliament. The combination of foreign war, fiscal constraints, and religious tensions necessitated the calling of Parliament five times during the decade; this was especially unusual given that Parliament had met only once, and then only for a few weeks, during the previous ten years. The fact that Parliament met comparatively often in the 1620s reflected significant unease among the political elites about war, money, and religious tensions. The failure of those Parliaments to address England's serious problems only heightened the sense of stress in Westminster and beyond. The focus of the stress came to rest on the person and activities of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Who was Buckingham? He had risen very quickly through the ranks of King James I's courtiers, becoming the "royal favourite" by 1618. At the time of James I's death in 1625, he held several influential offices as well as the title of Duke, the highest title in the English peerage structure. He continued to be enormously important as the new king, Charles I, relied heavily on Buckingham's advice and assistance. Buckingham's influence on both monarchs became one of the points of stress, then, during the contentious Parliaments of the 1620s. He was temporarily popular for leading, in the 1624 Parliament, the movement to go to war against Spain. That war's failure made him just as unpopular, since the failure was due to naval problems laid at his feet as Lord Admiral. The 1625 Parliament, the first of Charles I's reign, saw an attempt by some Parliamentarians to bring Buckingham to account for the failed war. Charles dismissed the Parliament rather than suffer an attack on his most prominent government minister, but the next Parliament, in 1626, saw the resumption of the attack from both Houses of Parliament. The House of Commons launched an impeachment proceeding against the Duke, while the Lords allowed one of its members, the Earl of Bristol, to air serious charges about Buckingham's role in diplomacy with Spain, charging in particular that he was sympathetic to Catholicism and to undermining the Church of England. King Charles I, who desperately needed money, tried to cajole both Houses into abandoning the attacks on Buckingham and to concentrate instead on providing the needed funds, but to no avail. Eventually the King gave up and dissolved the Parliament without receiving the money, but in so doing he protected Buckingham. By this time, there was significant resentment of Buckingham among English people of different social classes. This resentment culminated in the assassination of the Duke in 1628. John Felton, the assassin, was lauded in popular verse and ballads, revealing the depth of animosity Buckingham had inspired among his countrymen. Tellingly, though, the conflict and tensions continued between King Charles and Parliament. Even though Buckingham had attracted so much antipathy, the Parliament continued to be a significant site of stress even after his death. Dwight Brautigam Huntington College Suggestions for further reading: Cogswell, Thomas. "The People's Love: The Duke of Buckingham and Popularity." In Politics, Religion and Popularity, edited by Thomas Cogswell, Richard Cust, and Peter Lake, 211-34. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. "Buckingham's Relation, 24 February 1624." In Journals of the House of Lords. London: H.M.S.O., 1509-1891. "Bristol's Charges." In Proceedings in Parliament 1626, edited by William B. Bidwell and Maija Jansson for the Yale Center for Parliamentary History, vol. I, 329-331. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991-1996. Russell, Conrad. Parliaments and English Politics, 1621-1629. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. Study questions What things can you learn about Buckingham by carefully examining his portrait in the upper portion of the engraving? You might be able to discern things about his social standing, for example. How could you interpret the significance of the panel in the lower left of the engraving (the one with ships in it)? How might you understand the panel in the lower right of the engraving? What seems to be happening in this panel? What questions come to mind as you carefully observe this engraving? How would you proceed in finding the answers to your questions? Was the artist who created this engraving a friend or foe of Buckingham? On what basis do you draw your conclusion? What do you make of the fact that Buckingham's assassination did not result in the lowering of tensions between King Charles and Parliament? back to top


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