ABSTRACT
The King knew what was brewing. He had tried to stop the evil at its source. For more than ten years (1629-39) he had managed without Parliament. Then the mad men in Edinburgh made war on him, and he had to call a new Parliament to vote him subsidies. That was the end of his last chance to make the royal power absolute. The men of the new Parliament saw their opportunity to cut the royal power back to size. The Stuart had dreamt of becoming as strong as his cousin, the French Louis, but in England it had always been “the King in Parliament.” The time to stop Charles and his French wife with her papist priests was now. But they overplayed their hand. They thought they had him by the throat, and the temptation to shear all his power was too great. It looked as if it would soon be: “the Parliament above the King.” At that the moderates took fright; the Commons split, and the King suddenly acquired a royal party (1641).
