ABSTRACT
Looking back on the 1630s, Lord Falkland was moved to describe that period as ‘the most serene, quiet and halcyon days that could possibly be imagined’.1 At least until 1637 there indeed appears to be little evidence of disaffection towards Caroline government in England. Taxes were paid, laws were enforced and obeyed and there was nothing other than grumbling resentment at Charles’s and Archbishop Laud’s religious reforms. Yet it was a rather superficial calm, the political nation having been denied a platform from which it might articulate its grievances because of the King’s decision proclaimed on 27 March 1629 after the riotous conclusion to the second session of the 1628 Parliament-not to call any further Parliaments until ‘our people shall see more clearly into our intentions and actions’.2
