ABSTRACT
The meeting of the Long Parliament in November 1640 marked the collapse of the Elizabethan constitution. At that time Charles I had only a handful of supporters: Laudians, customs farmers, monopolists and a few Catholics. On the contrary, there was a great deal of contact between the parliamentary classes and the court, as the careers of most political leaders of the period testify. If this is true, then the old but oft-repeated belief that James I, by his stupidity, opened up an unbridgeable rift between crown and parliament on constitutional issues must be rejected. Much more serious strains were put on the traditional constitutional framework by Charles I after his accession in 1625 than by his father, resulting in the fierce antagonism to royal policies seen in the parliaments of the late 1620s.
