HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Long Parliament, Conspicuous Consumption, Due Process
Ibraheem Aziz Oct 28/2015
HIS109Y – L0101 Lec 13
The English Civil War
• English nobility languished under Elizabeth I
• Middle class grew hugely and was a new source of power
o Wealthy/educated mercantile elite
▪ Were able to finance exploration and access foreign markets
▪ Allowed for venture capital and commercial exploration
▪ Returned huge profits
o Landowners/gentry
▪ 20 000 families in the kingdom
▪ Size of estates varied greatly
▪ Better managers of their estates
▪ No need to engage in conspicuous consumption
▪ Nobles were not expected to engage in trade – gentry could increase wealth
and influence
▪ Could be elected to the House of Commons
• Patronage power of the nobility began to break down
• Industry and investment expanded greatly
• English empire was not just based on courage, but on people doing different things based on the
money that was available to the middle classes
• Belief in the value of the New World
• Who would determine the directions in which England was changing?
o Gentry believed the future belonged to them
o Religion was the new vocabulary of the gentry
o Middle lasses wated a oplete reak fro ‘oe ad puritaial sipliity siilar
to Calvinism
• James I (1603-1625) took over from Elizabeth I after her death and was the wisest ruler of
Christendom
o Translated the Bible into English
o King of Scotland
o Wast able to make progress under his rule
o House of Commons took advantage of his good-natured personality by lecturing and
badgering him
▪ Commons felt they had the king under their control
• Charles I (1625-1649) took power after his father, James I
o Headstrong and cheating
o Parliament wanted a different set of rules
▪ Put forward the Petitio of ‘ight
• Just cause
• Due process
• Nobility
▪ These acts constituted what the Parliament thought of as the basic rights of an
Englishman
o Charles I prorogued Parliament
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