Stuart England: Civil War and Commonwealth

The economy of England, if not the largest, was probably the most advanced and complex in Europe. Still strongly based upon the cloth trade, still with a predominantly agricultural base, it showed aspects of developing industrialisation in shipyards, cannon-foundries, brickworks and ironworks. The range of trades was great. The developing skills in medicine and surgery required new and specialist instruments. New imports were coming in from west and east, including tobacco (against the use of which the new king wrote a book) and chocolate. To control and protect trading in far-off places, new businesses had been created, the Muscovy Company and the Levant Company, respectively granted monopolies on trade with Russia and the eastern Mediterranean. The regulation of this diverse activity had become the joint concern of the Council and of parliament, with some men being members of both bodies, as Sir Francis Walsingham had been. The prime function of parliament remained 'supply', the granting and securing of the royal finances.

James's policy of peaceful relations with Spain, though opposed by diehards, was a sensible one and brought dividends in trade. Salisbury's death in 1612 removed his most efficient and respected counsellor; from then on James was excessively influenced by his own court favourites. Between 1614 and 1621 he did not summon parliament at all.

Trouble from abroad

Despite a continuing alliance with England, Dutch merchant venturers established colonies and trading stations and organised themselves to keep English traders out. Dutch fishermen considered the North Sea their own and fought off English vessels. Having made peace with Spain, and aware that France had no fleet, the English government allowed the navy to run down, and while its merchant fleet grew, England was no longer capable of enforcing control even of its own coastline. Despite these difficulties, English colonies were successfully established in Virginia (where Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in 1607), Bermuda and Barbados. From 1620, the private enterprise of non-conforming Puritans established the New England colonies. Acceptance of the Bohemian crown by a German prince, the Elector Palatine, who was married to James's daughter Elizabeth, widened the war until, from the extreme ends of Europe, Spanish and Swedish armies fought across German principalities and Austrian duchies, assisted by hosts of mercenaries from England, Scotland and Ireland. England played a peripheral part in this great struggle.

Charles I: religious divisions and conflict with parliament

Buckingham when James I died in February 1625, King Charles I maintained the favourite as chief minister. There were many reasons for Buckingham to have opponents and enemies. He was a social upstart, he was a corrupt counsellor who sold official posts and peerages, he encouraged the king's hostility to parliament, and he was an incompetent politician and an inept general. Almost his only useful contribution was, as Lord High Admiral, to develop the use of frigates for the royal navy.

The great Seal of Charles I Charles I

Buckingham's continued role played a large part in parliament's reserved attitude to Charles I at the start of his kingship: instead of granting the king ‘tunnage and poundage’ (the proceeds of import and export duties) for life, or an extended period, it gave him only one year. War had been declared on Spain in 1624, and Charles extended hostilities to France in 1626. Such campaigns as there were, including an attempt to replicate Drake's old success at Cadiz, and an expedition led by Buckingham against the lie de Re in France, were failures. Buckingham, defended by the king against parliamentary impeachment, was assassinated by a disgruntled officer in 1628.