For the next eleven years (1629-1640) the King ruled without a
Parliament. The obnoxious Buckingham (S431) had led an expedition
against France which resulted in miserable failure. He was about
setting out on a second expedition to aid the Huguenots, who had
rebelled against the French King, when he was assassinated (1628).
His successor was Sir Thomas Wentworth, who later (1640) became Earl
of Strafford. Wentworth had signed the Petition of Right (S432), but
he was now a renegade to liberty, and wholly devoted to the King. By
means of the Court of Star Chamber (S330) and his scheme called
"Thorough," which meant that he would stop at nothing to make Charles
absolute, Strafford labored to establish a complete despotism.
Archbishop Laud worked with Strafford through the High Commission
Court (S382). Together, the two exercised a crushing and merciless
system of political and religious tyranny; the Star Chamber fining and
imprisoning those who refused the illegal demands for money made upon
them, the High Commission Court showing itself equally zealous in
punishing those who could not conscientiously conform to the
Established Church of England.[1]
[1] To strengthen the hands of Archbishop Laud and to secure absolute
uniformity of faith, Charles issued (1628) a Declaration (still found
in the English editions of the Book of Common Prayer), which forbade
any one to understand or explain the Thirty-Nine Articles (S383) in
any sense except that established by the bishops and the King.
Charles exasperated the Puritans (S378) still further by reissuing
(1633) his father's Declaration of Sunday Sports, which had never
really been enforced. This Declaration encouraged parishioners to
dance, play games, and practice archery in the churchyards after
divine service. Laud used it as a test, and turned all clergymen out
of their livings who refused to read it from their pulpits. When the
Puritans finally got the upper hand (1644) they publicly burned the
Declaration.