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115-453: The New York General Assembly was first convened on October 17, 1683, during the governorship of Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick , which passed an act entitled " A Charter of Liberties " that decreed that the supreme legislative power under the Duke of York (later King James II ) shall reside in a governor , council , and the people convened in general assembly; conferred upon the members of

230-593: A Roman Catholic , generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters , who thought his views too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War . His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to

345-642: A Parliament, are known as the Personal Rule or the "eleven years' tyranny". Ruling without Parliament was not exceptional, and was supported by precedent. But only Parliament could legally raise taxes, and without it Charles's capacity to acquire funds for his treasury was limited to his customary rights and prerogatives. A large fiscal deficit had arisen during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Notwithstanding Buckingham's short-lived campaigns against both Spain and France, Charles had little financial capacity to wage wars overseas. Throughout his reign, he

460-567: A bride and to a rapturous and relieved public welcome, he and Buckingham pushed the reluctant James to declare war on Spain. With the encouragement of his Protestant advisers, James summoned the English Parliament in 1624 to request subsidies for a war. Charles and Buckingham supported the impeachment of the Lord Treasurer , Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex , who opposed war on grounds of cost and quickly fell in much

575-736: A clandestine attempt to aid Catholicism's resurgence. Rather than direct involvement in the European land war, the English Parliament preferred a relatively inexpensive naval attack on Spanish colonies in the New World , hoping for the capture of the Spanish treasure fleets . Parliament voted to grant a subsidy of £140,000, an insufficient sum for Charles's war plans. Moreover, the House of Commons limited its authorisation for royal collection of tonnage and poundage (two varieties of customs duties) to

690-526: A compromise whereby the king would agree to forfeit ship money in exchange for £650,000 (although the cost of the coming war was estimated at £1 million). Nevertheless, this alone was insufficient to produce consensus in the Commons. The Parliamentarians' calls for further reforms were ignored by Charles, who still retained the support of the House of Lords. Despite the protests of the Earl of Northumberland,

805-665: A controversial anti-Calvinist ecclesiastic, Richard Montagu , who was in disrepute among the Puritans . In his pamphlet A New Gag for an Old Goose (1624), a reply to the Catholic pamphlet A New Gag for the New Gospel , Montagu argued against Calvinist predestination , the doctrine that God preordained salvation and damnation . Anti-Calvinists—known as Arminians —believed that people could accept or reject salvation by exercising free will . Arminian divines had been one of

920-666: A critic of the king, Strafford defected to royal service in 1628, in part due to the Duke of Buckingham's persuasion, and had since emerged, alongside Laud, as the most influential of Charles's ministers. Bolstered by the failure of the English Short Parliament, the Scottish Parliament declared itself capable of governing without the king's consent, and in August 1640 the Covenanter army moved into

1035-584: A defence against innovation and disorder. Parliament quickly seized London, and Charles fled the capital for Hampton Court Palace on 10 January, moving two days later to Windsor Castle . After sending his wife and eldest daughter to safety abroad in February, he travelled northwards, hoping to seize the military arsenal at Hull . To his dismay, he was rebuffed by the town's Parliamentary governor , Sir John Hotham , who refused him entry in April, and Charles

1150-516: A man who had great influence over the prince, travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long-pending Spanish match. The trip was an embarrassing failure. The infanta thought Charles little more than an infidel, and the Spanish at first demanded that he convert to Catholicism as a condition of the match. They insisted on toleration of Catholics in England and

1265-563: A new departure for Irish politics whereby all sides joined to present evidence against him. In a similar manner to the English Parliament, the Old English members of the Irish Parliament argued that while opposed to Strafford they remained loyal to Charles. They argued that the king had been led astray by malign counsellors, and that, moreover, a viceroy such as Strafford could emerge as a despotic figure instead of ensuring that

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1380-436: A platform for popular protest, and the judges found against Hampden only by the narrow margin of 7–5. Charles also derived money by granting monopolies, despite a statute forbidding such action , which, though inefficient, raised an estimated £100,000 a year in the late 1630s. One such monopoly was for soap, pejoratively referred to as " popish soap " because some of its backers were Catholics. Charles also raised funds from

1495-658: A secret marriage treaty with his brother-in-law Louis XIII of France . Moreover, the treaty loaned to the French seven English naval ships that were used to suppress the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle in September 1625. Charles was crowned on 2 February 1626 at Westminster Abbey , but without his wife at his side, because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony. Distrust of Charles's religious policies increased with his support of

1610-472: A special Act of Parliament for his relief. In 1709, Lord Limerick sold his 2,300-acre property at Celbridge to William Conolly . Dongan lived in London for the last years of his life and died a poor man and without direct heirs on 14 December 1715 at the age of 81. In his will, dated 1713, he wished that he be buried with expenses not to exceed £100, and bequeathed the remainder of his estate to his niece,

1725-573: A venture. Both the English and Irish parliaments were summoned in the early months of 1640. In March 1640, the Irish Parliament duly voted in a subsidy of £180,000 with the promise to raise an army 9,000 strong by the end of May. But in the English general election in March, court candidates fared badly, and Charles's dealings with the English Parliament in April quickly reached stalemate. The earls of Northumberland and Strafford attempted to broker

1840-516: A year, although previous sovereigns since Henry VI had been granted the right for life. In this manner, Parliament could delay approval of the rates until after a full-scale review of customs revenue. The bill made no progress in the House of Lords past its first reading . Although no act of Parliament for the levy of tonnage and poundage was obtained, Charles continued to collect the duties. A poorly conceived and executed naval expedition against Spain under Buckingham's leadership went badly, and

1955-640: The Bishops' Wars , strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War . After his defeat in 1645 at the hands of the Parliamentarian New Model Army , he fled north from his base at Oxford. Charles surrendered to a Scottish force and after lengthy negotiations between

2070-637: The Electoral Palatinate were invaded by a Habsburg force from the Spanish Netherlands . James, however, had been seeking marriage between Prince Charles and Ferdinand's niece, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain , and began to see the Spanish match as a possible diplomatic means of achieving peace in Europe. Unfortunately for James, negotiation with Spain proved unpopular with both the public and James's court. The English Parliament

2185-478: The English Parliament , which sought to curb his royal prerogative . He believed in the divine right of kings , and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without Parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch . His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to

2300-739: The First Bishops' War in 1639. He did not seek subsidies from the English Parliament to wage war, instead raising an army without parliamentary aid and marching to Berwick-upon-Tweed , on the Scottish border. The army did not engage the Covenanters , as the king feared the defeat of his forces, whom he believed to be significantly outnumbered by the Scots. In the Treaty of Berwick , Charles regained custody of his Scottish fortresses and secured

2415-542: The French-Dutch War in 1678, Dongan returned to England in obedience to the order that recalled all English subjects fighting in service to France. Fellow officer James, Duke of York , arranged to have him granted a high-ranking commission in the army designated for service in Flanders and a pension. That same year, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers , which had been granted to England as part of

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2530-540: The Grand Remonstrance , a long list of grievances against actions by Charles's ministers committed since the beginning of his reign (that were asserted to be part of a grand Catholic conspiracy of which the king was an unwitting member), but it was in many ways a step too far by Pym and passed by only 11 votes, 159 to 148. Furthermore, the Remonstrance had very little support in the House of Lords, which

2645-672: The Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria , a Catholic , was elected king of Bohemia . The next year, the Bohemians rebelled , defenestrating the Catholic governors . In August 1619, the Bohemian diet chose Frederick, who led the Protestant Union , as their monarch, while Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor in the imperial election . Frederick's acceptance of the Bohemian crown in defiance of

2760-647: The Kirk . Although it had been written, under Charles's direction, by Scottish bishops, many Scots resisted it, seeing it as a vehicle to introduce Anglicanism to Scotland. On 23 July, riots erupted in Edinburgh upon the first Sunday of the prayer book's usage, and unrest spread throughout the Kirk. The public began to mobilise around a reaffirmation of the National Covenant , whose signatories pledged to uphold

2875-567: The Low Countries had given him a knowledge of the Dutch language." James also granted him an estate on Staten Island . The estate eventually became the town of Castleton ; later, another section of the island was named Dongan Hills in honour of Dongan. Dongan landed in Boston on 10 August 1683, crossed Long Island Sound , and passed through the small settlements in the eastern part of

2990-575: The Short Parliament (as it came to be known) was dissolved in May 1640, less than a month after it assembled. By this stage the Earl of Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland since 1632, had emerged as Charles's right-hand man and, together with Archbishop Laud, pursued a policy that he termed " Thorough ", which aimed to make central royal authority more efficient and effective at the expense of local or anti-government interests. Although originally

3105-675: The mint in the Tower of London , promising its later return at 8% interest to its owners. In August, after the East India Company refused to grant a loan, Lord Cottington seized the company's stock of pepper and spices and sold it for £60,000 (far below its market value), promising to refund the money with interest later. Throughout Charles's reign, the English Reformation was in the forefront of political debate. Arminian theology emphasised clerical authority and

3220-530: The plantation of Ulster , coupled with resentment at moves to ensure the Irish Parliament was subordinate to the Parliament of England, sowed the seeds of rebellion. When armed conflict arose between the Gaelic Irish and New English in late October 1641, the Old English sided with the Gaelic Irish while simultaneously professing their loyalty to the king. In November 1641, the House of Commons passed

3335-582: The "Distraint of Knighthood", in abeyance for over a century, which required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted. Relying on this old statute, Charles fined those who had failed to attend his coronation in 1626. The chief tax Charles imposed was a feudal levy known as ship money , which proved even more unpopular, and lucrative, than tonnage and poundage before it. Previously, collection of ship money had been authorised only during wars, and only on coastal regions. But Charles argued that there

3450-458: The "wicked counsels" of Charles's "arbitrary and tyrannical government". While those who signed the petition undertook to defend the king's "person, honour and estate", they also swore to preserve "the true reformed religion", Parliament, and the "rights and liberties of the subjects". Fearing for his family's safety in the face of unrest, Charles reluctantly assented to Strafford's attainder on 9 May after consulting his judges and bishops. Strafford

3565-712: The Albany charter was the result of negotiations conducted between royal officials and Robert Livingston the Elder and Pieter Schuyler . The charter incorporated the city of Albany, establishing a separate municipal entity in the midst of the Van Rensselaer Manor . Dongan established the boundary lines of the province by settling disputes with Connecticut on the East, with the French Governor of Canada on

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3680-715: The American colonies. In a 1687 report on the colony to the Committee on Trade in London, he also presciently described its remarkable early religious heterogeneity, which only grew across the centuries: "Here bee not many of the Church of England; few Roman Catholicks; abundance of Quakers preachers men and Women especially; Singing Quakers, Ranting Quakers; Sabbatarians Antisabbatarians; Some Anabaptists, some Independents; some Jews; in short of all sorts of opinions there are some, and

3795-518: The Commons launched a direct protestation attacking Buckingham, stating, "We protest before your Majesty and the whole world that until this great person be removed from intermeddling with the great affairs of state, we are out of hope of any good success; and do fear that any money we shall or can give will, through his misemployment, be turned rather to the hurt and prejudice of this your kingdom than otherwise, as by lamentable experience we have found those large supplies formerly and lately given." Despite

3910-667: The Commons passed the bill as an ordinance, which they claimed did not require royal assent. The Militia Ordinance appears to have prompted more members of the Lords to support the king. In an attempt to strengthen his position, Charles generated great antipathy in London, which was already fast falling into lawlessness, when he placed the Tower of London under the command of Colonel Thomas Lunsford , an infamous, albeit efficient, career officer. When rumours reached Charles that Parliament intended to impeach his wife for supposedly conspiring with

4025-399: The Commons' walls, demanding war with Spain and a Protestant princess of Wales . Like his father, Charles considered discussion of his marriage in the Commons impertinent and an infringement of his father's royal prerogative . In January 1622, James dissolved Parliament, angry at what he perceived as the members' impudence and intransigence. Charles and Buckingham, James's favourite and

4140-505: The Duke of York shall reside in a governor, council, and the people convened in general assembly; conferred upon the members of the assembly rights and privileges making them a body coequal to and independent of the Parliament of England ; established town, county, and general courts of justice; solemnly proclaimed the right of religious liberty; and passed acts enunciating certain constitutional liberties, e.g. taxes could be levied only by

4255-767: The English and Scottish parliaments he was handed over to the Long Parliament in London. Charles refused to accept his captors' demands for a constitutional monarchy , and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647. Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight , he forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648, the New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted , and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy

4370-566: The English county of Northumberland . Following the illness of Lord Northumberland, who was the king's commander-in-chief, Charles and Strafford went north to command the English forces, despite Strafford being ill himself with a combination of gout and dysentery. The Scottish soldiery, many of whom were veterans of the Thirty Years' War, had far greater morale and training than their English counterparts. They met virtually no resistance until reaching Newcastle upon Tyne , where they defeated

4485-558: The English forces at the Battle of Newburn and occupied the city, as well as the neighbouring county of Durham . As demands for a parliament grew, Charles took the unusual step of summoning a great council of peers . By the time it met, on 24 September at York , Charles had resolved to follow the almost universal advice to call a parliament. After informing the peers that a parliament would convene in November, he asked them to consider how he could acquire funds to maintain his army against

4600-538: The French with English ships as a condition of marrying Henrietta Maria, in 1627 he launched an attack on the French coast to defend the Huguenots at La Rochelle. The action, led by Buckingham, was ultimately unsuccessful. Buckingham's failure to protect the Huguenots—and his retreat from Saint-Martin-de-Ré —spurred Louis XIII's siege of La Rochelle and furthered the English Parliament's and people's detestation of

4715-482: The Garter . Eventually, Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity, which might have been caused by rickets . He became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing. Even so, his public profile remained low in contrast to that of his physically stronger and taller elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales , whom Charles adored and attempted to emulate. But in early November 1612, Henry died at

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4830-487: The House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." Charles abjectly declared "all my birds have flown", and was forced to retire empty-handed. The botched arrest attempt was politically disastrous for Charles. No English sovereign had ever entered the House of Commons, and his unprecedented invasion of the chamber to arrest its members was considered a grave breach of parliamentary privilege . In one stroke Charles destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as

4945-446: The House of Commons began proceedings for the impeachment of the duke. In May 1626, Charles nominated Buckingham as Chancellor of Cambridge University in a show of support, and had two members who had spoken against Buckingham— Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot —arrested at the door of the House. The Commons was outraged by the imprisonment of two of their members, and after about a week in custody, both were released. On 12 June 1626,

5060-742: The Incident , Charles's credibility was significantly undermined. Ireland's population was split into three main sociopolitical groups: the Gaelic Irish , who were Catholic; the Old English , who were descended from medieval Normans and also predominantly Catholic; and the New English , who were Protestant settlers from England and Scotland aligned with the English Parliament and the Covenanters. Strafford's administration had improved

5175-507: The Irish army to subdue England was not corroborated, and on 10 April Pym's case collapsed. Pym and his allies immediately launched a bill of attainder, which simply declared Strafford guilty and pronounced the sentence of death. Charles assured Strafford that "upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour or fortune", and the attainder could not succeed if Charles withheld assent. Furthermore, many members and most peers opposed

5290-458: The Irish economy and boosted tax revenue, but had done so by heavy-handedly imposing order. He had trained up a large Catholic army in support of the king and weakened the Irish Parliament's authority, while continuing to confiscate land from Catholics for Protestant settlement at the same time as promoting a Laudian Anglicanism that was anathema to presbyterians. As a result, all three groups had become disaffected. Strafford's impeachment provided

5405-501: The Irish rebels, he decided to take drastic action. Charles suspected, probably correctly, that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots. On 3 January 1642, Charles directed Parliament to give up five specific members of the Commons—Pym, John Hampden , Denzil Holles , William Strode and Sir Arthur Haselrig —and one peer, Lord Mandeville , on the grounds of high treason. When Parliament refused, it

5520-694: The Iroquois nation around Albany in 1684, and convened assembly with them, garnering support, and approval. He was called "corlur" by the Iroquois Chief, a term from the Irish language "Coṁairleoir," used in Parliamentary deference to the Speaker, and meaning "advisor." Dongan established the first post office in New York in 1686 with the objective of promoting better communication between

5635-438: The Lord Keeper and 12 peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so. The Act was coupled with a subsidy bill, and to secure the latter, Charles grudgingly granted royal assent in February 1641. Strafford had become the principal target of the Parliamentarians, particularly John Pym , and he went on trial for high treason on 22 March 1641. But the key allegation by Sir Henry Vane that Strafford had threatened to use

5750-484: The North, and with Pennsylvania on the South, thus marking out the present limits of New York State. Regarding Canada, it was necessary to secure the friendship of the Iroquois . This became the subject of a deal of correspondence between Dongan and his counterpart to the north. "...[C]ertainly our rum doth as little hurt as your brandy and in the opinion of Christians is much more wholesome." Dongan, along with Lord Howard of Effingham , Governor of Virginia, journeyed to

5865-494: The Protestant cause abroad effectively. In 1633, Charles appointed William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury . They initiated a series of reforms to promote religious uniformity by restricting non-conformist preachers, insisting the liturgy be celebrated as prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer , organising the internal architecture of English churches to emphasise the sacrament of the altar, and reissuing King James's Declaration of Sports , which permitted secular activities on

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5980-451: The Remonstrance attacked. The tension was heightened by news of the Irish rebellion, coupled with inaccurate rumours of Charles's complicity. Throughout November, a series of alarmist pamphlets published stories of atrocities in Ireland, including massacres of New English settlers by the native Irish who could not be controlled by the Old English lords. Rumours of "papist" conspiracies circulated in England, and English anti-Catholic opinion

6095-406: The Scots in the meantime. They recommended making peace. A cessation of arms was negotiated in the humiliating Treaty of Ripon , signed in October 1640. This stated that the Scots would continue to occupy Northumberland and Durham and be paid £850 per day indefinitely until a final settlement was negotiated and the English Parliament recalled, which would be required to raise sufficient funds to pay

6210-408: The Scottish forces. Consequently, Charles summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament . Once again, his supporters fared badly at the polls. Of the 493 members of the Commons returned in November, over 350 were opposed to the king. The Long Parliament proved just as difficult for Charles as had the Short Parliament. It assembled on 3 November 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach

6325-432: The Scottish nobility, at the price of considerable acrimony, by the Act of Revocation (1625), whereby all gifts of royal or church land made to the nobility since 1540 were revoked, with continued ownership being subject to an annual rent. In addition, the boundaries of the royal forests in England were restored to their ancient limits as part of a scheme to maximise income by exploiting the land and fining land users within

6440-513: The Tonnage and Poundage Act. The House of Commons also launched bills attacking bishops and episcopacy, but these failed in the Lords. Charles had made important concessions in England, and temporarily improved his position in Scotland by signing a final settlement of the Bishops' Wars , then securing the Scots' favour on a visit from August to November 1641 during which he conceded to the official establishment of presbyterianism in Scotland. But after an attempted royalist coup in Scotland, known as

6555-421: The Trustees—rather than town boards, city councils or even the State Legislature—still managing much of the common land in the state. In 1698, his brother William Dongan, 1st Earl of Limerick , died without issue. Because of his service to the Crown as a military officer and as provincial governor, he was granted his brother's title in the Peerage of Ireland and a portion of his brother's forfeited estates by

6670-481: The age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid (or possibly porphyria ). Charles, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent . As the eldest surviving son of the sovereign, he automatically gained several titles, including Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay . In November 1616, he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester . In 1613, Charles's sister Elizabeth married Frederick V, Elector Palatine , and moved to Heidelberg . In 1617,

6785-410: The aggressions that had for years been gaining upon the rights of the people, and expressed, quite as strongly as was then avowed by the patriots of the day, the sentiments advocated in the revolution." The following were elected as members of the General Assembly. Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick Thomas Dongan , (pronounced "Dungan") 2nd Earl of Limerick (1634 – 14 December 1715),

6900-406: The assembly rights and privileges making them a body coequal to and independent of the English Parliament ; established town, county, and general courts of justice; solemnly proclaimed the right of religious liberty; and passed acts enunciating certain constitutional liberties, e.g. taxes could be levied only by the people met in general assembly; right of suffrage; and no martial law or quartering of

7015-473: The attainder, not wishing, in the words of one, to "commit murder with the sword of justice". But increased tensions and an attempted coup by royalist army officers in support of Strafford and in which Charles was involved began to sway the issue. The Commons passed the bill on 20 April by a large margin (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 230 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced (by 26 votes to 19, with 79 absent) in May. On 3 May, Parliament's Protestation attacked

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7130-485: The case of John Rolle , a Member of Parliament whose goods had been confiscated for failing to pay tonnage and poundage. Many MPs viewed the imposition of the tax as a breach of the Petition of Right. When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on 2 March, members held the Speaker, Sir John Finch , down in his chair so that the session could be prolonged long enough for resolutions against Catholicism, Arminianism, and tonnage and poundage to be read out and acclaimed by

7245-513: The chamber. The provocation was too much for Charles, who dissolved Parliament and had nine parliamentary leaders, including Sir John Eliot, imprisoned over the matter, thereby turning the men into martyrs and giving popular cause to their protest. Personal rule necessitated peace. Without the means in the foreseeable future to raise funds from Parliament for a European war, or Buckingham's help, Charles made peace with France and Spain. The next 11 years, during which Charles ruled England without

7360-452: The consent of the assembly. Dongan's charter was the Magna Charta of American constitutional liberty. Many of its principles are embedded in the structure of our federal government. The last name of Dongan was later changed to Dungan to emulate the Irish dialect pronunciation of Dongan which sounds like Dungan. All Dungans today are related to this familial line. Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649)

7475-405: The death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales . An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to Infanta Maria Anna of Spain culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation. Two years later, shortly after his accession, he married Henrietta Maria of France . After his succession in 1625, Charles quarrelled with

7590-418: The dissolution of the Covenanters' interim government, albeit at the decisive concession that both the Scottish Parliament and General Assembly of the Scottish Church were called. The military failure in the First Bishops' War caused a financial and diplomatic crisis for Charles that deepened when his efforts to raise funds from Spain while simultaneously continuing his support for his Palatine relatives led to

7705-442: The dowry of Catherine of Braganza . He served as part of the Tangier Garrison which defended the settlement. In September 1682, James, Duke of York, as Lord Proprietor of the Province of New York , appointed Dongan as Vice-admiral in the Navy and provincial governor (1683–1688) to replace Edmund Andros "Dongan's long service in the French army had made him conversant with the French character and diplomacy and his campaigns in

7820-646: The duke. Charles provoked further unrest by trying to raise money for the war through a "forced loan": a tax levied without parliamentary consent. In November 1627, the test case in the King's Bench , the " Five Knights' Case ", found that the king had a prerogative right to imprison without trial those who refused to pay the forced loan. Summoned again in March 1628, Parliament adopted a Petition of Right on 26 May, calling upon Charles to acknowledge that he could not levy taxes without Parliament's consent, impose martial law on civilians, imprison them without due process, or quarter troops in their homes. Charles assented to

7935-426: The emperor marked the beginning of the turmoil that would develop into the Thirty Years' War . The conflict, originally confined to Bohemia, spiralled into a wider European war, which the English Parliament and public quickly grew to see as a polarised continental struggle between Catholics and Protestants. In 1620, King Frederick was defeated at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague and his hereditary lands in

8050-405: The few sources of support for Charles's proposed Spanish marriage. With King James's support, Montagu produced another pamphlet, Appello Caesarem , published in 1625 shortly after James's death and Charles's accession. To protect Montagu from the stricture of Puritan members of Parliament, Charles made him a royal chaplain, heightening many Puritans' suspicions that Charles favoured Arminianism as

8165-448: The first time, and the bond between them grew stronger. Together, they embodied an image of virtue and family life, and their court became a model of formality and morality. In January 1629, Charles opened the second session of the English Parliament, which had been prorogued in June 1628, with a moderate speech on the tonnage and poundage issue. Members of the House of Commons began to voice opposition to Charles's policies in light of

8280-461: The form of a bill of attainder . The incident set an important precedent as the process of impeachment would later be used against Charles and his supporters the Duke of Buckingham , Archbishop William Laud , and the Earl of Strafford . James insisted that the House of Commons be concerned exclusively with domestic affairs, while the members protested that they had the privilege of free speech within

8395-493: The individual's ability to reject or accept salvation, which opponents viewed as heretical and a potential vehicle for the reintroduction of Catholicism. Puritan reformers considered Charles too sympathetic to Arminianism, and opposed his desire to move the Church of England in a more traditional and sacramental direction. In addition, his Protestant subjects followed the European war closely and grew increasingly dismayed by Charles's diplomacy with Spain and his failure to support

8510-473: The island and he made his way to Fort James , arriving on 25 August. In October, Rev. Henry Selyns reported to the Amsterdam Classis, "...our new governor has at last arrived. His excellency is a person of knowledge refinement and modesty. I have had the pleasure of receiving a call from him and I have the privilege of calling on him whenever I desire." In 1683, at the time of Dongan's appointment

8625-587: The king was directly involved in governance. Strafford's fall from power weakened Charles's influence in Ireland. The dissolution of the Irish army was unsuccessfully demanded three times by the English Commons during Strafford's imprisonment, until lack of money eventually forced Charles to disband the army at the end of Strafford's trial. Disputes over the transfer of land ownership from native Catholic to settler Protestant, particularly in relation to

8740-576: The king's leading counsellors for high treason. Strafford was taken into custody on 10 November; Laud was impeached on 18 December; Finch, now Lord Keeper of the Great Seal , was impeached the next day, and consequently fled to The Hague with Charles's permission on 21 December. To prevent the king from dissolving it at will, Parliament passed the Triennial Act , which required Parliament to be summoned at least every three years, and permitted

8855-632: The most part of none at all." James later consolidated the colonial governments of New York, New Jersey and the United Colonies of New England into the Dominion of New England and appointed Edmund Andros , the former Governor-General of New York, as Governor-General. Dongan transferred his governorship back to Andros on 11 August 1688. He retired to his Staten Island estate, where he remained until July 1689. During Leisler's Rebellion , fearing for his safety, he fled back to England. Dongan

8970-418: The opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition. Many members of the Commons opposed his marriage to a Catholic, fearing that he would lift restrictions on Catholic recusants and undermine the official establishment of the reformed Church of England . Charles told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions, but promised to do exactly that in

9085-411: The people met in general assembly; right of suffrage; and no martial law or quartering of the soldiers without the consent of the inhabitants. Dongan soon incurred the ill will of William Penn who was negotiating with the Iroquois for the purchase of the upper Susquehanna Valley . Dongan went to Albany , and declared that the sale would be "prejudicial to His Highness's interests". The Cayugas sold

9200-456: The petition on 7 June, but by the end of the month he had prorogued Parliament and reasserted his right to collect customs duties without authorisation from Parliament. On 23 August 1628, Buckingham was assassinated. Charles was deeply distressed. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , he "threw himself upon his bed, lamenting with much passion and with abundance of tears". He remained grieving in his room for two days. In contrast,

9315-533: The propertied classes for inflicting degrading punishments on gentlemen. For example, in 1637 William Prynne , Henry Burton and John Bastwick were pilloried , whipped and mutilated by cropping and imprisoned indefinitely for publishing anti-episcopal pamphlets. When Charles attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties. Although born in Scotland, Charles had become estranged from it; his first visit since early childhood

9430-566: The property to New York with the consent of the Mohawk . Years later, when back in England and in favour at the Court of James II, Penn would use his influence to prejudice the king against Dongan. On 22 July 1686, Governor Dongan granted Albany a municipal charter, now known as the Dongan Charter . Almost identical in form to the charter awarded to New York City just three months earlier,

9545-425: The protests, Charles refused to dismiss his friend, dismissing Parliament instead. Meanwhile, domestic quarrels between Charles and Henrietta Maria were souring the early years of their marriage. Disputes over her jointure , appointments to her household, and the practice of her religion culminated in the king expelling the vast majority of her French attendants in August 1626. Despite Charles's agreement to provide

9660-406: The province was bankrupt and in a state of rebellion. Dongan was able to restore order and stability. On October 14 of that year he convened the first-ever representative assembly in New York history at Fort James . The New York General Assembly , under the wise supervision of Dongan, passed an act entitled Charter of Liberties and Privileges . It decreed that the supreme legislative power under

9775-453: The public humiliation of the Battle of the Downs , where the Dutch destroyed a Spanish bullion fleet off the coast of Kent in sight of the impotent English navy. Charles continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign. Because of his financial weakness, he was forced to call Parliament into session in an attempt to raise funds for such

9890-664: The public rejoiced at Buckingham's death, accentuating the gulf between the court and the nation and between the Crown and the Commons. Buckingham's death effectively ended the war with Spain and eliminated his leadership as an issue, but it did not end the conflicts between Charles and Parliament. It did, however, coincide with an improvement in Charles's relationship with his wife, and by November 1628 their old quarrels were at an end. Perhaps Charles's emotional ties were transferred from Buckingham to Henrietta Maria. She became pregnant for

10005-798: The reasserted boundaries for encroachment. The programme's focus was disafforestation and sale of forest lands for conversion to pasture and arable farming, or in the case of the Forest of Dean , development for the iron industry. Disafforestation frequently caused riots and disturbances, including those known as the Western Rising . Against the background of this unrest, Charles faced bankruptcy in mid-1640. The City of London, preoccupied with its own grievances, refused to make any loans to him, as did foreign powers. In this extremity, in July Charles seized silver bullion worth £130,000 held in trust at

10120-474: The reformed religion of Scotland and reject any innovations not authorised by Kirk and Parliament. When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in November 1638, it condemned the new prayer book, abolished episcopal church government , and adopted presbyterian government by elders and deacons. Charles perceived the unrest in Scotland as a rebellion against his authority, precipitating

10235-654: The repeal of the English penal laws , which Charles knew Parliament would not agree to, and that the infanta remain in Spain for a year after any wedding to ensure that England complied with all the treaty's terms. A personal quarrel erupted between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares , the Spanish chief minister, and so Charles conducted the ultimately futile negotiations personally. When he returned to London in October, without

10350-446: The revolution; but they doubtless had an influence beneficial to liberty, by introducing political discussions, and imparting a knowledge of the tendencies of irresponsible power." The General Assembly continued until May 1775. Among its last acts was the adoption of petitions to the king and Parliament of Great Britain , in which, while they "professed a warm attachment to the royal person and government, they solemnly protested against

10465-517: The sabbath. The Feoffees for Impropriations , an organisation that bought benefices and advowsons so that Puritans could be appointed to them, was dissolved. Laud prosecuted those who opposed his reforms in the Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber , the two most powerful courts in the land. The courts became feared for their censorship of opposing religious views and unpopular among

10580-498: The same manner Bacon had. James told Buckingham he was a fool, and presciently warned Charles that he would live to regret the revival of impeachment as a parliamentary tool. An underfunded makeshift army under Ernst von Mansfeld set off to recover the Palatinate, but it was so poorly provisioned that it never advanced beyond the Dutch coast. By 1624, the increasingly ill James was finding it difficult to control Parliament. By

10695-453: The soldiers without the consent of the inhabitants. The Assembly grew to twenty-seven members, elected by voice vote by the people once every seven years and the districts they represented. The representatives terms were originally at the will of the governor and new elections were ordered as it suited his interests. A law was passed that limited member's terms to three years, but it was annulled by King George III . The Septennial Act

10810-496: The south-east and East Anglia, as well as the English navy. After a few skirmishes, the opposing forces met in earnest at Edgehill , on 23 October 1642. Charles's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine disagreed with the battle strategy of the royalist commander Lord Lindsey , and Charles sided with Rupert. Lindsey resigned, leaving Charles to assume overall command assisted by Lord Forth . Rupert's cavalry successfully charged through

10925-592: The time of his death in March 1625, Charles and Buckingham had already assumed de facto control of the kingdom. With the failure of the Spanish match, Charles and Buckingham turned their attention to France. On 1 May 1625 Charles was married by proxy to the 15-year-old French princess Henrietta Maria in front of the doors of Notre Dame de Paris . He had seen her in Paris while en route to Spain. They met in person on 13 June 1625 in Canterbury . Charles delayed

11040-485: The wife of Colonel Nugent, who later became Marshal of France. He was buried in Old St. Pancras churchyard, London. One of the greatest constructive statesmen ever sent to any English colony. The assembly which he created passed an act known as "The Charter of Liberties and Privileges" which assumed the sovereignty of the people and proclaimed religious liberty, the right of suffrage, trial by jury and no taxation without

11155-402: Was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland , but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon

11270-643: Was a member of the Irish Parliament , Royalist military officer during the English Civil War , and Governor of the Province of New York . He is noted for having called the first representative legislature in New York, and for granting the province's Charter of Liberties. His negotiations and subsequent alliance with the Iroquois Indian Confederacy brought a lasting security from the French and their hostile Indian allies. Dongan

11385-404: Was a weak and sickly infant, and while his parents and older siblings left for England in April and early June that year, due to his fragile health, he remained in Scotland with his father's friend Lord Fyvie appointed as his guardian. By 1604, when Charles was three-and-a-half, he was able to walk the length of the great hall at Dunfermline Palace without assistance, and it was decided that he

11500-594: Was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic . The monarchy was restored in 1660, with Charles's son Charles II as king. The second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark , Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace , Fife, on 19 November 1600. At a Protestant ceremony in the Chapel Royal of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh on 23 December 1600, he

11615-472: Was actively hostile towards Spain and Catholicism, and thus, when called by James in 1621, the members hoped for an enforcement of recusancy laws, a naval campaign against Spain, and a Protestant marriage for the Prince of Wales. James's Lord Chancellor , Francis Bacon , was impeached before the House of Lords for corruption. The impeachment was the first since 1459 without the king's official sanction in

11730-455: Was also slow, and he had a stammer for the rest of his life. In January 1605, Charles was created Duke of York , as is customary in the case of the English sovereign's second son, and made a Knight of the Bath . Thomas Murray , a presbyterian Scot, was appointed as a tutor. Charles learnt the usual subjects of classics, languages, mathematics and religion. In 1611, he was made a Knight of

11845-410: Was baptised by David Lindsay , Bishop of Ross , and created Duke of Albany , the traditional title of the second son of the king of Scotland , with the subsidiary titles of Marquess of Ormond , Earl of Ross and Lord Ardmannoch. James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England , and when she died childless in March 1603, he became King of England as James I. Charles

11960-490: Was beheaded three days later. Also in early May, Charles assented to an unprecedented Act that forbade the dissolution of the English Parliament without its consent. In the following months, ship money, fines in distraint of knighthood and excise without parliamentary consent were declared unlawful, and the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were abolished. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by

12075-611: Was born in 1634 into an old Gaelic Norman (Irish Catholic) family in Castletown Kildrought (now Celbridge ), County Kildare , in the Kingdom of Ireland , the seventh and youngest son of Sir John Dongan, 2nd Baronet , Member of the Irish Parliament , and his wife Mary Talbot, daughter of Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet , and Alison Netterville. Dongan's maternal uncles were Peter Talbot , Archbishop of Dublin (1673–1679), and Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , who

12190-519: Was for his Scottish coronation in 1633. To the dismay of the Scots, who had removed many traditional rituals from their liturgical practice, Charles insisted that the coronation be conducted using the Anglican rite. In 1637, he ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland that was almost identical to the English Book of Common Prayer , without consulting either the Scottish Parliament or

12305-638: Was forced to withdraw. In mid-1642, both sides began to arm. Charles raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array , and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia. The negotiations proved futile, and Charles raised the royal standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642. By then, his forces controlled roughly the Midlands, Wales, the West Country and northern England. He set up his court at Oxford . Parliament controlled London,

12420-534: Was lord-deputy of Ireland during the reign of James II. After the beheading of Charles I , Dongan's father, a supporter of the House of Stuart , and his family, fled to France, where Thomas obtained a commission in the army. While in France, he served in an Irish regiment with Turenne . He stayed in France after the Restoration and achieved the rank of colonel in 1674. After the Treaty of Nijmegen ended

12535-599: Was no legal bar to collecting the tax for defence during peacetime and throughout the whole of the kingdom. Ship money, paid directly to the Treasury of the Navy, provided between £150,000 to £200,000 annually between 1634 and 1638, after which yields declined. Opposition to ship money steadily grew, but England's 12 common law judges ruled the tax within the king's prerogative, though some of them had reservations. The prosecution of John Hampden for non-payment in 1637–38 provided

12650-403: Was obliged to rely primarily on volunteer forces for defence and on diplomatic efforts to support his sister Elizabeth and his foreign policy objective for the restoration of the Palatinate. England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation. To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called

12765-578: Was passed in 1743, and remained in force till the revolution. The General Assembly elected a speaker from their own ranks, chose their own clerk, and published their own journal. The Assembly had the sole right of originating all laws granting appropriations of money, and, during Governor William Cosby 's administration, which was defined by political struggles and is known as one of the most oppressive royal placeholders, they withheld his compensation in an attempt to bring him closer to their desires. Reportedly, "these quarrels had considerably subsided before

12880-600: Was possibly Henrietta Maria who persuaded Charles to arrest the five members by force, which he resolved to do personally. But news of the warrant reached Parliament ahead of him, and the wanted men slipped away by boat shortly before Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed guard on 4 January. Having displaced Speaker William Lenthall from his chair, the king asked him where the MPs had fled. Lenthall, on his knees, famously replied, "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as

12995-438: Was strengthened, damaging Charles's reputation and authority. The English Parliament distrusted Charles's motivations when he called for funds to put down the Irish rebellion; many members of the Commons suspected that forces he raised might later be used against Parliament itself. Pym's Militia Bill was intended to wrest control of the army from the king, but it did not have the support of the Lords, let alone Charles. Instead,

13110-407: Was strong enough to journey to England to be reunited with his family. In mid-July 1604, he left Dunfermline for England, where he was to spend most of the rest of his life. In England, Charles was placed under the charge of Elizabeth, Lady Carey , the wife of courtier Sir Robert Carey , who put him in boots made of Spanish leather and brass to help strengthen his weak ankles. His speech development

13225-537: Was to execute land grants establishing several towns throughout New York State including the eastern Long Island communities of East Hampton and Southampton . These grants, called the Dongan Patents, set up Town Trustees as the governing bodies with a mission of managing common land for common good. The Dongan Patents still hold force of law and have been upheld by the US Supreme Court with

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