The English Civil War 215royal finances, nor did he have the right to impose taxes without historical
precedent. While Parliament, led by Puritans, was not yet claiming sover
eignty, it was clearly asserting its traditional role as a balance to royal
authority.
Defenders of Parliament believed Laudian religious reforms and the col
lection of ship money to be the work of power-crazed men perhaps manipu
lated by the pope. Justices of the peace resented the usurpation of their
authority by various decrees of martial law and by royal courts that impinged
on regional courts. Local officials believed that the king’s lieutenants were
exceeding their traditional authority over military affairs by bypassing estab
lished routines of local approval of military levies. London merchants felt
aggrieved that they were not able to export cloth because of royal control
over cloth exports through the monopoly of the Merchant Adventurers (see
Chapter 5). The monarchy alienated other Londoners by allowing some
craftsmen to operate outside the structure of the London guilds and by
attempting to force the city to provide more money for the war with Scot
land. The sale of the right to collect royal customs generated controversy as
well, particularly as the government sold more privileges to pay off those who
“farmed” taxes.
In the meantime, Charles surrounded himself with confidants, advisers,
artists, and musicians, whose sense of royal decorum and aesthetic tastes
seemed to suggest the influence of continental Catholicism. The queen
brought to the court Flemish artists who emphasized the religious themes of
the Catholic Reformation, leading critics to believe that a plot was afloat “to
seduce the King himself with Pictures, Antiquities, Images & other vanities
brought from Rome. ”
Those who consistently supported Parliament became known as the sup
porters of “Country,” while those who supported virtually unlimited monar
chical prerogatives were identified with “Court.” Titled nobles, of whom
there were about 1,200, generally supported Charles. Gentry formed the
core of the political opposition to the king. During the previous century,
many gentry had extended their landholdings, and men enriched by com
merce or service in the law or army had become part of the gentry through
the purchase of land. The roots of confrontation may have come from the
struggle of these economically dynamic gentry to obtain political power
commensurate with their rising station in English life. Some gentry of lesser
means who had fallen upon hard times may have blamed the monarchy for
their plight and hence supported Parliament.
The English Civil War has been called the “Puritan Revolution,” even
though its causes extended beyond the question of religion and Puritans
were not alone in resisting the monarchy. There were indeed many Puritans
in Parliament, including the body’s leader, John Pym (1584-1643). A bril
liant speaker and debater, Pym was a zealot, an impetuous and perhaps even
paranoid man whose strong convictions were in part defined by an obsession
that a “popish plot” existed to restore Catholicism to England. Puritans were