Eleven Years' Tyranny

Pejorative contemporary term for the eleven years 1629-40 in which King Charles I ruled England without calling a parliament; now more usually termed the ‘personal rule’ to avoid the implication that he was acting illegally. There was little overt opposition to his imposition of direct rule in England, and only his efforts to impose the English Book of Common Prayer on Scotland, and the resulting Bishops' Wars, forced him to call Parliament in April 1640.

Charles' rule had mixed success: he demonstrated concern for the poor by organizing more effective famine relief but squandered much of this goodwill by extending the traditional ‘ship money’ levy to include inland as well as maritime counties. Many regarded this as a tax in all but name which should have been sanctioned by parliament. It was tested in the courts by John Hampden in 1637 but, in an ambiguous ruling, the judges decided in favour of the crown. Perhaps Charles' most serious political mistake was to continue to promote the Arminians and high church policies while persecuting Puritans, such as William Prynne, John Bastwick, and Robert Burton. In Ireland the harsh rule of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford increased the crown's revenues but at the cost of increasing discontent.