 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 |
3 November 1640
The Long Parliament meets for the first time. It is so called because it remains officially sitting until 1660, although during this time, it is purged and suspended. It is summoned after Charles I's defeat by the Scots in the Bishops' Wars (see 20 August 1640). Although Charles wants Parliament to vote him money to pay off the Scots, Parliamentarians led by John Pym and John Hampden (see 12 June 1637) aim to impeach his chief minister Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and Archbishop Laud. Although Strafford was sent to rule Ireland in 1633, his autocratic methods arouse hatred and suspicion in both Ireland and England. Parliament fears that he might use the army against its members. — • — Wentworth was 'severe abroad and in business and sweet in private conversation', wrote the diplomat Sir Thomas Roe: 'retired in his friendships, but very firm; a terrible judge and a strong enemy; a servant violently zealous in his master's ends and not negligent in his own; one that will have what he will, and though of great reason, he can make his will greater when it will serve him, effecting glory by a seeming contempt.' From A Century of Troubles by Stevie Davies (Channel 4 Books) |
|
