Back in the days when the law still mattered & people were born with spines, the English parliament on this day in 1628 passed the Petition of Right. They were responding to Charles I’s illegal taxation. In 1626 Parliament refused to pass any new taxes for Charles’ Spanish war, & threatened to impeach his favorite, the Duke of Buckingham. Charles had to dissolve parliament & got no taxes. Never the bright light of public relations, Charles then began illegally levying forced loans and benevolences, and, to save money, billeting soldiers in civilians’ homes.
Five men — the Five Knights — refused to pay & were illegally imprisoned. Ultimately they came to trial under a habeas corpus action, that provision of Magna Charta that forbids imprisonment without charges. Charles the Brilliant maintained he could imprison anyone for reasons of state. Under pressure the court left the knights in prison, taking the case “under advisement.” Looked like Charles had won.
When parliament assembled in March, Charles tactlessly demanded more money, and warned them to be quick about it, but they shelved that to discuss legislation to overturn the Five Knights case. In the end, they passed the Petition of Right declaring illegal imprisonment without cause shown, “taxation without consent of Parliament,” billeting of troops, & use of martial law in peacetime.
Charles tried to avoid assenting to the petition, but finally signed it on 7 June with the ill-graced declaration that the Commons “neither mean nor can hurt my prerogative.”
Like all the Stuarts, Charles never learned & never changed. Never intending to abide by the Petition, he kept levying illegal taxes & trying to rule without parliament. The application of the Ship Money tax inland and illegally in 1634 & 1636 provoked the resistance of John Hampden, cousin to Oliver Cromwell. Ultimately Charles tyranny provoked a parliamentary war against him & his execution for treason in 1649. To the end, he never learned, never repented. His equally dull sons followed in his footsteps & brought and end to the Stuart dynasty.
Tyrants never learn, & thus raise up their own opposition, great men such as the Five Knights & John Hampden, willing to take the nation’s burden on their own shoulders — illegal tax protestors all, and God bless them for it!
— Franklin Sanders, www.the-moneychanger.com
