Foreign policy was the major reason for the breakdown of crown-Parliament relations from 1625-1629

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‘It was the foreign policy of Charles I that led to the breakdown of the relationship between crown and Parliament in the years 1625-1629’ 

Though foreign policy was one of the main contributing factors as to why the relationship between Crown and Parliament broke down, there were other reasons of the same significance that created the total destruction. These other reasons are things such as; Charles’ personality, religion and finance. Religion for instance caused great division between the two, with Charles openly supporting anti-Calvinism and Montagu and his two writings, A New Gagg For An Olde Goose and Apello Caesarem that made Parliament grow suspicious of his religious intentions.

At the beginning of his reign, Charles immediately brought unrest simply because of him being the ‘mirror opposite’ (Cogswell) of his successor, his father, James who was ‘gregarious and loquacious’ (Smith), in contrast to Charles, who appeared ‘taciturn and cold’ (Smith). This, for obvious reasons, circulated an air of uncertainty around him, as it was a vast change. However, it is said that these personality flaws stemmed from his childhood and his stammer that he struggled to overcome and further hindered him from being a successful ruler as he was unable to communicate and rarely explained his actions. This, in combination, made Charles come across as an arrogant king that believed in his own ‘dignity of kinship’ (Smith).

Religion, on it’s own, also caused and sparked a great deal of uncertainty when it came to Charles’ religious intentions. One of the main contributing reasons for this was his siding with Montagu, as he showed his support of Armianism and not only was Montagu an Armian, but he was also backed by Lord Buckingham, Charles’ favourite- giving the pair a close relationship with the king. This air of distrust was generated right at the beginning of Charles’ reign when he appointed Montagu, who supports everything that the church is against, as his Royal Chaplain, which only make way for Parliament to not feel complete trust in him. The fact that Parliament were weary of Charles, was only worsened prior to the publishing of Montagu’s books; “A New Gagg For An Olde Goose” and “Apello Caesarem”- both demonstrating his views on anti- puritism and justifying their actions, which as imaginable caused major disruption within the commons.  Consequently, acted toward the breakdown of the relationship between Crown and Parliament, purely by raising question to his aims.

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It could also be argued, that yes, Foreign Policy was the most significant factor in the breaking down of the relationship. Charles’ new plain was to invade Cadiz, in Spain, and capture the gold fleet and port that is harboured. The reason why it was risky was because he made Parliament fund it due his belief in his own divine right, but he failed to mention what type of thing that they would be financing. The whole attack was a failure and reflected badly on Charles, especially due to the vast amount of men lost being more “to local Spanish ...

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