Wentworth dominated the main power groups by clever manipulation of the Irish Parliament and by securing firm control of the army in Ireland. Schemes were introduced to develop trade and industry of every kind; financial reforms to increase Ireland's revenue were enforced. However, Wentworth's methods were ruthless and despotic. The interests of the Crown were his priority, at the expense of all private interest. He alienated the predominantly Catholic "Old English" aristocracy in Ireland by promoting the interests of the new wave of Protestant English and Scottish settlers, then alienated the settlers by enforcing Laud's anti-Puritan religious reforms and by introducing new taxes. The policy of driving the native Irish population from their lands was continued and extended under Wentworth's administration, this most definatley made Wentworth unpopular. Wentworth extends his unpopularity to the former mp’s of the dissolved Parliament, as he says openly to the King “ if Parliament refuse to supply the King with funds in the usual way, the King must provide for the saftey of the Kingdom however he see’s fit”, as Wentworth is a strong beliver of the divine right of Kings, he believes the king can do what ever he wants to raise money as the parliament refused him funds, this will do him no favours for popularity as he is encouraging the king to go against parliament rules.
There are also many reasons why William Laud has become unpopular, Laud argued that the king ruled by Divine Right. He claimed that the king had been appointed by God and people who disagreed with him were bad Christians. Laud believed that Church reforms had gone too far. Anglicans tended to support the policies of Laud but the Puritans strongly disagreed with him. When Laud gave instructions that the wooden communion tables in churches should be replaced by stone altars. Puritans accused Laud of trying to reintroduce Catholicism.
Laud's policy was influenced by another aspect of his character: his desire to impose total uniformity on the Church. This, too, was driven by a sincere belief that this was the duty of his office, but to those of even slightly differing views it came as persecution. Perhaps this had the unintended consequence of garnering support for the most implacable opponents of the Anglican compromise. In 1637, William Prynne and two others were sentenced to mutilation (removal of ears and branding on both cheeks) for the crime of seditious libel. (Defamation).
The fact that Laud was Arminian made many Protestants dislike him as his ways of worship came across as very Catholic, e.g. churches were colourful, not plain like the puritan church. Laud wanted to “restore the fabric of the Church” Until Henry 8th closed down the monasteries, tithes (10% of earnings, used to be a Catholic practise) would be used to help maintain the church and to pay for a priest to run the monastery but due to them been closed down by Henry 8th The local landowner and gentry (ex Mp’s) would receive this 10% of earnings, so they could appoint the vicar of there choice, which he could control and improve their own power,(advowsons-the right to put your own candidate for the vicar). Laud took the tithes away from the landowners and used it to help the church directly; this made the ex-members of Parliament extremely made and in tern made William Laud very unpopular.
By this time Laud is very unpopular with many people, even more so when he tries to destroy Puritanism, he continually punishes puritans through the high commission and Star Chamber. In 1630, Alexander Leighton was fined, pillorised and mutilated (slashed, ears cut off etc…) for producing pamphlets saying how Laud is not doing a good job of “restoring the fabric of the church” but the people he punished were seen as hero’s to the other puritans, these brutal punishments certainly made Laud even more unpopular.
In conlusion of all of this information, I have been able to explore all the reasons why both Thomas Wentworth and William Laud became and were so unpopular. Wentworth was unpopular largely down to his bullying and “thorough” tactics as well as imposing higher taxes in Ireland. Laud was unpopular mainly due to his desire to impose total uniformity on the Church, as well as his harsh punishments imposed mainly on the Puritans. Both of these people were hard headed and “thorough” in what ever they did, because of this many of there methods of dealing with different situations, whether it be dealing with getting landowners to give back land which was sold to them by James I or dealing with defamation using mutilation, made them become very unpopular with many people.
