查理一世：解散议会并试图逮捕议员，英国内战一触即发
Ⅵ.查尔斯一世(16251649)与议会
Charles I (1625-1649) and the Parliament
查尔斯一世与议会的关系一开始就是灾难性的。他象父亲一样认为他的统治权是上帝赋予的--"君权神 授"。任何人都不能挑战君权。这种不可更改的立场激化了与议会的冲突。议员们越来越同情清教徒。查尔斯鼓励一种思想流派在英格兰教会内发展，清教徒以为这种思想与古老的罗马天主教义很接近。因为这种教义希望恢复一些古老的中世纪教会习俗给予主教极大尊重和权力。
Charles I’s relations with the Parliament were from the start disastrous. He, like his father,
thought of his right to rule as God-given---“The Divine Right of Kings”. His prerogative rights should not be challenged by anyone. This was an inflexible stand, and it encouraged confrontation with Parliament, whose members had become increasingly Puritan in sympathy. Charles encouraged the growth of a school of thought within the Church of England which Puritans believed to be very close to the old roman Catholicism. It wished to restore some of the old medieval Church’s customs, and gave the bishop of the Church great respect and power.
伊丽莎白时期，清教主义一直是神职人员要求的改革方向，当这些人被斯图亚特王族罢职后，他们离开英国国教。结果清教主义很快变成全国上下群众性的社会运动，并以简朴穿戴，很高的道德标准和平均主义而闻名。因为清教徒一直声称罗马天主教威胁了英国，他们也因此被尊为民族主义者。查尔斯一世个人对宗教的观点证实了清教徒的怀疑：在皇宫内又开始信仰天主教了!在英国当时的时代环境下，任何容忍天主教和崇拜欧洲天主教国家文化的行为都被认为是发疯。
Puritanism in Elizabethan times had been a reform tendency of Elizabeth’s churchmen. As these men were removed from their positions by the Stuarts, they left the Church of England. Puritanism, as a result, quickly became a mass movement of communities up and down the country, noted for simple dress, high moral standards and very egalitarian attitudes. As the Puritans had always been the most outspoken about threats to England from Roman Catholicism they were also respected nationalists. Increasingly Charles I’s personal views on religion confirmed Puritans suspicions: Catholics were again worshiping at Court! The climate of the times was such that toleration of Catholicism and admiration of European Catholic countries culture was regarded as madness.
1625 年查尔斯一世召集他的第一届议会，他要求议会把通常进口税收给他，议会只批了一年而非终生。 国王的反应是解散议会，并且征收关税，提高强迫贷款额，并威胁要把那些拒付的人投进监狱。1628 年由 于缺钱，他又召集议会(第三届议会)，他发现自己面对约翰·艾略特领导的强大反对势力。正是这届议会上国王被迫接受了《民权请愿书》--被视为第二个《大宪章》，它禁止任意逮捕和关押，没有议会同意不得增税；在私房内不得安置士军住宿；不得根据军事法审判任何人。一年后查尔斯又解散了议会。他设法通过各种财政措施(如 1635 年把船税扩展至所有内陆城镇和县)在未召集国会情况下又过了 11 年，直至当他试图把高教派礼仪(英国国教祈祷书)强加于苏格兰教会的 1640 年。
Charles I called his first Parliament in 1625. When he asked Parliament to vote him the usual import duties, it granted them for one year only instead of for life. The King responded by dissolving Parliament, collecting the customs duties, raising a forced loan and threatening those who refused to pay with imprisonment. Forced once more by shortage of money to call another Parliament (his third Parliament) in 1628, he found himself faced by a powerful opposition led by
Sir John Eliot. It was at this Parliament that the King was forced to accept the Petition of Right, regarded as the second Magna Carta, which forbade arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and requested that no taxes should be raised without consent of Parliament; no more billeting of soldiers in private houses; and no person be tried by martial law. But a year later Charles dissolved Parliament. He managed by various financial measures (e.g. Ship-money was extended to all inland towns and counties in 1635) to survive for 11 years without calling another until 1640 when, having tried to impose his High Church practices ( the English Book of Common Prayer ) on the
Scottish Church, a rebellious Scottish army marched into England.
造反的苏格兰军队开进英格兰，在纽伯恩苏格兰人打败了皇家军队，查尔斯被迫在里本与苏格兰人签订条约。根据条约，苏格兰人应放弃一切敌对行动，而查尔斯则每天支付 850 镑作为苏格兰军队的生活费，直至双方的矛盾解决。
The Scots defeated the royal forces at Newburn, and Charles was forced to conclude a treaty with the Scots at Ripon, by which it was agreed that the Scots should abstain from all acts of hostility and Charles should pay 850 pounds a day for the maintenance of the Scottish army, until the differences between them and the King should be settled.
查尔斯缺钱又怕苏格兰人第二次入侵，只得召集第五届议会，也叫长期国会(1640-1660)。议会立即命令逮捕国王最残忍也最能干的大臣斯特拉福德和劳德。然后长期议会采取一系列措施限制王权，同时扩大自己的权力。《民兵议案》提议将军事指挥权由君主转给议会。《大抗议书》强烈要求对教会进行彻底改革，包括限制主教权力，用议会批准的大臣取代国王的枢密大臣。1641 年，当国王与下议会激烈争斗时，不满 的爱尔兰天主教徒利用此局势袭击占领他们领土的英国人。成千上万人被杀，英格兰国内抗议不断，人们 认为查尔斯一直支持爱尔兰天主教徒。经过长时间的犹豫，查尔斯于 1642 年开始行动。他率领一群武装人员冲到下议院逮捕皮姆和其他四位议员,最终无功而返。彼时战争已不可避免。
Charles, being still in want of money and fearing a second invasion of the Scots, called his fifth Parliament, sometimes called the Long Parliament (1640-1660). Immediately Parliament ordered the arrests of the King’s most ruthlessly efficient ministers, Strafford and Laud.
Then a whole series of measures were introduced by the Long Parliament limiting the authority of the Crown while increasing its own. The Militia Bill proposed the transfer of military command from the Crown to Parliament, and a Grand Remonstrance urged radical reforms in the Church, including the limitation of the power of bishops, and the replacement of the King’s counselors by ministers approved by Parliament. While the King and the Commons were at each other’s throats in 1641, discontented Irish Catholics took advantage of this situation to attack the settlers who had taken their land. Thousands were killed and the outcry in England was heightened by a belief that Charles had backed the Irish Catholic side. Having hesitated too long, Charles began to
take action in 1642. Leading a party of swordsmen, he marched to the Commons to arrest Pym and four other Members but in vain. War was now inevitable.
