Was it an 'Eleven years tyranny' or 'Halcyon Days' that followed 1629? Either way, foreign ambassadors were not hopeful of England's future. But Charles first priority was to reduce the Vipers of parliament to submission.

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In 1625 a new, fresh, bright king came to the throne seemingly eager to giht the good fight in the Protestant cause. Surely this moderate, controlled ad courteous man would be the bringer of a golen age. Events were to throw some doubt thatthe new ways would be different from the old.

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Dramatic events in 1628 - a dramatic murder, and one of the great set pieces of the English Revolution. Mayhem! Treason! Murder!

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As so often, war demands money, and in England, money meant parliament. So the outcome of 'The Favourites' War', Buckingham's attempt to relieve La Rochelle in 1627, would be critical.

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English place names are a direct window in into the lives of our ancestors - an insight into the origins or remarkable features of ancient settlements. Here's a brief survey of how to decode some of them.  

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The battle of Lutter in 1626 convinced Charles of the tearing need to intervene in the Thirty Years War in defence of hos sister Elizabeth's rights and in the cause of Protestantism. But the cupboard was bare - how to raise money? Without calling that pesky parliament!

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The 1626 parliament was opened by William Laud - not a good sign for the resolutely Calvinist parliament. Despite a remarkably positive response to the call for subsidies - their linkage to resolutions of grievances did not go down well with Charles

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As the 1626 parliament opens, full of hope once more, we take a while to introduce William Laud, and discuss the idea that a theme of the English civil wars is an ideological struggle between lawyers and Arminian clerics

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The reconvened parliament in Oxford went poor, and after a month Charles closed it down, and concentrated instead on the Spanish war. Surely, the recapturing the glory of Drake & Hawkins would relight Parliament's fire for war!

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For Charles I, April to June 1625 was his like the honeymoon period given to new football managers - enthusiastic full of hope - and often depressingly brief. The honeymoon period with his newly arrived wife Henrietta Maria, was similarly brief.

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