Our Legal Heritage Part 92

The last court case concerning villeinage was in 1618.

- - - Chapter 15 - - -

- The Times: 1625-1642 -

The entourage of Charles I came to be called "Cavaliers". They were named by their opponents for the Spanish caballero who was a Catholic who prosecuted Protestants. Their hair had long, curled, and flowing locks. They wore a broad-rimmed decorated hat. Their fancy jackets and breeches were loose. Boots were wide and folded over at the top. Young men wore earrings and painted their faces. A lady wore her hair in ringlets on each side of her face. Her dress was fitted at the waist, with a peaked bodice. It was low at the shoulders with a scoop neckline in front. She often wore much lace, especially at the neck down to the bust line. Her outer dress and under-skirt that was revealed in front, were full and made of satin and stiff silk or velvet. Only hose of silk were worn at court.

A majority of prosperous industrial towns and fee farmers, led sometimes by lords or old landed gentry, were Puritans. They dressed plainly and in somber colors such as black, grey, and buff, with no ornamentation except plain white collars and cuffs of linen rather than of lace. Wool replaced silk and velvet. No jewelry was worn. The Puritan women also wore long white ap.r.o.ns. The Puritan women smoothed their hair back into little k.n.o.bs and covered their hair and head with a white covering. Both Puritan men and women wore broad-rimed hats and plain shoes. The ordinary country man wore a felt hat, broadcloth coat, woolen trousers, hand-knitted worsted stockings, and plain, strong shoes. The Puritan men for a time had short-cut hair. The Puritan- Parliamentarians were given the name "Roundheads" after the crop- headed London apprentices whose rioting had marked every stage of the conflict between king and Parliament.

Religion was a favorite and serious topic of discussion, even among the illiterate. Nine-tenths of the people were Protestant. On the whole, they were more inclined to salvation by grace than to salvation by good works. Popular reading included guides for good manners such as "The Rich Cabinet" by Thomas Gainsford, and "Youths Behavior" translated from the French by Francis Hawkins. It advised not to sit with one leg on the other, but with the feet even; not to spit on one's fingers; and not to sniffle in the sight of others. Books for ladies such as "Delights for Ladies" by Hugh Platt told them how to adorn themselves, tables, closets, and rooms with beautiful objects, perfumes, and waters. It taught preserving and the making of candy preserved by sugar, cooking, and housewifery. Gervase Markham wrote advice for men in "Hobsons Horse-load of Letters", which addressed serious negotiations, private businesses, amorous accomplishment, wanton merriment, and the defense of honor and reputation. "A Helpe to Discourse" primed a man to meet company with suggested questions and answers, epigrams, riddles, and jests. In Henry Peacham's "The Compleat Gentleman" (1622), the model Cavalier is portrayed in terms of horsemans.h.i.+p, tilting, sports, choice of companions, reserved and dignified conduct, good scholars.h.i.+p, and responsibility. This popular book was a guide to university, where there was a seven year course of cla.s.sroom lectures. It advised conversation with men of the soundest reputation for religion, life, and learning, but recreation with those of the same rank and quality. First place was to be given to religion, so that the foundation of all studies would be the service of G.o.d. Following in importance were: speaking and writing in English or Latin (grammar, syntax, and rhetoric), astronomy, astrology, geography (whose authorities were Pliny, Strabo, and the pagan writers of the first century), chorography [map-making], mathematics (including arithmetic and geometry), poetry, (reading, writing, and criticizing), music (including part-music), drawing, limning [putting drawings in books], painting, art history, exercise (riding, running, leaping, tilting, throwing, wrestling, swimming, shooting, and falconry), logic and disputation (if related to one's intended profession such as the law), philosophy (Plato and Aristotle), and some medicine and botany.

Richard Brathwaite's "The English Gentleman" portrays the somber Puritan who accepts the gospel of work. He is a staid and serious businessman. "Matrimonial Honour" by Daniel Rogers opined that for success, a marriage must be G.o.dly, with the parties equally religious, wors.h.i.+pping together in private and in public. A hasty or worldly marriage would bring repentance. The spouses should agree, but keep to their spheres. Children should not be spoiled.

Large households were more or less self-supporting and were managed by their ladies. Work included ordering wool, hemp, and flax; making cloth and dying it; dairy work; brewing; malting; baking; preserving wines; extracting oils; distilling perfume; and putting on banquets. Couches were coming into use in parlors.

The king and his court entourage settled for most of the year in Whitehall instead of traveling around the country. The king let the public into Hyde Park, the king?s private hunting park, for recreation. The City of London and Westminster were still separate, but a ma.s.s of hovels was springing up in between them. In certain areas there were houses crowded with those wanted for minor offenses, small thefts, and debt. Bailiffs did not dare venture into these areas because the inhabitants hid and defended each other unless the offense was a major one. The penalty for stealing even small sums was still death. The water carrier was still active and the night transport of sewage necessary.

Inigo Jones was the first architect of consequence. He had studied in Italy and designed and built the Banqueting House at Whitehall, near Westminster, in London in 1622. It had cla.s.sical proportions and nice shaping and dressing in stone. He was now an arbiter of taste for the King Charles and his Queen and built many structures for them, including the Queen's Chapel at St. James Palace and her bedroom in the Queen's Hose in Greenwich. All over London and the country he and his pupils built many cla.s.sical buildings, including houses, churches, stables, lodgings, out-buildings, staircases, galleries, watergates, and archways. They stood in stark contrast to the Tudor buildings around them. In the 1632, Jones started town planning in London with Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market and terraced houses around a central piazza surrounded by open arcades with a Tuscan church at one end. In 1634, a man from the suburb of Hackney introduced a line of coaches rented at 1s. per hour. They soon became very popular.

The Flemish Johann Baptista van Helmont demonstrated that metals dissolved in acid can be recovered through chemical means and enunciated the doctrine that each thing in nature has its own specific organization.

A large part of England was rebuilt as yeomen expanded their houses and others lower in rank replaced mud and wood hovels with brick and stone cottages. A separate kitchen appeared. The ground floors are boarded over to create bedrooms. Permanent stairs replace ladders. Gla.s.s appears in windows. Gla.s.s and crockery replace wood and pewter, Chairs replace benches. Knives and forks become common.

About 1640 began travel between towns by covered wagons called stage coaches. They carried pa.s.sengers and goods and stopped at inns for stabling and repairs.

Work was begun in 1630 to make ca.n.a.ls that would make marsh waters run to the sea. Barges on ca.n.a.ls were the most efficient mode of transportation. A barge could carry 50 tons on a ca.n.a.l and only 30 tons on a river. A single horse could haul an 8-ton wagon on iron rails or on a soft road, but only 1/8 of a ton on his back.

A new trend of spring-sown crops led to better crop balance and reduced the risks of scarcity in a bad year. But the economy was still volatile.

There were riots in London in 1640-1 from a complete breakdown in political consensus, the factions being the Royalist City elite versus the middling and lesser merchants and craftsmen.

In 1631, the clock makers broke away from the control of the Blacksmiths. The gunmakers also broke away from the Blacksmiths. The tinplate workers broke away from the Ironmongers.

"Searching" for bad cloth became more difficult as the industry became more diversified. For instance, a new machine called a gig- mill did the work of many hand finishers. In 1633, Charles issued a commission for the reformation of the cloth industry with minute directions for the manufacture of cloth. But there were many disagreements over the details of manufacture and reform was difficult to enforce.

By the 1630s, many parishes had a resident intellectual for the first time. The parish priests came from gentry, upper yeomanry, urban tradesmen and clerical families. They were educated and highly learned.

They had libraries and were in touch with contemporary religious debates. They saw their role primarily as pastoral care. Many wanted to improve the religious knowledge and moral conduct of their paris.h.i.+oners.

Puritan influence deepened as they forbade dancing, games, minstrels, and festivals. They punished superst.i.tious conduct. They initiated prosecutions in church courts for s.e.xual lapses and drunkenness. The church court had little coercive power and its punishments were restricted to penance or excommunication. Many Puritan sects espoused equality for women. By the 1640s women were preachers, e.g. in the Baptist and Anabaptist religions and, until 1660, prophetesses. These sects were mostly composed of the lower echelons of society.

Poor people did not respond to sermons as did the well-to-do. Nor were they as involved in church activity, attending church only for marriages, baptisms, and funerals.

Charles I not only believed in the divine right of kings and was authoritarian; he was the ultimate autocrat. He had an unalterable conviction that he was superior to other men, who were insignificant and privileged to revolve around him. He issued directives to reverse jury verdicts. Parliamentarians Oliver Cromwell and other educated men opposed this view. The Commons voted not to grant Charles the usual custom-dues for life, making it instead renewable each year, conditioned on the king's behavior. Charles dissolved Parliament before this pa.s.sed.

He continued to take tonnage and poundage.

Charles wanted money for war so he imposed many taxes, but without the consent of Parliament. They included many of which had fallen into disuse. He imposed a compulsory "loan" on private individuals, which the courts held was illegal, and imprisoned those who refused. Bail was denied to these men. Simpler people who refused were threatened with impressment into the Navy, which included being landed on sh.o.r.e to fight as marines and soldiers. They sought to revive the old writ of habeas corpus to get released, but to no avail. Charles billeted unpaid and unruly soldiers in private homes, which they plundered. It was customary to quarter them in inns and public houses at royal expense. Martial law was declared and soldiers were executed. But the citizens did not want martial law either.