CHARLES I.
197
9. Popular dissatisfaction with Charles’s illegal methods of raising
money became 80 intense, that in August 1628 a third
Parliament was summoned, In this Parliament the ne of
party opposed to the King's policy was in a decidend EM
majority. Charles asked for supplies ; but again the Commons pro-
ceeded to attack Buckingham. The King felt himself to be in a weak
position. Parliament saw its advantage, and determined to strike a
decisive blow. A joint-committee of the Lords and Commons drew up,
and Parliament as a whole presented to the King for his assent, the
memorable Petition of Right, a document which is one of the grand
charters of English liberty. In connection with recitals of various
abuses under which the nation suffered, the Petition of Right claimed
exemption — (1) From illegal taxation of all kinds; (?) from the
penalties which those opposing such taxation had suffered: (3) the
billeting of soldiers on private persons ; (4) the proclamation of martial
law in time of peace, With visible reluctance Charles assented to the
Petition of Right on June 7th, 1628,
10. Parliament now renewed the impeachment of Buckingham. To
save his minister, the King suddenly prorogued Parlia-
ment on the 26th of June. Two months later Bucking- Death of
ham, a8 he was about to take command of a second nel
expedition in behalf of the besieged Huguenots of 8 )
Rochelle, was assassinated by a ınan named Felton, who made no
effort to escape. "The assassin was actuated by personal rather than
by political motives, having been disappointed in his application for a
certain office in the gift of his vietim. The expedition to Rochelle
accomplished nothing, and the war with France ended in 1630.
11. Buckingham was succeeded in his position as chief ‚adviser of
the King by Sir Thomas Wentworth, a man of superior
abilities and great force of character. Wentworth had Wentworth
been one of the leaders of the Opposition, and a most and Land,
determined foe of the Kiny’s arhitrary assumptions, Having deserted
his own party, he urged Charles forward to tyrannical measures that
proved fatal to both. "Che same year (1628) William Laud was np-
pointed Bishop of Landen, and became the leading ecclesiastica]
counsellor of the King. Laud was a zealous upholder of the royal
prerogative, and instructed his clergy to proclaim the divine right oj
kinys and passive cbedience as religious maxims, "The Puritans, who
Now reigned supreme in Parliament, found in him a most powerful
antagonist, His enemies charged him with trying to restore Catholi-
cism ; but he claimed that his only objeet was to protect the Church
of England from ‘“ Puritanical innovations.” Laud became Archbishop
of Canterbury in 1633,
12. Parliament re-assembled in 1629, Violent diseussions took place
aver tunnage and poundage and her matters of finance, The opposi:
