Excerpt from Diary of the Corporation, Vol. 3: 5 16 Charles I, (1630 1640, )

The Third Volume of the Corporation Diary, from 1630 to 1640, embraces those ten years of seeming tranquillity which preceded the convulsion of the Great Civil War: - a period which has been characterized by Prof S. R. Gardiner as "the Personal Government of Charles the First." It may be desirable to say a few words as to the state of affairs at this period, so far as they affected the Town of Reading.

Political Events. During this long interval no Parliament was summoned in England, and the measures employed by the King to raise a sufficient revenue for the purposes of Government were of such an arbitrary character as to render his administration unpopular, and to arouse a smouldering spirit of discontent throughout the country. In the course of this volume we shall find frequent references to these vexatious and often obsolete methods of indirect Taxation: - such as the levying of Ship-Money in a time of profound peace, heavy fines imposed for declining to accept the honour of Knighthood, and even for the discontinuance of the practice of Archery. Notwithstanding these extreme measures, it was barely possible to carry on the ordinary expenditure of the Kingdom, and the feeling of irritation against Taxation, without Representation, continued to increase year by year.

With this growth of political grievances there were at the same time other causes of discontent. A large party in the Church longed for its further reformation on Calvinistic lines, and were impatient of the severe and rigorous laws which had been passed for the enforcement of Uniformity in doctrine and discipline. References will be found in this Volume to the unpopular Courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission. The case of Lodowick Bowyer, in 1633 (recorded on p. 207), is an instance of the barbarous sentences inflicted by the Star Chamber, which caused this Court to be regarded as an engine of tyranny and made it a byword of hatred throughout the Kingdom. Again, the Foreign policy of the Court had been disastrous both in France and Spain.

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