Personal rule of Charles I, 1629–1640

The Personal Rule (also known as the Eleven Years' Tyranny) was the period from 1629 to 1640, when King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland ruled without recourse to Parliament. The King was entitled to do this under the Royal Prerogative.

Charles had already dissolved three Parliaments by the third year of his reign in 1628. After the murder of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was deemed to have a negative influence on Charles' foreign policy, Parliament began to criticize the king more harshly than before. Charles then realized that, as long as he could avoid war, he could rule without Parliament.

Whig historians such as S.R. Gardiner called this period the "Eleven Years' Tyranny", because they interpret Charles's actions as authoritarian and a contributing factor to the instability that led to the English Civil War. More recent historians such as Kevin Sharp called the period "Personal Rule", because they consider it to be a neutral term, and some such as Sharpe have emphasised the positive aspects of the period.

In the Medieval period, government in England was very much centred on the King. He ruled personally, usually assisted by his Council, the Curia Regis. The council members were chosen by the King, and its membership varied greatly, but members often included powerful nobility and churchmen, senior civil servants, and sometimes certain members of the King's friends and family.

Early parliaments began to emerge under Edward I, who wished to implement taxation changes and wide-ranging law reforms, and sought to gain the consent of the nation. Nevertheless, calling a parliament was an expensive and time-consuming process, requiring many personal invitations (for the House of Lords) and elections in the shires and chartered cities and boroughs. So parliaments would only be summoned on particularly important occasions. Once a parliament had finished its business, the King would dissolve it, and perhaps not summon another for an extended period; in the meantime, the Curia Regis – that is, the King with his chosen advisers – would make laws ("ordinances"), spend money, and carry on the business of government.

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