In the seventeenth century, Hampden emerged as a powerful influence in the struggle between Charles I and Parliament that culminated in the English Civil War.
Background
Born in 1594, John Hampden was the eldest son and heir of William Hampden of Buckinghamshire, and Oliver Cromwell’s cousin. Raised as a Protestant, he was educated at the Lord William’s School in Thame and then studied law at Oxford. In 1621 he became Member of Parliament for Grampound in Cornwall, and later represented Wendover and Buckinghamshire. He was described by Edward Hyde, Lord Clarendon (1609-74), as being well-respected among his peers, stating that he was known for ‘his own natural cheerfulness and vivacity, and above all, a flowing courtesy to all men’.[1]
The Position of the King and Parliament
The seventeenth century was a time of great social unrest and religious change. Questions were being asked about the King’s relation to the law. Although it was widely accepted that monarchs were appointed by God, it was debated whether this meant that the King could rule without the consent of Parliament. The Houses of Parliament, which represented the country’s propertied gentry and bishops, expected to be consulted and approve any taxation that the King wished to impose. It also expected to be dissolved only with its own consent. In its eyes, the King was not above the law.
After Charles I came to the throne in 1625 the tensions between the King and Parliament continued. After each conflict, Charles would dissolve parliament and try to rule without it. However, high inflation meant that Charles constantly needed money.
Ship Money
By 1635 the King, desperate for more funds, tried to raise money by introducing a ship tax, for which he claimed he did not need parliamentary approval. It was originally a tax aimed at raising money for naval defences when the country was under threat of war and was usually only applied to coastal towns. However, the King tried to extend it to all counties.
John Hampden opposed this tax on the grounds that the country was not under threat and that a county such as Buckinghamshire, which was nowhere near the sea, should not pay. It did not have the approval of Parliament and therefore was an illegal tax. He paid the entire amount owed, except for £1, therefore demonstrating that he was not objecting the amount he was being taxed, but that he was questioning its legality. A case was brought forward against Hampden by the King. Although a court of senior judges found in the King’s favour, the judgement also made Hampden a household name as a defender of liberty.
The Short Parliament
By 1640 Hampden was serving as MP for Buckinghamshire in the House of Commons. When the Short Parliament opened in April 1640 Hampden took his place amongst the leaders guiding the debates. He worked alongside other MPs such as John Pym (1584-1683) to oppose what they saw as the King’s attempts to introduce Roman Catholic practices into the Church of England. Parliament was dissolved in May after further unsuccessful discussions with the King.
The Grand Remonstrance and the Long Parliament
In November 1641 Hampden further angered the King by taking a leading part in Parliament’s passing of the Grand Remonstrance, which was a list of the King’s misdeeds from the start of his reign. In January 1642, Charles responded by entering the House of Commons, armed with several hundred soldiers, to arrest Hampden and four others for treason. Hampden and the other men were able to evade capture. The King was accused of abusing Parliamentary privilege by bursting through the doors of the Commons unannounced and uninvited. Meanwhile six thousand men from Buckinghamshire marched to London to show their support of Hampden.
By now the tensions between the King and Parliament were so great that Civil War was all but inevitable.
Up until this point, Hampden had been a moderate voice in Parliament. He was respected by all parties as a man of honour and integrity. Now, however, the King’s actions were seen by Hampden as an attack upon both religion and ‘the ancient and fundamental laws of the land’.[2] He considered it was a duty to actively resist the King.
English Civil War
On the outbreak of Civil War in 1642, Parliament raised an army to fight against the King. Hampden, as Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, raised his famous regiment of Green Coats. Hampden led his regiment in the Battle of Chalgrove against Prince Rupert on 17th June 1643. He was mortally wounded, and died a week later, on 24th June 1643. He did not live to see Cromwell’s New Model Army finally achieve victory over the Royalists in 1651.
Hampden’s Death
Hampden’s death so early in the war was a severe loss to the Parliamentarians and he was widely lamented. He had acted as a key figure between Pym’s moderate Middle Group and the more militant War Party. The historian Conrad Russell has stated he was ‘one of the key members of the intellectual and political powerhouse which fashioned the parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War’, and that, without his influence, the history of England may have been very different.[3] Known by his contemporaries as ‘the Patriot’, in the nineteenth century a statue honouring Hampden’s achievements was placed in the central lobby of the House of Commons.
By the Thames and District U3A
[1] Quoted in John Forster, Lives of Eminent British Statesmen, volume III (London: 1837), 377.
[2] John Forster, Lives of Eminent British Statesmen, volume III (London: 1837), 341.
[3] Conrad Russell, ‘Hampden, John (1595–1643),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/12169
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