3rd Parliament of Charles I

[2] Following the debacle of the previous Parliament—when Parliament had refused to grant the King funds until their concerns about his favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, had been addressed—it had proved difficult to prosecute the war with Spain.

When the Duke of Buckingham wanted to take a fleet to raise the siege at La Rochelle and was prevented by financial restraints, Charles reluctantly accepted the need to call this third Parliament.

Over the summer the fleet to relieve La Rochelle was assembled, but the commander Buckingham was murdered by a disgruntled army officer.

[3] When Parliament reconvened in January 1629 it returned to the issue of tonnage and poundage, claiming that its continued imposition contradicted the aforementioned Petition of Right.

Matters got so heated that Charles adjourned Parliament by proclamation on 2 March 1629 and had nine of the leading protagonists arrested, one of whom, Sir John Eliot, would die in the Tower of London three years later.