How Far Was Discontent Between Crown and Parliament in the Years 1625 to 1629 Due to Buckingham’s Foreign Policy? (24 Marks)

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Between the years of 1625 to 1629, discontent between Crown and Parliament was rife after a number of problems that caused conflict to arise. One of the major issues that caused such discontent was Buckingham’s foreign policy however, there were other reasons too such as Charles promoting Arminianism, Parliament not granting Charles tunnage and poundage and Charles refusing to remove Buckingham to name a few other reasons. Buckingham’s foreign policy is easily a significant factor as to why relations between Crown and Parliament began to get worse. Perhaps the most considerable factor was the failed Cadiz expedition. Buckingham was blamed heavily as the Cadiz expedition was a total failure. He had planned to attack the Spanish galleons so he could firstly, retrieve the treasure and then go into attack the towns. Buckingham was hoping that this war would be on par to the Spanish Armada and that the attack would be seen as successful and heroic as that of the Elizabethan period. However, the entire expedition was a failure. Firstly, there was no water for the soldiers to drink and the only thing available was wine. This meant that the soldiers were almost permanently drunk leaving them in no fit state to carry out a successful attack. Furthermore, Buckingham’s plan to retrieve the treasure from Spanish ships was also unsuccessful too. The ship Buckingham had planned to attack had heard of the plans and therefore rerouted their journey. After this, Buckingham’s fleet were forced to return back to England empty handed, as they hadn’t manage to achieve anything they had set out to do and disease had began to spread through dirty and crowded ships. When Buckingham returned, he was left humiliated at the total failure of Buckingham’s expedition particularly because it had been so expensive too. After the failure of the Cadiz expedition, Charles attempted to help
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