One
man used his pitchfork to take back his steer being taken by the
bailiff. If distraint were successful, people would refuse to buy
the distrained property of their neighbors.
Charles revived the right of the Crown to force knighthood on the
landed gentry for a fee.
Charles sold monopolies in such goods as soap, leather, salt,
wine, coal, and linen rags although they had been abolished in the
last Parliament of James. This made employment uncertain for
workers and prices high for the public, and put masters in danger
of loss of capital.
Fines were levied on people for the redress of defects in their
title deeds. Crown forest boundaries were arbitrarily extended and
landowners near Crown forests were heavily fined for their
encroachments on them. Money was extorted from London by an
illegal proclamation by which every house had to pay three years'
rental to the Crown to save itself from demolition.
But what incensed the people more than the money issue were the
changes in the established church. High churchmen, called
Ritualists, enforced ceremonies offensive to Puritan feeling in
every parish. The centrally placed communion tables were to be
placed at the east end within railings and called "altars", or
"mercy seats" as if for mass. They were to be ornamented with
crucifixes, images, conceits, books, candles and rich tapestries.
Bowing was to be done when approaching them.
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