SIR RANULPHE CREWE AND THE QUEST FOR PREFERMENT, 1559-1646

The aims of early Stuart government were ill-matched with the political and financial realities of early seventeenth-century England. The crown sought to perpetuate its national sovereignty against strong counter-pressures from local and regional interests. Because there was no structure of sovereignty, James I and Charles I had to rely on an archaic and inefficient legal system and on their favorite courtiers to propound and enforce their will. In practice, the crown was dependent upon the good will of the English gentry to keep the peace. The gentry represented themselves in parliament, and they consistently failed to vote the crown enough money to pursue its policies or to pay for the costs of governing. The main organs of central government, the Privy Council and the itinerant justices of assize, were insufficient to their tasks of collecting revenues and enforcing the laws. The crown's resulting chronic indebtedness forced reliance on a quest for preferment at London, a system of politicking and profiteering engendered by the king's need to rely on favorites. Somerset and Buckingham, the favorites of James I and Charles I, resorted to wide-scale corruption in their operation of the patronage system. This kept the government afloat financially, but it undermined the crown's authority by sapping its power of appointment, by entrenching rich men of uncertain loyalties in powerful offices, and by corrupting the chief ideological value of the early Stuart system: honor. Sir Ranulphe Crewe was a second-echelon servant of the law. He allied himself with a group of "reformers"--Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, and Sir Francis Bacon. He played a key role in the elevation of Buckingham to preeminent political influence by his important legal and political contributions, including the creation of impeachment procedures. He was appointed Chief Justice of England in 1625. In 1626 he was dismissed from the bench for cause. His dismissal materially affected the already uncertain constitutional position of the English judges. Crewe never again held office. He failed to regain royal favor, and he lived to see his finances ruined by depression and civil war.