John Pym

John Pym was a prominent Parliamentarian during the English Civil Wars. Pym was MP for Tavistock and owed his patronage to Ear of Bedford

An anti-Catholic in his early days he was involved in the impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham and the Petition of Right.

In 1627 the Earl of Warwick employed him to manage his estate and during the parliaments of the 1640's he was to become the leader of the Parliament along with Lord Brooke, Lord Saye and John Hampden.

He led opposition against Charles 1's request for money to fight the Scots. His skill was to talk moderately although taking a hard line. Frustrated, the king dissolved the Short Parliament. In the Long Parliament he led the abolition of the Star Chamber.

In 1641 the Irish Rebellion gave Charles another reason to ask Parliament to raise taxes. It would be thought that Pym would have acceded to those demands to crush the catholic uprising. Instead he decided to blackmail Charles instead and demand reform. His Grand Remonstrance was a list of complaints against the King and Church and was part of his strategy to get control of army. The king tried to win over Pym by making him Chancellor, but he refused. Charles then formally impeached Pym, Hampden and others tried to arrest him in Parliament but he fled and the King later fled London.

Pym tried to bridge the increasing differences between the war and peace parties, while working with extra-parliamentary groups.

In 1643, Pym proposed an alliance with the Scottish Covenanters. Although the terms went further than Pym had wanted he realised he needed their cooperation if they were to defeat the king.

Pym was now very ill and this was his last political maneuver and died December 8th 1643. He was given a state funeral. After the restoration he was dug up and reburied in a communal grave.

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John Pym

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