18. =Constitutional Reforms. 1641.=--Englishmen would not have feared Strafford if they could have been sure that the king could be trusted to govern according to law, without employing force to settle matters in his own way. Yet, though the army-plot had made it difficult to feel confidence in Charles, Parliament was at first content to rely on constitutional reforms. On the day on which Charles assented to the bill for Strafford's execution he assented to another bill declaring that the existing Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent, a stipulation which made the House of Commons legally irresponsible either to the king or to its constituents, and which could only be justified by the danger of an attack by an armed force at the bidding of the king. Acts were passed abolishing the Courts of Star Chamber and the High Commission, declaring ship-money to be illegal, limiting the king's claims on forests, prohibiting fines for not taking up knighthood, and preventing the king from levying Tonnage and Poundage or impositions without a Parliamentary grant. Taking these acts as a whole, they stripped the Crown of the extraordinary powers which it had acquired in Tudor times, and made it impossible for Charles, legally, to obtain money to carry on the government without the goodwill of Parliament, or to punish offenders without the goodwill of juries. All that was needed in the way of constitutional reform was thus accomplished. As far as law could do it, the system of personal government which Charles had in part inherited from his predecessors and in part had built up for himself, was brought to an end. CHAPTER XXXIV THE FORMATION OF PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES AND THE FIRST YEARS OF THE CIVIL WAR. 1641-1644 LEADING DATES Reign of Charles I., 1625-1649 The Debate on the Grand Remonstrance Nov. 23, 1641 The Attempt on the Five Members Jan. 4, 1642 The Battle of Edgehill Oct. 23, 1642 The Fairfaxes defeated at Adwalton Moor June 30, 1643 Waller's Defeat at Roundway Down July 13, 1643 The Raising of the Siege of Gloucester Sept. 5, 1643 The First Battle of Newbury Sept. 20, 1643 The Solemn League and Covenant taken by the Houses Sept. 25, 1643 The Scottish Army crosses the Tweed Jan. 19, 1644 The Battle of Marston Moor July 2, 1644 Capitulation of Essex's Infantry at Lostwithiel Sept. 2, 1644 The Second Battle of Newbury Oct. 27, 1644