Didn't realize the Parliament was active in the 1600s.

Yes, while the modern form of Parliament is, well, modern in the sense that it runs the operations of the Kingdom with basically only a rubber stamp by the ruling monarch, it goes back many hundreds of years. It is identifiable in some form from the 13th c on: en.wikipedia.org - Parliament of England

Many kings (and the relatively few queens) over the centuries recognized the need to have an official body that could authorize...wait for it...taxes. This is ultimately what Charles 1 was fighting his Parliament over - he wanted more money to do things that Parliament didn't agree with. The king still had the power to "call" a Parliament, which he was reluctant to do since they were making him accountable, yet he couldn't get his shillings without their authorization. Classic catch-22 that caught up with him in the end.

Pete