This thesis recovers a parliamentary struggle over English taxation which erupted at the 1660 Convention parliament that welcomed Charles II back from exile. It lasted until the eve of the second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665-67. At its centre lay a complex and shifting legislative initiative for preserving England’s naval transformation of the 1650s: the ‘Supply Acts’ for granting statutory taxes to support a strong and durable royal navy. Sponsored by King Charles and his parliamentary servants, this legislation met a hostile response in scribal and print publications that advanced a rival military agenda. The most prolific author of this offensive was the lawyer and intellectual Fabian Philipps. Caricatured by modern historians as an eccentric on a mad quest to restore England’s equestrian caste to its ancient glory and prestige, he has been dismissed as a feudal anachronism. This thesis situates his views within a fresh interpretive framework and a newly reconstructed historical setting, permitting us to appreciate that the final outcome of the contest over taxation had the long-term consequence of proportionately reducing the traditional discretionary violence of the caste. Through close attention to Philipps’ work in these contexts, a case study of state monopolization of violence is furnished.