Right of Kings, and his persistent assertion of this standard seriously disrupted relations between the Crown and the English Parliament. The Church of England remained dominant, but a powerful Puritan minority, represented by about one third of Parliament, began to assert themselves; their religious precepts had much in common with the Presbyterian Scots. The English Parliament and the king had repeated disputes over taxation, military expenditure, and the role of the Parliament in government. While James I had held much the same opinions as his son regarding Royal Prerogatives, he usually had enough discretion and charisma to persuade Parliamentarians to accept his thinking. Charles had no such skill and, faced with multiple crises during 1639–1642, he failed to prevent his kingdoms from sliding into civil war. When Charles approached Parliament to pay for a campaign against the Scots, they refused. They then declared themselves to be permanently in session—the Long Parliament—and soon presented Charles with a long list of civil and religious grievances requiring his remedy before they would approve any new legislation. English overseas possessions During the English Civil War, the English overseas possessions became highly involved. In the Channel Islands, the island of Jersey and Castle Cornet in Guernsey supported the King until a surrender with honour in December 1651. Although the newer, Puritan settlements in North America, notably Massachusetts, were dominated by Parliamentarians, the older colonies to the south sided with the Crown. Friction between Royalists, most of whom were Anglican, and Puritans in Maryland came to a head in the Battle of the Severn. The Virginia Company's settlements, Bermuda and Virginia, as well as Antigua and Barbados, were conspicuous in their loyalty to the Crown. Bermuda's Independent Puritans were expelled, settling the Bahamas under William Sayle as the Eleutheran Adventurers. Parliament passed An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego in October, 1650, which stated that The Act also authorised Parliamentary privateers to act against English vessels trading with the rebellious colonies: Far to the North, Bermuda's regiment of Militia and its coastal batteries prepared to resist an invasion that never came. Built-up inside the natural defence of a nearly impassable barrier reef, to fend off the might of Spain, these defences would have been a formidable obstacle for the Parliamentary fleet sent in 1651 under the command of Admiral Sir George Ayscue to subdue the trans-Atlantic colonies, but after the fall