In 1637 Charles I and his Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud demanded that the new English Book of Common Prayer be used in Scotland as well as in England. In this move to achieve uniformity between the Scottish and English churches Charles created huge amounts of anxiety and anger in the Scottish people- many of whom were Presbyterian and strongly anti-Catholic. The Scots feared that the Kirk would be Anglicized with Charles and Laud’s Armenian and revolted against this religious policy. The Scottish rebellion can be viewed as sowing the seeds for civil war in England by 1642 by fracturing that delicate and fragile union of the Three Kingdoms created by James I. However, there other factors which must be considered when looking at the …show more content…
The ‘Long Parliament’- a direct result of events in Scotland, was disastrous for Charles. Pym and the rival faction took the opportunity provided by the ‘Long Parliament’ to pass the ‘Grand Remonstrance’- a list of grievances against the king. Charles was also forced to execute Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Stafford and William Laud. The execution of Wentworth left a vacuum for royal authority in Ireland leading to the Irish rebellion in 1641. The historian John Morrill highlights the significance of the ‘Long Parliament’ in that Charles would no longer have the freedom to conduct his preferred ‘Personal Rule’ and therefore managers of the Parliament ‘set their sights high’ - rightfully anticipating great change from it.
Therefore, the Scottish rebellion clearly had a huge impact on Charles’s rule. His authority and royal prerogative was diminished when he was forced to call a Parliament that listed grievances against him. An allegiance was forged between the English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters who were both strongly anti-papist and anti-Catholic which alienated Charles. Conrad Russell believes that we cannot say the civil war was a result of long-term causes, rather it was the result of a short-term failure to solve a political crisis and he places emphasis on the idea that it was the closely intertwined nature of the Three Kingdoms that led to civil war. Russell states ‘there are more senses than
Their superior position towards the king and his patronage created an opposition – “evil councillors”, whose aim was to remove the favourites. All the previous points together with the king’s failure to exterminate disorder, chaos, corruption and misgovernment in the country degraded the Crown’s reputation and showed Henry’s shortcomings resulting in the outbreak of the Civil War.
After Charles was executed several political problems arose because there was no direction of settlement due to the degree and nature of the reform. As a result of this, two sides formed, the army who were religious radicals and parliament, who were after a conservative settlement. The result of the
The English Civil War was a complicated, intellectual war between the two most powerful forces in England: Parliament and the King. Conflicts between the two powers began when King Charles I dissolved Parliament in 1625 because they would not give him the money he demanded to fund his war against Spain. Parliament, who was lead by John Pym, felt that the King was showing favouritism towards the Roman Catholics, especially since Charles had recently married the Roman Catholic French Princess. Although Charles recalled Parliament in 1626, he proceeded to dissolve the second Parliament mainly because it attempted to impeach him. John Pym, who had been prevented from being elected to the second Parliament, was
After the end of the civil war, officers of the New Model Army, formed by Cromwell, decided to put Charles on trial. Parliament voted to negotiate with the King in order to come to a peace agreement, but that was met with a fierce rebuke from Cromwell and his army. In order to kill any hope for the King and to prevent any kind of compromise between the King and Parliament, one hundred and eighty members of Parliament were excluded, and forty five were imprisoned for showing resistance. This act of purging was described simply as a coup d'état. (23 Laughland) If the king is truly guilty and hated by his people, Cromwell wouldn’t have needed to perform this despicable action of arresting and barring Parliament members from their seats. At this point, the authority of Parliament that was supported by the Roundheads, over the King’s, has lost all its legality. Parliament became a military tool in the hand of Cromwell and his army. In addition to this, Cromwell’s son-in-law, Henry Ireton, was the one who submitted a request to prosecute the King, which was naturally accepted by the one third of the Parliament left. A court with the name of ‘High Court of Justice’ was formed to be responsible for the King’s trial. (103-104 TURCHETTI)
In England, from about 1400 to 1700 there was a constant struggle between Parliament and the ruling monarch. During that time, there were six documents that tried to weaken or challenge the power of the monarch. One of these documents was the Petition of Right. The Petition of Right, although it did not last, challenged Charles I by stating that he could not levy taxes without Parliament’s approval, not declare martial law, not to quarter soldiers in private homes while during peacetime, and could not imprison someone without a valid charge. Another document is the Grand Remonstrance. The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances against Charles I. This lead to Parliament asking for control of the army. Although it was brutally denied, it
To make an effective religious policy, there must be no opposition, it needs to be enforced, the monarch’s beliefs should be equal to the country’s beliefs, it should be stable with no ambiguity and people should conform. During the period of 1547-1549, Edward’s regent, Somerset, created a rather ineffective religious policy, with there being no clear statement of doctrine and with him repealing the treason acts and heresy laws, unrest was created, with people being able to voice their opinions without punishment. The First Book of Common Prayer was the main source of rebellion, because it was said to be too radical by some in the move towards Protestantism, but not radical enough by others, by being designed to keep the Catholics happy through the continuation of some practices, showing that it satisfied no-one. As well, the Prayer Book was not enforced during services, showing that it was an ineffective act. Also, it was rather irresponsible to implement religious changes when at war, because the soldiers were
The first of these conflicts occurred right after Charles’ ascendance to the throne between England and Spain and was in large part the result of a failed marriage treaty between Catholic Spain and Protestant England that would have married Charles to the Spanish Infanta.4 Charles had been tricked into a treaty that would have given Catholics increased rights in Protestant England, a provision that would have assuredly angered the people of England.5 In addition, the first Parliament of Charles’ reign passed two measures that doomed this conflict. First, it only granted Charles the right to collect customs duties for one year, instead of for life.6 Secondly, Parliament gave Charles only about a fourth of the money that he needed to adequately fund the war. However, Charles and Buckingham believed that if the army could loot a port and intercept the goods coming from the Spanish colonies in America, the treasury could be stocked up again. So despite the lack of funding, Charles chose to raise an army to set out for the Spanish port of Cadiz.7 However, the army was inadequately supplied with capable soldiers, ships, and provisions. “Most of the soldiers in this army were rogues
One way that shows Charles I as responsible for the breakdown in relations is through finance. When Charles came to power in 1625, he
Oliver Cromwell is – and has always been – one of the most controversial characters in British and Irish history. There are few people in Great Britain and Ireland today who have not yet heard of Oliver Cromwell and either loathe him or see him as a hero. Yet, the world is not black and white and so is the truth about Cromwell. In order to understand his role in both countries as a whole, one has to look at the perspective of both nations, Cromwell’s beliefs and his motives.
He had failed doing this, as the amount of hate received from Ireland, Scotland, and his own people were very displeased. His failure had made him have to call for the one thing he didn’t want, parliament. He needed the money and support that they could provide so he had to let parliament control the government again, as it was with Elizabeth. Charles mistakes had led to a civil war. The country chose sides, and parliament abolished many of the king’s choices. The country was a mess, and would never return to its full state. There was only one man to blame for this mess, and it was King Charles himself. On January 30th 1649 he was executed for being a traitor and for treason. James I and his son Charles I had made the government all about they in a way no other ruler had before. Because they did not have equal say in government or among the British people, England was in turmoil and had no worth to their once profound name. Having equal say could have kept some violent outbursts contained among certain groups of the British people. Equal representation could have controlled not only the citizen’s actions but the king’s actions as
On January 1st of 1649, the Rump Parliament of England passed a mandate for the trial of King Charles I to which he would be charged with “subverting the fundamental laws and liberties of the nation while maliciously making war on the parliament and people of England.” After years of civil war and various failures in fulfilling kingly duties, Charles faced a trial against a strategically assembled English court that would choose his fate. This stands out in history as one of the most noteworthy and dramatic events in early modern England- a domestic political crisis unlike anything that had ever been seen before. Over the years historians have debated in how they characterize the king’s trial and its end result, referring to the execution as “a crime of the worst magnitude, a regrettable necessity, or a laudable challenge to either an individual ruler or the entire political system.” Due to the overall disapproval of the trial by prominent individuals, biased personnel assembled in the court, questionable legal legitimacy, improper court proceedings and unfortunate socio-economic circumstances during his reign, it can be concluded that King Charles I did not receive a fair trial.
In 1559 Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was crowned Queen. Elizabeth sought to find a middle ground during her rein (1558-1603) in England, by allowing both Catholics and Protestants to worship without fear of any repercussions. However, Gilbert (1976) that ‘Elizabeth I and her successors had legislated to make Anglican worship compulsory’ (p. 4). By introducing the Act of Uniformity of 1559 it laid out the rules of worship that both religions were to follow and reissued the Book of Common Prayer for use in worship. The Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 also set to define the doctrine of the Church of England which set out a middle path between the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church and the Protestants (Wolffe, 2008). By the end of Elizabeth’s I forty five year reign, the majority of people in English society were Protestant. As the older, mainly Catholic members of society had died through old age (Christianity in Britain, 2011). Knight and Mason (2006) describe a dissenter during
On 22 august 1642, Charles 1 declared war against hi enemies in parliament. This led to a civil war where 1 in 10 men died. In this essay I am going to explain the main causes of the civil war and then I am going to see how much I agree with the statement.
It was turbulent times for England during the 17th and 18th century. England was in an unquenchable thirst for more power. “During the 17th and 18th century, England was determined to subdue all lesser countries, especially Ireland” (Stevenson, 28). At the time, England was the dominating country, looking to expand their influence across the world. War broke out constantly as the conquest for more land continued. Moreover, war was constant with the three kingdoms, England, Ireland, and Scotland. Revolts in each kingdom also affected the country’s ability to participate in the war. As
This paper discusses the causes of the First Jacobite Rising in 1715 by focusing on the individuals involved in the process and role that they played in having revolutionaries rise up against their leaders. James Francis Edward Stuart is one of the foremost individuals responsible for the rebellion and in spite of his determination to achieve victory he encountered serious resistance and realized that he had mistakenly believed that the English people were willing to abandon their monarch in favor of serving a Roman Catholic exiled Prince.