English Civil War

The term English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651. The first (1642–1645) and the second (1648–1649) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649-1651) was between supporters of Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The third war ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651.

Background

The King's aspirations

Contemporaries must have found it unthinkable that a civil war could result from the events taking place. It was less than forty years since the death of the popular Elizabeth I. At the accession of Charles I, England and Scotland had both experienced relative peace, both internally and in their relations with each other for as long as anyone could remember. Charles had real hopes of fulfilling the dream of his father, James I of England (James VI of Scotland), of uniting the whole British Isles in a single kingdom. Charles shared his father's feelings in regard to the power of the crown, which James had described as "little Gods on Earth", or the "Divine Right of Kings". Although pious and with little personal ambition, Charles demanded outright loyalty in return for "just rule". He considered any questioning of his orders as at best insulting. This latter trait, and a series of events, seemingly minor on their own, led to a serious break between Charles and his Parliament, and eventually to war.

Related Topics:
Elizabeth I - James I of England - British Isles - Divine Right of Kings

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Parliament in the English constitutional framework

Before the War, Parliament was not a permanent feature of English government, but acted as a temporary advisory committee - summoned by the monarch whenever the monarch required additional tax revenue, and subject to dissolution at the monarch's will. Because responsibility for collecting taxes lay in the hands of the gentry, the English kings needed the help of that stratum of society in order to ensure that revenue came in without difficulty. If the gentry were to refuse to collect the king's taxes, he would lack the legal authority to compel them. Parliaments allowed representatives of the gentry to meet, confer and to send policy proposals to the monarch in the form of Bills. These representatives did not, however, have any means of forcing their will upon the king - except by withholding the financial means of executing his plans.

Related Topics:
Parliament - Gentry

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Mounting concern

One of the first events to cause concern about Charles I was his marriage to a French Roman Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria, within months after his accession to the throne in 1625. Foreign royal marriages occurred commonly at the time, but his choice of a Catholic cast him in the role of potential Papist among the small but powerful Puritan minority in Parliament, who made up around one third of its members. The suspicion of "Papism" had significance: not only in the possibility of the stipulation of religious practice, but also because the English, through long-enforced habit (since the papal excommunication of Henry VIII in 1533), associated Roman Catholicism with invasion threats and with hard-line political policy imposed from abroad.

Related Topics:
French - Roman Catholic - Henrietta Maria - 1625 - Papist - Puritan - Excommunication - Henry VIII - 1533

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A potentially more troublesome issue was Charles' insistence in joining the wars raging in Europe, which he saw as something of a crusade. This alone might not have been a problem, except that Charles had placed his own "favourite", George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, in command. Parliament was rather suspicious of Buckingham, with whom they had had to deal under James as well, and eventually they decided to support the war effort only on the proviso that Buckingham could be recalled if he did not perform well. The Parliament of 1625 then granted the king the right to collect customs duties for only a year at a time and not, as was usual, for his entire reign. After a disastrous raid on France, Parliament dismissed Buckingham in 1626, and Charles, furious at what he considered insolence, dismissed the Parliament.

Related Topics:
Europe - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham - 1625 - France - 1626

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Petition of Right

Having dissolved Parliament, and being unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. Among the members elected was Oliver Cromwell. The new Parliament drew up the Petition of Right in 1628, and Charles accepted it as a concession to get his subsidy. Amongst other things the Petition referred to Magna Carta and said that a citizen should have freedom from:

Related Topics:
1628 - Oliver Cromwell - Petition of Right - Magna Carta

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• arbitrary arrest and imprisonment,
• non-parliamentary taxation,
• the enforced billeting of troops, and
• martial law.

However, Charles was determined to rule without summoning another Parliament, and this required him to devise new means of raising extraordinary revenue. Among the most controversial of these was the revival and extension of ship money. This tax had been levied in the medieval era on seaports, but Charles extended it to inland counties as well. As a levy for the Royal Navy, ship money was, according to Charles and his supporters, needed for the defence of the realm and therefore within the legitimate scope of the royal prerogative.

Related Topics:
Ship money - Royal Navy - Royal prerogative

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The tax had not been approved by Parliament, however, and a number of prominent men refused to pay it on these grounds. Reprisals against Sir John Eliot, one of the prime movers behind the Petition of Right, and the prosecution of William Prynne and John Hampden (who were fined after losing their case 7-5 for refusing to pay ship money, taking a stand against the legality of the tax) aroused widespread indignation. Charles' use of the Court of Star Chamber in this issue also angered many, as the court had always been seen as the citizenry's last appeal against the monarch's power, and was now apparently being used against them.

Related Topics:
John Eliot - William Prynne - John Hampden - Star Chamber

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The Eleven Years' Tyranny and a rebellion in Scotland

Charles I managed to avoid a Parliament for a decade. Depending on one's political affiliation, this time was known either as the "Eleven Years' Tyranny" or "Charles' Personal Rule". This policy broke down when he was involved in a series of disastrous and expensive wars against his Scottish subjects – the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640.

Related Topics:
Scottish - Bishops' Wars - 1639 - 1640

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Charles believed in a sacramental version of the Church of England, called High Anglicanism, with a theology based on Arminianism, a belief shared by his main political advisor, Archbishop William Laud. Laud was appointed by Charles as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633 and started a series of reforms in the Church to make it more ceremonial, starting with the replacement of the wooden communion tables with stone altars.

Related Topics:
Church of England - Arminianism - William Laud - Archbishop of Canterbury - 1633

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Puritans accused Laud of trying to reintroduce Catholicism, and when they complained, Laud had them arrested. In 1637 John Bastwick, Henry Burton and William Prynne had their ears cut off for writing pamphlets attacking Laud's views - a rare penalty for gentlemen to suffer, and one that aroused anger.

Related Topics:
Catholicism - 1637 - John Bastwick - Gentlemen

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As part of Charles' plan to have one uniform High Anglican church across all three kingdoms, he forced the English Common Prayer Book upon Scotland. Scottish presbyterians reacted explosively when it was introduced in the spring of 1638 with riots started in Edinburgh by Jenny Geddes leading to the National Covenant, then sought to purge bishops from the Church of Scotland altogether. Charles took a year to raise an army, and sent it north in 1639 to end the rebellion. After a disastrous skirmish he decided to seek a truce, the Pacification of Berwick, and was humiliated by being forced to agree not only not to interfere with religion in Scotland, but to pay the Scottish war expenses as well.

Related Topics:
Common Prayer Book - 1638 - Edinburgh - Jenny Geddes - National Covenant - Church of Scotland - 1639 - Pacification of Berwick

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Local grievances

In the summer of 1642, these national troubles were important in forming opinion out of the welter of indecision about which side to support or what action to take. So too was the aggregate of the many local grievances. For example, the imposition of this or that drainage scheme in The Fens, by people having drainage contracts with the king, led to the loss of livelihood by thousands of people. The King was regarded by many as worse than insensitive and this was important in bringing a large part of eastern England into Parliament’s camp. That in turn played a part in bringing with it people like the Earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell, each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the leading contractors, the Earl of Lindsey, was to die fighting for the King at the Battle of Edge Hill.

Related Topics:
1642 - The Fens - Earl of Manchester - Earl of Lindsey - Battle of Edge Hill

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Recall of Parliament

Charles needed to suppress the rebellion in his northern realm — he was insufficiently funded, however, and was forced to seek money from a recalled Parliament in 1640. Parliament took this appeal for money as an opportunity to discuss grievances against the Crown; moreover, they were opposed to the military option. Charles took exception to this lèse majesté and dismissed the Parliament; the name "the Short Parliament" was derived from this summary dismissal. Without Parliament's support, Charles attacked Scotland again and was comprehensively defeated; the Scots, seizing the moment, took Northumberland and Durham.

Related Topics:
Parliament - 1640 - Short Parliament - Scotland - Northumberland - Durham

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Meanwhile another of Charles's chief advisers, Thomas Wentworth, had risen to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632 and brought in much needed revenue for Charles by persuading the Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions. In 1639 he had been recalled to England and in 1640 granted the title Earl of Strafford, as Charles attempted to have him work his magic again in Scotland. This time he was not so lucky, and the English forces fled the field in their second encounter with the Scots in 1640.

Related Topics:
Thomas Wentworth - 1632 - 1639

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The Long Parliament

In desperate straits, Charles was obliged to summon Parliament again in November 1640; this was the "Long Parliament". None of the issues raised in the Short Parliament had been addressed, and again Parliament took the opportunity to raise them, refusing to be dismissed. Under the leadership of John Pym and John Hampden, a law was passed which stated that Parliament should be reformed every three years, and refused the king's right to dissolve Parliament. Other laws were passed making it illegal for the king to impose his own taxes, and later a law was passed that gave members control over the king's ministers.

Related Topics:
Long Parliament - John Pym - John Hampden

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With Ireland apparently peaceful after Strafford's able administration of eight years, Charles thought he saw a way out — Strafford had raised an Irish Catholic army and was prepared to use it against Scotland. Of course the very thought of a Catholic army campaigning against the Scots from Protestant England was considered outrageous by the parliamentary party. In early 1641 Strafford was arrested and sent to the Tower of London on the charge of treason. John Pym made the claim that Wentworth's statements of being ready to campaign against "the kingdom" were in fact directed at England itself. The case could not be proven, so the House of Commons, led by John Pym and Henry Vane, resorted to a Bill of Attainder. Unlike treason, attainder required not only the burden of proof, but also the king's signature. Charles, still incensed over the Common's handling of Buckingham, refused. Wentworth himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked him to reconsider. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was executed on May 12, 1641.

Related Topics:
1641 - Tower of London - Treason - House of Commons - Henry Vane - Bill of Attainder - May 12

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Instead of saving the country from war, Wentworth's sacrifice in fact doomed it to one. Within months the Irish Catholics, fearing a resurgence of Protestant power, struck first and the entire country soon descended into chaos. Rumours started that the Irish were being supported by the king, and Puritan members of the Commons were soon agitating that this was the sort of thing Charles had in store for all of them.

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On January 4, 1642, Charles attempted to arrest five members of the House of Commons (John Hampden, John Pym, Arthur Haselrig, Denzil Holles, and William Strode) on a charge of treason; this attempt failed, however, as the five members received a tip-off and went into hiding prior to the arrival of the king with a party of soldiers. When the troops marched into Parliament, Charles asked William Lenthall the Speaker, where the five were. Lenthall replied "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here". In other words, the Speaker was a servant of Parliament, rather than of the King. Parliamentary supporters took to arms to protect the five men as they escaped across London.

Related Topics:
January 4 - 1642 - John Hampden - John Pym - Arthur Haselrig - Denzil Holles - William Strode - Treason - William Lenthall - Speaker - London

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