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Summary The Causes of the English Civil War
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Revision notes on the causes of the English Civil War. Topic pertinant to A-Level History Stuart Britain. This will be added to my A-Level History bundle too! :)
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Causes of the Civil WarThe Civil War did not start as a revolution. Those involved did not set out to remove
the Monarchy and replace it with a Republic. Conflicting attitudes towards Royal
authority and religion brought about a series of events which escalated into armed
conflict.
Charles I believed he ruled with the Divine Right of Kings. This meant he thought he
was King by the will of God and therefore his decisions could not be challenged or
questioned. This ideology was opposed by those who believed there should be a
limit to Royal authority; that the people and their representatives, that is Parliament
should have more say in how the nation was governed. Tied up with this were
arguments over the Church and religion. There were deep divisions over what
religious practices, forms of worship and organisational structure the Church should
have.
Religion
Religion was a major cause of the English Civil War. It was part of a Europe wide
conflict between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
At the start of his reign (1625) King Charles I had married the Roman Catholic
Henrietta Maria of France. Included in her marriage treaty were provisions that she
be allowed to practice her religion freely at Court. It was also made a condition of the
treaty that King Charles I set about lifting restrictions for recusants (that is Catholics
who refused to attend Anglican Church services). The marriage was not a popular
one. At this time Roman Catholics were distrusted and feared. The reign of the
Catholic Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary as she came to be known) had seen the
persecution of Protestants. Within living memory there had been the attempted
invasion of England by Roman Catholic Phillip II of Spain in 1588 (The Spanish
Armada); the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a Catholic plot to blow up James I in the
Houses of Parliament; and the on-going Thirty Years War, ultimately a religious
conflict which saw Roman Catholic nations trying to wipe out Protestantism in
Europe.
King Charles I was deeply religious. He believed that he ruled with the Divine Right
of Kings. He preferred a High Anglican form of worship, with ceremonies, rituals and
lavish ornamentation. Charles thought the hierarchy of bishops and priests to be
important. This caused alarm for some Protestants as it appeared that Charles was
leaning towards Catholicism. The Puritans, who were extreme Protestants,
considered all of this to be forms of ‘Popery’. They wanted a purer form of worship
without rituals and without religious icons and images. Puritans believed that they
had a personal relationship with God and did not need bishops.
In 1633 William Laud was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury by King Charles I.
William Laud was a Protestant but thought the Puritans too extreme. Like King
Charles I, Laud also favoured a High Anglican form of worship. William Laud wanted
to impose uniformity of worship based on The Book of Common Prayer. Bishops
were considered important to the running of the Church. Laud also wanted to bring
back some of the ceremonies and rituals. Decorative features such as statues and
stained-glass windows were reintroduced. Priests were to wear vestments as a sign
of their elevated status as members of the clergy. William Laud saw this as the
‘beauty of holiness’. Puritans saw this as an attempt to make the Church more
Roman Catholic. There was much opposition to this religious change. William Laud
, saw Puritans as a threat to the Church and pursued his critics in the courts. In 1637
William Prynne, John Bastwick and Henry Burton were convicted in the Star
Chamber of seditious libel for criticising Laud’s policies in a pamphlet. They had their
cheeks branded and their ears cropped.
In 1637 King Charles I and Archbishop Laud imposed a new Prayer Book on the
people of Scotland. It was a revised edition of the English Prayer Book. When it was
introduced riots broke out in Edinburgh. The Scottish Presbyterians thought that the
new Prayer Book had too many similarities to Catholicism. They saw it as an attack
on the true Protestant religion and on their freedom to choose how they worshipped.
Although Scotland had Charles I as its King, it was still a separate kingdom from
England. Scotland had its own government, laws and established church – The Kirk.
Charles’ response was to insist on the full implementation of the new Prayer Book
and punishment for those who refused. He considered their refusal to be an attack
on his Royal authority.
In 1638 the Scottish people signed a Covenant in which they promised before God to
defend and preserve the true religion and pledged loyalty to the King.
In 1639 King Charles sent an army to try and enforce the new Prayer Book in
Scotland. King Charles already distrusted by some as having leanings towards
Catholicism was now declaring war on his loyal, Protestant subjects.
The English army was easily defeated in what was later known as the First Bishops’
War. In 1640 King Charles was defeated in the Second Bishops’ War. He was forced
to sign the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640, which stipulated that the Covenanter
(Scottish) troops were to be paid £850 a day in maintenance while they still occupied
northern England.
Money
A key factor which led to the outbreak of the Civil War was King Charles and his lack
of money.
Charles’ father King James I, had led a lavish, extravagant lifestyle, which had left
the Royal treasury depleted. The cost of running the Royal household of Charles I
was similarly expensive. King Charles was a patron of the arts and spent vast sums
of money on musicians to entertain his Court and in buying works of art.
King Charles needed to call Parliament to ask for money. In June 1625 Parliament
had only granted the King tonnage and poundage (income from customs duties) for
a single year, rather than for life as was customary. This meant that Charles would
be forced to call Parliament again to grant further taxes.
Parliament refused to grant King Charles enough money to finance military
campaigns against Spain and France. Charles dismissed Parliament and sought to
raise income through a Forced Loan. That is money from taxes levied without the
consent of Parliament. Refusal to pay often resulted in imprisonment without trial.
This caused much discontent. In 1628 a Commons’ Petition of Right was drawn up
which stated that the king could not levy taxes on his subjects without the assent of
Parliament, nor arbitrarily imprison them. Although King Charles initially agreed to
the Petition it was never properly enacted as a statute.
In March 1629 Charles dismissed Parliament and began what he called his ‘Personal
Rule’ and what his opponents called the ‘Eleven Years’ Tyranny’. As only
Parliament could legally grant taxes King Charles had to find other non-
Parliamentary sources of revenue. Charles exploited the Royal prerogative and
imposed knighthood fees on landowners worth £40 or more a year (distraint of
knighthood). Monopolies were sold to rich merchants, even though this was
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