English Civil War [individual assignment]
English Civil War
Charles I preferred in theology and ritual what is now known as High Anglicanism (kind of protestant Christianity), which for most Protestants and not just the Puritans (English Calvinists) was far too close to Rome. Charles caused great offence by forcing his views on the Church of England, which was the official established church, of which he was head. He was not Catholic but his queen was, with special arrangements for her to have her own priest who said mass at court. Charles soon came to an impasse with his parliaments and for eleven years ruled without them, which he was entitled to do because parliament only met at the king’s command. He attempted to impose his preferred mode of worship on the people of his other kingdom, Scotland, who were more Protestant and fierier. The Scots launched an army into England to force Charles to desist. In order to fight the Scots, Charles needed an army and so was forced to call a parliament to levy the taxation to pay for it. Parliament now had its chance and moved to limit the king’s powers over church and state and increase its own. It executed Charles’s chief minister and his High Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. Charles was initially at parliament’s mercy but eventually he gathered a royalist party to support him, and parliamentarians and royalists went to war.
During the initial stage of the English Revolution, things went poorly for Parliament. Their military commander, the Earl of Manchester, pointed out the dilemma when he noted: “If we beat the King 99 times, he is still the King, but if the King defeats us, we shall be hanged and our property confiscated.” Individuals, such as Oliver Cromwell, who were far more dedicated to creating a winning war policy, soon replaced the early aristocratic leaders. It was Cromwell who created what became known as the New Model Army (roundheads), a regularly paid, disciplined force with extremely dedicated Puritan soldiers. By 1648, the king’s army (cavaliers) was defeated, and in the following year, Cromwell made the momentous decision to execute the king Charles I, a move that horrified most of the nation.
From 1649 to 1660 England was officially a republic, known as The Commonwealth, but essentially it was a military dictatorship governed by Cromwell. Cromwell would find, as Charles I had earlier, that Parliament was a difficult institution to control. In 1652, he brought his army into London to disperse a Parliament that dared to challenge him only to replace them with hand-selected individuals who still earned his displeasure within a matter of months. Over the next year, a group of army officers wrote the “Instrument of Government,” the only written constitution in English history and a document that provided for republican government (the Protectorate) with a head of state holding the title Lord Protector and a parliament based on a fairly wide male suffrage. Cromwell stepped into the position of Lord Protector, but still found Parliament difficult to control. Finally in 1655, Cromwell gave up all hope of ruling in conjunction with a legislature and divided England into 12 military districts, each to be governed by a major general. By the time Cromwell died, an exhausted England wanted to bring back the Stuart dynasty.
When he died, one of his generals reconvened the parliament of Charles’s time and it invited Charles’s son to return from exile and take the throne. Charles II began his reign with no formal changes to the powers of king and parliament.
He was sympathetic to Catholicism and became a Catholic on his deathbed. He had no children by his queen, though many by his mistresses. The next king would be his brother, James, who was openly Catholic. Parliaments tried to pass laws excluding him from the throne, to which the king responded by dismissing the parliaments. But without parliament he could not raise taxes. He overcame this difficulty by secretly receiving funds from the absolutist King of France, Louis XIV, who in order to make France completely Catholic withdrew the toleration that had been granted to Protestants.
James, despite knowing that he was not wanted, did not proceed carefully. He openly promoted Catholicism, which he took to be the true faith. James also unexpectedly fathered a child in June 1688 and now had a male heir who would be raised as a Catholic, in contrast to his previous heir, his daughter Mary, who was a Protestant. These moves to create a Catholic England created unity among previously contentious Protestant factions within England. One faction of this political and religious elite invited William, the Stadholder of the Netherlands and the husband of Mary, to invade England. When his troops landed, James’s forces collapsed in what was basically a bloodless struggle (except for in Ireland, where there was tremendous violence over the next several years), known as the “Glorious Revolution.” James was overthrown, and William and Mary jointly took the throne.
What followed was a constitutional settlement that finally attempted to address the pervasive issues of this century of revolution. The settlement consisted of the acts which included the Bill of Rights (1689) which forbade the use of royal prerogative rights as Charles and James had exercised in the past. The power to suspend and dispense with laws was declared illegal. Armies could not be raised without parliamentary consent. Elections to Parliament were to be free of royal interference. The monarchs also had to swear to uphold the Protestant faith, and it was declared that the monarchy could not pass into the hands of a Catholic. Most importantly, Parliament’s approval was now officially required for all taxation.
Questions for experts
1. What were the causes of the English revolution? In your opinion, what prevented the English monarchy from compromises with the discontent people and, thus, keeping its authority?
2. What were the main forces of revolution?
3. What were the main outcomes of the revolution?
4. Compared to (with) other revolutions, what were the distinct features of the English revolution? (Before answering, read about other revolutions in the theme 10 section).