1625-60 – The English Civil War and the Restoration
- When Elizabeth I died with no heir, the throne passed to her Scottish cousins the Stuarts
- The Stuarts had different ideas about monarchy and religion to the Tudors
- The Tudors had tried to raise the status of the monarchy to be superior to the nobles
- James I took this process further arguing that he was king by divine right so couldn’t be challenged
- His son Charles believed even more strongly in divine right, but unlike his father, he was not a clever politician
- He relied on a small group of advisors so much of the Political Nation felt excluded from the decision
- Charles introduced unpopular reforms to religion and taxes
- Opposition to Charles grew and in 1642, the country descended into civil war
- Charles lost the war; in 1646, he was captured and imprisoned
- Despite this, he was still in a strong position because people feared being governed by parliament
- At the same time, radical new political and religious ideas concerned many members of the Political Nation
- Charles could’ve negotiated but he chose not to because he felt that as he was chosen by God, he should not need to negotiate with his subjects
- Instead, he tried to play his enemies off against one another
- Charles eventually escaped prison, causing the Second Civil War in 1648-9
- By this time, the leading opponents decided that the king could not be trusted
- Charles was tried and executed in 1649
- The monarchy and the House of Lords was abolished so England became a republic – ruled by parliament
- In 1653, Oliver Cromwell was offered the position of lord protector
- Cromwell was supported by parliament, the army and the nobles so he was able to rule effectively
- Cromwell died in 1658 and the different factions couldn’t agree on who should succeed him
- Army commanders battled to take control and civil war almost broke out again
- All parties eventually agreed that the restoration of the monarchy was the solution
- Charles I’s son, Charles II was invited to become king of England in 1660
- The English Civil War changed the nature of politics in the country
- Parliament became stronger with the ability to challenge the king
- The New Model Army emerged, and its commanders wanted a say in running the country as well as fighting
- Even though the monarchy was restored, the relationship between the king and parliament was different than it was previously
1625-42 – Before the Civil War
- The throne passed to James I, then to his son Charles I
- Both were strong believers in the divine right of kings
- James believed that the king should still work with the Political Nation
- Charles believed that the king’s rule was absolute
- Charles’s rule as king of England, Ireland and Scotland began in 1625 and within three years he had a terrible relationship with parliament
- Charles wanted to raise the wealth and status of the Church; he began by taking Church land back from Scottish nobles who almost rebelled before Charles backed down
- Charles was not Catholic, but he was married to a Catholic French princess; he favoured Catholic-style ceremonies, abolished recusancy fines and increased the power of the bishops
- Charles went to war with Spain in 1625; this was unpopular with MPs because of the cost and because of how the war was run by the Duke of Buckingham
- In 1626, Charles dissolved parliament when they threatened to put Buckingham on trial
- The next year, Charles needed money but with no parliament he tried to raise funds with a forced loan (tax), which many refused to pay
- Five refusers became known as the ‘Five Knights’ were held in prison without trial
- The next year, Charles needed money but with no parliament he tried to raise funds with a forced loan (tax), which many refused to pay
- Charles was still short of money, and in 1628, he was forced to reconvene parliament
- The Lords and Commons joined forces to force Charles to sign the Petition of Right
- This meant that the king couldn’t raise money without parliament’s approval
- Charles dissolved parliament again in 1629
- From 1629 to 1640, Charles ruled without parliament; this was his ‘Personal Rule’
- Charles appointed effective minsters after Buckingham was assassinated who became his loyal allies in the Privy Council; he also gave some bishops political roles
- His Privy council included William Laud, Thomas Wentworth, William Noy and Richard Weston
- He appointed the Bishop of London, William Juxon, as lord treasurer
- Under William Laud, religious changes were brought in to increase the beauty of services
- A new Book of Common Prayer was introduced to Scotland in 1637
- Under Thomas Wentworth, Ireland was secured under English control
- He was rewarded with becoming Earl of Strafford
- Charles found ways of increasing his income through taxes
- He revived medieval taxes such as ‘knighthood fines’
- He collected Ship Money, and then extended the tax to all counties
- Charles appointed effective minsters after Buckingham was assassinated who became his loyal allies in the Privy Council; he also gave some bishops political roles
- These successes for Charles increased discontent amongst the people
- People were unhappy about practical matters; the increased taxes, and priests disliked interference by Archbishop Laud
- Religion was a concern; people feared the country was going Catholic and hundreds of Puritans were imprisoned for opposing Charles
- Some people believed that some of the taxes were illegal, so protested
- John Hampden, a landowner and Puritan, protested Ship Money
- Charles had not ruled with the consent of the people; he imposed strict censorship and any critics were imprisoned
- Sir Edward Coke tried to use Magna Carta to stop Charles
- These ideological forms of discontent caused problems because the protesters were willing to face imprisonment for their beliefs
- Until 1638, Charles managed his political opponents
- The Scots refused to accept the religious changes made in England
- In 1638, the leaders set out the National Covenant, rejecting Charles’s policies
- In 1639, Charles led an army north; the Scots also gathered an army
- Charles called on parliament in order to raise the money needed to fight the Scots
- Some MPs supported him because he was king
- Other MPs openly criticised the king
- Puritan MPs announced support for the Scots
- Charles dissolved this ‘Short Parliament’ after one month
- By October 1640, the Scots had captured Newcastle; he summoned parliament again, willing to compromise
- However, when the parliament assembled, his critics attacked him and launched major concessions
- In February 1641, MPs forced Charles to accept the Triennial Act, which stated that parliament had to meet at least once every three years
- In May 1641, Strafford was tried and executed, an act was passed stating that parliament couldn’t be dismissed without the consent of MPs
- In august 1641, Ship Money was abolished
- In November 1641, opposition MPs persuaded parliament to pass the Grand Remonstrance
- It listed over 200 criticisms and demands including religious reforms and an agreement that parliament should appoint the king’s advisers
- Charles refused to accept it
- In December 1641, parliament passed the Militia Bill
- It demanded that any new army should be under the control of the parliament
- This was because the king tried to summon an army to fight a rebellion in Ireland, but leading opposition MPs thought he would use it to fight them
- In January 1642, Charles arrested five MPs, including Hampden, for treason
- He brought troops into parliament, eliminating any trust between the monarch and parliament
- Both sides encouraged people to join their militias
- In August 1642, Charles declared war on his parliament
- All aspects of the country were divided into siding with parliament or with Charles
- People sided with parliament because Charles was not respecting the law, tried to rule without parliament, and seemed too Catholic
- People sided with Charles because of divine right, fear of Puritan rule and the fact that he stood for order
- Much of the population were neutral, keen to avoid war
1642-49 – Civil Wars to a Revolution to a Republic
- The English Civil War was horrific
- Citizens were consistently taxed
- People had to give up food and horses for the armies going around
- There was widespread looting
- Some ‘neutralist’ forces were set up to keep armies outside their county
- Large areas of England, Scotland and Ireland were devastated by war, starvation and disease
- An estimated 3.7% loss of the population in England, 6% in Scotland and 41% in Ireland
- The First Civil War ran from 1642 to 1646 and in the end, Charles surrendered
- By mid-1643, it seemed Charles had the upper hand but in September 1644 Scots joined parliamentary forces to defeat Charles at the Battle of Marston Moor
- Both sides were weakened by internal agreements
- In 1645, parliament established the New Model Army; many soldiers were Puritan or Puritan-supporters
- Troops saw themselves as an army of God, fighting a king in the league of Catholics
- Oliver Cromwell was the most important commander, a Puritan cavalry officer
- In May 1646, the king surrendered to Scottish forces who handed him over to parliament and Charles was imprisoned
- By mid-1643, it seemed Charles had the upper hand but in September 1644 Scots joined parliamentary forces to defeat Charles at the Battle of Marston Moor
- From 1646 to 1648, both sides tried to reach a settlement because everyone wanted peace
- Parliament wanted an agreement that would give them more control over the Church, the army and the king’s advisers
- Between July 1646 and December 1647, Charles refused four parliamentary proposals
- Charles was strong despite being in prison
- People wanted to get back to the way things were before the war
- Usually armies disbanded after war, but the New Model Army did not do so because people were tired of having to feed, house and pay for troops
- Rule by Parliament in the Civil War was just as harsh as Charles’s rule
- Many traditionally powerful men had lost their status to new men appointed by parliament to the County Committees, and they were concerned about the power of the political army
- Most people were alarmed by the emergence of radical political and religious groups; the king represented stability and his strict control had worked
- The Levellers, the Diggers, the Ranters and the Quakers are examples of religious groups that gained power
- Charles’s opponents were divided
- The Political Presbyterians wanted little limit on Charles’s power, a strict religious policy, and the abolishment of the New Model Army
- The Political Independents wanted more control over Charles, more toleration of religious views, and were generally sympathetic towards the New Model Army
- There was tension between the army and parliament because parliament was behind with its pay and many army men took an interest in politics during the war
- The army was divided
- Soldiers and officers wanted a tougher settlement with the king
- The Levellers had support from troops
- Army commanders crushed the Levellers with force
- Top army commanders were more cautious and were closer to the Political Independents in parliament
- The Second Civil War ran from 1648 to 1649
- Charles tried to exploit the divisions amongst his opponents rather than using them to come to a settlement
- In November 1647, he escaped from prison and allied with the Scots, his previous enemies
- From March to July 1648, Charles’s supporters attacked the New Model Army from the south and Scots attacked form the north
- By August, the war was over; Charles was recaptured in 1648 and imprisoned on the Isle of Wight
- Parliament tried again to negotiate with the king, but he would not compromise; much of the population still wanted the king restored
- Oliver Cromwell was the most respected figure in the army, and he led the revolution of a small group of MPs and army commanders
- Throughout 1647 he wanted a settlement with Charles
- By late 1648, he and other senior commanders wanted to put Charles on trial
- Cromwell felt that Charles couldn’t be trusted to abide by any agreement and that the restoration of power would result in another civil war
- Cromwell also believed that the victory of the New Model Army and Charles’s numerous defeats were signs of Gods disapproval
- Even Cromwell, a powerful man, faced opposition; parliament opposed trying the king
- In December 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride threw out many MPs opposed to the measure
- This left behind a ‘Rump Parliament’ of about 200 MPs (out of about 500)
- Once Charles’s trial started, his execution was inevitable
- His son pleaded with Cromwell, willing to do anything to save his father
- Charles refused to recognise the court’s authority so made no attempt to defend himself
- Some say that Charles decided he was already on his way to Heaven
- Charles was executed on 30 January 1649
- People were shocked and confused; the army were the ones who carried it out, divine right was destroyed, and England had to find a new way to rule
1649-58 – England without a King
- England was now a Commonwealth ruled by the Rump Parliament
- The Rump abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords
- Most of the time the Rump MPs were cautious; they feared change and new ideas
- They pressured Cromwell to crush the Levellers
- They brought back censorship
- They saw the Church as a key force to regain stability and control
- They wanted to make Church attendance compulsory and all services be the same
- Cromwell and the army leaders had not aimed to return to the old style of worship; as Puritans, they wanted more religious toleration
- The Rumps were frightened by this so Cromwell dismissed them in April 1653
- Cromwell chose not to make England an army-led dictatorship however, he did not want an elected parliament in case the MPs were anti-army
- He appointed 144 men who were sympathetic to his views; they were the ‘Barebones Parliament’
- They were very radical, so Cromwell dismissed them in 1653
- He appointed 144 men who were sympathetic to his views; they were the ‘Barebones Parliament’
- The army drew up a new constitution called the ‘Instrument of Government’
- Cromwell was lord protector
- Parliament was reformed
- There were 400 MPs and as far as possible, the constituencies had similar populations
- They met regularly
- Parliament and the lord protector shared control of the army
- Cromwell promised to work with the Council of State of 15 members, only four of whom from the army
- Cromwell wanted religious reform as well as political and social stability
- He wanted ‘a reformation of manners’, meaning that people would behave more like Puritans
- He divided England into regions, each ruled by a major-general
- They passed laws to stop swearing, adultery, prostitution, drunkenness and gambling
- They even attempted to stop Christmas
- The rule of the major-generals was a failure partly because they were resented by the gentry because they interfered with their authority
- In 1657, parliament presented Cromwell with the Humble Petition and Advice
- This proposed abolishing major-generals, a reduction in the army and more power over taxes for the parliament
- It also asked Cromwell to become king; he accepted all the proposals but this because he knew the army would not be happy
1658-60 – The Restoration
- Cromwell died in 1658 and had nominated his son Richard to rule after him
- Richard had little skill or will to run the country, so he retired to his lands in May 1659
- The Rump Parliament was restored that month, but they couldn’t work well with the army
- By October, the army commander, John Lambert, replaced the Rump with an army-dominated Committee of Public Safety
- The commander of the army in Scotland, George Monck, refused to accept Lambert’s actions and supported parliament
- In December 1659, Lambert backed down as Monck had the support of many troops and most of the navy
- In January 1660, the Rump Parliament was restored
- Oliver Cromwell couldn’t be matched and as the Political Nation feared more conflict, the most obvious solution was to restore the monarchy
- Parliament began to negotiate with Charles, Charles I’s son
- He accepted the terms parliament offered him in the Declaration of Breda
- In April 1660, Charles II became king
- At the time, parliament was viewed negatively
- It had brought civil war and unleashed disruptive forces, such as the Levellers
- Parliament’s County Committees and the major-generals had attacked the authority of many members of the Political Nation
- Even many MPs wanted to strengthen the position of the Crown, so Charles II was granted many of the same powers as his father had
- Charles II controlled the army, not parliament however, he had to approve or veto all new laws
- Censorship was brought back, and mass demonstrations were banned
- Some limitations remained, and these were confirmed by a new parliament, the ‘Cavalier Parliament’ established in 1661
- Charles couldn’t claim many taxes including Ship Money
- Charles did not have to call parliament regularly, but he did; almost annually from 1661 to 1679
- On his restoration, Charles faced three major issues
- The Declaration of Breda effectively agreed to forgive and forget, and The Indemnity Act of 1661 pardoned all but a small number of Charles I’s opposers
- He faced criticisms from his supporters, but he’d had little choice
- The Crown lost a lot of land and wealth in the 1640s-50s, so Charles II needed a way of raising funds
- Parliament agreed to the hearth tax, on houses with fireplaces
- It didn’t raise enough, so Charles would have to ask parliament for money if need be
- Charles II struggled with the issue of Church and religious beliefs
- An unsuccessful rebellion in 1661 led to the Clarendon Code; dissenters were not actively persecuted, but a conformist Anglican Church was enforced on much of the population
- The Declaration of Breda effectively agreed to forgive and forget, and The Indemnity Act of 1661 pardoned all but a small number of Charles I’s opposers
- Charles II proved to be a capable ruler, but in the late-1670s and early-1680s, there were growing concerns that he was too sympathetic towards Catholics
- The Whigs and Tories were two political groups that emerged
- The Whigs wanted more power for parliament, and less power for the king
- They wanted to exclude Charles’s brother James from the line of succession for he was Catholic
- The Tories opposed the Whigs and Charles was harsh on them
- The Whigs wanted more power for parliament, and less power for the king
- After Charles died, there were serious divisions that his brother James II had to deal with
1603-60 – Parliament and the Stuart
- Parliament in the Stuart period worked on the same principles as it had under the Tudors
- The main decisions were still made by the Privy Council
- Parliament was still made up of the House of Lords and House of Commons; MPs were still chosen the same way, and their numbers were similar
- The House of Commons rose to just over 500 members
- In 1649, parliament was at the centre of Britain’s momentous changes
- Parliament and Charles I went to war in 1642 and the conflict ended with Charles’ execution in 1649 when the House of Lords was abolished, and England became a republic
- The Political Nation changed as the monarchy was gone, some great nobles lost some of their influence and army commanders emerged, especially Oliver Cromwell
Describe two examples of tensions between rulers and parliament in the period 1625-60. [4]
Explain why the monarchy was restored in 1660. [8]
How significant was the execution of Charles I? [14]
‘Stability depended on the quality of the ruler rather than on the system of government in the period 1625-60.’ How far do you agree? [14]