The English Civil War

James ruled until 1625 when his son, Charles l Stuart became king in the atmosphere of
accomodation between the English and the Scots.

He made many mistakes: England lost The Thirty Years’ War because James had neglected the
Royal Navy and the army and Charles had to pay compenstion to the countries that had victory. From the
first moment when he became king he showed that he wanted to rule alone and he took a personal
decision in order to do that and he incresead taxes for all the people, by singning a sort of document all
by himself, even if it was illegal because Parliament didn’t accept the decision of the king. However
Charles did not take into account Parliament and because of this thing we had two powers that entered
in conflict: the royal authority (composed by the king, his counsellers and The House of Lords-where the
place was inherited from father to son) and the civil authority (The House of Commons, where there
were certain elections because the representatives could be changed, also some laws were debated
there).

So by increasing the taxes Charles went over Parliament and he broke the main principle of the
Magna Carta, saying that the royal power had to be limited by the civil power. The first reaction of the
people was to revolt, they lost their confidence and all that James achieved was destroyed by Charles.
The king isolated himself from the nation, he didn’t want to communicate, but to rule all by himself, to
have the full power, and those were the main ideas of the absolutism.

Charles broken another principle of the Magna Carta because he said that who wouldn’t pay its
taxes would go immediately in prison, even if Magna Carta had already provided a fair and corect trial for
every free person. So Charles placed himself above the law and this angered Parliament even more

Another domain in which the king and the nation didn’t agree was the religion, meaning the
speacila treatment applied to Protestants (other than Presbyterians) and to Catholics. Charles was a
Presbyterian, educated as one, with a very radical and rigid menatality and he didn’t accept that in the
Anglican Church were still some influences of the Catholic Church. He imposed a very strict control on
the Church from the part of the royal authority and he started persecuted every person who rose against
his decision. Basically, Charles wanted to impose a Presbyterian perspective on the Anglica Church. In the
moment when he became king he became also head of the Church but instead of encouraging the
Anglicanism he tried to impose more and more the Presbyterianism which was much more inflexible.

In that time, The House of Commons was lead by a group of very rigid Protestants, the Puritans,
which later on would become the leaders of the civil army. They were called like that because they
wanted to purify the Anglican Church, they wanted to delete all its influences beside the Reformation
and they didn’t agree the king’s Presbyterian way of viewing things. They found to solutions: to emigrate
(in 1642 a large group of Presbyterians emigrated in America and they formed there the first English
colonies) or to fight against the king (they would become the leaders of the civil army).
 Actually, Charles wanted to impose the Presbyterianism among the people of the entire island
because he didn’t like the idea of free religious expression.

Another problem was that in those time marriages were political, so Charles politically married a
French princess, Henrietta Maria. This brought even more problems. Having a Catholic queen on the
throne of a Protestant country was a very big problem to deal with (from the part of the Parliament) and
also the population was afraid because Catholicism could have returned through the new queen.

Instead of trying to find a solution, Charles decided that Parliament was no longer needed and
he denied it (probably this was his great mistake). Since Parliament was called in sesion only by the king,
from 1628 to 1638 Charles din’t called it, and he took upon his shoulders the obligation to rule alone in
the country. This period was called The Personal Rule of The King. Parliament could not control the king
and could not met because it would have been broken the principles of Magna Carta so it lost its role in
the society.

The situation in the country became even worse. We had 10 years of dictatorship, when anarchy
was very present in England. Taxes had to be collected and this created poverty. Also, the population
moved further and further from the king. It was clear that even the king did not like his people since he
was sanding them in prison.

The situation determined Charles to recall Parliament and Parliament had the great oppurtunity
to take its revenge. This thing was also influenced by the fact that in 1640 Charles declared war to
Scotland, his own country because he wanted to build a unique Presbyterian perspective, a unique
Presbyterian Church (the Presbyterians weren’t the same anywhere). The Scots did not accept this, they
felt betrayed beacuse Charles became king in England and married a French princess. Englad lost the war
because the Royal Navy and the army had been neglected by James, and a new payement was imposed
to England. Charles needed Parliament in order to solve the situation.

Parliament said that they would met only if the principles of Magna Carta would be respected
even if the king did not like his idea. In 1641 Parliament voted a new law, a new document, The Triennial
Act/The Dissolution Act saying that the king did not have the power to disolve Parliament and he had the
obligation to call it in sesion at least once every three years. Also, the ship monet sould not be imposed
anymore so the merchants could restart their activity in order to elimine the poverty . Still in 1641,
Parliament voted another law, saying that the cousellers of the king should be people trusted by
Parliament. Until 1642 Parliament met every single time, even without the agreement of the king, period
known as The Long Parliament. This enlarged even more the existing conflicts but also created a sort of
indecision among the people. They did not know anymore whos had the power, who was to be trusted,
who was rulling the country. Since then any other solution wasn’t found, they decied to have war (1642).

In a moment of anger, Charles arrested the leaders of the House of Commons. People saw that
the democracy was gone and their first reaction was to revolt. They sided with The House of Commons.
From 1642 to 1648 we have 2 fighting armies: the royal army and the civil army. People revolted in the
great citise, which were also commercial cities that supported Parliament. Charles had to run away from
London and to go in Oxford, but the city did not help him in a financial way.
 The leaders of The House of Commons, the Puritans were also military people and they became
the leaders of the civil army. Their leader was Oliver Cromwell and he became also the supreme leader
of the army, creating The New Model Army, which became a strong weapon, characterised by 2 main
features: military discipline (the knew that they were fighting for the wright cause, they a had a hard
daily trainig in all weather conditions) and religious enthuziasm (they were reunited by the same love for
God, and every day before the trainig they had religious ceremonies). Many people joined the army, and
it was a professional one (they used guns, cannons).

Even Scotland sided with Parliament. There were many battles, power moved from one army to
another. Between 1642-1646 the royal army took the control over the south of the territory and we had
great battles: June 2 1644 Marston Moor, 1644 Naseby, 1646 Preston. Charles ran out of resources and
he wanted to run in Scotland but the Scots captured him and gave him to the English. He was
emprisoned. In August 1648 we have the final battle, won by Parliament and the royal army accepted its
loss.

During the emprisonement, Charles negociated for his freedom and for his throne. It was very
hard to judge him, but for the first time in the history of England there was a trial for a king (the judge
applied the principles of Magna Carta that was saying that every free person had the wright to a free and
corect trial). The king was judged by 53 judges, lead by Cromwell, who had received the title of Lord
Protector because of winning the war. The trial lasted for one year because Charles was acused of many
thins (of being treator, of being murderer, tyrant, etc.).

The jury decied that the king would be beheaded by the will of the people. During the trail
Charles acted with so much dignity and he defened himself so well, that all his past mistakes were
forgotten.

On 31 January 1649 Charles was beheaded in front of the WhiteHall Palace. We had no longer a
king, a monarchy, but a Republic in England. For 11 years we would have the Protectorate of Oliver
Cromwell, because of his title of Lord Protector.