English Civil War

1642-49

The series of wars in England fought between the armies loyal to Charles I and those loyal to his parliamentarians between 1642-9. It ended with Charle's defeat, trial and execution in 1649. This was followed by a decade of republical rule dominated by Oliver Cromwell in what is called the Commonwealth. The nation was restored to the monarchy after Cromwell's death with the restoration of Charles II to the throne. The war displays dramatically the rise, and the loss, of Puritan influence in the British Isles.

Charles I came to the throne, influenced by his father, imbued with the idea of the divine rights of kings to rule. Where he could, therefore, he by-passed Parliament, calling them only when he needed money for war. This, in itself, had proved dissatisfying to his subjects. He made things worse when, influenced by the Arminian leadings of Archbishop William Laud, he began to lean towards innovating the liturgy of the Anglican Church towards High-Churchism. The matter that broke the camel-back was his innovative programme on the Scottish Church, which was strongly Calvinist. The Scots (now also known as the Covenanters) revolted and invaded northern England in 1638 and 39 (in what is called the Bishops' Wars). Charles was forced, therefore, to call parliament for money for war. However, Parliament—strongly influenced by Puritans—refused, unless he was prepared also to reform the way he ruled. Charles reacted by calling off parliament (thus the name, the 'Short Parliament' of 1640). Just a few months afterwards, and even more desperate for money, he recalled parliament. He was met not only with similar demands for change, but when he attempted to arrest a number of the leaders most responsible for the criticism against his rule, they escaped and he was publicly humiliated. Charles, knowing he had lost all authority in London left the city and, on 22 August 1642 and in Notthingham, raised his standard for war against the Puritan-influenced parliamentarians. The war split families and friends as each man was forced to decide which side they would fight; the 'Roundheads' (from the Puritan haircut) for Parliament and the 'Cavaliers' for the king.

The war went largely in Charles's favour in the early years, until Oliver Cromwell got his New Model Army into the field and turned the tide when Cromwell won a decisive batte at Naseby on 14 June, 1645. By the middle of the next year all resistence to the parliamentary forces had been vanquished. Still, Charles was not prepared to throw in the towel. He plotted. He figured that he might have a chance of surviving his reign if he surrendered to the Scots and see if he could work out terms useful to himself with them. Eventually, however, the Scots turned him over to the English Parliament under guarantee of his safety (whatever he may have been he was still their king too). Then something unexpected happened; Charles's popularity among the people grew as he was led south; now that the war was over, everyone wanted a king, provided he would do what they wished. Internal differences between the various factions among the victors became combustive enough to drive them into their own war against one another. The army was about to revolt. All this added up to people having second thoughts about not siding with the king. The alternative was far more scary to contemplate. And these included the Scots. Together they rose up against the Parliamentarians in what is now called 'the Second Civil War.' They lost. Cromwell, now in essence a dictator, led a group to require the king's trial for treason. Charles was beheaded 30 January 1649. The nation turned into a republic, known as the Commonwealth.