Charles 1st‘s main adviser Buckingham was very unpopular with most people. A rhyme was invented:
Who rules the Country? The King The rules the King? The Duke (Buckingham) The Rules the Duke? The Devil.
This shows how unpopular Buckingham was with the people. Parliament tried to send Buckingham to prison multiple times. In 1629, they tried to punish him for bungling a naval expedition against Spain. When Charles began his Personal Rule, which began in 1629 and ended in 1640. In this time, Charles used Ship tax, a tax that was used to improve the navy in times of war. However, slowly Charles began to increase Ship tax, and bring it inland, making him very unpopular which his people and Parliament. In 1639 on 20% of the Ship tax money was collected. In 1630 Archbishop William Laud made changes to Church of England.. Claiming that he and Charles were only trying to improve it, and not make in Catholic, they bought expensive paintings for it. They changed the layout, and the put in a Rood screen, which angered the people, because it was thought that everyone was equal, therefore why would one need a Rood screen. The Altar, which used to be able to be approached by anyone, was now railed off, behind the Rood screen.
Charles was popular for a while. He was modernising the city by building new roads. He repaired his broken relationship with his wife.
More demands kept coming in from the Parliament and the Houses of Commons, then they had a meeting and they had a voting to see which side was favourite, it ended up Parliament winning by 159 votes to 148, this was called the Grand Remonstrance. Another thing that triggered off the Civil War is when the Irish rebelled. Catholics had risen up to their Protestant rulers. Two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered. Most people saw it as the first step to make England a Catholic country.
Another thing that triggered off the Civil War is when Charles tried to arrest the 5 leading MP's. He charged into the House of Commons with approximately 400 soldiers demanding that the 5 leading MP's must be arrested at once, but they had escaped to safety. Another thing that triggered off the Civil War is when there were arguments in the Parliament about religion. There were also other arguments this time about the army. They needed it for when the Irish rebelled, usually the King controlled it but Charles wasn't in London and none of the MP's trusted him. Parliament took over the army, which angered Charles.
In 1637 Charles, who rules over Scotland, changed the Scots Prayer book to the English one. Scotland was much more Puritan than England, and they rejected the English Prayer Book. They thought it was too close to the Catholics Prayer book.
In February 1642 Parliament debated some questions of religious disagreement. Some of Parliament wanted to rid Archbishop William Laud, while others of bishops all together.
Parliament gave Charles more demands again, this time 19, this quarrelling had split the country in two. The MP's who were on the kings side felt this was the ' last straw '. Charles said " this would make him a mere phantom of a king ". In June 1642, Parliament ordered that all of the county’s of England to raise an army to fight. This meant people had a choice, a choice that would spilt families in half because of their views. Charles raised his own army, something that Parliament did not expect. The civil war began.
Parliament had their way, and Charles was executed. My view is that Charles part of the civil was significant, but not largely more significant Parliament, they provoked him throughout his rule. They may have done this knowing that he was venerable, from his damaged childhood.
