Why did the Civil War break out?

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Why Did The Civil War Break Out?

        A civil war is a very bad thing.  Brother fights brother and father fights son.  England had two Civil wars – the first one was between King and parliament.  The definition of a country almost always contains the word “untied” or “together” - all countries are united.  The bad thing about a civil war is that it splits a country.  So why did the nobles of the country take sides?  What made parliament turn on the King?  The aim of this essay is to find the reasons why.

        Firstly, the King had started his reign badly.  His marriage to a Catholic made him unpopular and everyone in Parliament celebrated the murder of Charles’ friend Buckingham.  He tried two useless campaigns against Spain and France – which brought him even more unpopularity.

        He also broke the law many times.  There were two main things which a King couldn’t do without parliament’s permission.  These were making laws and introducing taxes.  Therefore when Charles called parliament to ask them for money to fight against French Catholics, parliament made a long list of things that the King had done which he shouldn’t have.  This was the 1628 petition of Right.  It stressed that taxes could not be collected without Parliament’s permission and that people should not be imprisoned without trial.  It also stopped soldiers from lodging in the houses of civilians.

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        Charles then ruled without Parliament from 1629 to 1640.  This was because parliament criticised him many times.  They also accused him and his friend – Archbishop Laud of “Popery” (supporting Catholics).  Charles earned money by introducing ancient laws.  People would be forced to pay penalties for not paying laws that hadn’t been used for hundreds of years.  The worst thing he did; however was extend a tax called ship money.  Ship money was a tax that coastal towns had to pay for protection from invasion and up keeping of the navy.  Charles made himself unpopular by making the whole of ...

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