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 England pay ship money.
Archbishop Laud came up with an idea to make all of Scotland use the same prayer book as England. The Scottish people however, were very attached to their prayer book and so there was a mass rebellion. At least 40,000 men would be needed to force the prayer book on the Scottish. For the first time in a decade Charles called parliament. Most of the members of Parliament spent 5 days criticising him – so he dismissed them. This was the 1640 “short Parliament.”
Charles was forced to call parliament as the Scottish rebels had crossed the border. This “Long Parliament” sat for thirteen years and destroyed his life’s work. They paid the Scots to go away and now concentrated on defeating Charles’ friends. Thomas Wentworth – the Earl of Strafford had a large army in Ireland and was a good friend of Charles. They tried to put him on trial. Their only piece of evidence was a quote which said that he “would conquer the Kingdom.” However the “Kingdom” meant Scotland when it had up risen and there was no verdict from the trial. Strafford’s enemies found an ancient “Bill of Attainder” which meant that people voted and someone was automatically guilty. Charles was forced to sign the death warrant, as a large mob threatened his family.
Just before the civil war broke out, Charles’ enemies in parliament made a document which described all the bad things which he had done and plans for a Puritan change. This meant that M.P.s who were on neither side supported the King. They didn’t mind parliament complaining about illegal things that Charles had done, but to destroy Church and royal authority was totally different. Instead of fearing a too-powerful King they now fear a too powerful Parliament. The first signs of war began when Charles took 300 soldiers into the houses of Parliament to try and capture his main enemies.
A main reason why Charles was unpopular with Parliament was that he believed in divine right. This meant that he was often arrogant and believed that he was always right. He did not believe that Parliament was the main power in England and broke the law many times using the excuse of divine right.
In summary, there were a large number of reasons which made Charles unpopular, the most important of which was religion. He tried to support Catholics in a Protestant country at a time when religion was very important. One might say that it was luck – he might not have been such a bad king if he hadn’t ruled in Protestant times.
In conclusion, the civil war broke out in 1642 because Charles I had a major argument with parliament. There are many reasons for this, any one of which would not make such a large argument. However, with all of Charles’ law-breaking, quarrels with parliament and unpopular actions added together, the only result possible was CIVIL WAR.
Gopal K Kotecha