To what extent did Charles I religious policies make the crisis of 1640 inevitable(TM)

England

• Charles made Laud archbishop, who made many changes within the church (the beauty of holiness ect.) thus creating the impression that England was turning back to Catholicism. This was not the reasons behind the changes to the church however neither Charles nor Laud explained the real reasons to the public, who perceived that they were attempting to recreate Catholic Church – POPISH PLOT.
• Henrietta Maria (Charles’ wife) was a catholic herself and was allowed to practice Catholicism. If they were to have children then they too would be brought up a Catholics.
• The changes made to the church angered the gentry (their position in the church had been lowered) for example; the clergy were given much higher positions and better opportunities in the church now compared with the gentry.

Ireland

• Ireland was a strongly catholic country. This made it harder for Charles as he was a protestant ruler. Sir Thomas Wentworth ( appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland) attempted to unify the church under his rule of ‘thorough’ (a determined strong rule from the centre in partnership with Laud). This alienated all of the major groups in society; The New English, Old English, and Native Irish.
• Many believed that Charles was using Ireland as a “Blue Print” for England to be made an absolutist state. This was not welcome and many people were suspicious of Charles.
• The crisis of 1640 was not inevitable until 2 years after Wentworth had left Ireland when rebellion swept the country.

Scotland

• In 1633 Charles visited Scotland for the first time since becoming King. When he and Laud then tried to introduce the English Prayer book, people were angry and this aroused Scottish nationalism. (They didn’t see why they should obey a king who had never been to their country.)
• When Charles introduced the prayer book he did not consult the Scottish Privy Council (the Kirk) or the English parliament. This caused a lot of tension.
• It can be seen in the National Covenant the discontent and hatred towards the new prayer book. The national covenant was drawn up to oppose the prayer book and show Scottish nationalism.
• This caused the crisis of 1640 to become inevitable because it showed that the only way for Charles to have control in Scotland was if he was prepared to go to war. This would have required a lot of money. Although it also showed us how strongly Charles believed in his religious policies.

To conclude it can be seen that religious policies made the crisis of 1640 enevitable, however there were other more important factors such as multiple kingdoms.