WHO WAS TO BLAME FOR THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR?

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Who was to blame for the english civil war?

     In 1642 a civil war broke out between the king and the parliament. The king was to blame. There were many reasons for why the king was to blame; one of the reasons for why the king was to blame was because of his money problems. Charles was not good with money and always had very little. He had closed down parliament and had to think of ways of getting money without asking the parliament’s help, I to believe that Charles was not good with money as he kept on being short of money. He had used old laws like ‘Ship Money’, which was a special tax to help the navy; he used this idea to get money off the people of England. This made him very unpopular, alienating many who were the natural supporters of the King. Another reason for why the king was to blame was the way he had handled with religion. As he was the king, he had thought that he had the power to make the Scots use English prayer books. The Scots were so furious after hearing this they had decided they would rather fight Charles instead. This also made him very unpopular with the Scots as well as the people of England. When the Scots had defeated him he had to pay a large amount of money. Charles could not afford this. He had to recall parliament, as only tax voted by parliament would pay to get rid of the Scots. Parliament also had a role in this; parliament was not blameless for the civil war. It had major issues about the king and his adviser. The lords and MPs that dislike the king advisers often complained about it in the Parliament. The Puritan MPs also complained about the church and how had been decorated.

     The Parliament and James were arguing about lots of reasons they were arguing over money because James always never had enough money and he came from a poor background, which was Scotland. He had been a success in Scotland. He came to England with strong ideas on the power that the king should have, but very little money. Scotland was poor compared to England. James Believed that god had chosen him to be king. He told parliament that even god himself was called King god. This idea was called Divine Right of King. It meant that no one could argue with the king, because that would be the same as arguing with god. James upset the Puritans and the Catholics because Puritans wanted the church to be more Protestant and the people were not happy with the Churches that were there. The biggest disagreement was about the bishops. The puritans wanted a church without a bishop, they also wanted the church to be run by committees of ordinary churchgoers, James did not like this and he did not give them that privilege.

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     After James death in 1625, his son Charles I had inherited the throne and took over from where his father had left. Charles had married a 15-year-old French princess named Henrietta Maria. Parliament did not like this because now that Charles is married to a French princess and not to a Spanish princess, England has lost all hopes of becoming a catholic country again as it is not likely for their Children to be brought up as Catholics. Very soon Charles began to have Quarrels with the parliament, the argument were mostly about religion and money, this shows ...

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