Why did Civil war break out in 1642?

AS and A Level History

Karen Beshay

S2J

History

Why did Civil war break out in 1642?

King Charles I declared war against parliament on the twenty second of August in 1642. There were a lot of victims to this war; approximately one man out of every ten was killed. People who were not physically affected had lost a lot of their property; this includes houses, land and other possessions.

In my opinion, Civil war did not break out due to King Charles I. I think that the events that led a civil war started almost a century before King Charles’ reined; when Henry VIII became the head of the Church of England. To do so he had to have Parliament’s agreement so that he could claim that everybody agreed with his new position. Like this King Henry made Parliament feel more powerful than they ever were. So the Parliament’s strengths kept building up till they had enough power to rebel against their own King,

The Civil war broke out unexpectedly. Before 1642 there were several events that could have triggered the civil war, but most of these were sorted out by 1641.

King Charles I could not rule the country on his own, he needed parliament’s help to pass on new laws. By the end of his reign he had lost control over Scotland as well as London, due to an attempt at governing without Parliament.

Charles’ choice of advisors was very poor. This is shown when he appointed people like Strafford to be an earl. In the eyes of many people Strafford was seen to be a tyrant and he was also accused of cheating and squeezing taxes. People thought that the King would have ruled better without him. Another choice that the King made was appointing Laud to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was a Catholic while most MPs and the King were either Protestants or Puritans.

According to some historians the stages that led to a civil war commenced in 1625 when king Charles I married an unpopular queen, Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic. This caused a problem because during the seventeenth century most of the MPs were Puritans. Although in public King Charles was seen to be a Protestant, he was suspected a catholic since his wife had her own chapel and priest. Then archbishop Laud began to make some new changes in the Church of England, which were very similar to Catholic traditions. He claimed that these changes were to improve the ...

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According to some historians the stages that led to a civil war commenced in 1625 when king Charles I married an unpopular queen, Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic. This caused a problem because during the seventeenth century most of the MPs were Puritans. Although in public King Charles was seen to be a Protestant, he was suspected a catholic since his wife had her own chapel and priest. Then archbishop Laud began to make some new changes in the Church of England, which were very similar to Catholic traditions. He claimed that these changes were to improve the Church of England. Archbishop Laud tried to convince the Puritans that they would feel safer and closer to God if the churches were colourful and beautifully decorated. A lot of people disagreed with these changes not they were soon put on trial:

“ Mr. Prynne’s cheeks were seared with an iron made exceeding hot, after which the executioner cut off one of his ears and a piece of his cheek; then hacking the other ear almost off, left it hanging”

Another problem apart from religion was that king Charles began collecting taxes without parliament’s permission. For a king to pass on new laws, he had to pass them on through Parliament. Between 1629 and 1640 King Charles ruled without Parliament’s help at all. During this period of eleven years there was a conflict of interests. Some people believed that the new laws that were passed on brought the king very close to the beginning of a civil war, but others thought that England was well ruled without Parliament.

Since King Charles was ruling without Parliament he had to find new ways by which he could raise money. He began collecting ‘ Ship Money’; this was a tax that was collected to improve the navy during the times of war and most of the time it was collected only from coastal counties. King Charles began collecting ‘ Ship Money’ annually from both coastal and inland counties. At first, in 1635 almost everybody paid these but by 1639 the king collected only twenty percent of these taxes. Again people had different views about ‘ Ship Money’. Some people agreed about it but some like John Hampden, who came from an inland county refused it. Another tax that he introduced was the ‘Coat and Conduct money’, which was used to pay for the army’s uniforms, training and costumes. This tax rose when King Charles fought a war against the Scottish people since they rebelled against the new prayer book.

Since Charles I ruled both England and Scotland, he insisted on making Scotland use the same prayer book as England; he wanted to spread Laud’s ideas over his entire kingdom. Scotland contained more Puritans than England and so they rebelled against the new system. In 1637 the king ordered all of the churches in Scotland to use the new prayer book even if it were against their will. The king seemed to be collecting too much money; this created a taxpayer’s strike. In Wiltshire, soldiers released the people who were imprisoned for not paying ‘ Coat and Conduct Money’.

In the summer of 1640 Charles’ army was defeated in Scotland. Charles agreed to pay the Scottish £850 per day till they manage to reach an agreement. Charles did not have enough money for these payments, so he decided to turn to Parliament, but the Parliament refused to give him any money until he gets rid of all of his new policies and ministers.

Later on, the King started to take actions that were seen as tyrannical. These actions lead to some Members of Parliament becoming more arrogant and self-confident. Proof to this is when Charles called Parliament, the short Parliament only lasted for three weeks and then he dissolved it. Other proof is in January 1642 when Charles walked into the House of Commons and tried to arrest five MPs on the spot.

All of the members of Parliament in the House of Commons united against the king, but they did not expect to start a civil war. This was due to the fact that in order to fight a war there must be two sides, but there was hardly anybody on King Charles I’s side. The Parliament insisted that the king must fulfill their demands in order to give him the money he so desperately needed. By the summer of 1641 King Charles agreed to most of these demands. They were great sacrifices from the king. These included:

“Charles’ evil ministers must be punished.
Ministers should be appointed who will advise Charles to follow sensible policies. Some of these ministers should come from Parliament
The king must get rid of courts such as the court of Star Chamber, which allow him to lock up his opponents.
Regular meetings of Parliament must be held.
There can be no taxes without Parliament’s agreement.
Reverse Laud’s reforms of the Church of England.”

After all of the concessions that the King made to Parliament, in 1641 a new set of laws called ‘The Grand Remonstrance’ was published by Parliament. This was a new set of demands from the House of Commons. Not all of the Members of Parliament agreed to these new laws. The votes were 159 to 148. This also states the point that the Members of Parliament were becoming too self-confident and arrogant.

The first step towards spreading Catholicism in England took place on November the first 1641, when news reached London of a rebellion in Ireland the Catholics murdered 200,000 Protestants. King Charles was suspected of being behind this movement since, as mentioned before, he was thought to be a Catholic in secret. When this Irish rebellion arose, England needed an army to oppose. As always, the kings had control over the army, but this time Parliament wanted to control the army because they were afraid that the King might use this army to fight against them and because they did not trust him very much. So in March 1642, Parliament took control over the army against the king’s will. This helped in increasing the Parliament’s power to rebel against their king, with an army at hand.

On the first of June 1642 a new set of laws was released, it was called ‘The Nineteen Proposition’. People had to choose between either the King or Parliament. This helped both the King and Parliament to set up an army for the beginning of a Civil War.

The Civil war had two phases: from 1642-1646, and from 1646- 1649. After a formal trial in 1649, King Charles I was accused of treason and was executed on January 30 in 1649. Oliver Cromwell thought that the king’s execution was “a cruel necessity”.