WHY DID CIVIL WAR BREAK OUT IN 1642?

Authors Avatar

Andy Powell         8W        05/07/2007

WHY DID CIVIL WAR BREAK OUT IN 1642?

During the 16th Century parliament power had been increasing.  This caused major tension between the monarchy and parliament.  When Charles came to the throne in 1625 this tension grew and from that time until he was executed, he had to cope with the civil war and parliament trying to overthrow the divine right of Kings idea.  In this essay I will attempt to analyse the long term and short term causes that led to Charles losing control of parliament.

Charles and parliament clashed over power.  These power struggles went on throughout Charles’ reign.  

        An example of these power struggles was at the start of Charles’ reign.  Lord Buckingham had been one of King James’s favourites and Charles also liked him.  In 1625 Buckingham went on an expedition to Spain.  This was a disaster and he lost a lot of ships and spent a lot of money.  When he returned some M.P.s tried to imprison and punish him.  However, Charles didn’t approve of this and jailed two M.P.’s instead.  

        Charles showed some of his dominance over parliament during the eleven-year’s tyranny.  This was when Charles decided he didn’t need parliament after they stopped giving him customs duties.  During this time Charles introduced ship tax, which many people refused to pay.  This made him unpopular.  

Join now!

        In 1639 Charles demonstrated that he wasn’t to be messed around with.  He brought back Strafford a disliked Minister from Ireland who brought with him a large army.

        In 1640, Charles called parliament and then sent them home in three weeks.  Again, this made him very unpopular with the members of parliament.  They had refused to give him any more money until he got rid of unwanted taxes.

        Later in 1640, Charles’ army was defeated in Scotland.  Charles was having to pay the army $850.00 per day which was a large amount of money at the time.

        In November of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay