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 the same year, parliament made demands, which included parliament meeting more and the execution of Strafford. Charles was at the mercy of parliament; many M.P.s were united against him. It took a long time for him to agree to the demands, as he was probably reluctant to do so.
The arguments over power in Charles’ reign caused distrust and dislike between the two parties. The money worries of Charles however, gave him a disadvantage. He finally lost the power struggle with parliament and they directly challenged him in 1642.
Charles was involved in the Catholic vs Protestant struggles that had been happening for decades and are still happening today. These continued throughout his reign.
Charles’ reign got off to a bad start when he married Henrietta Maria,
A devout catholic. These made people dislike him. During the 1630’s Charles and Archbishop Laud began to make changes to the Church. They wanted Churches to be decorated and look beautiful. The puritans in parliament didn’t approve, as they believed that Churches should be simple. When Laud introduced a controversial new prayer book, this also made some parliamentarian puritans unhappy. The Scots also didn’t like it and they rioted. Charles sent an army to Scotland but didn’t have enough money to pay the soldiers. This caused him to introduce a new tax named coat and conduct money. The British public did not like paying this tax and it helped cause the taxpayer’s strike 1639-1640.
Religion paid a bigger part in people’s lives during this period so when Charles tried to change the Church it was always going to cause distrust between parliament and the King.
Money was closely tied in with what had happened throughout Charles’ reign. During this time, money caused a big difference in power struggles between parliament and the monarchy.
At the start of Charles’ reign parliament gave themselves an advantage. They told Charles he would only be allowed one-year customs duties. They did this so they would have to keep meeting. This led to the eleven year’s tyranny from 1629-1640.
When Charles introduced ship tax to compensate for the money he wasn’t getting from parliament, he became distrusted by the British public. This was because people knew he was using the money for other things apart from improving the Royal Navy.
In 1640 Charles called parliament in a desperate ploy for money. They refused to give him any until he dropped his unpopular policies.
Any monarch, including Charles, needed money. Parliament used this to their advantage so they would keep meeting and at the same time giving themselves power.
The short-term causes were what really kick-started the civil war. They acted as triggers to the long winding tension between the monarchy and parliament.
In November 1641, a new list of demands was made by parliament. This was called the grand remonstrance. The new demands included reducing the power of bishops. Some M.P.s called for this to be published, but others didn’t want to involve ordinary people, Parliament was becoming divided. On 1st November 1641, people in London heard that Catholics had risen up in Ireland and had killed 20,000 Protestants. The rumours were that Charles was behind an attempt to make England all catholic.
In January 1642. Charles tried to arrest five M.P.s, He stormed into the parliament building with dozens of soldiers. However, these men had been warned and had already fled the building. This rash move by Charles brought the civil war extremely close and it convinced parliament that Charles was trying to overthrow them.
These triggers made the civil war imminent, as it was the first time either side had used force.
I believe that both parliament and Charles caused the civil war. I think that power was the most important of the four causes we have looked at. This is because power was primarily what the parliament vs. Charles feud was about. Although I believe that some of Charles’ rash actions were significant in the causes of the civil war. I also think that parliament’s attitude didn’t help.