Page 58 - Phonebox Magazine August 2016

What was the importance of the English Civil War?
Part Two – By Peter Ashdown
Peter Ashdown is a local amateur historian who is involved with the Committee that is organising a celebration of the English Civil War in Newport Pagnell on the Bank Holiday Weekend 28th to 29th August 2016. The Event will involve two days of simulated battle with cavalry, infantry, artillery, musketeers and pikemen in association with the English
Rebellion in Ireland was suppressed brutally under the orders of Cromwell. In 1651 in Scotland the son of Charles I was crowned Charles II. The Scottish invasion of England was defeated and in 1653 Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector, a dictator who ruled with as little reference to Parliament as the previous kings. In 1656 Cromwell was even offered the crown which he did not accept. Upon his death in the winter of 1658 Richard Cromwell, his son, was appointed Lord Protector but Richard had little aptitude to rule. In 1660 Parliament decided to restore the monarchy and invited Charles Stuart to return as Charles II.
The decade of republicanism had not been a success. Leadership of the Army has passed into the hands of the Puritans whose strict views and suppression of theatres and other forms of popular entertainment were not liked outside their own faith. Parliament was controlled by landowners and others from what we would now describe as the middle classes. The Parliamentary victory had stimulated new ideas in the poorer people, craft workers and small farmers. As well as the Royalist rebellions there was civil unrest from these groups excluded from power and who objected to the “puritanical” life style being imposed on them. The concept that democracy was for everyone and even demands for the common ownership of all land circulated amongst the ordinary people but this was suppressed forcefully by Cromwell, the leadership imprisoned or executed.
The Restoration in 1660 was widely popular across the country, except perhaps amongst the Puritans, many of whom then emigrated to the new English colonies in North America. Theatres reopened, dancing became legal again and enjoyment was no longer disapproved of. Charles II was a popular king, a more affable character than his father and who had learned the need to manage a relationship with Parliament. He had no legitimate children so upon his death in February 1685 his younger brother was crowned James II. James was initially popular and when in June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II, landed in southern England to claim the throne there was little support. The rebellion was defeated and Monmouth and many of his immediate supporters executed.
The problem with James soon emerged. He was a Catholic unlike the earlier Stuart kings. Since Elizabeth I Catholics had been tolerated rather than persecuted but under the in uence of the Puritans and other extreme Protestants this tolerance had begun to fade. Throughout the 17th century there had been allegations of Catholic plots to restore the religion, from the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 to
TCivil War Society.
he first part of this article last
month described the emergence of Parliament out of the feudal system and the developing con ict between
Parliament and the Stuart dynasty prior to the enthronement of Charles I in 1625.
Charles I was an arrogant personality who also believed in the “Divine Right” and inherited his father’s objection to Parliament. He was educated and studious rather than intelligent and lacked empathy with people. He was unable to generate popularity with his subjects and immediately fell out with Parliament who, when requested to vote him the usual import duties for life, refused to do so and granted them for one year only. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament, collecting the taxes denied to him, raising a loan and threatening those who refused to pay with imprisonment. Shortage of money necessitated a recall of Parliament in 1628 but Charles could not reach any agreement with them. Indeed, he arrested one of the leaders, Sir John Eliot, and imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Charles quarrelled with Parliament over foreign policy and revived old laws and taxes without the agreement of Parliament. When Parliament complained in 1629 Charles dismissed them and ruled without a Parliament until 1640 when rebellion within Scotland forced a recall in order to raise new taxes to fund his army. Parliament refused
him money and in 1641 sent him a list of 204 complaints about the way he ran the country. Charles responded by trying to arrest the ve leaders in Parliament which precipitated the Civil War. The cause of the dispute was entirely about Charles’ powers to rule, it was not about religion. As regards religion, some of the military leaders of both sides in the English Civil War had fought for the Protestant cause in the wars that raged in what is now Germany between Protestant and Catholic, and Charles himself as head of the Church of England had no wish to subordinate himself to the Pope. Neither King nor Parliament wanted to support Catholicism in England.
In 1642 after failing to arrest the leaders of Parliament who had opposed him Charles withdrew to Oxford to raise armed support. Parliament called up the London Trained Bands, the local militia, and recruited armed forces in those areas of England that supported them which was mostly in the South and East. The war lasted for four years and ended with the victory of Parliament and the imprisonment of the King. Royalist rebellions in Wales and Scotland in 1647 were defeated and in 1648 the more extreme members of Parliament under Oliver Cromwell decided to charge Charles with treason. The trial ended with the execution of Charles in January 1649. The country was now ruled by a Council drawn from Parliament.
58 Phonebox Magazine | August 2016