Charles I and the road to Civil War

Gabriel Glickman

Bulstrode Whitelocke MP, July 1642

‘We have insensibly slipped into this beginning of a civil war by one unexpected accident after

another [so that] we scarce know how… we are now come to the question of raising

forces.'

Lord Wharton, June 1642

‘How is itt then, hath all this kingdome noe person prudent enough… to prevent the ruine

coming upon us…?’

Long-term ‘teleological’ interpretations of war

Whig historians –developing struggle to increase powers of Westminster parliament and representation of the people: emphasise preceding conflict in reign of James I.

Marxist historians – parliamentary self-assertion the reflection of deeper social change: rising commercial and professional ‘middle class’ challenging old royal and aristocratic order.

But Whig and Marxist views challenged by variety of revisionist interpretations in 1970s and 1980s.

Revisionist historians – highlight different issues causing conflict

• Adamson – the last baronial revolt: to preserve aristocratic power against royal centralisation.

- Highlights role of nobility in parliamentary cause .e.g Percy, Devereux, Fiennes families.

• Morrill – not the first modern revolution, but the last war of religion.

- Religious conflict esp. between different wings of the Protestant faith in the British Isles.

Revisionists stress short-term triggers

• Russell – personality of the king. • Kishlansky - highlights splits within parliament

1641-2, as result of series of accidents and contingencies.

Centrality of the ‘British problem’ to revisionist arguments:

- Composite monarchy a structure likely to generate recurrent conflict: inherent fragility.

Ambiguities in the English ‘ancient constitution’

• Bishop John Aylmer (1562) - England ‘not a mere monarchie… nor a mere oligarchie, nor democratie, but a rule mixte of all these’.

• Robert Phelips MP (1623): ‘we are the last monarchy in Christendom to retain our original rights and constitution’.

• Thomas Wentworth MP (future Viscount Strafford): ‘I hope it shall never be stirred here whether the king be above the law or the law above the king’.

Ambiguities in the English Church

• William Cecil – Church of England a ‘mingle mangle’.• Traditionalist wing - conservative vision of

Reformation.- Support for ritualistic ceremonies and governance of

church by bishops. • Calvinist/Puritan wing - promotes ‘Further

Reformation’ in line with Protestant institutions in Europe.

- Hostile to bishops; militant support for international Protestant cause.

Charles I – vision of Divine Right of Kings developed through personal rule

• Implementation of new taxes, ‘Forced Loan’ without parliamentary assent.

• ‘Laudian’ programme to take Church of England back to its conservative roots: strengthening power of bishops, heightening ceremonialism in churches, attack on Puritans.

• Stirs fears of Popery: religious discontent recalls old Calvinist antagonism towards ‘ungodly’ monarchs.

John Knox (1554)

‘whether obedience is to be rendered to a magistrate who enforces idolatry

and condemns true religion’.

The Scottish Covenanting movement

• Sparked by riots in Edinburgh, 1638; mobilisation against Charles I, 1639.

• Under aristocratic control - earls of Rothes, Lothian and Argyll.

• Blend of militant religion with secular national concerns – belief that Charles ruling in interests of England.

• Presbyterian Protestantism a part of Scottish identity: ‘religion is not only the means to serve God and to save our owne souls, but is also the base and foundations of kingdomes and estates’.

Emergence of parliamentary radicalism – the Root and Branch Bill and the Grand Remonstrance

Reflects growing influence of Scottish Covenanters over English Puritanism.

• Sir John Wray – Root and Branch bill to ‘lay the axe to the Root, to unloose the long and deep fangs of Superstition and Popery, which being done the bark will soon fall down’.

• The Grand Remonstrance - ‘effect reformation of religion… by a general synod of the

most grave, pious, learned and judicious divines’.- Impose upon the king ‘such councillors, ambassadors and

other ministers in managing his business at home and abroad as the Parliament may have cause to confide in’.

The Irish rebellion, 1641 – English print

The Irish rebellion, 1641 – English print

The ‘constitutional royalists’

• Key figures - Edward Hyde MP, Viscount Falkland, earls of Hertford and Southampton.

• Key document, Answer to the Nineteen Propositions (June 1642).

• Support for Elizabethan Church of England – i.e. no Laudian policies but preservation of bishops.

• Support for ‘ancient constitution’ i.e. preserving traditional powers of King, Lords and Commons.

• Believe Puritans now a greater threat to constitutional tradition, civil and religious liberty than Charles I.