Naomi Pullinnaomi.wood@warwick.ac.uk

The British Problem: Empire, Conflict and National Identities, 1558-1714

Charles I and the road to Civil War

Focus of this lectureCharles I and causes of Civil Wars, 1625-1642

1. Background to Charles I

2. Historiography on causes of Civil Wars

3. Influences underpinning rebellion against Charles I in England

4. Catalysts of Civil War in Ireland and Scotland

Charles I: King of England, Ireland and Scotland 1625-1649

• Takes throne in March 1625, following death of father James I.

• Viewed himself as continuing his father’s legacy

• Problems surrounding marriage to French princess Henrietta Maria in May 1625 (Catholic)

• Rise of Spain in Europe in New World > raising finances for military campaigns

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 Civil Wars

1. Whig historians (e.g. Lord Macualay and G. M. Trevelyan)• Struggle for parliamentary democracy• Authoritarian aspirations of Stuart Kings at odds with

aspirations of people for representation• See evidence of conflict between Crown and Parliament in

reign of James I and VI

2. Marxist historians (Christopher Hill)• Part of a deeper class dynamic• Rise of Parliament = reflection of deeper social change:

rising commercial and professional ‘middle class’ challenging old royal and aristocratic order.

Revisionist interpretations

John Adamson, The Noble Revolt (2007)• 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, The Nature of the English Revolution (1993)• 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 stressing short-term causes

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

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

The ‘British problem’ in revisionist arguments: (Russell, Morrill, J. G. A. Pocock)

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

• England was the last of the three kingdoms to enter into revolt: English responding to events in rest of British Isles

1. Ambiguities in the English ‘ancient constitution’

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

• England not an ‘absolute monarchy’ – checks on the King’s power through Parliament.

BUT how far and on what grounds? • James I respected parliament, but saw kings as ‘God’s

Lieutenants on earth’.• Thomas Wentworth MP (1628): ‘I hope it shall never

be stirred here whether the king be above the law or the law above the king’.

2. English Church: a balancing of factions

• William Cecil – Church of England a ‘mingle mangle’.

• Traditionalist wing - conservative vision of Reformation. Support 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.

• Kings cannot pursue war or suppress rebellions without taxation

• Must have consent of Parliament to levy taxes.

3. Finances: raising money

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

• Disliked ‘bargaining and contracting’

• 1642: would ‘rather be a glorious king or a patient martyr’ than someone who compromised

Portrait of Charles I as a Martyr King

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

• 1628 – dissolves Parliament (doesn’t meet for 12 years)

Religious reforms

Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645)

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

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

John Knox (1554)

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

condemns true religion’.

Scotland: the flame of Civil WarBishops’ Wars 1639 and 1640 • sparked by riots in Edinburgh after attempt to impose

English Book of Common Prayer without consent of Assembly

• Calvinist wing in Scotland = Presbyterians: 1. Oppose Laudian Reforms in England

2. Outrage that conservative English religion being imposed on nation

1638 – National Covenant • committing themselves to God and preserving purity of the

Kirk• Led by Scottish aristocrats, like the earls of Rothes, Lothian

and Argyll.

Scotland: the flame of Civil WarNationalistic quality• Blend of militant religion with national concerns –

belief that Charles ruling in interests of England. • Presbyterian Protestantism a part of Scottish

identity:

National Covenant: • ‘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’.

Long-Parliament reforms: 1640

• Refuse to provide money to suppress Scottish > enquire into government and financial and religious policies of the kingdom

• Dismantle Personal Rule - attack ‘evil counsellors’ who mislead Charles

> half of Privy Council was imprisoned, exiled or taken from power by 1641> Archbishop Laud imprisoned> Earl of Strafford (Lord Deputy of Ireland) executed

Causes of divisions in Long-Parliament

1. Scotland• An anti-Scots faction (Seymour, Strangeways,

Southampton)

• Puritan faction (Earl of Northumberland, Viscount Saye, Earl of Essex, Early of Warwick, John Pym, Denzil Holles, Symon D’Ewes)

> want to listen to what Scots have to say; to use as a basis for reform in England

• 1641 – John Pym and Earl of Essex work with Scots to propose ‘further Reformation’ in English Church

Parliamentary radicalism – the Root and Branch Bill and the Grand Remonstrance

Root and Branch (1641)• 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 (1641) - List of grievances addressed to Charles I- 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’.

Irish Catholic Rebellion, Oct. 1641

• Led by O’Neill clan in Ulster• 4,000 Protestants killed, 12,000 died of other

causes after being cast out

• Not a rebellion against Charles, but against his Puritan ministers

• Claim that Charles has endorsed their actions

> Restores momentum to Root and Branch Bill and Grand Remonstrance: 1. Catholicism is a threat to

British Isles2. Charles cannot be trusted

Road to Civil War, late-1641-1642

Jan. 1642 – Arrest of ‘Five Members’ June 1642 – Puritan faction under Pym and Essex release Nineteen PropositionsJuly 1642 – Answer to the Nineteen Propositions (drafted by Falkland, Hyde and Culpeper)

Conclusions

• Deeply divided Britain: Scottish and Irish rebellions and new Parliamentary factions.• Emergence of an idea of ‘constitutional

royalism’ > 1642 has more defences of King and the constitution than seventeen years altogether

BUT• Overwhelming desire for peace