The Parliament that assembled 3 November 1640 was fundamentally hostile to Charles I. Candidates associated with the court had been defeated, and almost everyone elected was aggrieved at some aspect of Charles' policies. Parliament had been assembled only because Charles needed money to pay the Scots army. To ensure that it was not dissolved as soon as the Scots army disbanded, Parliament forced Charles to sign an Act (10 May 1641) agreeing that this Parliament would not be dissolved without its own consent. The threat of the Scottish army was also used to persuade the King to consent to the Triennial Act (15 February 1641).
Charles would have kept his crown and most of his power and be assured of the retention of bishops. [2] The Army was one of the most radical bodies in the country, with many of its men belonging to millenarian and republican groups. It carried out the purge of conservative members of Parliament in December 1648. At Charles’ trial, Cromwell and other officers signed the death warrant. For such an organisation to have made a generous offer to the King previously shows a dichotomy between conservatism and radicalism.
The English Civil War Why did parliament defeat King Charles? In 1642, a civil war broke out between the King’s army, (king Charles 1’s Cavaliers) and Parliaments army (The Roundheads, called roundheads because of their short hair). This was over wealth, money, power and religion. Parliament’s roundheads (Stalemates) had MP’s, Merchants, Puritans, Leeds and Bradford supporting them. Most people thought that the roundheads were going to win because they had experienced leaders that had previously been in a civil war, Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax.
Essex wanted to be the most important minister in Elizabeth’s court and the only obstacles in his way were William Cecil and his son Robert. The rivalry between Essex and the Cecils dominated the Privy Council meetings and in result, Essex would start to lose his temper when he would not get his way. In 1598 Essex asked Elizabeth to appoint one of his supporters as Deputy of Ireland and she refused. Essex lost his temper with Elizabeth and declared that her ‘conditions are as crooked as her carcass’ before turning his back on her. Elizabeth in response punched him on the ear, which caused Essex to grasp his sword.
However one thing is certain, the victor will either be King Charles Stewart and his Royalist supporters or the men of Parliament with their supporters. It is despicable that Parliament refuses to accept the divine will of our great and noble King Charles. Parliament has been given a sound opportunity to listen to the will of our King yet they have chosen to ignore his will and as a result they have jeopardized our position as a force in Europe and worst of all they have committed high treason. Parliaments will regret allowing the five condemned Members of Parliament to escape justice; it is only a matter of time before they beg for forgiveness. We have a strong position in the West Country, the north and Wales and we firmly believe that the people will gladly support our sovereign in this conflict.
It has been argued that Charles I was the main reason that war broke out. I will be investigating whether this is a far accusation by looking at the long-term and the short-term causes for the English Civil War and assessing how far Charles was really to blame. Firstly, it has been argued that Charles was to blame for the long-term reasons such as wanting to make changes to religion, the power of the king and money. For example, Charles was partly to blame for money because he was trying to buy off the Scottish with £850 a day (which he could not afford) as a result from trying to make the Scottish Puritans. They rebelled and tried to attack.
He required that his subjects “loan him the equivalent of five subsidies” and although it was “opposed by significant numbers in the localities,” the taxation still occurred as the government had “employed all its powers to eliminate resistance”. Moreover, the Forced Loan only happened as a result of Charles dismissing the 1626 Parliament, forfeiting his opportunity of obtaining further grants for his wartime expenditure. Parliament had already been antagonised by Charles’ decision to dismiss them and now that Charles was forcing taxation on others in order to fund his wartime expenditure, due to disastrous foreign policy which Parliament largely disagreed with, it is clear that the Forced Loan had worsened relations greatly. In addition to this, the financing of foreign policy also affected the relationship between Crown and Parliament. As stated previously, the Forced Loan existed to fund England’s wars considering that Parliament was reluctant to grant Charles further subsidies.
The most important part of his career as home secretary would undoubtedly be his support to pass Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Originally he was completely against the notion of Catholic emancipation but when Daniel O’Connell was elected as M.P for Clare, Ireland, both he and Wellington realised the necessity to pass it to prevent a possible civil war in Ireland. Although a wise and pragmatic decision it came at the price of the Tory party splitting up completely. It took years for the Tory Party to reform and stabilise, but most importantly the Tories began to view Peel as a betrayer. Peel became the leader of the opposition from 1835-41.
Many people opposed the King for these reasons; Parliament and more importantly, Oliver Cromwell were one of these people. So was Cromwell to become a hero or villain? After becoming an MP for Huntingdon, Cromwell was asked to help fight against King Charles. He had no military experience, but between 1649 and 1658 he had more power than anyone in Britain. He created the New Model Army.
The violence escalated, and this is why British Troops were sent to the area to maintain the peace. The struggle between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants had a long-term history. The Nationalist’s wanted an Independent Ireland but their rebellion, the Easter Rising on 1916, failed because the British quickly defeated them. It was difficult to control the situation as hundreds of constables were resigning because they feared for their lives. Both sides were constantly gunning down innocent people.