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Civil War King V. Parliament. What were the causes which led to the conflict between Charles 1 &# 038; Parliament? Charles I believed very strongly that a King was Gods appointed ruler, thus when Parliament started to try and enforce their ideas about how the country should be run, Charles refused to listen and Parliament responded by refusing to give him money, which was vital in running the Kingdom.
To counter this, Charles ordered wealthy land owners to loan him money, if this order was refused they were placed in gaol. In 1628 a war broke out and Charles needed money so that he could raise an army, thus Charles was forced to call Parliament once again. Parliament agreed to give Charles enough money on the condition that he signed a document known as the Petition of Rights. The Petition of Rights stated that the King could not collect taxes without Parliaments permission. It also forbid putting anyone in gaol without good reason. Charles signed and then blatantly ignored this document.
This angered Parliament greatly and it objected strenuously. Charles decided that he had had enough and dismissed Parliament. This gave Charles the problem of obtaining money to run the Kingdom. Charles managed this by ordering the collection of custom duties, the selling of monopolies and numerous other taxes and fines. Almost a decade after Parliament had been dismissed, Charles appeared to be raising enough money to govern the Kingdom. In 1638 a rebellion broke out in Scotland, Charles couldnt afford to ignore these events, so he called for advice from his ruthless, but effective advisor, the Earl of Strafford.
Strafford advised Charles that he should raise a large army and crush the rebellion. Charles may have had enough money to rule the country, but he had nowhere near enough money to raise an army. Charles only available option was to call Parliament. Before Parliament would hand Charles over the money he required, they requested that he change his method of governing.
Charles refused to meet their demands and dismissed Parliament shortly afterwards. By August 1640, the Scots had invaded England and the King was forced to sign a humiliating treaty. It was clear that something must be done, and in November Charles called a new Parliament. The first act of the new Parliament was the removal of the Kings two closest advisors; Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford.
Laud was held prisoner in the Tower of London and Strafford was tried and executed. Charles was powerless and Parliament passed laws which gave it greater power than the King. Charles however didnt give up all hope of regaining power and made one last attempt at controlling the House of Commons. He was determined to arrest his five leading opponents. Word spread of this ploy and before Charles could execute it, the five members had fled down the river towards the City of London.
This failure further weakened the Kings position. Charles then headed north in the hope that he might find more supporters further away from London. In the August of 1642, Charles raised his standard in Nottingham and requested that all loyal subjects who were willing to fight alongside him join him and help regain control of the country. Parliament soon found out about the Kings plans, so they also began to build an army. The civil war had begun. How was parliament organized, what was its role &# 038; what did it do?
During the middle ages, the King ruled the country with advice from his barons and bishops. In the 13 th Century, kings found it useful to extend this circle over important issues such as taxes. They decided to call forth two knights from every county and two burgesses (townsmen) from every leading town. They became known as the House of Commons; the nobles and bishops were called the House of Lords. The members of the House of Commons were elected by the richest men in their area. In the early days, very few men had the right to vote, and the members of parliament were always very wealthy men.
Parliament met rarely and in these early days they didnt dare to disagree with the King. This situation slowly changed as the taxes the House of Commons could order became more important. This gave them power, and it also gave them the opportunity to force their views upon the king. What happened during the civil war? The civil war caused the country to spilt in two.
The King headed north and west, where he had support and Parliament gathered an army in the south and east. The Kings supporters were mainly Noble men, who rode horses, this led to them becoming known as Cavaliers. Parliaments support came mainly from farmers, townsfolk and merchants. These people became known as Roundheads due to their haircuts. The Cavaliers won most of the early battles because they were better trained and equipped. At a first glance it may appear as though Parliament was at a hopeless disadvantage, but this was not the case.
The wealthiest part of the kingdom was in Parliaments hands and thus they were able to raise and equip an army with no problem what so ever. They also had the navy on their side. This meant the King could not get supplies and soldiers from abroad. Parliament also produced far superior generals.
The most successful of these was Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell looked for the best fighters rather than the richest or the people who believed most strongly in the cause they were fighting for. Cromwell attempted to counter the Kings strong cavalry with horsemen of his own. He trained a regiment of horsemen which he named, the Ironsides, but these proved ineffective.
In 1643 the Scots joined Parliaments side, this weakened the Kings position considerably. Then to add insult to injury, in 1644 after numerous defeats, the Ironsides were retired to make way for a new sort of army. Parliament gave Cromwell control of setting up a this new style of army which was appropriately named The New Model Army. The soldiers of the New Model Army wielded long spear like weapons known as pikes, and they had muskets. A great deal of the men in the New Model Army were devout puritans who believed that God was on their side. This army won important victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645).
In 1646 the King surrendered to a Scottish army who sold him to the English Parliament. The trial and execution of a King. When the war ended there were various vastly different opinions on how the nations troubles should best be handled. Some thought that the King should be tried and executed, others thought that he should merely be stripped of his crown. One person, John Liburne, proposed that England should abandon its ways as a monarchy and embrace the ways of a democracy. This idea shocked many people and was thus quickly rejected.
All of John Liburnes devout followers were crushed by the army. The army was of the opinion that the King should be executed and feared that the Parliament may offer the King a compromise, so they ordered Charles arrest. Charles had foreseen this event and in order to counter it he had made secret arrangements with the Scots. The summer after the Kings arrest a large Scottish army invaded England on the Kings behalf. This army was defeated by Cromwell at Preston.
Cromwell decided that this was the last mistake that the King should be allowed to make and thus took matters into his own hands. By the end of the year Cromwell had managed to remove all the people who seemed to support (no matter how slightly) Charles cause from Parliament. Then the senior officers of the army demanded that justice should be brought upon Charles I. The charges brought against Charles included tyranny, treason and murder.
Charles refused to defend himself because he strongly believed that the trial wasnt legal. The court case was straight forward; Charles was declared guilty and executed 3 days later. Charles stoically accepted this fate and walked to his death with a grim, yet brave expression on his face. The execution was taken with mixed emotions by the general public, some thought that they had committed a great sin by killing Gods appointed ruler, others thought that a great weight had been lifted from them Short term consequences.
After Charles had been executed England was left in chaos, it was a country without a King. The next heir to the throne was Charles son, but he had fled to France, and it just didnt seem right to appoint Charles son after his father had been executed for committing all sorts of heinous crimes. The next solution to the problem was Parliament. This however was not really a very practical idea since all the Members of Parliament who had supported the King had been removed and only a bare skeleton remained. The only practical solution to the problem was to allow the army to rule the country. Many people felt that the army did not have the right to rule the country, so a compromise was made.
The army would keep the country in control and Parliament would rule. There was only one person who linked the army and Parliament, Oliver Cromwell. He was a member of Parliament and an army commander. In 1653 Cromwell decided that Parliament wasnt doing a very good job of ruling the country so he dismissed it and took over in its stead. Cromwell ruled England just as a King would, although he refused to take the crown and officially become King. Cromwell tried very hard to appease the people, but what they really wanted was a King.
Cromwell even went as far as issuing coins with his head on them. Cromwell died in 1658. The next ruler was Cromwell's son, Richard. Richard had no real desire to rule the country so after a year resigned.
Once again England was without a ruler. Chaos reigned for almost another year. In 1660, General Monck and a carefully selected army invaded England and took control. Charles son, Prince Charles was invited to return from France and rule England as this seemed the only possible solution to returning England back into a state of relative calm and stability.
Long term consequences. Twenty years after the start of the civil war, things appeared to be right back where they started, but there were a few subtle changes and the relationship between Monarch and Parliament had changed for the better. Charles II was a lot more wary of Parliament and tried very hard to stay on its good side. In return Parliament gave him an annual wage of a million pounds. When Charles II died, he was succeeded by James II. James II was not as wary of Parliament as Charles II was and he blatantly ignored Parliaments rules about giving important jobs in the government and army to Roman Catholics.
There were fears that James II was trying to turn England into a Roman Catholic country, so in 1688 James II was driven from the throne. This time the revolution was quick and bloodless. The crown was offered to Mary, James IIs daughter on the condition that she signed the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights stated that the sovereign must never raise taxes or have an army in peacetime without Parliaments permission. He or she must never interfere with elections or with Parliament, nor alter any laws which Parliament made. No sovereign must ever be Roman Catholic or marry a Catholic.
Parliament was to be called every two years at least, and could not sit for longer than 3 years without another election. How did these events change the way the country was governed? Before the civil war, the Monarch had almost complete control over how the country was run. When Parliament began to try and gain some power, Charles opposed it, but he was defeated in battle and then tried and executed. This gave Parliament a great deal more power and now, instead of Parliament obeying the Monarchs every command, the roles were reversed. Government of the country was now split into a largely ceremonial executive part and a democratic part which made the day to day decisions on the running of the country.
The executive arm (the Monarch) could dismiss and appoint the Prime Minister and dismiss Parliament and call elections. Did any changes last until today? If so, what were they? The end of the Civil war brought with it a great deal of changes, some have lasted and others faded away as people realised that they were inappropriate. The greatest change that happened as a result of the civil war was the enormous reduction of power that the Monarch had and the increase of power that Parliament received. This change has lasted right up to today and as a reminder of Charles Is mistake, no Monarch is ever allowed into the House of Commons.
Although Parliament now has control over the country, thanks to the civil war, it is not the same Parliament today as it was 300 or so years ago. Parliament back then was controlled by wealthy land owners and rich merchants. Ordinary people didnt obtain the right to vote till late in the 19 th century. The style of government with royal or regally elected executive (in Australias case the Governor General) survives today as the Westminster form of Government used in the United Kingdom, Australia and some other Commonwealth countries.
The other major change was in the area of taxation. Taxes are now raised by the democratic arm of Government which uses them to support the countries infrastructure and social welfare.
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Research essay sample on House Of Commons Members Of Parliament
