Why Did Civil War Break Out in 1642

pretermit of Money single of the reasons why the obliging war broke appear in England in 1642 was because of Charles lack of gold. To disc everywhere the source of this, we have to go moxie to the beginning of James reign. James was the first nance to reign over both England and Scotland, and when he came down from Scotland it is said that he was astonished at how rich England was, while James had needed to borrow bills for his traveling expenses. When James died in 1625, Charles came to the throne, and he, like his father, had very little money.Once Charles became King, the County Faction1 wanted him to go to war with the Catholics in Spain, so Charles asked them for taxes to use on the war. They ref utilize to put up enough, so the war was hopeless, and fantan blamed the King for this. The reason Parliament granted so a couple of(prenominal) taxes was that they wanted to make sure they were conjureed again. Charles, a steadfast believer in the Divine Right of Kings, thought that he should non have to rule with Parliament, and the however thing that kept him calling it was money2. One good example of the way Parliament made sure they were called back in Charles reign was tonnage and poundage.These were duties imposed on certain imports and exports. It was prescript for these duties to be immov adequate to(p) in the first Parliament of a monarchs reign, only in the case of Charles, they only decided on it for one year, so the King would be forced to call them again. Although Charles tried to ask for more(prenominal) money, Parliament refused, because they believed he spent it on his favourites. Because of this, Charles had to bum himself more money. He began using the Church Courts, exploiting taxes such as ship money3, and selling monopolies and titles. He also opened a Court of magician Chamber, which he used to fine people heavily to raise money.Since the judges in the Star Chamber were officials of the Crown, and there was no jury, Charles could be sure of getting a favourable result. Parliament was furious with this, and immediately drew up the bespeak of Right, which asked the King to stop illegal taxation. The King signed it, but only because Parliament threatened to impeach Buckingham, one of the Kings favourites. The quarrels about money went on, and ultimately Charles decided to dissolve Parliament. He reigned without them for 11 years. When the impudently prayer hold back was brought into Scotland, a group called the Covenanters attempted to invade England.Charles called a Parliament to afflict and get taxes to fight the Covenanters, but they refused4, so Charles dissolved them again. He was forced to pay the stinting ? 850 a day to stop them advancing, and eventually, in 1641, his money ran out, and he had to call Parliament he was bankrupt and at their mercy, so money was definitely a rouge factor in the irruption of the civil war. Religion A nonher major influence in the blast of the civil w ar was religion. The religious quarrels began right at the start of Charles reign, when Charles conjoin Henrietta Maria, a cut Catholic.Although Charles didnt choose to marry her his father, James, set up the marriage ceremony the public, especially the Puritans, didnt like having a Catholic as Queen. A a few(prenominal) extremists even saw this as a sign that Charles was secretly Catholic After the King dissolved Parliament, he made William Laud the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1633. While Laud was Archbishop, he made umteen changes to the Church. Most of these changes winding beatifying the Church and bringing back robes for priests, statues and stained-glass windows. All these things reminded the English of Catholicism.In 1636, Archbishop Laud decided to introduce the English Prayer Book (which stated how services should be run) into Scotland. There was nationwide rioting, because no one wanted to follow the new Prayer Book. Scotland was a Presbyterian (Puritan) province , and they thought that the English Prayer Book was far besides Catholic to use in Scotland. This eventually led to many Scots, called the Covenanters, marching down the country in an attempt to invade England. At this point, Charles had to call Parliament to ask for taxes to pay for the war, but was horrified to down that close of the MPs were on the Covenanters side.Parliament agreed that the Prayer Book was too Catholic, so Charles dissolved them again, but by and by he ran out of money to pay the Scots (see the Money section above) he was forced to call Parliament again. Parliament first put Laud on trial, and engraft him guilty. Later they decided to execute Strafford on charges of organising an army in Ireland, where he governed. It turned out that this was a big mistake. As soon as Strafford was executed, the Irish Catholics rebelled against the Protestants, saying they were rebelling for the King.Although it was clear this was not true, Parliament did not aver the King when he asked them for an army, and so refused, believing he would use it to chat up them instead. Foreign Affairs Another factor in the outbreak of civil war was foreign affairs. On the continent, the 30 Years War was passage on, where Catholic rulers attempted to wipe out the Protestants in their countries. This fuelled peoples fears that something similar king happen in England. Other foreign causes of the war were from Ireland and Scotland, and are flesh out above. Charles PersonalityAlthough it may seem unimportant, Charles personality was a major factor in the events lede to civil war. To start with, Charles hadnt expected to be King at all his elder brother, Henry, had been expected to take the job, but when he died abruptly in 1612, Charles became the heir to the throne. Charles also believed in the Divine Right of Kings. He thought, as his father had before him, that Kings were appointed by God, and could not be wrong. He disliked having to rule with Parliament, and thought that he should be able to do anything he liked. This caused much friction between him and the MPs. Parliament The misfortunate ParliamentWhen Parliament was summoned in April 1640, Charles had governed for eleven years without them5, and while this certainly went against the tone of the English constitution, it was within the Kings prerogative to do so. Charles was forced to call a parliament when the Scots rebelled. Putting an army into the field to deal with the Scots put a heavy drain on the royal finances, so Charles needed to levy a tax, which he could only do with the approve of Parliament. When Parliament met the gentry from the counties used the occasion to vent their frustration, with Harbottle Grimston and John Pym leading a catalogue of complaints.Three weeks later, Charles dissolved Parliament, blaming the malicious cunning of some few seditious affected men. This was known as the Short Parliament and it sit from 13 April, 1640, to 5 May, 1640. The war with t he Scots did not fair salubrious for Charles, but he eventually came to an agreement of ? 850 a day to stay the Scots at bay. The Long Parliament In order to pay this and get funds for a final settlement Charles had to summon other Parliament6. This time Charles could not afford to dismiss Parliament until he got what he wanted, and this gave Parliament an important card to play in what was to come.The Long Parliament, as it was known, sat from 3 November, 1640, for 13 years, until Oliver Cromwell suppressed it. It should be noted it was not formally dismissed until 1660, after the Restoration. Therefore, when Parliament met in November 1640, it was with a humour of constitutional reform. Of the 493 MPs elected * 340 were anti-Court (the County Faction) * 64 were for the Court (supporters of the King) * 59 were of an abstruse disposition * 17 were disabled from sitting (these were mainly of the Court Camp) * The be 13 were probably of the Court Faction.Parliament pinned the bl ame for what went wrong on the Kings advisors, quite than Charles himself, sending both Strafford and Laud to the Tower. Charles also tried to heal the severance by signing Straffords death warrant, passing a bill that allowed for Parliament not to be dissolved without its own consent, a bill qualification ship money illegal and other bills that taken together demolished the manikin of prerogative government. The Thrilling Climax All of these causes led to some key events in 1641 and 1642. It turned out that the execution of Strafford had been a mistake. Without Strafford to reign over Ireland, the Irish rebelled in 1641.This raised an insoluble problem who would command the Army, King or Parliament? John Pym took the initiative by issuing the militia Bill and, more importantly, the Grand Remonstrance. It listed all the things Charles had done wrong in his reign, suggested less power for bishops, and said that Parliament should have power over the Church and the appointment of Royal ministers. It was passed by 11 votes, which meant that, while most of the Commons had previously been against him, now almost half of them supported him. However, it was after this that the King made a foolish move.On the advice of his Queen (who was used to French politics, where the King had much more power over the way the country was run), Charles decided to arrest the five ringleaders, including Pym. On 4 January, 1642, Charles attempted to get into the Commons to arrest the five MPs, and found that after he and his guards had buffet the door down, the MPs had been warned and werent there. This action turned most of Parliament against him one time more, because it was held to be a breach of Parliamentary privilege7. On the next day, the get away MPs paraded up and down London guarded by the skilful Bands, an army of part-time soldiers.