Causes of the English Civil War?

The Civil War did not start as a revolution.

Conflicting attitudes towards Royal authority and religion brought about a series of events which
escalated into armed conflict.

Charles I believed he ruled with the Divine Right of Kings.

This ideology was opposed by those who believed there should be a limit to Royal authority; that
the people and their representatives, that is Parliament should have more say in how the nation
was governed.

Tied up with this were arguments over the Church and religion.

There were deep divisions over what religious practices, forms of worship and organisational
structure the Church should have.

Religion

Religion was a major cause of the English Civil War.

It was part of a Europe wide conflict between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

At the start of his reign (1625) King Charles I had married the Roman Catholic Henrietta Maria of
France.

Included in her marriage treaty were provisions that she be allowed to practice her religion freely
at Court.

It was also made a condition of the treaty that King Charles I set about lifting restrictions for
recusants (that is Catholics who refused to attend Anglican Church services).

The marriage was not a popular one. At this time Roman Catholics were distrusted and feared.

He preferred a High Anglican form of worship, with ceremonies, rituals and lavish ornamentation.

Charles thought the hierarchy of bishops and priests to be important.

This caused alarm for some Protestants as it appeared that Charles was leaning towards
Catholicism.

The Puritans, who were extreme Protestants, considered all of this to be forms of ‘Popery’.

They wanted a purer form of worship without rituals and without religious icons and images.

Puritans believed that they had a personal relationship with God and did not need bishops.

In 1633 William Laud was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury by King Charles I.

William Laud was a Protestant but thought the Puritans too extreme.

Like King Charles I, Laud also favoured a High Anglican form of worship.
William Laud wanted to impose uniformity of worship based on The Book of Common Prayer.
Bishops were considered important to the running of the Church.

Laud also wanted to bring back some of the ceremonies and rituals.

Decorative features such as statues and stained-glass windows were reintroduced.

Priests were to wear vestments as a sign of their elevated status as members of the clergy.

William Laud saw this as the ‘beauty of holiness’. Puritans saw this as an attempt to make the
Church more Roman Catholic.

There was much opposition to this religious change. William Laud saw Puritans as a threat to the
Church and pursued his critics in the courts.

In 1637 William Prynne, John Bastwick and Henry Burton were convicted in the Star Chamber of
seditious libel for criticising Laud’s policies in a pamphlet.

They had their cheeks branded and their ears cropped.

In 1637 King Charles I and Archbishop Laud imposed a new Prayer Book on the people of Scotland.
It was a revised edition of the English Prayer Book.

When it was introduced riots broke out in Edinburgh. The Scottish Presbyterians thought that the
new Prayer Book had too many similarities to Catholicism.

They saw it as an attack on the true Protestant religion and on their freedom to choose how they
worshipped.

Although Scotland had Charles I as its King, it was still a separate kingdom from England. Scotland
had its own government, laws and established church – The Kirk.

Charles’ response was to insist on the full implementation of the new Prayer Book and punishment
for those who refused. He considered their refusal to be an attack on his Royal authority.

In 1638 the Scottish people signed a Covenant in which they promised before God to defend and
preserve the true religion and pledged loyalty to the King.

In 1639 King Charles sent an army to try and enforce the new Prayer Book in Scotland.
King Charles already distrusted by some as having leanings towards Catholicism was now declaring
war on his loyal, Protestant subjects.

The English army was easily defeated in what was later known as the First Bishops’ War.

In 1640 King Charles was defeated in the Second Bishops’ War.

He was forced to sign the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640, which stipulated that the Covenanter
(Scottish) troops were to be paid £850 a day in maintenance while they still occupied northern
England.