The Stuarts: Civil War, Republic, and Restoration
Unit 5: The Stuarts (1603-1688)
Charles I and the Civil Wars
James I died in 1625 and his successor was Charles I, his son. Another event of 1637 is central to any explanation of why Charles called an English Parliament twice in 1640 (the so-called Short and Long Parliaments): the introduction of a new Scottish Prayer Book on 23 July 1637. The Scots regarded this as ecclesiastical imperialism, perceiving the royal action as an imposition of the Church of England. Charles I and Parliament could not agree, and England began to divide into two armed camps: broadly Royalist in the north and west versus a broadly Parliamentarian south and east. This led to the Civil War in 1642, with two sides: Royalists vs. Parliamentarians.
The first Civil War lasted from 1642 until 1646. The King’s raising of his standard at Nottingham on 20 August was the formal declaration of war. However, the hope on all sides remained that either negotiations would succeed or that one battle between the two armies now in the making would settle the issue. But that first battle, at Edgehill in South Warwickshire on 23 October, was drawn and settled nothing.
Moderate Parliamentarians, Clubmen, and whole county communities rose against the renewed oppressions, and their outrage was encouraged and focused by ex-Royalists. The Second Civil War was fiercest in regions little affected by the first war, insufficiently tempered by past experience. If the revolts had been coordinated, or at least contemporaneous, they might have succeeded. But they happened one by one, and one by one the army picked them off. With the defeat of the Scots at Preston in August, the Second Civil War was over.
The Republic
From 1649 to 1660, England was a republic. In some ways, this was a revolutionary period indeed. Other kings had been brutally murdered, but none had previously been legally murdered. Monarchy was abolished, along with the House of Lords and the Anglican Church. England had four separate constitutions between 1649 and 1659 and a chaos of expedients in 1659-60. Scotland was fully integrated into Britain, and Ireland subjugated with an arrogance unprecedented even in its troubled history. It was a period of major experiment in national government.
Oliver Cromwell was born on 25 April 1599 in Huntingdon from the middle ranks of English society to Lord Protector of the new Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He was the strongest East Anglian gentleman farmer who commanded the Parliamentarian army, and he had created a new “model” army, the first regular force from which the British army of today developed. Instead of country people or gentry, Cromwell invited into his army educated men who wanted to fight for their beliefs. His “innovations” collapsed within two years of his death.
With the Fall of the Republic, Cromwell was succeeded as protector by his son, Richard Cromwell (1658), who abdicated eight months later. In January 1651, Charles I’s eldest son had been crowned as Charles II of Scotland. Later that year, Charles invaded England with a Scottish army but was defeated by Cromwell at Worcester. After Richard Cromwell’s resignation, the republic slowly fell apart, and the monarchy was restored. Charles II acceded to the throne in May 1660.
Restoration of the Monarchy
Charles II had problems during his reign for several reasons:
- He had a serious shortfall of revenue.
- There was a Protestant religion that was affected by the previously shattered unity of the Church of England due to the civil wars.
- He had old enemies’ rivalries owing to the Civil War.
- There was growth in the strength of France.
- Catholic France threatened the national religion.