civi séance 9
Disruption of authority in England (1640-1642)
Growing distrust of the King’s ‘evil councillors’ (Strafford, Laud), then after impeachment, of Charles himself
The Commons sought to reduce the king’s prerogative powers and to control his decisions
Parliament's aggressive policy (Strafford’s attainder, Militia Ordinance) caused similar distrust
The abolition of episcopacy perceived as a threat to the ‘Jacobethan’ Church of England
Both King and Parliament resorted to unconstitutional measures
18 Sept. 1642: Charles’s Wellington Declaration pledging to uphold “the Protestant Religion, the Laws of England, and the Liberty of Parliament”
the fact that they seemed to be fighting for the same causes, made it difficult for ordinary people to choose between the two
The abolition of the Star Chamber in July 1641 contributed to the cessation of all censorship
This led to the explosion of political and religious pamphlets and the development of the news press => popular enthusiasm for politics
In September 1642, Parliament ordered the theatres to be closed
The English Civil Wars
in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
1639: Bishops’ Wars
1641: Irish Rebellion
1642-1646: First Civil War
1648: Second Civil War
1649-1653: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
1650-1652: Anglo-Scottish War
Cavaliers & Roundheads
Cavaliers:
partisans of the King
Constitutional Royalists
who saw Parliament as a threat to the system of King-in-Parliament
attached to the Jacobethan Church
army led by Prince Rupert, son of Frederick of Bohemia
headquarters in Oxford
Roundheads:
partisans of Parliament
Constitutional Parliamentarianists who saw absolutism as a threat
anti-Catholic and pro-reformation
army led by Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
headquarters in London
many people did not commit themselves to either of these parties
servants and tenants were expected to follow their masters or landlords in their armies, but such loyalty was no longer self-evident
the North and West of England tended to side with the king, the South and East with the Parliament, but local loyalties counted more than national ones
Anglicans and Catholics tended to side with the king, the godly with the Parliament, but such alignment was often in conflict with the other two
The First English Civil War(1642-1646)
October 1642: first major battle at Edgehill, Oxfordshire => inconclusive
Parliament divided into three groups: peace, war and middle
July 1643: Parliament set up the Assembly of Divines to confirm the presbyterian structure of the English church => Scottish support
Sept. 1643: the Solemn League and Covenant promoted reformation ‘according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches.’
At the time, a majority of MPs did not support the presbyterian reform
July 1644: Parliament forces won the Battle of Marston Moor => but situation still inconclusive
The First English Civil War(1642-1646)
early 1645: Parliament issued conditions: abolition of episcopacy and parliamentary control of the militia
17 February 1645: Parliament voted two bills:
• Self-Denying Ordinance preventing the leaders of the army from being members of Parliament
• the New Model Army Ordinance reorganising the militia forces into one unified standing army
Thomas Fairfax appointed commander in chief and Oliver Cromwell commander of the cavalry
14 June 1645: Battle of Naseby, Northamptonshire => victory of the NMA
May 1646: Charles surrendered to the Scots => end of the first civil war
Situation after the First Civil War
Both Cavaliers and Roundheads became unpopular, as:
• the war brought along destruction and famine
• soldiers were given free-quarter
• both sides levied new taxes without any constitutional basis
• the bad harvests of 1647-1648 caused a rise in food prices
The King’s weakness lay in his desire to behave constitutionally while Parliament did so less and less, confiscating the estates of royalists without any trial and incurring accusations of parliamentary tyranny.
The King’s strength lay in the fact that in 1646, no one envisaged a settlement without the King.
Power reshuffle in Parliament
Two political forces dominated the Commons:
Independents:
(former war party and middle group)
linked with the NMA
against an alliance with Scots
against both episcopacy and intolerant presbyterian church
Presbyterians:
(former peace party)
wanted to negotiate peace with the king
in favour of a Presbyterian church
the Independents controlled the sword, the Presbyterians the law
The Long Parliament abolished episcopacy in 1646
Bishops’ lands were sold to pay the Scottish army’s occupation dues and arrears
February 1647: the Scots handed Charles to Parliament
Conflict between Parliament and the NMA
The NMA had a representative organisation of its own:
elected delegates of the soldiers (agitators) met with officers at the General Council of the Army
Parliament sent part of the army to Ireland to restore order, but it could not disband the rest because they lacked money to pay them
The NMA addressed a petition to Parliament to obtain indemnity (=amnesty) and the payment of their wage arrears => rejected by the Presbyterians
The NMA took the King into their own custody and tried to negotiate a settlement, but Charles rejected their demand for religious pluralism
Following a coup by the Presbyterians, the NMA occupied London and dismissed 11 MPs
After Charles’s attempted escape, in January 1648 Parliament passed the Vote of No Addresses
The Levellers
The Levellers was a democratic movement that developed a theory of popular sovereignty and campaigned for the freedom of religion
The main leader was John Lilburne, a gentleman and a former officer of the NMA, imprisoned in the Tower
An Agreement of the People (1647-1649)
- recognition of popular sovereignty
- extension of electoral franchise to most males
- more proportional distribution of constituencies
- judicial reform + abolition of privileges
- a republican constitution without king or lords
NMA’s Heads of Proposals
Drafted during the Putney debates (28 October to 8 November 1647):
• Parliament to control appointments of state officials and army officers
• Royalists to wait five years before holding office again
• Biennial Parliaments would sit for at least 120 days and constituencies were to be reorganised
• Bishops would be retained but their power strongly curtailed
• The Book of Common Prayer no longer mandatory and penalties for not attending the service to be suppressed
The Second Civil War(1648)
February 1648: a revolt against the NMA broke out in south Wales
May-June 1648: other revolts in Kent and Essex
May 1648: Parliament resumed the negotiations with the king, who secretly negotiated with the Scots.
July 1648: the Scottish troops of 20,000 crossed the border
20 August 1648: Battle of Preston => NMA’s victory and end of the war
From Civil War to English Revolution
Charles accepted to yield the control of the army to Parliament for 20 years and to establish Presbyterianism in England for 3 years => peace negotiations started again
November 1648: the NMA presented the Remonstrance of the Army
1 December 1648: Fairfax took the king into NMA custody, while Cromwell planned the king’s trial.
“So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.”
Pride’s Purge
6 December 1648: Colonel Thomas Pride at the head of a detachment of soldiers
blocked the entrance to Westminster 40 MPs were arrested and only about 100
were allowed in
The Rump Parliament was mainly composed of Army officers, Independents
and members of dissenting sects
Set up a high court of 135 commissioners for the trial of the King accused of
tyranny that started on 20 January 1649
The King’s Trial
traditional forms of English justice were not respected:
• most of the court was not made of professional judges
• the king had no defence counsel
• the jury was not composed according to the traditional rules
Charles never acknowledged the court’s legitimacy => ‘the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled’ was irregular and unconstitutional
He refused to plead ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ to the charge no court could have authority over a king who ruled by divine right
The King was declared guilty and sentenced to death, but only 59 commissioners (out of 135) signed the death warrant.
Charles was executed on 30 January 1649
Cromwell “created a spectre that was to haunt his own regime and frustrate his efforts to build a stable and godly society out of the ruins of Charles I’s England.”
Interpreting the English Revolution
At the time, some praised it as the triumph of the godly parliament over the unchristian king, while some rejected it as the mark of the people’s lack of respect for the king as God’s Anointed.
Whig historians saw it as a proto-democratic revolution, as evolutionist progress from feudal monarchy and religious persecution towards parliamentary democracy and religious toleration. The rise of the Puritan faction in parliament made the conflict inevitable.
Marxist historians saw it as a bourgeois revolution, shifting the focus from political and religious aspects to social and economic ones: the rise of landed gentry led to their desire to have power (though, in fact, the latter were divided during the war).
Revisionist historians shifted the focus from long-term to short-term explanations, rejecting teleological determinism. It originated in the conflict with Scotland in the 1630s and in the loss of trust between King and Parliament. A conservative nation opposed a king that introduced revolutionary changes like prerogative taxation and Laudianism.