What were the causes of the English Civil War?

Answer 1

The civil war ( between Charles 1 and the parliament) was caused by a lot of things.

The main reasons were;

RELIGION:

Charles married Henrietta Maria of France who was catholic, but the country was protestant so many people believed he was going to change the country catholic which they didn'twant.

MONEY:

Charles also spent all the tax money on paintings and clothes for his family instead of the country but he did like to spend some money on weapons in case of a war.

POWER:

He attempted to arrest 5mps and pretty soon the parliament got annoyed and that's how the civil war was created. The parliament won and Charles got beheaded for treason.

It was mostly about religion but also the principles by which the countries would be governed. The English Civil War can really be traced back to the confrontations in Scotland over religion.

Charles was King of both countries (and Ireland) and he was a big believer in High Anglicanism and the Divine Right of Kings.

He had ruled for 11 years (known as the 'eleven years' tyranny' or 'Charles' personal rule') without calling a Parliament since he had found ways of raising money elsewhere - ship tax, forced loans and so on. These methods made him deeply unpopular in some quarters (mostly the people he was squeezing for money) but probably wouldn't have sparked a revolt. The Divine right of Kings was all about Charles being appointed by God and so no-one could gainsay his policies. And since he avoided calling a Parliament there was no forum to argue. The problems begin when he decided to try and bring the Scottish Church (The Kirk) more into line with the English Church (The Anglican Church), this would involve increasing the numbers and powers of Bishops and some alterations to the service practices and a new hymn book. A lot of Scots, including many natural supporters of the King, were horrified at what they saw as an attack on their faith and the first step on the road to Catholic conversion. They aren't alone Puritans and Anglicans in England both fear Catholic revival as well, and each other..., This isn't being helped by the stories from Ireland of Catholic risings and so on. However the problems come when the Scots enmass rejected the demands of the King - most of the nation signing the "National Covenant" calling on the King to protect their faith and began to threaten Bishops and smash up the furnishings of churches claiming them to be Idols. Charles wasn't going to let them ignore him - Divine Rights and all that - so he tried to raise an army. Unfortunately the Scots having time, Money and a serious case of religious fervour on their side managed to get a large army together themselves. Charles needed Money to raise his forces - the "trained bands" local militias being seriously under trained and under-equipped (outside London) - and to get money he needed to go to Parliament. Once in place Parliament wasn't going to vote over money without first asking the King to do various things like stop with all the ship money and forced loans and star chambers and stuff. So Charles made a few shaky promises gets the loot and dismisses the Parly. Heads North. The Scots (Now calling themselves Coveneters) then chuck a spanner in the works by clobbering the Royal army and occupying Newcastle and all it's coal fields. Charles agrees to pay bribes for the Scots to stay there and hurries back south. The big moment arrives and he has to call another Parliament in order to pay for the bribes to the Scots - and raise a new army. This Parliament has no intention being dismissed so easily and has a much more Puritan leaning and starts to pass bills and make "requests" like before but more so. Eventually Charles is backed into a corner and, divine rights and all that, he marches to parliament and tries to arrest his biggest critics for treason. Parliament summons the London Trained bands to protect the house and by the time Charles arrives the MP's he wants are gone and the whole city is slowly turning against him.... Civil War begins - Fighting in Ireland and Scotland has being going on for a couple of years already however!

Answer 2

There was a chain of events that led to war between king and Parliament in 1642. The start of this chain began in the last decades of Queen Elizabeth's reign in the 1590s. During this time, the expenses of war with Spain along with the rebellion in Ireland, many crop failures, and the inadequacies of the old-fashioned English taxation system drove the queen's government into debt. This roused schismatic disputes around the court. The aging Queen Elizabeth only waited until she was on her deathbed to name her cousin Scottish king James Stuart the next heir to the throne.

James's reign was also very problematic. The English subjects looked down upon the Scots whom James brought to England. The English courtiers soon began blaming the Scottish supporters (whom King James made grants to) for the Crown's debt. James made mistakes on his part when he decided to increase revenue to solve the debts by lecturing the parliamentary representatives about the great power of kings, comparing kings to gods. (Historians argue that a much wiser move would have simply been to bargain for increased taxation). James proceeded to make peace with Spain and raise revenues without parliamentary approval by putting new tolls on trade and selling monopolies to courtiers. This further exacerbated the Parliament's resentment of the king.

Nevertheless, things were even further worsened when Charles I took the throne in 1625. Charles immediately declared war on Spain again, which was definitely not a good move for his financial problems, and also raised Protestant alarm when he proposed to raise Irish Catholic troops for military service in Germany. Charles showed public approval of the most anti-Calvinist elements in the English church and tried to impose this religious policy on the very Calvinist church in Scotland.

The Scots rebelled, of course, and marched into England in 1640, demanding withdrawal of Charles's religious reforms. This forced Charlies to summon the English Parliament for the first time in eleven years (king-parliament relations had shattered in the 1620s). When Parliament refused to grant him additional funds, Charlies demanded forced loans from his subjects and punished those who did not pay with arbitrary imprisonment or quartering of soldiers in their homes. The Parliament, obviously not pleased with this, forced the king to accept the Petition of Right, which declared all taxes not voted by Parliament illegal, chastised random quartering of soldiers, and banned arbitrary imprisonment.

Yet, Charles was angered by this petition and imposed many levies and fines without parliamentary consent. The Parliament was also not ready to back down. A defacto alliance emerged between the Parliament and the Scots, their bond strong because of their mutual Calvinist religious point of view. In 1642, Charles marched his guards into the House of Commons and tried to arrest five leaders. Charles then left London to raise his own army, while Parliament summoned its own force. By the end of 1642, the English Civil War had begun.

Answer 3

Why Did The Civil War Breakout !?

The English Civil War has many causes but the personality of Charles I must be counted as one of the major reasons. Few people could have predicted that the civil war, that started in 1642, would have ended with the public execution of Charles. His most famous enemy in this war was Oliver Cromwell - one of the men who signed the death warrant of Charles. Charles had a very different personality compared to James. Charles was arrogant, conceited and a strong believer in the divine rights of kings. He had witnessed the damaged relationship between his father and Parliament, and considered that Parliament was entirely At Fault. He found it difficult to believe that a king could be wrong. His conceit and arrogance were eventually to lead to his execution No king had ever been executed in England and the execution of Charles was not greeted with joy!

From 1625 to 1629, Charles argued with parliament over most issues, but money, power and religion were the most common causes of arguments.

Cann any one help me add on to thiss , thankss

Hope this helps anyone who is struggleingg ??x

Answer 4

There has been more than 1 civil war in England. The War of the Roses was a civil war. The war that resulted in Henry 2nd eventually succeeding to the throne was also a civil war. The civil war in the 1600s was caused as follows:

There had been a political struggle between King Charles and Parliament since his accession. In 1639/40 this had ended by the ,more or less, complete surrender of King Charles to Parliament's political demands. Parliamentary nominees had been admitted to the Kings Council and had been given leading jobs amongst the King's advisors. [O.S.John, Hyde and others!]

Trouble was that Parliament was controlled by Calvinists who wanted to eradicate the Anglican Church and side line parliament at the same time, just as the Scots had done. In essence the English Protestants wanted to bring about a Calvinist Society! In such a society the country would be dominated by the presbyterian Church and Clergy! They combined a fear of Romanism and a dislike of the Kings previous politics to build up a movement to destabilise the Country and take control of the Church!

The Anglicans opposed this and called upon Charles as Supreme Governor to stop this invasion of Anglican Rights. Under Elizabeth, the business of the Church was the province of the Bishops.

It was when the King refused to sanction legislation abolishing Bishops that the trouble started and parliament built up a head of violence against Anglicans and Romans that both sides built up a head of steam! When the King issued his proclamation at Selby near York he called for the protection of the Orthodox religion and this was repeated all the way down to Warrington and Nottingham,1642!

When the King was beaten finally, he was given the chance to sign the offending legislation and offered all his rights back if he would, and warned of what the consequences would be if he refused! He did refuse and was executed on January 30th.1649!

Read Clarendon's History'. 'First Vol. Or Wormald's Clarendon!

Both explain very well!

Answer 5

what triggered the English civil war????? Check out 'How did the English civil war happen?'

Answer 6

The English Civil War originated as a struggle between the king and Parliament. It resulted in a Dictatorship by Oliver Cromwell and then a restoration of the monarchy.

Answer 7

King Charles led troops to arrest radical leaders of parliament but they escaped and built their own army, thus the English Civil war ensued.