expeditions to France failed - one of which had been led by Buckingham, a

royal favourite of both James I and Charles I, who had gained political

influence and military power. Such was the general dislike of Buckingham,

that he was impeached by Parliament in 1628, although he was murdered by a

fanatic before he could lead the second expedition to France. The political

controversy over Buckingham demonstrated that, although the monarch's right

to choose his own Ministers was accepted as an essential part of the royal

prerogative, Ministers had to be acceptable to Parliament or there would be

repeated confrontations. The King's chief opponent in Parliament until 1629

was Sir John Eliot, who was finally imprisoned in the Tower of London until

his death in 1632.

Tensions between the King and Parliament centred around finances, made

worse by the costs of war abroad, and by religious suspicions at home

(Charles's marriage was seen as ominous, at a time when plots against

Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot in James I's reign were still fresh in

the collective memory, and when the Protestant cause was going badly in the

war in Europe). In the first four years of his rule, Charles was faced with

the alternative of either obtaining parliamentary funding and having his

policies questioned by argumentative Parliaments who linked the issue of

supply to remedying their grievances, or conducting a war without subsidies

from Parliament. Charles dismissed his fourth Parliament in March 1629 and

decided to make do without either its advice or the taxes which it alone

could grant legally.

Although opponents later called this period 'the Eleven Years' Tyranny',

Charles's decision to rule without Parliament was technically within the

King's royal prerogative, and the absence of a Parliament was less of a

grievance to many people than the efforts to raise revenue by non-

parliamentary means. Charles's leading advisers, including William Laud,

Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, were efficient but

disliked. For much of the 1630s, the King gained most of the income he

needed from such measures as impositions, exploitation of forest laws,

forced loans, wardship and, above all, ship money (extended in 1635 from

ports to the whole country). These measures made him very unpopular,

alienating many who were the natural supporters of the Crown.

Scotland (which Charles had left at the age of 3, returning only for his

coronation in 1633) proved the catalyst for rebellion. Charles's attempt to

impose a High Church liturgy and prayer book in Scotland had prompted a

riot in 1637 in Edinburgh which escalated into general unrest. Charles had

to recall Parliament; however, the Short Parliament of April 1640 queried

Charles's request for funds for war against the Scots and was dissolved

within weeks. The Scots occupied Newcastle and, under the treaty of Ripon,

stayed in occupation of Northumberland and Durham and they were to be paid

a subsidy until their grievances were redressed.

Charles was finally forced to call another Parliament in November 1640.

This one, which came to be known as The Long Parliament, started with the

imprisonment of Laud and Strafford (the latter was executed within six

months, after a Bill of Attainder which did not allow for a defence), and

the abolition of the King's Council (Star Chamber), and moved on to declare

ship money and other fines illegal. The King agreed that Parliament could

not be dissolved without its own consent, and the Triennial Act of 1641

meant that no more than three years could elapse between Parliaments.

The Irish uprising of October 1641 raised tensions between the King and

Parliament over the command of the Army. Parliament issued a Grand

Remonstrance repeating their grievances, impeached 12 bishops and attempted

to impeach the Queen. Charles responded by entering the Commons in a failed

attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament, who had fled before his

arrival. Parliament reacted by passing a Militia Bill allowing troops to be

raised only under officers approved by Parliament. Finally, on 22 August

1642 at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard calling for loyal

subjects to support him (Oxford was to be the King's capital during the

war). The Civil War, what Sir William Waller (a Parliamentary general and

moderate) called 'this war without an enemy', had begun.

The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 showed that early on the fighting

was even. Broadly speaking, Charles retained the north, west and south-west

of the country, and Parliament had London, East Anglia and the south-east,

although there were pockets of resistance everywhere, ranging from solitary

garrisons to whole cities. However, the Navy sided with Parliament (which

made continental aid difficult), and Charles lacked the resources to hire

substantial mercenary help.

Parliament had entered an armed alliance with the predominant Scottish

Presbyterian group under the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and from

1644 onwards Parliament's armies gained the upper hand - particularly with

the improved training and discipline of the New Model Army. The Self-

Denying Ordinance was passed to exclude Members of Parliament from holding

army commands, thereby getting rid of vacillating or incompetent earlier

Parliamentary generals. Under strong generals like Sir Thomas Fairfax and

Oliver Cromwell, Parliament won victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby

(1645). The capture of the King's secret correspondence after Naseby showed

the extent to which he had been seeking help from Ireland and from the

Continent, which alienated many moderate supporters.

In May 1646, Charles placed himself in the hands of the Scottish Army

(who handed him to the English Parliament after nine months in return for

arrears of payment - the Scots had failed to win Charles's support for

establishing Presbyterianism in England). Charles did not see his action as

surrender, but as an opportunity to regain lost ground by playing one group

off against another; he saw the monarchy as the source of stability and

told parliamentary commanders 'you cannot be without me: you will fall to

ruin if I do not sustain you'. In Scotland and Ireland, factions were

arguing, whilst in England there were signs of division in Parliament

between the Presbyterians and the Independents, with alienation from the

Army (where radical doctrines such as that of the Levellers were

threatening commanders' authority). Charles's negotiations continued from

his captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight (to which he had

'escaped' from Hampton Court in November 1647) and led to the Engagement

with the Scots, under which the Scots would provide an army for Charles in

exchange for the imposition of the Covenant on England. This led to the

second Civil War of 1648, which ended with Cromwell's victory at Preston in

August.

The Army, concluding that permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles

lived, decided that the King must be put on trial and executed. In

December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on

the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in

the first week of January 1649. On 20 January, Charles was charged with

high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead,

saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had

been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of

Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).

The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles

was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall,

London. The King asked for warm clothing before his execution: 'the season

is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine

proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.' On the scaffold, he

repeated his case: 'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the

people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life

and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in

Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a

sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an

arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the

Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I

am the martyr of the people.' His final words were 'I go from a corruptible

to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'

The King was buried on 9 February at Windsor, rather than Westminster

Abbey, to avoid public disorder. To avoid the automatic succession of

Charles I's son Charles, an Act was passed on 30 January forbidding the

proclaiming of another monarch. On 7 February 1649, the office of King was

formally abolished.

The Civil Wars were essentially confrontations between the monarchy and

Parliament over the definitions of the powers of the monarchy and

Parliament's authority. These constitutional disagreements were made worse

by religious animosities and financial disputes. Both sides claimed that

they stood for the rule of law, yet civil war was by definition a matter of

force. Charles I, in his unwavering belief that he stood for constitutional

and social stability, and the right of the people to enjoy the benefits of

that stability, fatally weakened his position by failing to negotiate a

compromise with Parliament and paid the price. To many, Charles was seen as

a martyr for his people and, to this day, wreaths of remembrance are laid

by his supporters on the anniversary of his death at his statue, which

faces down Whitehall to the site of his execution.

THE COMMONWEALTH INTERREGNUM (1649-1660)

Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649),

Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles

I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in

Scotland.

From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known

as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments

followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a

workable constitution without a monarchy.

Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a

troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the

issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious

toleration. In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of

Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer

of the throne. Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one

stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major

generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son

Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited

Charles I's son, Charles, to become King.

OLIVER CROMWELL (1649-1658)

Oliver Cromwell, born in Huntingdon in 1599, was a strict Puritan with a

Cambridge education when he went to London to represent his family in

Parliament. Clothed conservatively, he possessed a Puritan fervor and a

commanding voice, he quickly made a name for himself by serving in both the

Short Parliament (April 1640) and the Long Parliament (August 1640 through

April 1660). Charles I, pushing his finances to bankruptcy and trying to

force a new prayer book on Scotland, was badly beaten by the Scots, who

demanded Ј850 per day from the English until the two sides reached

agreement. Charles had no choice but to summon Parliament.

The Long Parliament, taking an aggressive stance, steadfastly refused to

authorize any funding until Charles was brought to heel. The Triennial Act

of 1641 assured the summoning of Parliament at least every three years, a

formidable challenge to royal prerogative. The Tudor institutions of fiscal

feudalism (manipulating antiquated feudal fealty laws to extract money),

the Court of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were

declared illegal by Act of Parliament later in 1641. A new era of

leadership from the House of Commons (backed by middle class merchants,

tradesmen and Puritans) had commenced. Parliament resented the insincerity

with which Charles settled with both them and the Scots, and despised his

links with Catholicism.

1642 was a banner year for Parliament. They stripped Charles of the last

vestiges of prerogative by abolishing episcopacy, placed the army and navy

directly under parliamentary supervision and declared this bill become law

even if the king refused his signature. Charles entered the House of

Commons (the first king to do so), intent on arresting John Pym, the leader

of Parliament and four others, but the five conspirators had already fled,

making the king appear inept. Charles traveled north to recruit an army and

raised his standard against the forces of Parliaments (Roundheads) at

Nottingham on August 22, 1642. England was again embroiled in civil war.

Cromwell added sixty horses to the Roundhead cause when war broke out. In

the 1642 Battle at Edge Hill, the Roundheads were defeated by the superior

Royalist (Cavalier) cavalry, prompting Cromwell to build a trained cavalry.

Cromwell proved most capable as a military leader. By the Battle of Marston

Moor in 1644, Cromwell's New Model Army had routed Cavalier forces and

Cromwell earned the nickname "Ironsides" in the process. Fighting lasted

until July 1645 at the final Cavalier defeat at Naseby. Within a year,

Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament. By

1646, England was ruled solely by Parliament, although the king was not

executed until 1649.

English society splintered into many factions: Levellers (intent on

eradicating economic castes), Puritans, Episcopalians, remnants of the

Cavaliers and other religious and political radicals argued over the fate

of the realm. The sole source of authority rest with the army, who moved

quickly to end the debates. In November 1648, the Long Parliament was

reduced to a "Rump" Parliament by the forced removal of 110 members of

Parliament by Cromwell's army, with another 160 members refusing to take

their seats in opposition to the action. The remainder, barely enough for a

quorum, embarked on an expedition of constitutional change. The Rump

dismantled the machinery of government, most of that, remained loyal to the

king, abolishing not only the monarchy, but also the Privy Council, Courts

of Exchequer and Admiralty and even the House of Lords. England was ruled

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