English Revolution I INTRODUCTION English Revolution, also called the Puritan Revolution, general designation for the period in English history from 1640 to 1660.

English Revolution I INTRODUCTION English Revolution, also called the Puritan Revolution, general designation for the period in English history from 1640 to 1660. It began with the calling of the Long Parliament by King Charles I and proceeded through two civil wars, the trial and execution of the king, the republican experiments of Oliver Cromwell, and, ultimately, the restoration of King Charles II. II OPPOSITION TO THE KING The causes of the conflict can be traced to social, economic, constitutional, and religious developments over a century or more. Closer at hand were questions of sovereignty in the English state and Puritanism in the church. The immediate cause, however, was Charles's attempt (1637) to impose the Anglican liturgy in Scotland. The Presbyterian Scots rioted; then they signed the National Covenant and raised an army to defend their church. In 1640 their army occupied the northern counties of England. The Long Parliament, summoned by Charles to raise money in support of his war against the Scots, met on November 3, 1640, and demanded reforms as the price for aid. It arrested and ultimately executed for treason the king's chief advisers, Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, and William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. It also put limits on the king's prerogatives. The members split over the Root and Branch Bill to abolish bishops in the Anglican church, over raising an army to quell an Irish rebellion, and over the Grand Remonstrance, by which Parliament would control the choice of the king's ministers. The political quarrel became an armed conflict in 1642. Most of the Lords and some members of the House of Commons sided with the king (thus making it technically incorrect to call it a war between king and Parliament). III CIVIL WAR In August 1642 Charles gathered his army at Nottingham. The first battle, fought at Edgehill on October 23, was indecisive. In general, the king controlled the northwest, and Parliament controlled the southeast--including London. The king's followers were called Cavaliers; those of Parliament were called Roundheads. In 1643 Parliament secured the support of the Scottish army by promising that the recently convened Westminster Assembly would make the Anglican church conform to the Presbyterian church of Scotland. Meanwhile, Cromwell, an outspoken member of Parliament and a military genius, was perfecting his regiment of cavalry, which soon earned the name Ironsides. Parliament won the crucial Battle of Marston Moor on July 2, 1644. The following year, the Scots suffered a setback when James Graham, marquis of Montrose, rallied the Highland clans on behalf of King Charles. Cromwell, now second in command of Parliament's New Model Army, destroyed the king's army at the Battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645). In September the king's Highland partisans were overcome by the Scottish army and Montrose fled to the Continent. The first civil war ended in May 1646 when Charles surrendered to the Scots, who, in June 1647, turned him over to Parliament. The king rejected Parliament's conditions for his return to power; his intransigence aggravated the divisions among the victors. The Scottish forces soon departed. The army, more independent in religion and radical in politics than the Presbyterians who dominated Parliament, seized the king. During the ensuing political debate, Charles escaped. He made an alliance with the Scots, who pledged to restore him to the throne if he promised to make Presbyterianism the official religion of both kingdoms. The second civil war took place in 1648, with the army and Parliament fighting against Scotland and the king. A Scottish army invaded England, but was defeated by Cromwell in a battle at Preston, August 17-19, 1648. Other Royalist opposition was soon suppressed. IV THE COMMONWEALTH The army, now firmly in control, proceeded to purge Parliament of its Presbyterian members. The remaining Rump, as it was called, created a commission to try the king for treason. Found guilty, Charles was executed on January 30, 1649. The Rump Parliament then abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords, and declared England a Commonwealth. The king's death deeply affected the people and made the creation of a stable government more difficult. The first task was to put down the rebellion in Ireland, begun in 1641. This Cromwell and his army did with grim efficiency, killing all who resisted at Drogheda and Wexford. The Scots, meanwhile, had denounced the king's execution and named his son, Charles II, as his successor. Cromwell subdued the Scots in two battles, at Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651). Both Ireland and Scotland then became parts of the Commonwealth. The need for a permanent, settled government remained, and the power resided in Cromwell and the army. In 1653 Cromwell lost patience and dismissed the Rump Parliament. A nominated Parliament, often called Barebone's Parliament, only lasted a few months. In December 1653 Cromwell accepted the Instrument of Government, a written constitution, which created a protectorate consisting of himself as Lord Protector (the chief executive) and a one-house Parliament. Only the will of Cromwell and the force of the New Model Army held things together over the next years. Cromwell died on September 3, 1658, and was briefly succeeded by his son Richard. The drift toward anarchy was halted by General George Monck, commander of the army in Scotland. He marched into London with his troops and recalled the Long Parliament, which then restored (May, 1660) Charles II to the throne. V EVALUATION The English Revolution was the first of the so-called great revolutions. It began as a protest against an oppressive and uncompromising government. A moderate constitutional phase was followed by the use of military force, then the violent overthrow of the government, experiments with new institutions, the rule of a virtual dictator, and, finally, a restoration that embodied some new practices within the older tradition. The revolution was important because it generated new political and religious ideas and because it extended the English tradition that the government's power should be limited. Contributed By: Jacquelin Collins Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.