Why did the English Civil war start? Flashcards
What was the belief that monarchs were chosen by God?
Divine Right of Kings
Why did the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ make Charles rule like a tyrant?
Because be believed that God chose him to be king, he thought that his country was there to serve him.
As well as this, he could do a lot of ‘bad’ things and still be excused.
Why did noblemen support Charles during the civil war?
With the monarch, there was a hierarchy where the monarch was at the top, followed by noblemen, and so on.
With Parliament however, there would not be as much of a hierarchy and the Peasants could potentially have more rights as opposed to the monarch making sure they were always on top.
If there was less of a hierarchy, the noblemen faced losing their powerful positions.
Why did Catholics support Charles during the Civil War?
Since Charles was a Catholic whilst Parliament were protestant, Catholics had an opportunity to help make England Catholic again with Charles but not Parliament.
Why did many people have no choice to choose who to fight for during the Civil War?
Since most of the population had no right to choose who to fight for, most people had to either fight for the side that got to their village first or the side their local lord supported.
Why did Puritans support Parliament?
Unlike Charles, Parliament was protestant and the puritans were concerned about Charles’ Catholic reforms. They were worried that Charles would make England Catholic again.
Why did merchants support Parliament?
Charles kept taking taxes from merchants without informing them and merchants who lived by the sea had to pay ‘ship tax’.
Sumarise why Charles and Parliament went to war.
Charles and Parliament had many arguments and even when Parliament did not like many of Charles’ ideas, he did them anyway.
Charles felt that Parliament was getting in the way of him ruling, especially with the belief of the divine right of kings. Because of this, he abolished Parliamnet for 11 years.
During this time, he made many controversial decisions and one of them was the war with Scotland. The English lost and Charles was forced to recall Parliament just to pay for the war.
After this, Parliament issued the ‘Grand Remonstrance’ which was a list of complaints against Charles.
After this, Charles tries to arrest 5 MPs who he thinks are plotting against him though the plan fails. This makes the situation bethween the two sides even worse and leads up to war.
