The English Civil Wars, Part 1 of 2

Short History Of...

This episode explores the escalating political and religious tensions in 17th-century England that culminated in the English Civil Wars. It detai

Key takeaways

• King Charles I's 1642 intrusion into the House of Commons to arrest five MPs marked a definitive breach of parliamentary protocol.
• The 'Personal Rule' was an eleven-year period where Charles governed without calling Parliament, relying on controversial levies like 'ship money.'
• Religious anxiety peaked due to Charles's perceived Catholic sympathies and his attempts to impose English prayer books on the Scottish Kirk.
• The rise of the New Model Army under leaders like Fairfax and Cromwell provided Parliament with a disciplined, merit-based military advantage.
• The Battle of Naseby in 1645 served as a turning point that effectively destroyed the King's primary field army.

Main topics

• The English Civil Wars
• Charles I and the Divine Right of Kings
• Religious conflict between Puritans and Anglicans

Notable quotes

The road to war lies open.

Conclusion

The episode illustrates how personal rigidity and religious intoleranc

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) It's January the 4th, 1642, in Westminster, London. A dreary, cold winter's afternoon. Inside the long, narrow old chapel of St. Stephen's, where the House of Commons meets, several hundred MPs are crowded onto long wooden benches, wrapped in thick cloaks, their breath clouding the chill air. A debate continues to roll on, swinging between old grievances and new dangers, when it is suddenly interrupted by the sound of a disturbance just outside the entrance, with voices raised and heavy footsteps. Within the hall, heads turn and the chatter thins to indignant consternation, because it sounds, for all the world, like a small troop arriving. Speaker 1 (0:52) The doors fling open, and into the chamber marches none other than the king, Charles I, dressed in a cloak and a broad-brimmed hat, armed men at his back, and barely contained rage on his face. Striding into the center of the room, he announces that he has come here in person to seize five members of the Commons. His voice reaching to every corner of the stunned chamber, he calls out the names of the five men he accuses of treason, whom he believes have led resistance to his authority and driven the kingdom towards rebellion. The members of the house are outraged. This place is meant to be protected from precisely this kind of intrusion from the king. The commons is not a courtroom for a royal arrest. Speaker 1 (1:44) With disbelief passing across the faces of the members of Parliament, King Charles moves through the chamber, glancing from side to side, searching the rows where the five should be sitting. But they are gone, slipped away before he arrived. He demands to know where they are, but is met by silence that stretches across the whole room. Those singled out for answers by the King avert their eyes, none of them willing to collaborate in this appalling breach of protocol. Speaker 1 (2:16) Undeterred, Charles moves up the chamber towards the Speaker's chair, the symbolic heart of the Commons. The Speaker, William Lenthol, is there, now caught between obedience to the King before him and duty to the House behind. When Charles again demands to know where the five members are, Lenthol kneels before him. He answers with careful submission, telling the monarch plainly that he has neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, except as the house directs him. But beneath the submissiveness, the defiance is clear for all to hear. And for a few seconds, nobody is quite sure what to do. The king is not a man used to being refused. And yet here they all are, each man a subject, each man disobeying him. Speaker 1 (3:13) Around the chamber, MPs exchange stunned glances as Charles turns from the speaker's chair and storms his way back through the house. He has no choice but to leave without his prisons. The armed men follow him out. The doors close behind them. And in the silence that remains, natural order feels broken. Charles has crossed the threshold in anger, and in doing so he has crossed a line that makes it clear that the struggle between Crown and Parliament can't be settled by compromise. The road to war lies open. Speaker 1 (4:00) The English Civil Wars are among the most traumatic and consequential events in British history. What began as a struggle between Crown and Parliament over power, money and religion tore England, Ireland and Scotland apart, leading many to refer to the period as the Wars of Three Kingdoms. It was a conflict bitter enough to split communities, turn neighbour against neighbour and tear families to shreds. By the time it is over, thousands are dead, and the victors have exacted a revenge so shocking that many fear they have insulted God himself. But what disagreements triggered the political crisis that eventually collapsed into open war? How did Charles' leadership fan the flames of rebellion? And once England goes to war with itself, who will dominate in the struggle to shape the country's future? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is part one of a two-part short history of the English Civil Wars. When Charles's father, James I, dies in 1625, the new king inherits a kingdom already under pressure. England is entangled in an expensive war with Catholic Spain, inherited from the final years of James I's reign. But though many Protestants support a firm stand against the great Catholic power of Europe, that doesn't mean they're happy to fund seemingly endless, badly managed, and poorly explained campaigns. War is also expensive, but the new king can't simply tax at will. To raise money to continue fighting, Charles needs Parliament's agreement. But in return, Parliament increasingly expects a say in how that money is used, and what kind of policies it is funding. At the same time, religion is a source of deep and growing anxiety. England is officially Protestant, but many of Charles' subjects fear the country is still vulnerable to Catholic influence from abroad, and to religious backsliding at home. Speaker 1 (6:28) Charles comes to the throne with a powerful belief that he has been chosen for the role by God, known as the divine right of kings, as well as a deep sense of the dignity and authority of the crown. Intelligent and serious, he is also rigid, proud and stubborn. For Parliament, that already makes him singularly difficult to work with. Mark Stoyle is Professor of History at the University of Southampton and specialises in the English Civil War. Speaker 2 (7:00) Parliament, it's been said famously at this time, it's not an institution, it's an event. And so parliaments can be called or dissolved by monarchs at their will. The idea was that parliament would advise when summoned and would supply money. But gradually, during 100 years before Charles came to the throne, the role of parliament had expanded in some ways. And increasingly, some MPs felt that they should have more of a say on particular affairs. foreign affairs and particularly the question of religion the Speaker 1 (7:34) war with spain is not the only problem charles has also inherited a separate conflict with france and soon military failure abroad draws criticism from mps at home who are increasingly reluctant to pay for it Speaker 1 (7:48) As Charles clashes repeatedly with Parliament over funding, foreign policy, and the limits of royal power, it quickly becomes clear that he sees compromise not as a necessary part of government, but as a form of surrender. That alone is troubling enough, but Charles brings a couple of other problems to the throne with him. The first is a political burden in the shape of his father's favorite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Believed by many at the time to have been the late king's lover, Buckingham is widely blamed for wasteful spending and the recent humiliating military failures. Many MPs and ordinary people perceive Buckingham as being greedy and arrogant, not to mention dangerously incompetent. I think a lot of people expected Speaker 2 (8:37) that, like most royal favourites, when the old king died, his favourite would disappear from the picture. But on the contrary, what happens is that Charles remains extremely close to Buckingham. By this time, Charles had lost almost all the members of his family, either dead or gone. And so Buckingham is almost like a brother to him. And that closeness between Charles and Buckingham very much unsettles people. They didn't expect it. They don't like it. that makes people uneasy. Speaker 1 (9:08) When there is a move to impeach Buckingham in 1626, Charles protects him, confirming fears that the new king will defend an unpopular favourite against Parliament. But that's not the people's only worry. Speaker 2 (9:23) And the second thing that worries people is Charles' marriage. So as soon as he arrives on the throne, he marries a French Catholic princess. And at a time when England's extremely Protestant, and it's almost impossible to overstate the degree of anti-Catholicism that exists at this time, that makes people very worried too. So almost from the beginning, there's this idea that Charles is far too close to two people that most of the British public just don't like. Speaker 1 (9:52) Alongside the suspicion about his marriage to a Catholic, Charles' support for more ceremonial forms of worship and his hostility to the most zealous Protestants, the Puritans, makes many fear he is steering the Church in a dangerous direction. Speaker 2 (10:09) When Charles I arrives on the throne, there's a great deal of joy amongst Protestants. They're very hopeful for this new, youthful, young king. What happens over time is that, like his father, Charles is very worried about the Puritans, the radical, zealous Protestants within the English church. And he makes increasingly clear that he is not prepared to move any further down the path of religious reform. Elizabeth I had set up a Protestant church that was very much a middle way. between Catholicism on one hand and ardent Protestantism on the other. And both James and Charles constantly reiterate their determination to stick to that middle ground. But by this time, puritanism, radical Protestantism is becoming much stronger in England. And there are many who see Charles's attempt to sort of hold to the middle way as actually moving back towards Catholicism. Speaker 1 (11:02) Charles' dislike of the Puritans escalates, and they in turn become increasingly suspicious of him. And since many MPs are also Puritans, religious distrust soon sours into political conflict, and a vicious cycle begins. Unable to get his way, Charles repeatedly dissolves Parliament. To him, they are less colleagues and more a nest of godly agitators bent on defiance. But the way many MPs see it, Charles is a ruler who cannot be trusted to defend Protestantism. In 1629, the relationship reaches a dramatic breaking point. Speaker 2 (11:43) Charles' most bitter opponents in the House of Commons actually hold down the Speaker of the House and they pass a series of resolutions, three resolutions, against the King's religious policies, against his financial policies. And essentially, there is a kind of feeling at this point that Parliament might be seeking to take control, which it had never had before. And the King is terrified. He sees these people as rebels, as seditious, very, very dangerous. He feels it's getting out of control and it may be trying to seize power. Speaker 1 (12:16) Charles does not accept the resolutions as a legitimate check on his authority, seeing them instead as evidence that Parliament has become too big for its boots. So he dissolves it and embarks on an 11-year period that becomes known as the personal rule, in which he governs without calling Parliament at all. On one level, these years appear calm, and Charles' government continues to function. But running a country still costs money, from administration and justice to coastal defence and the navy. Without Parliament, he no longer gets the taxes and subsidies that MPs normally grant a king to keep the state functioning. What he is worried Speaker