The English Civil War: A People's History

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Oxford Professor Purkiss highlights the ideologies behind the civil wars, she describes the religious atmosphere and differing views through these various participants and their personal accounts. They were very much religious wars since Christianity in its various colors was held so strongly during that time in a way not understood today. It was a time of Christian fundamentalism, and the feud within it between the Protestants and the Catholics. Psyche and Feelings The petition blames the Royalist army for the carnage and plunder. And in this source, they’re saying to Parliament, “we supported you, we made sacrifices and now we want compensation for this”.

The two sources we’ve looked at give us a great sense of the war’s immediate impact upon men and women. But we need a longer-term picture. And here’s a source that provides it. After Cromwell’s death in 1658, he was succeeded as protector by his son Richard, who abdicated just eight months later. With the continued disintegration of the republic, the larger Parliament was reassembled, and began negotiations with Charles II to resume the throne. The triumphant king arrived in London in May 1660, beginning the English Restoration. Sources I’m standing outside Parliament, where the country is ruled from today. But we should remember that it took brutal civil war, fought by men here like Oliver Cromwell, to establish the power of Parliament and to make sure that monarchs respected that power. Once war began all the Celtic fringe nations became embroiled in the English fears of invasion. The prevalence of Welsh troops in the king’s army was particularly noted in the early stages of the war. This had origins in a general mistrust of the Welsh within England, and was given a sharp edge by the Roman Catholicism of the earl of Worcester, appointed lord lieutenant of Wales. Member of Parliament Oliver Cromwell commented that he feared another Ireland—a further papist rebellion—in Wales, in the run up to war in England, because of this laboured but perceived-as-potent link between Wales and rebellious Catholic Ireland. The Welsh Royalists were described in vitriolic terms as barbarous and thieving foreigners. That this affected the minds of the Welsh is undoubted; Stoyle suggests that there were fears amongst the Welsh that Parliament desired their extirpation in the latter stages of the war when its forces made significant incursions into Wales. There were occasions that would give rise to that expectation; the barbarous murder of the garrison at Canon Frome being just one example of seeming ‘special treatment’. Yet, to confuse matters, this massacre was carried out by Scottish troops, not English Parliamentarians. The Parliamentarians , or ‘Roundheads’. They were given this name because they had much shorter haircuts compared to the long, curly wigs worn by Charles and his supporters.Amid the political upheaval in London, the Catholic majority in Ireland rebelled, massacring hundreds of Protestants there in October 1641. Tales of the violence inflamed tensions in England, as Charles and Parliament disagreed on how to respond. In January 1642, the king tried and failed to arrest five members of Parliament who opposed him. Fearing for his own safety, Charles fled London for northern England, where he called on his supporters to prepare for war. The Cavaliers and the king were forced to surrender. The victors agreed that the imprisoned king should have limited powers, but still be on the throne. But there were many different groups now competing for political control of the country. Charles took advantage and made an agreement with Scotland to help him regain his old powers. Politics was the second hot topic; most of these radical sects spoke against the upper class, they supported the Parliamentarians, they opposed the union of church and state. They also wanted moral freedom, and more sexual freedom, more freedom in all things altogether. Diane Purkiss in The English Civil War gathers together and weaves beautifully letters, plays, ballads and memoirs of actual participants of events during this time. She focuses on the relationship between Oliver Cromwell and Charles I, using eyewitness accounts to tell her story. An estimated 200,000 English soldiers and civilians were killed during the three civil wars, by fighting and the disease spread by armies; the loss was proportionate, population-wise, to that of World War I.

These best books on the English Civil Wars take on different focuses which bring to light different aspects of this history. The saddest aspect to these most difficult times, with too many deaths and too much devastation to the country, is that the authors show how revolutions often don’t work: the revolutionaries didn’t get what they wanted, and in many ways everything reverted to the way it was: an entrenched monarchy, an entrenched political system, and an entrenched religion.

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The English Civil Wars many say are a neglected time in our history, which is a rather bizarre fact given that the results of the wars changed England and Britain completely and made Britain into the parliamentary monarchy that it is today, politically and religiously and ideologically. He describes their motives and the triggers that inspired them. There was a very strong basic thrust for a new society during the English Civil Wars, that was ongoing during all the political events and upheavals, and Hill paints a fascinating portrait of the society at the time and the new society that these revolutionary or radical groups desired. Another God Even in defeat, Charles refused to give in, but sought to capitalize on the religious and political divisions among his enemies. While on the Isle of Wight in 1647-48, the king managed to conclude a peace treaty with the Scots and marshal Royalist sentiment and discontent with Parliament into a series of armed uprisings across England in the spring and summer of 1648. In the first source, the Royalists were doing the plundering. Here, in this source, it seems as though the Parliamentarians are doing their own type of plundering. England’s last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, died in 1603, and was succeeded by her cousin, James Stuart. Already King James VI of Scotland, he became King James I of England and Ireland as well, uniting the three kingdoms under a single ruler for the first time. Though at first the Catholic minority in England welcomed James’ ascension to the throne, they later turned against his regime, even attempting to blow up the king and Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot.