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The Reign of Charles I- CE Revision - Coggle Diagram
The Reign of Charles I- CE Revision
Early Reign
Charles I was NOT Catholic, but he thought the Church of England was becoming too Protestant.
Charles married the Catholic daughter of the King of France. This worried Parliament who thought he might make England Catholic once more.
Charles I become king in March 1625 following the death of his father, James I.
He believed in The Divine Right of Kings and refused to allow people to question his decisions.
The road to civil war
1642
Charles actions enraged Parl as he broke Parliamentary privilege which stated no MP could be arrested in The House of Commons. Charles left London.
March- Parliament pass a law allowing them to create their own army. It was passed without the King's approval.
June- The Nineteen Propositions- Meant Parl had to approve all law changes and appointment of ministers. also, gave Parl control of the army.
Some MPs became alarmed by this. Parliament became divided and some MPs now openly supported the King.
July- Parliament raised its own army under the Earl of Essex's command.
4th Jan- Charles enters Parl with 300 soldiers to arrest the 5 most rebellious MPs. However, they had already escaped along the Thames.
August- Charles rode with his army to Nottingham. He called on his loyal subjects to fight with him against the rebels in Parl. This was the beginning of 'The English Civil War'.
1641
The Kings courts were abolished.
Parliament passed a bill meaning they could choose the King's advisors and controlled his finances.
Parliament strengthened by passing the Triennial Act which meant they had to meet every three years even if the king did not allow it.
Rebellion broke out in Ireland where Catholic rose up against the Protestants. Parliament did not trust Charles to fight the rebels due to his Catholic sympathies.
1640
In November, his army is defeated by the Scots. This forces him to recall Parliament. This was known as the Long Parliament as it was not dissolved until 1660.
Parliament arrested and executed the Earl of Strafford. Strafford was an advisor of Charles', but was to blame for the problems in Ireland. Charles was furious!
Parliament refused to help and complained about Charles. He dismissed Parliament after just a month (known as the Short Parliament)
Charles was forced to recall Parliament, as he needed more money to fund wars against Scotland and Ireland.
Archbishop Laud was also arrested, but not executed until 1644.
The Battle of Naseby, 14th June 1645
The Battle
The Royalists advanced. Prince Rupert's cavalry easily defeated half the Parliamentarian cavalry, who retreated. Prince Rupert's cavalry should have remained on the battlefield, but rode on to plunder the defeated parliamentarians
The infantry attacked. All the Parliamentarians fled, except for one regiment. This gave the other regiments a chance to regroup.
The Parliamentarians formed up in the same formation, but they had 13,000 men.
The rest of the cavalry charge. The Parliamentarians under Cromwell's command scatter the Royalists. Cromwell then turns his cavalry towards the infantry.
The royalists put their infantry in the middle with their cavalry on both flanks. Charles stood with the reserves in the rear. They had 9,000 men in total
Fairfax rallied some of his troops and got them to attack the Royalist infantry. The Royalists were surrounded and crushed.
Prince Rupert returned, but saw the situation and retreated. The King was persuaded to retreat with his reserves too.
Consequences
All the Parliamentarians had to do was destroy any remaining Royalist strongholds.
Charles surrendered to Scottish forces in 1646. They turned him over to Parliament
The King lost his experienced infantry and did not have the resources to recruit a new army
Parliament were divided over what to do with Charles next...
The Battle of Naseby was the turning point in the Civil War
Background to the battle
This was successful. The Parliamentarians tried to re-take Leicester and the two armies met at Naseby in Leicestershire.
Oliver Cromwell joined Fairfax for the battle
Royalists seized Leicester in June 1645, to force the New Model Army away from the Royalist stronghold at Oxford
Prince Rupert advised Charles not to fight, but he ignored this
Charles and Parliament
Parliament did not like the Duke of Buckingham. He was Charles' friend and closest advisor.
Between 1625 and 1628, Charles dismissed Parliament several times due to their opposition to Buckingham.
He was a lavish spender. He spent much on his lifestyle and expensive wars. Parliament did not like raising taxes for him.
In 1628, Charles tried to increase tax. A group of MPs, led by John Pym, wrote a petition reminding the king he could not do this.
Parliament mistrusted Charles I from the start
Just before Parliament were going to arrest Buckingham, he was assassinated by a soldier. Charles was furious.
In 1629, Parliament signed another petition against the king. He dissolved Parliament again, this time for 11 years.
William Laud
He also believed in the Divine Right of Kings and encouraged priests to teach the same.
He used his position and power to persecute Puritans who opposed him.
He was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. He made many changes to churches and church services.
In 1637, three Puritans were caught writing pamphlets against Laud. He had their ears cut off and imprisoned them
Charles' Personal Rule 1629-40
1635- He extended ship money to the whole country
Charles regularly sold titles e.g. lordships
He reintroduced old laws and fined people for breaking them
He extended royal forest boundaries and made people within them pay him taxes
Without Parliament, he had to find ways to raise money:
1640- He asked the Bank of England for a loan of £100,000. They would only give him £10,000.
The First Civil War 1642-46
The first major battle was at Edgehill, which was a stalemate, but in 1643 and 1644 the Royalist had the advantage
Charles made peace with the rebelling Catholics in Ireland. This angered Parliament and Scotland. In 1643, the Scots and Parliament joined forced against Charles.
Parliament controlled London and the navy
The Battle of Marston Moor, fought in the North of England in 1644, saw a joint Parliament/Scottish force heavily defeat the Royalists
Charles held the early advantage. He had more experienced commanders. E.g. His nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, in charge of the cavalry
The Second Civil War
Charles pretended to negotiate. He then gained the support of the Scots and the Second Civil War broke out in 1648.
Cromwell, now in control of the New Model Army, defeated the Scots invasion in August 1648.
Many in Parliament wanted to negotiate with Charles, in order to lessen his powers as King
The Trial & Execution of Charles I
6th Dec 1648. The Parliamentarian army surrounded the building and only allowed entry to MPs supporting putting the king on trial. Known as 'Pride's Purge'
The Parliamentarians remaining voted to put the king on trial (obviously!). The trial began in January 1649.
Charles was charged with breaking the sacred bond between a king as his people, by starting a civil war.
He was found guilty and sentenced to death. His execution took place on the morning of 30th January 1649
Parliament decided Charles must be put on trial in the House of Commons
The New Model Army
This army combined three armies into one, it had over 22,000 soldiers
The army was commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Oliver Cromwell in command of the cavalry and Philip Skippon the infantry. All three were experienced leaders
Despite the Marston Moor victory, the Parliamentarians were still disorganised, so in Jan 1645 they formed The New Model Army
Many soldiers in the army were Puritans and believed they were fighting with God on their side.