Free Sample Essays > United States History
Why did the Civil War happen?
Introduction
To be on the road to Civil War was to be on a stomach-churning roller coaster ride through twists and turns, barriers and blocks with an explosive finale which resulted in war. The road to the English Civil War started in 1625 when king Charles I became ruler of England and immediately clashed with parliament. Parliament did not help to run the country the way they should have. Charles was an incredibly vain man who believed he had a divine right to rule the throne. From marring a Catholic to being in colossal debt with the Scots, Charles could not be described as the best ruler England had ever seen. But was it all his own fault?
Soon after coming to the throne, Charles married Henrietta Maria, a Spanish Catholic. Parliament was shocked. If Charles married a Catholic, was he catholic himself? This caused tension between Charles and parliament. There dislike for the king was growing.
In 1625, nearly a year after Charles came to the throne, the king declared that he had a divine right to rule and that he should have all power to himself. He also states that he is God’s messenger and that he has no need for parliament. Uproar! Charles launches his declaration just as parliament decides they want more power. A clash of the titans commences.
Charles hires William Laud to reform the church. He starts to decorate and beautify all churches. The puritans argue. They believed that the churches should be simple and plain. They also accuse Laud of being catholic and trying to change the country’s religion back to Catholic yet again.
Laud advises Charles to take his new prayer book into Scotland and Charles follows Laud’s advice. The Scots detest the idea of a new prayer book in Latin, as most are Puritans. Immense riots break out and Scotland takes over part of the North East of England. They refuse to move and Charles is irate! They promise to attack and next time stay if Charles does not pay them an incalculable amount of money a day to keep away. The problem is, Charles has no money and needs parliament to agree to any new taxes before Charles could make them legal. Parliament said that they would only agree if Charles sacked Laud and changes all the churches back to their simple ways.
At this point on the road to Civil War, Charles gives in to Parliaments demands and could have stopped the English Civil war from happening. The roadblock that Charles had put up was not to last.
Sensing that Charles was at one of his weakest points, parliament were devious and issued a list of demands. They named it The Grand Remonstrance. It was narrowly passed by 159 votes to 148. Charles was furious. Yet, the king was made lowly once more, and had to obey the decree of parliament. This separated Charles supporters from his foes.
The Irish rebellion saw 200,000 people killed. People thought that Charles was behind it and many people [next page]