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	{{Otheruses\|English Civil War (disambiguation)}}
	] - in which the son of a Royalist is questioned by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.]]
	The '''English Civil War''' (1642-1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between ] and ]. The ] (1642–1646) and ] (1648–1649) ]s pitted the supporters of ] against the supporters of the ], while the ] (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of ] and supporters of the ]. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the ] on ] ].

	The Civil War led to the trial and ], the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English monarchy with first, the ] (1649–1653), and then with a ] (1653–1659), under ]'s personal rule. The monopoly of the ] on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established ] in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that a British monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, although this concept was established only with the ] later in the century.
	{{History of England}}

	==Terminology==
	The term ''English Civil War'' appears most commonly in the singular form, although historians often divide the conflict into two or three separate wars. Although the term describes events as impinging on ], from the outset the conflicts involved wars with and civil wars within both ] and ]; see ] for an overview.

	Unlike other ], which focused on who ruled, this war also concerned itself with the manner of governing ] and Ireland. Historians sometimes refer to the English Civil War as the '''English Revolution''' and works such as the ] call it the '''Great Rebellion'''. ] historians such as ] (1912–2003) have long favoured the term ''']'''.

	==Background==
	===The King's Rule===
	War broke out less than forty years after the death of ] in 1603. At the accession of Charles I in 1625, England and Scotland had both experienced relative peace, both internally and in their relations with each other, for as long as anyone could remember. Charles hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a new single kingdom, fulfilling the dream of his father, ] (James VI of Scotland). Many English Parliamentarians had suspicions regarding such a move, because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy. As Charles shared his father's position on the power of the crown (James had described kings as "little Gods on Earth", chosen by God to rule in accordance with the doctrine of the "]"), the suspicions of the Parliamentarians had some justification.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}
	]
	Although pious and with little personal ambition, Charles expected outright loyalty in return for "just rule". He considered any questioning of his orders as, at best, insulting. This trait, and a series of events, each seemingly minor on their own, led to a serious break between Charles and his ], and eventually to war.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}

	===Parliament in the English constitutional framework===
	Before the fighting, the ] did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government, instead as a temporary advisory committee — summoned by the monarch whenever the Crown required additional tax revenue, and subject to dissolution by the monarch at any time. Because responsibility for collecting ] lay in the hands of the ], the English kings needed the help of that stratum of society in order to ensure the smooth collection of that revenue. If the gentry refused to collect the King's taxes, the Crown would lack any practical means with which to compel them. Parliaments allowed representatives of the gentry to meet, confer and send policy-proposals to the monarch in the form of Bills. These representatives did not, however, have any means of forcing their will upon the king — except by withholding the financial means required to execute his plans.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Parliamentary concerns and the Petition of Right===
	], 1660.]]
	One of the first events to cause concern about Charles I came with his marriage to a ] ] princess, ]. The marriage occurred in 1625, right after Charles came to the throne. Charles' marriage raised the possibility that his children, including the heir to the throne, could grow up as Catholics, a frightening prospect to Protestant England.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Charles also wanted to take part in the conflicts underway in Europe, then immersed in the ] (1618 - 1648). As ever, foreign wars required heavy expenditure, and the Crown could raise the necessary taxes only with Parliamentary consent (as described above). Charles experienced even more financial difficulty when his first Parliament refused to follow the tradition of giving him the right to collect customs duties for his entire reign, deciding instead to grant it for only a year at a time.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

			!!!!!!!!!!!
	Charles, meanwhile, pressed ahead with his European wars, deciding to send an expeditionary force to relieve the ] ] whom Royal French forces held besieged in ]. The royal favourite, ], secured the command of the English force. Unfortunately for Charles and Buckingham, the relief expedition proved a fiasco (1627), and Parliament, already hostile to Buckingham for his monopoly on ], opened ] proceedings against him. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament. This move, while saving Buckingham, reinforced the impression that Charles wanted to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny of his ministers.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Having dissolved Parliament, and unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. (The elected members included ].) The new Parliament drew up the ], and Charles accepted it as a concession in order to get his subsidy. Amongst other things, the Petition referred to the ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Personal Rule ===
	Charles I avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, known as the "]" or "Charles's Personal Rule".{{Fact\|date=May 2008}} During this period , Charles's lack of money determined policies. Unable to raise revenue through Parliament — reluctant to convene it — he resorted to other means. Thus, not observing often long-outdated conventions became, in some cases, a finable offence (for example, a failure to attend and to receive ] at Charles's coronation), with the fine paid to the Crown. He tried to raise revenue through the ] tax, by exploiting a naval war-scare in 1635, demanding that the inland English counties pay the tax for the ]. Established law supported this policy, but authorities had ignored it for centuries, many regarded it as yet another extra-Parliamentary (and therefore illegal) tax. Some prominent men refused to pay ship money arguing that the tax was illegal, but they lost in court and the fines imposed on them for refusing to pay ship money (and for standing against the tax's legality) aroused widespread indignation.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	During the "Personal Rule," Charles aroused most antagonism through his religious measures: he believed in ], a sacramental version of the ], theologically based upon ], a creed shared with his main political advisor, Archbishop ]. In 1633, Charles appointed Laud as ] and started making the Church more ceremonial, replacing the wooden ] tables with stone altars. Puritans accused Laud of reintroducing ]; when they complained, he had them arrested. In 1637 ], ], and ] had their ears cut off for writing pamphlets attacking Laud's views — a rare penalty for ], and one that aroused anger. Moreover, the Church authorities revived the statutes passed in time of ] about church attendance, and fined Puritans for not attending Anglican church services.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Rebellion in Scotland===
	{{main\|Bishops War}}
	The end of Charles's independent governance came when he attempted to apply the same religious policies in Scotland. The ], reluctantly Episcopal in structure, had independent traditions. Charles, however, wanted one, uniform Church throughout Britain, and introduced a new, High Anglican, version of the English ] to Scotland in summer of 1637. This was violently resisted; a riot broke out in Edinburgh, which may have been started in a church by ]; and, in February of 1638, the Scots formulated their objections to royal policy in the ]. This document took the form of a "loyal protest", rejecting all innovations not first having been tested by free parliaments and General Assemblies of the Church.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Before long, King Charles withdrew his prayer book, and summoned a General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in Glasgow, in November of 1638. The General Assembly, affected by the contemporary radical mood, rejected the Prayer Book, then drastically declared unlawful the office of bishop. Charles demanded the acts of the Assembly be withdrawn; the Scots refused; both sides began raising armies.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In spring of 1639, King Charles I accompanied his forces to the Scottish border, to end the rebellion known as the ], but, after an inconclusive military campaign, he accepted the offered Scottish truce — the ]. The truce proved temporary; a second war followed in summer of 1640. This time, a Scots army defeated Charles's forces in the north, then captured ]. Charles eventually agreed not to interfere with Scotland's religion, and paid the Scots war-expenses.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Recall of the English Parliament===
	Charles needed to suppress the rebellion in Scotland. He had insufficient funds, however, and had perforce to seek money from a newly-elected ] in 1640. The majority faction in the new Parliament, led by ], took this appeal for money as an opportunity to discuss grievances against the Crown, and opposed the idea of an English invasion of Scotland. Charles took exception to this '']'' (offence against the ruler) and dissolved the Parliament after only a few weeks; hence the name "the ]".{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Without Parliament's support, Charles attacked Scotland again, breaking the truce at Berwick, and suffered a comprehensive defeat. The Scots then seized the opportunity and invaded England, occupying ] and ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Meanwhile, another of Charles' chief advisers, ], had risen to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632 and brought in much-needed revenue for Charles by persuading the Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions. {{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In 1639 Charles recalled Wentworth to England, and in 1640 made him Earl of Strafford, attempting to have him work his magic again in Scotland. This time he proved less successful, and the English forces fled the field in their second encounter with the Scots in 1640. Almost the entirety of Northern England was occupied, and Charles was forced to pay £850 per day to keep the Scots from advancing. If he did not, they would "take" the money by pillaging and burning the cities and towns of Northern England.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	All this put Charles in a desperate financial position. As King of Scots, he had to find money to pay the Scottish army in England; as King of England, to find money to pay and equip an English army to defend England. His means of raising English revenue without an English Parliament fell critically short of achieving this. Against this backdrop, and according to advice from the ] (the ], but without the ], so not a Parliament), Charles finally bowed to pressure and summoned another English Parliament in November 1640.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===The Long Parliament===
	{{main\|Long Parliament}}
	The new Parliament proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor. It immediately began to discuss grievances against Charles and his Government, and with Pym and ] (of ] fame) in the lead, took the opportunity presented by the King's troubles to force various reforming measures upon him. The legislators passed a law which stated that a new Parliament should convene at least once every three years — without the King's summons, if necessary. Other laws passed by the Parliament made it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent, and later, gave Parliament control over the king's ministers. Finally, the Parliament passed a law forbidding the King to dissolve it without its consent, even if the three years were up. Ever since, this Parliament has been known as the "Long Parliament". However, Parliament did attempt to avert conflict by requiring all adults to sign ], an oath of allegiance to Charles.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In early 1641 Parliament had ], arrested and sent to the ] on a charge of ]. John Pym claimed that Wentworth's statements of readiness to campaign against "the kingdom" were aimed in fact at England itself. Unable to prove the case in court, the ], led by Pym and ], resorted to a ]. Unlike a guilty finding in a court case, attainder did not require a legal burden of proof, but it did require ]. Charles, still incensed over the Commons' handling of Buckingham, refused. Wentworth himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked him to reconsider. Wentworth's execution took place in May, 1641.<ref>Jacob Abbott '''' Chapter ''''</ref>

	Instead of saving the country from war, Wentworth's sacrifice in fact doomed it to one. Within months, the Irish Catholics, fearing a resurgence of Protestant power, ], and all Ireland soon descended into chaos. Rumours circulated that the King supported the Irish, and Puritan members of the Commons soon started murmuring that this exemplified the fate that Charles had in store for them all.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In early January 1642, accompanied by 400 soldiers, Charles attempted to arrest five members of the House of Commons on a charge of treason. This attempt failed. When the troops marched into Parliament, Charles inquired of ], the ], as to the whereabouts of the five. Lenthall replied "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." In other words, the Speaker proclaimed himself a servant of Parliament, rather than of the King.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Local grievances===
	In the summer of 1642 these national troubles helped to polarise opinion, ending indecision about which side to support or what action to take. Opposition to Charles also arose owing to many local grievances. For example, the imposition of drainage-schemes in ] negatively affected the livelihood of thousands of people after the King awarded a number of drainage-contracts. Many regarded the King as worse than insensitive, and this played a role in bringing a large part of eastern England into Parliament’s camp. This sentiment brought with it people such as the ] and Oliver Cromwell, each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the leading drainage contractors, the ], was to die fighting for the King at the ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==The First English Civil War==
	]
	{{Main\|First English Civil War}}
	In early January 1642, a few days after his failure to capture five members of the House of Commons, fearing for his own personal safety and for that of his family and retinue, Charles left the London area. Further negotiations by frequent correspondence between the King and the Long Parliament through to early summer proved fruitless. As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other: for example, the garrison of Portsmouth under the command of Sir ] declared for the King, but when Charles tried to acquire arms for his cause from ], the depository for the weapons used in the previous Scottish campaigns, Sir ], the military governor appointed by Parliament in January, initially refused to let Charles enter Hull, and when Charles returned with more men, ]. Charles issued a warrant for Hotham to be arrested as a traitor but was powerless to enforce it. Throughout the summer months, tensions rose and there was brawling in a number of places, with the first death of the conflict taking place in Manchester.<ref>Trevor Royle ] pp. 158-166</ref>

	At the outset of the conflict, much of the country remained neutral, though the ] and most English cities favoured Parliament, while the King found considerable support in rural communities. Historians estimate that between them, both sides had only about 15,000 men{{Fact\|date=February 2007}}. However, the war quickly spread and eventually involved every level of society. Many areas attempted to remain neutral, some formed bands of ] to protect their localities against the worst excesses of the armies of both sides, but most found it impossible to withstand both the King and Parliament. On one side, the King and his supporters thought that they fought for traditional government in Church and state. On the other, most supporters of the Parliamentary cause initially took up arms to defend what they thought of as the traditional balance of government in Church and state, which the bad advice the King had received from his advisers had undermined before and during the "Eleven Years' Tyranny". The views of the Members of Parliament ranged from unquestioning support of the King — at one point during the First Civil War, more members of the Commons and Lords gathered in the King's ] than at ] — through to radicals, who wanted major reforms in favour of ] and the redistribution of power at the national level.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	After the debacle at Hull, Charles moved on to ], where on ] ], he raised the ]. When he raised his standard, Charles had with him about 2,000 cavalry and a small number of Yorkshire infantry-men, and using the archaic system of a ], Charles' supporters started to build a larger army around the standard. Charles moved in a south-westerly direction, first to ], and then on to ], because the support for his cause seemed particularly strong in the ] valley area and in ].<ref>Trevor Royle ] pp 170, 183</ref> While passing through ], in what became known as the "]", he declared that he would uphold the "Protestant religion, the laws of England, and the liberty of Parliament".{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the quote-->

	The Parliamentarians who opposed the King had not remained passive during this pre-war period. As in the case of Kingston upon Hull they had taken measures to secure strategic towns and cities, by appointing men sympathetic to their cause, and on ] they had voted to raise an army of 10,000 volunteers, appointing ] commander three days later. He received orders "to rescue His Majesty's person, and the persons of the ]] and the ] out of the hands of those desperate persons who were about them". The ], whom Parliament appointed, used the ] to order the militia to join Essex's army.<ref>Trevor Royle ] pp 165, 161</ref>

	Two weeks after the King had raised his standard at Nottingham, Essex led his army north towards ], picking up support along the way (including a detachment of ] cavalry raised and commanded by ]). By the middle of September Essex's forces had grown to 21,000 infantry and 4200 cavalry and dragoons. On ] he moved his army to ] and then to the north of the ], a strategy which placed his army between the Royalists and London. With the size of both armies now in the tens of thousands, and only Worcestershire between them, it was inevitable that cavalry reconnaissance units would sooner or later meet. This happened in the first major skirmish of the Civil War, when a cavalry troop of about 1,000 Royalists commanded by ], a German nephew of the King and one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the war, defeated a Parliamentary cavalry detachment under the command of Colonel ] in the ], at a bridge across the ] close to ].<ref>Trevor Royle ] pp 171-188</ref>
	]]]
	Rupert withdrew to Shrewsbury, where, a council-of-war discussed two courses of action: whether to advance towards Essex's new position near Worcester, or to march along the now opened road towards London. The Council decided to take the London route, but not to avoid a battle, for the Royalist generals wanted to fight Essex before he grew too strong, and the temper of both sides made it impossible to postpone the decision. In the ] words: "it was considered more counsellable to march towards London, it being morally sure that Essex would put himself in their way".<ref name=EB11-GR>] Great Rebellion</ref> Accordingly, the army left Shrewsbury on ], gaining two days' start on the enemy, and moved south-east. This had the desired effect, as it forced Essex to move to intercept them.<ref name=EB11-GR/>

	The first ] of the war, fought at ] on ] ], proved inconclusive, and both the Royalists and Parliamentarians claimed it as a victory. The second field action of the war, the stand-off at ], saw Charles forced to withdraw to ]. This city would serve as his base for the remainder of the war.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In 1643 the Royalist forces won at ], and gained control of most of ]. In the Midlands, a Parliamentary force under ] besieged and captured the cathedral city of ], after the death of the original commander, Lord Brooke. This group subsequently joined forces with Sir John Brereton to fight the inconclusive ] (] ]), where the Royalist commander, the ], was killed. Subsequent battles in the west of England at ] and at ] also went to the Royalists. Prince Rupert could then take ]. In the same year, Oliver Cromwell formed his troop of "]", a disciplined unit that demonstrated his military leadership-ability. With their assistance, he won a victory at the ] in July.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In general, the early part of the war went well for the Royalists. The turning-point came in the late summer and early autumn of 1643, when the Earl of Essex's army forced the king to raise the ] and then brushed the Royalist army aside at the ] (] ]), in order to return triumphantly to London. Other Parliamentarian forces won the ], giving them control of ]. Political manoeuvering to gain an advantage in numbers led Charles to negotiate a ceasefire in ], freeing up English troops to fight on the Royalist side in England, while Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for aid and assistance.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	With the help of the Scots, Parliament won at ] (] ]), gaining ] and the north of England. Cromwell's conduct in this battle proved decisive, and demonstrated his potential as both a political and an important military leader. The defeat at the ] in ], however, marked a serious reverse for Parliament in the south-west of England. Subsequent fighting around ] (] ]), though tactically indecisive, strategically gave another check to Parliament.
	]]]
	In 1645 Parliament reaffirmed its determination to fight the war to a finish. It passed the ], by which all members of either House of Parliament laid down their commands, and re-organized its main forces into the ] ("Army"), under the command of Sir ], with Cromwell as his second-in-command and ] of Horse. In two decisive engagements — the ] on 14 June and the ] on 10 July — the Parliamentarians effectively destroyed Charles' armies.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In the remains of his English realm Charles attempted to recover a stable base of support by consolidating the ]. He began to form an axis between Oxford and ] in Nottinghamshire. Those towns had become fortresses and showed more reliable loyalty to him than to others. He took ], which lies between them, but found his resources exhausted. Having little opportunity to replenish them, in May 1646 he sought shelter with a Scottish army at ] in Nottinghamshire. This marked the end of the First English Civil War.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==The Second English Civil War==
	{{Main\|Second English Civil War}}
	].]]
	Charles I took advantage of the deflection of attention away from himself to negotiate a new agreement with the Scots, again promising church reform, on ] ]. Although Charles himself remained a prisoner, this agreement led inexorably to the Second Civil War.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	A series of Royalist uprisings throughout England and a Scottish invasion occurred in the summer of 1648. Forces loyal to Parliament<ref>
	and the
	</ref> put down most of the uprisings in England after little more than skirmishes, but uprisings in Kent, Essex and Cumberland, the rebellion in Wales, and the Scottish invasion involved the fighting of pitched battles and prolonged sieges.

	In the spring of 1648 unpaid Parliamentarian troops in ] changed sides. Colonel ] defeated the Royalist rebels at the ] (]) and the rebel leaders surrendered to Cromwell on ] after the protracted two-month ]. ] defeated a Royalist uprising in Kent at the ] on ]. Fairfax, after his success at ] and the pacification of ], turned northward to reduce ], where, under their ardent, experienced and popular leader Sir ], the Royalists had taken up arms in great numbers. Fairfax soon drove the enemy into ], but his first attack on the town met with a repulse and he had to settle down to ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In the North of England, Major-General ] fought a very successful campaign against a number of Royalist uprisings — the largest that of Sir ] in ]. Thanks to Lambert's successes, the Scottish commander, the ], had perforce to take the western route through ] in his pro-Royalist Scottish invasion of England. The Parliamentarians under Cromwell engaged the Scots at the ] (] – ]). The battle took place largely at ] near ] in ], and resulted in a victory by the troops of Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by Hamilton. This Parliamentarian victory marked the end of the Second English Civil War.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Nearly all the Royalists who had fought in the First Civil War had given their parole not to bear arms against the Parliament, and many honourable Royalists, like ], refused to break their word by taking any part in the second war. So the victors in the Second Civil War showed little mercy to those who had brought war into the land again. On the evening of the surrender of Colchester, Parliamentarians had Sir Charles Lucas and Sir ] shot. Parliamentary authorities sentenced the leaders of the Welsh rebels, Major-General ], Colonel ] and Colonel ]<!--Some sources use Powell--> to death, but executed Poyer alone (] ]), having selected him by lot. Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton, the ], and ], one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character, were beheaded at Westminster on ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==Trial of Charles I for treason==
	The betrayal by Charles caused Parliament to debate whether to return the King to power at all. Those who still supported Charles' place on the throne tried once more to negotiate with him.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}

	Furious that Parliament continued to countenance Charles as a ruler, the Army marched on Parliament and conducted "]" (named after the commanding officer of the operation, ]) in December 1648. Troops arrested 45 Members of Parliament (MPs) and kept 146 out of the chamber. They allowed only 75 Members in, and then only at the Army's bidding. This ] received orders to set up, in the name of the people of England, a ] for treason.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	At the end of the trial the ] (judges) found Charles I guilty of ], as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy".<ref>
	Sean Kelsey, Sean. "" '']'' 2003, Volume 118, Number 477 Pp. 583-616
	</ref><ref>
	]. '''' speech to the Anglo-Australasian Lawyers' association, on ], ].
	</ref> His ] took place on a scaffold in front of the ] of the ] on ] ]. (After the ] in 1660, Charles II executed the surviving ]s not living in exile or sentenced them to life imprisonment.)

	==The Third English Civil War==
	{{Main\|Third English Civil War}}
	=== Ireland===
	{{See also\|Cromwellian conquest of Ireland}}
	Ireland had known continuous war since the ], with most of the island controlled by the ]. Increasingly threatened by the armies of the English Parliament after Charles I's arrest in 1648, the Confederates signed a treaty of alliance with the English Royalists. The joint Royalist and Confederate forces under ] attempted to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding ], but their opponents routed them at the ] (] ]). As the former Member of Parliament ] blockaded Prince Rupert's fleet in ], Oliver Cromwell could land at ] on ] ] with an army to quell the Royalist alliance in ].{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in ] during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. After the ], the massacre of nearly 3,500 people — comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and 700 others, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests (Cromwell claimed all the men carrying arms) — became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the last three centuries. However, the massacre has significance mainly as a symbol of the Irish perception of Cromwellian cruelty, as far more people died in the subsequent ] and scorched-earth fighting in the country than at infamous massacres such as Drogheda and ]. The ] conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653, when the last ] and Royalist troops surrendered. Historians have estimated{{Fact\|date=September 2007}} that around 30% of Ireland's population either died or had gone into exile by the end of the wars. The victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to the Parliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English people who had settled there before the war.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===Scotland===
	{{See also\|Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms#Montrose's defeat and death\|Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms#Third Civil War}}
	The execution of ] altered the dynamics of the ], which had raged between Royalists and ]s since 1644. By 1649, the struggle had left the Royalists there in disarray and their erstwhile leader, the ], had gone into exile. At first, ] encouraged Montrose to raise a Highland army to fight on the Royalist side. However, when the Scottish Covenanters (who did not agree with the execution of Charles I and who feared for the future of ] and Scottish independence under the new ]) offered him the crown of Scotland, Charles abandoned Montrose to his enemies. However, Montrose, who had raised a ] force in ], had already landed and could not abandon the fight. He did not succeed in raising many Highland clans and the Covenanters defeated his army at the ] in ] on ] ]. The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to ]. On ] the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->
	]
	Charles II landed in Scotland at ] in ] on ] ] and signed the 1638 ] and the 1643 ] immediately after coming ashore. With his original Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, King Charles II became the greatest threat facing the new English republic. In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned to England.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	He arrived in Scotland on ] ] and proceeded to lay siege to Edinburgh. By the end of August disease and a shortage of supplies had reduced his army, and he had to order a retreat towards his base at ]. A Scottish army, assembled under the command of ], tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the ] on ]. Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	In July 1651, Cromwell's forces crossed the ] into ] and defeated the Scots at the ] (] ]). The New Model Army advanced towards ], which allowed Charles, at the head of the Scottish army, to move south into England. Cromwell followed Charles into England, leaving ] to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck took ] on ] and ] on ]. The next year, 1652, saw the mopping up of the remnants of Royalist resistance, and under the terms of the "]", the Scots received 30 seats in a united Parliament in London, with General Monck appointed as the military governor of Scotland.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	===England===
	Although Cromwell's New Model Army had defeated a Scottish army at Dunbar, Cromwell could not prevent Charles II from marching from Scotland deep into England at the head of another Royalist army. The Royalists marched to the west of England because English Royalist sympathies were strongest in that area, but although some English Royalists joined the army, they came in far fewer numbers than Charles and his Scottish supporters had hoped. Cromwell finally engaged the new king at ] on ] ], and defeated him. ], via safe houses and a famous ], to France, ending the civil wars.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==Political control==
	During the course of the Wars the Parliamentarians established a number of successive committees to oversee the war-effort. The first of these, the ], set up in July 1642, comprised 15 Members of Parliament.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Following the ]-] alliance against the Royalists, the ] replaced the Committee of Safety between 1644 and 1648. Parliament dissolved the Committee of Both Kingdoms when the alliance ended, but its English members continued to meet and became known as the ]. A second Committee of Safety then replaced that committee.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==Casualties==
	As usual in wars of this era, disease caused more deaths than combat. There are no accurate figures for these periods, and it is not possible to give a precise overall figure for those killed in battle, from those who died from disease, or even from a natural decline in population.

	Figures for casualties during this period are unreliable, but some attempt has been made to provide rough estimates.<ref>Matthew White </ref><ref name=Carlton-211-214>Charles Carlton (1992). The Experience of the British Civil Wars, ], ISBN 0415103916. </ref>
	In England, a conservative estimate is that roughly 100,000 people died from war-related disease during the three civil wars. Historic records count 84,830 casualties of the wars themselves. Counting in accidents and the two Bishops' wars, an estimate of 190,000 people is achieved.<ref name=Carlton-211>Carlton, </ref>

	Figures for Scotland are more unreliable and should be treated with greater caution. Casualties include the deaths of prisoners of war in conditions that accelerated their deaths, with estimates of 10,000 prisoners not surviving or not returning home (8,000 captured during and immediately after the ] were deported to ], ] and the ] to work for landowners as ]ers<ref>Trevor Royle. "''Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660''"; Pub Abacus 2006; (first published 2004); ISBN 978-0-349-11564-1. p. 602 </ref>). There are no figures to calculate how many died from war-related diseases, but if the same ratio of disease to battle deaths from English figures is applied to the Scottish figures, a not unreasonable estimate of 60,000 people is achieved.<ref name=Carlton-212>Carlton, </ref>

	Figures for Ireland are described as "miracles of conjecture". Certainly the devastation inflicted on Ireland was unbelievable, with the best estimate provided by Sir William Petty, the father of English demography. Although Petty's figures are the best available, they are still acknowledged as being tentative. They do not include the estimate of 40,000 driven into exile, some of whom served as soldiers in European continental armies, while others were sold as indentured servants to New England and the West Indies. Many of those sold to landowners in New England eventually prospered, but many of those sold to landowners in the West Indies were worked to death. Petty estimates that 112,000 Protestants were killed through plague, war, and famine, and that 504,000 Catholics were killed, giving an estimated total of 618,000.<ref name=Carlton-213>Carlton, </ref>

	These estimate indicate that England suffered a 3.7% loss of population, Scotland a loss of 6%, while Ireland suffered a loss of 41% of its population. Putting these numbers into the context of other catastrophes helps to understand the devastation to Ireland in particular. The ] of 1845-1852 resulted in a loss of 16% of the population, while during the second world war, the population of the Soviet Union fell by 16%.<ref name=Carlton-214>Carlton, </ref>

	==Popular gains==
	Ordinary people took advantage of the dislocation of civil society during the 1640s to derive advantages for themselves. The contemporary guild democracy movement won its greatest successes among London's transport workers, notably the Thames ].<ref>"Christopher O'Riordan, " (1992).</ref>

	Rural communities seized timber and other resources on the sequestrated estates of royalists and catholics, and on the estates of the royal family and the church hierarchy. Some communities improved their conditions of tenure on such estates.<ref name="popular">Christopher O'Riordan, "", '']'', vol. 78 (1993), pp.184-200.</ref>

	The old ''status quo'' began a retrenchment after the end of the main civil war in 1646, and more especially after the restoration of monarchy in 1660. But some gains were long-term. The democratic element introduced in the watermen's company in 1642, for example, survived, with vicissitudes, until 1827.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==Aftermath==
	The wars left England, Scotland, and Ireland among the few countries in Europe without a monarch. In the wake of victory, many of the ideals (and many of the idealists) became sidelined. The republican government of the ] ruled England (and later all of Scotland and Ireland) from 1649 to 1653 and from 1659 to 1660. Between the two periods, and due to in-fighting amongst various factions in Parliament, ] ruled over ] as ] (effectively a military ]) until his death in 1658.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Upon his death, Oliver Cromwell's son ] became Lord Protector, but the Army had little confidence in him. After seven months the Army removed Richard, and in May 1659 it re-installed the Rump. However, since the Rump Parliament acted as though nothing had changed since 1653 and as though it could treat the Army as it liked, military force shortly afterwards dissolved this, as well. After the second dissolution of the Rump, in October 1659, the prospect of a total descent into anarchy loomed as the Army's pretence of unity finally dissolved into factions.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Into this atmosphere General ], Governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland. On ] ], in the ], ] made known the conditions of his acceptance of the Crown of England. Monck organised the ], which met for the first time on ] ]. On ] ], it declared that King Charles II had reigned as the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I in January 1649. Charles returned from exile on ] ]. On ] ], the populace in London acclaimed him as king. His coronation took place at ] on ] ]. These events became known as the '']''.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	Although the monarchy was restored, it was still only with the consent of Parliament; therefore, the civil wars effectively set England and Scotland on course to adopt a ] form of government. This system would result in the outcome that the future ], formed in 1707 under the ], would manage to forestall the kind of often-bloody revolution, typical of European republican movements that followed the ] revolution in 18th century France and the later success of ], which generally resulted in the total abolition of monarchy. Specifically, future monarchs became wary of pushing Parliament too hard, and Parliament effectively chose the line of royal succession in 1688 with the ] and in the 1701 ]. After the ], Parliament's factions became ] (later becoming the ] and ]) with competing views and varying abilities to influence the decisions of their monarchs.{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--For the whole paragraph-->

	==Theories relating to the English Civil War==

	In the early decades of the 20th century the Whig school was the dominant theoretical view. They explained the Civil War as resulting from a centuries-long struggle between Parliament (especially the House of Commons) and the Monarchy, with Parliament defending the traditional rights of Englishmen, while the Stuart monarchy continually attempted to expand its right to arbitrarily dictate law. The most important Whig historian, ], popularized the English Civil War as a 'Puritan Revolution': challenging the repressive Stuart Church, and preparing the way for ] in the Restoration. Thus, Puritanism was the natural ally of a people preserving their traditional rights against arbitrary monarchical power.

	The Whig view was challenged and largely superseded by the ] school, which became popular in the 1940s, and which interpreted the English Civil War as a ] ]. According to Marxist historian ]: <blockquote>"The Civil War was a class war, wherein on the side of reaction stood the ] and its ally, the ], and on the other side stood the trading and industrial classes in town and countryside . . . the yeomen and progressive gentry, and . . . wider masses of the population whenever they were able by free discussion to understand what the struggle was really about . . . In English history, the Civil War occurred when the wealthy ], already socially powerful, had eliminated the outmoded medieval system of English government. Moreover, like the Whigs, the Marxists found a role for religion: as a moral system, Puritanism ideally suited the bourgeois class, so Marxists identified Puritans as inherently bourgeois."{{Fact\|date=May 2008}}<!--this quote should be checked and cited--></blockquote>

	In the 1970s, a new generation of historians, who would become known as ] challenged both the Whig and the Marxist theories.<ref name=Burgess>Glenn Burgess , The Historical Journal, 33, 3 (1990), pp . 609—627)</ref> In 1973, a group of revisionist historians published the anthology ''The Origins of the English Civil War'' (] ed.). These historians disliked both Whig and Marxist explanations of the Civil War as long-term socio-economic trends in English society, producing work focused on the minutiae of the years immediately preceding the civil war, thereby returning to the contingency-based historiography of ] famous contemporary history ''History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England''. This, it was claimed, demonstrated that factional war-allegiance patterns did not fit either Whig or Marxist history.{{Fact\|date=September 2008}} Puritans, for example, did not necessarily ally themselves with Parliamentarians.{{Fact\|date=September 2008}} Many members of the bourgeoisie fought for the King, while many landed aristocrats supported Parliament. Thus, revisionist historians have discredited some Whig and Marxist interpretations of the English Civil War .<ref name=Burgess/>{{Failed verification\|date=June 2008}}

	] discarded and replaced the historical title "English Civil War" with the titles the "Wars of the Three" and the "British Civil Wars", positing that the civil war in England cannot be understood isolated from events in other parts of Great Britain and Ireland; King Charles I remains crucial, not just as King of England, but also because of his relationship with the peoples of his other realms. For example, the wars began when King Charles I tried imposing an Anglican Prayer Book upon Scotland, and when this was met with resistance from the ]s, he needed an army to impose his will. However, this forced him to call an English Parliament to raise new taxes to pay for the army. The English Parliaments were not willing to grant Charles the revenue he needed to pay for the Scottish expeditionary army unless he addressed their grievances. By the early 1640s, Charles was left in a state of near permanent crisis management; often he was not willing to concede enough ground to any one faction to neutralise the threat, and in some circumstances to do so would only antagonise another faction. For example, Charles finally agreed upon terms with the Covenanters in August 1641, but although this might have weakened the position of the English Parliament, the ] broke out in October 1641, largely negating the political advantage he had obtained by relieving himself of the cost of the Scottish invasion.<ref></ref>

	== Re-enactments ==

	]
	Two large historical societies exist, ] and ], which regularly ] events and battles of the Civil War in full period costume.

	==See also==
	{{Commonscat\|English civil war}}
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	*] for a defining event in European history during the reign of Charles I.
	<!-- * ] --Needs a source that the Tyne-Wear rivalry is partially based on the Civil War and not just on FTM -->

	==Notes==
	{{reflist}}

	==References==
	*Carlton, Charles (1992). The Experience of the British Civil Wars, Routledge, ISBN 0415103916.
	*Royle, Trevor, ''Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660''. Pub Abacus 2006, (first published 2004). ISBN 978-0-349-11564-1

	==External links==
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	{{Campaignbox English Civil War}}

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Revision as of 18:15, 7 October 2008

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