The Break Out of the Civil War in 1642

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The Break Out of the Civil War in 1642 King Charles I declared war against parliament on the twenty second of August in 1642. There were a lot of victims to this war; approximately one man out of every ten was killed. People who were not physically affected had lost a lot of their property; this includes houses, land and other possessions. In my opinion, Civil war did not break out due to King Charles I. I think that the events that led a civil war started almost a century before King Charles' reined; when Henry VIII became the head of the Church of England. To do so he had to have Parliament's agreement so that he could claim that everybody agreed with his new position. Like this King Henry made Parliament feel more powerful than they ever were. So the Parliament's strengths kept building up till they had enough power to rebel against their own King, The Civil war broke out unexpectedly. Before 1642 there were several events that could have triggered the civil war, but most of these were sorted out by 1641. King Charles I could not rule the country on his own, he needed parliament's help to pass on new laws. By the end of his reign he had lost control over Scotland as well as London, due to an attempt at governing without Parliament. Charles' choice of advisors was very poor. This is shown when he appointed people like Strafford to be an earl. In the eyes of many people Strafford was seen to be a tyrant and he was also accused of cheating and squeezing taxes. People thought that the King would have ruled better without him. Another choice that the King made was appointing Laud to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud was a Catholic while most MPs and the King were either Protestants or Puritans. According to some historians the stages that led to a civil war commenced in 1625 when king Charles I married an unpopular queen, Henrietta Maria, who was a Catholic.

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