The Causes Of The English Civil War

The English Civil War was a concatenation of events within England, between the Royalists and Parliamentarians. Beginning in 1642 under the rule of Charles I, the Civil War perennated nearly three decades in a kingdom reeling with theological disputes, the political strife over the doctrine of legitimacy and a monarch’s lapse into gross debt at the batten of parliament. It goes without saying that the English Civil War domiciliated, through the New Model Army and reforms and schedules, including the Protectorate and Commonwealth - the results of inclement schism, contemporary constitutional and military ideals. In order to understand how and why the English Civil War unfolded, and why it inflicted such portentous change within England, Ireland and Scotland, one must grasp the causes of the English Civil War. Historians, for a long period of time, have had conflicting views on the origins of the Civil War. Several claims have been attacked, either on the basis of falsifiability or ambiguity. We should also consider the Postmodernists, whom outlined their belief in the fact that, put simply, analysing causes restricts a resolution in terms of history. However, upon laying out sources and inferring causes, which could ultimately be split into economic, political and religious, and furthermore into revisionist and Marxist stances, it becomes apparent that one cause did not result in one event, but rather a culmination of causes resulted in a number of events. This is pivotal in understanding

Upon Charles’ ascension into power in 1625, the Rohan Wars were well under way. Huguenot rebellions began sprawling across France, creating political and diplomatic tension. Louis XIII, the Catholic monarch was finding it increasingly difficult t...

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...ught out. Some see it as a class war, whilst others perceive the war’s origins as conspicuous in long-term and/or short-term mismanagement. Interestingly, all claims have been met with pyrrhonism. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that many of the possible causes are not mutually exclusive. Take for example the marriage between religious, economic and political origins. It soon becomes evident that the Civil War was the result of both long and short term causes that encompassed a wide range of factions, which were dealt by a less than competent monarch. That isn’t to say that Charles I was a cause. He did not create religious partition, but exacerbated it through his totalitarian policies. He did not create financial ruin, but, through the penalties he suffered through illegal methods of collecting money, only dug a deeper hole for himself and England.