The Roles of Charles Stuart and John Pym in Parliaments Victory of the English Civil War

The Roles of Charles Stuart and John Pym in Parliaments Victory of the English Civil War

On August the 2nd 1642 King Charles the 1st raised his standard at

Nottingham. The English Civil War had begun and it lasted from 1642

until the King’s execution at the beginning of 1649. One could argue

that it was actually two separate Civil wars, fought between the

Parliamentarians and the Royalists. The first war beginning in 1642

and ending in 1646 when the King was captured, and then the second

from 1647 after the Kings escape, to 1648 when he was again defeated

and captured. However we will simply be looking at the years up until

his surrender to the Scotts, April 1646, as by the end of June that

same year, the surrender of Oxford was to mark the virtual end to the

war. So who were John Pym and Charles Stuart, and what role did they

play in the events that led to Parliament’s victory? I will look at

their actions during the Cival war that may have helped the

Parliamentarians gain victory.

By 1640, John Pym had become the head of a political group who later

became known at the Parliamentarians. Pym was a skilled political

tactician who first entered parliament in 1620. He had participated in

the Commons’ Protestation against James in 1621 for which he was

placed under house arrest for five days as a result. He also took part

in the attack on the Duke of Buckingham due to his belief that the man

was incompetent in the way of foreign policy.

The Parliamentarians (although not named that) originated back in the

1620’s with a group of Lords and MP’s -Lord Saye and Sele, the Earl of

Warwick and Sir John Eliot. They organised the Petition of...

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...l counties regardless of whether or not they were loyal or neutral

and this severely damaged the local’s relations with the royalists.

R.H.Parry explained that “farmers refused to follow their landlords

into the royalist camp and offered to pay their rents to parliament

instead. The Yeomen and clothiers, and the whole ‘middle rank’ of

people in Somerset, as well as the ‘poorer sort’, turned to parliament

to defend them against the royalist nobility and gentry.” Angela

Anderson believes that this was not so much a fault of the King but

simply the need to supply the King’s armies with food and other

necessities due the high demands of the army. Yet Charles was the only

man who could have prevented this, being the sole leader of his forces

and his failure to do so led to villages in the west supporting

Parliament instead.