What Was The Main Cause Of The Civil War Essay

The first ever civil war broke about between King Charles I and his parliament. To name, there are many causes which lead up to this, three major which are: money, power, and religion. It was said that Charles I wasn’t a strong king as was his father (King James VI and I) yet some blame parliament for their arrogance to the new power. This essay will explain the three causes, their triggers and which was the most important cause of the first ever Civil War in England.

Charles I strongly believed in the Divine Right of Kings, a doctrine which stated that Kings were chosen through God’s will and God wasn’t wrong. This assured Charles I that he was fit to be king, even if some didn’t think so. However, many of the decisions Charles took were thought to be unwise by his Parliament, one being his changes to the Church. Charles was urged by the Archbishop William Laud, to take the system of bishops and catholic services to Scotland and they did this by introducing the new English Prayer book.

However, the
It started off predominantly with Charles’ favouritism (a long term effect). Buckingham and Stratford were two men who were given a lot of power by Charles but when Parliament had Stratford trialled, they made Charles sign his death warrant, which obviously had upset and annoyed Charles. Charles tried to have the arrest of 5 MPs but Parliament found out which angered them. To get back at Charles, Parliament introduced the 19 propositions, a set of rules which included Parliament having control over the royal children and laws enforced against Catholics. Many accused Charles over the start over the civil war, but there were others who thought Parliament had become greedy for power and tried to deprive the King of his rights, although Charles didn’t say anything but declared war against Parliament, and thus the civil war was