The causes of English Civil war By Liam Pape In 1637 King Charles I demanded that Scotland would use

e the Church of England prayer book instead of their Knoxs book of common order. Some Scottish priests did this and used the Church of England prayer book however those who didnt started riots. The Scottish parliament was very unhappy and contacted King Charles and tried to discuss peace. However Charles was advised by one of his advisors called Strafford that they should go to war with Scotland. Charles liked this idea of going to war however was faced with a problem from a man called John Pym. Pym refused to grant the war tax until a better reason was made to go to war with Scotland. Pym was still not happy about this matter so he united both of the houses at Parliament and turned them against the king. Pym got Strafford arrested on the charge of high treason. In court he defended him self excellently and eventually won his case. However Pym wasnt finished yet. Pym used the Bill of Attainder against Strafford which meant Strafford was declared guilty without any proof. The king needed to sign this bill and Charles promised that he would, Charles also promised he would save Straffords life. Meanwhile rumours were going around that an army of Catholics were plotting to release Strafford and dissolve parliament. Many people heard this rumour and it lead to Catholics being distrusted and closing their shops if they own a shop and rioting on the streets. On May the 9th White hall was surrounded by rioters and Strafford urged the King to sign the bill and let him die. Strafford was thinking of the importance of the country rather than himself. This left Charles with no choice but to sign the bill. Parliament was out of control and the king knew this but he couldnt destroy it because Pym had written up another bill which prevented the king from destroying it. The Irish people knew about the King not being in control and they were not happy about it because they didnt want a Puritan ruler. Thousands of Protestants were murdered in Ireland so King Charles asked Parliament for some money for an army to restore Ireland to how it should be: without the riots and murder. Pym was smart though, he refused to give King Charles the money just in case Charles used the army against Parliament. Pym then used the money to get an army to control Ireland but the army would be under Parliaments control. Pym then prepared a Grand Remonstrance and it was presented in parliament by Oliver Cromwell. Luckily only 11 people voted for it. Pym was not happy now so sent his people (the Roundheads) into Westminster Hall. The Roundheads were then chased out by King Charless people (the Cavaliers). It was now almost the end of the year and this is when things really started to get violent so King Charles needed to do something. One morning he rushed into Parliament with 400 of his Cavaliers and asked for 5 people, one of them being Pym, he wanted to arrest them. Unfortunately the 5 people had left 2 hours earlier. When the king rushed into parliament it was seen as an offence of trying to destroy Parliaments privileges and liberties so this left King Charles unsupported by London. Women boiled water to pour over the heads of Royalist soldiers. Once again riots started. Barricades were made and cannons pushed into firing position. This meant Charles had to leave London and he would never return as King! Weeks later Pym returned to Parliament with his friends and they were very happy but this was far from over. Both King and Parliament had made cunning plans and on August 22 1642 English Civil war officially started. King Charles had raised his standard in a field near Nottingham. The Civil war was hard for some as they may be backing a different side to their friends. It seemed though that Parliament had most of the east coast on their side however the King had most of the North and West backing him up. However by the end of 1645 Parliament had the North, East, South and most of the midland.