Civil War in the Summer of 1642 Essay

There were a tot of factors and subsequently a number of people who were crucial in aggravating the outbreak of the first face civil war, but most of these people were apart of devil heavy(p) parties, namely the royalists and parliamentarians. Of these two groups, two figures outstand as bitter rivals, King Charles I and washbowl Pym together they contributed most signifi basistly to the disagreement and aggression betwixt parliament and King. However, ultimately I believe Pym to be the littleer of two evils. The relationship and status of the monarchy in parliaments eyes had already been in a state of decline yet before Charles reign.His trumpeter had been known as the wisest fool in Christendom and there was a make do of resentment towards the former king, James, not only because of the number of times he dissolved parliament but also from his abuse of power and dementia of them through royal prerogatives, which were justified by his own divine accountability of kin gs belief. It could be argued that Charles was pulled into an uphill battle from the start and was not to blame for the damaged relationship between the commons and himself, however, during Charles reign, he make no attempt to reconcile relations even repeating the ideals of his father through the divine right of kings and also through the arrogance of his attitude and subsequent profligacy of parliament on human beingy occasions.History seemed to more or less be repeating itself, with 1629 marking the start of the eleven age totalitarianism through which Charles ran solely without parliament. By his own accord, he then apply a number of taxes and reforms that were heavily criticised by both parliament and domain alike. Among these were the religious reforms brought on by the resented Archbishop William Laud, who was suspected of Roman Catholicism which together with the fact Charles wife was Catholic, alienated parliament supercharge and fed a rumour of a Catholic faction. Other reforms brought on such as the Star Chamber and prerogative courts were used to silence critics, and further deepened the dissever between the two some parliamentarians such as John Hampden even challenged the changes such as the ship money tax Hampden refused to pay. All these served to further throw away any hope of peaceful negotiations between parliament and Charles, with each new action undertaken gaining more criticism. Undeniably however, one of his biggest critics was John Pym.Pym was a long serving member of parliament who had opposed the monarchy even in the reign of James, having been active in the impeachment of Buckingham in 1625 and in the work of the petition of right in 1628. He had opposed Charles a numerous points and contributed significantly to the disagreement between sevens and King and the subsequent dissolutions of Parliament Clarendon had said during the Short Parliament of 1640, Pym had had appeared to be the most leading man. It was no surprise w ith such enthusiasm that by the time of the ample parliament, Pym had dodged an accusation of t priming coat and become the leader of the opposition to the king. However, it is important to lay down Pym was really just stir uping for the rights of parliament and against the absolute monarchy Charles was imposing. Like umpteen other puritans, he had good reason to fear the Catholic conspiracy mentioned earlier and believed the despotic government of Charles was a way of destroying the protestant cartel in England. In this light, Charles arrogance comes through as he was evidently unable to negotiate over his unreasonable actions.When parliament lastly undeniable to be called again in 1640 due to the Scottish invasion, it marked a point of vulnerability for Charles, which parliament and namely Pym took advantage of. Charles needed funding, and in exchange for the money the Long parliament demanded the impeachment of both Laud and Strafford as well as the removal of the Star Ch amber. In both cases, Pym was spearheading the sub judice proceedings, even having launched a Bill of Attainder to justify a death sentence for Strafford which was soon reluctantly signed by Charles. The Earl of Strafford had been a closemouthed advisor of the king, and his death was a huge blow to Charles and something he endlessly regretted given the promise he made to Strafford upon the word of a king, you shall not suffer in life, honour or fortune.As a result, Charles resented parliament and longed for revenge. With the state of relations between King and parliament at an all-time low, the last thing needed was more criticism to an already weakened king, who had just agreed to the Triennial act of 1641 which meant parliament would be called at least every three years. Despite this, Pym and his supporters presented the Grand remonstrance a list of 160 grievances and misdeeds of Charles. This in itself was something proposed by Pym and was almost pestiferous Charles with hi s divine right of kings ideal now appearing obsolete. This may have proved a last straw for Charles, who would have been building a great sense of anger with Parliament and more specifically with Pym. thence soon after in 1642, Pym along with four other conspicuous members of the opposition was charged with treason, showing just how much of a terror Charles saw Pym as.When Charles took it upon himself to arrive at parliament with 300 soldiers to personally point the five members it destroyed any final shreds of trust between Parliament and Charles. Members of parliament were representatives of the people and Charles was arresting five of them for merely criticising. This event embody to Parliament the absolute monarchy they were fighting against and all the liberties they still needed to fight for. Charles must have even realised the mistake he had made in breaking any remaining ties with parliament, and six days later(prenominal) headed for Oxford to prepare an army of the in evitable coming war.In conclusion, both Pym and Charles can be interpreted as being the reason relations put down apart and Civil war broke out, however, even with Pyms booking in many parliamentary dissolutions and explicit opposition to the king, Charles still appears as the most unreasonable. Charles gave plenty of reasons for parliament and members such has Pym to criticise him, having made no attempt to learn from his fathers mistakes, ruling for 11 years purposely without parliament intervention and from imposing taxes and religious reforms which alienated people. The final act of attempting to arrest five members of parliament with hundreds of armed guards, proved not only too aggressive but also the final reason as to why Civil war became the only solution remaining.