Was War Inevitable By The Summer Of 1641?

By the summer of 1641 Charles had done several things to agitate the Parliament and people of England. He had married a catholic, sent parliament home when they refused to collect more money for him. He had introduced unpopular taxes while there was no parliament. He had tried to make the Church more catholic and he had tried to extend his policies to Scotland.

The information above is slightly misleading as many people, including those who were closely involved did not see the information like this. The power of Parliament had been growing, and from 1620, the king had to ask for money from the parliament. It was not unusual for monarchs to rule the country without parliament, but during this time he made some bad decisions, which made people trust him less.

In 1640 the Parliament asked for a compromise. They asked for regular meetings, to punish his minister for the way they had behaved, to take advice from sensible ministers, to reverse changes he had made to the church, to not raise taxes without permission and to put an end to special courts where people could be locked up with no trial. By the summer of 1641, Charles gave in. He said that Parliament could meet every 3 years, he banned the ship tax, his most unfair tax, he put an end to special courts, he didn’t change the church back, but put Archbishop Laud in prison, the man who had helped him change the church and he had executed Strafford, the most hated minister.

This makes me think that war was not inevitable by the summer of 1641. Although Charles had married a catholic and changed the church and not changed it back when asked, he put the Archbishop in prison. Although he had chosen to rule without parliament for 11 years he had now given the parliament ‘Regular’ meetings, saying that they had to meet every 3 years. Although he had introduced unfair taxes, he had also later banned Ship Taxes, the most unfair of them. It seemed like he had corrected, or at least made slightly better, his past mistakes.

In the next year, several events took place that changed things. The parliament asked for them to be able to choose the kings ministers and to reduce the power of bishops, making the church more protestant. Charles then tried to arrest 5 leading MPs. They however had been warned, so fled in time. Parliament took control of the army, which they thought Charles might use against him other wise. They did not do this with Charles’ permission. The thing that i think really started the war was the 19 propositions. They included things like the king can only govern with our permission, all ministers had to be approved by parliament and the church must be reformed as parliament wants. Many MPs thought they were pushing their luck. The King thought this was also going too far and he said it would make him ‘a mere phantom of a king.’ The war began on 22 of August, 1642.