On 22 August 1642, King Charles I formally raised his royal standard on Castle Hill in Nottingham, signalling the beginning of the first English Civil War. This act followed the catastrophic breakdown of the relationship – and attempts at reconciliation – between the king and parliament.

Charles’ 11 years of ‘Personal Rule’ without parliament (1629-1640); his religious policies, which were perceived as crypto-Catholic (Arminianism); and his attempts to raise revenue through ‘ship money’, contrary to all precedent, had alienated a large proportion of the political establishment.

Charles’ Personal Rule or “Eleven Years’ Tyranny” ended with his attempt to extend his religious policies and doctrines to Scotland. In doing so, Charles sparked the Bishops’ Wars – a conflict he did not have the financial means to win. Charles thus summoned parliament in early 1640 in desperate need of funds.

MPs, however, returned to pursue redress for 11-years worth of grievances with the crown. Charles showed little sympathy for this course of action, and promptly dissolved the ‘Short Parliament’ after only three weeks.

Without parliament’s support, Charles then attacked Scotland again. He suffered a comprehensive defeat. The Scots invaded Northern England, occupied Northumberland and Durham, and forced the king to pay £850 daily to prevent their advance.

Left with no alternative, Charles summoned another parliament in November 1640.

***

The Long Parliament, convened in 1640, took advantage of the king’s weak position to dismantle the instruments of his Personal Rule. MPs legislated to increase parliament’s power at the sovereign’s expense, using his financial desperation as leverage to force through a series of hostile measures.

One law, the Triennial Act 1640, mandated that parliament must convene at least once every three years, even without the king’s summons. The Ship Money Act 1640 outlawed the kings’ favourite tax. Crucially, the parliament ensured the king could not dissolve it without its own consent.

At this point, the king had conceded a great deal. Royal assent had been granted to a series of laws that drastically curtailed his power. But resentment grew on both sides. Debate arose among parliamentarians about how far to challenge Charles’ position. During this period, there was an unsuccessful attempt to overt open conflict by requiring all those over the age of 18 to sign The Protestation, an oath of allegiance to Charles.

The Protestation condemned “all Popery and Popish Innovations” and spoke of “the Power and Privileges of Parliament.”

Over the winter of 1641-1642 relations between king and parliament broke down further. On 22 November, the commons passed the Grand Remonstrance by a narrow majority, 159 votes to 148. It listed over 150 perceived ‘misdeeds’ and solutions that would be acceptable to parliament.

The Remonstrance concluded: “If these things may be observed, wee doubt not but God will crowne this Parliament with such successe as shall be the beginning, and foundation of more honour and happinesse to his Majesty, then ever yet was enjoyed by any of his Royall Predecessors.”

In January 1642, trust collapsed completely after the king, followed by 400 soldiers, failed in an attempt to arrest five leading MPs in the commons chamber – namely John Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Sir Arthur Haselrig and William Strode. He failed; the members, warned of the king’s intentions, had fled.

The king’s armed intrusion was an artless act of provocation – a clear and egregious constitutional breach.

Both king and parliament began preparing for war. Charles left London and established his court in York.

***

On 1 June 1642, the Long Parliament sent its final ultimatum to remedy the “Jealousies and Differences which have unhappily fallen betwixt” the king and his people. The ‘Nineteen Propositions’ once again sought to expand parliament’s powers, by securing supervision of foreign policy, command of the militia, and oversight of the king’s ministers.

The document listing parliament’s demands concluded: “And these our humble desires being granted by your Majestie, we shall forthwith apply ourselves to regulate your present Revenue in such sort as may be for your best advantage; and likewise to settle such an ordinary and constant increase of it, as shall be sufficient to support your Royall Dignitie in Honour and plenty, beyond the proportion of any former Grants of the Subjects of this Kingdom to your Majestie’s Royall Predecessors.”

The king refused. “For all these reasons to all these demands our answer is Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari”, he said. (We are unwilling to change the laws of England).

Bulstrode Whitelocke, a parliamentarian, stated around this time: “It is strange to note how we have insensibly slid into the beginning of a civil war by one unexpected accident after another, as waves of the sea which have brought us thus far.”

On 12 August, Charles issued a proclamation summoning loyal royalists to Nottingham “where we intend to erect our Standard Royal, in our just and necessary defence, and whence we resolve to advance forward for the suppression of the said Rebellion, and the protection of our good subjects among them, from the burthen of the slavery and insolence under which they cannot but groan until they be relieved by us.”

The raising of the standard at Nottingham on 22 August, a sodden affair thanks to the weather, marked a final, irrevocable step towards civil war.

https://x.com/MuseumCromwell/status/1958816346206085616

***

After a series of skirmishes, the first significant battle of the war was fought on 23 October 1642, at Edgehill in Warwickshire. The royal cavalry, led by the king’s nephew, Prince Rupert, defeated parliament’s cavalry.

The royalists failed to maintain this fighting form.

The conflict would last for nearly a decade, spanning three phases.

It culminated in the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, the abolition of the monarchy, and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England.