What was the English Civil war?
The gunpowder plot failed; but the civil war would later claim a King!
The English civil war was a war between parliament and Charles I. It started on the 22nd August 1642 and lasted till the 3rd September 1651, it lasted 9 years, 1 week and 5 days The civil war all started when Charles started his reign of England in 1625. Charles believed that god had given him the right to reign (divine right of kings With this on his mind two years later in 1629 he got rid of parliament. Charles I ruled with out parliament for 11 years and soon run out of money and because there was no parliament he couldn't raise the taxes to gain more money. Soon after Parliament was banned Charles I forces the Scottish to use then English prayer books, This makes the Scottish very mad and he declares a war on him.However wars cost a lot of money because you have to make armour and weapons and pay the soldiers who fight the war. So in April 1640 he decides to bring back parliament so he could raise the taxes to gain money to fight in the war. When parliament refuses to help Charles I he elects a chief officer to help him. Then Charles raises the taxes. The next step of his plan was to kick out the 5 leading opponents from the house of commons. This plan fails which makes Parliament even angrier they declare a civil war. After civil war was declared it was two years before they started to fight the war. In these two years the country split into two sides of the country. People who thought England should be ruled by the king or queen, (Charles I side) were called the cavaliers or the royalists and the people who thought parliament should rule, (Oliver Cromwell side) were called the round heads or the New model army. during this time both sides raised army's and in 1642 the English civil war began. The first fight was held in Nottingham and it was was a dead heat. Other the next 4 years they fought and Charles I decided to to team up with the Scots and they made and signed a contract that said they would help each other out However, but the Scots just handed him over to the round heads (Oliver Cromwell). So he lost his crown. And because he was no longer king. On January 30, 1649 Charles I went to his execution, because it was so cold on this day he wore two big tee-shirts. He did this to stop him from shivering as he believed this make him look scared of being executed. After Charles I was beheaded Oliver Cromwell became head of England. When this happened a republic was declared This was known as the commonwealth of England. Even thought Charles I was dead Oliver Cromwell was not out of danger of starting another war. this was because Charles son Charles II could start a rebellion against him. The way Charles II would do this is he would march an army down from Scotland to the head of another royalist army. Then the army went down towards the west of the country. This was because the army was strongest here and this was the best place to pick up more Royalists to join the fight. Even though Charles II picked up supporters as he travelled there were far less people than he and his Scottish supporters had hoped there would be.