The English Civil War, often referred to simply as the 'Civil War' was the conflict between king and
parliament which inaugurated the Commonwealth. This period of bloodshed, with the the whole nation polarised
behind either monarch or parliament, took place between 1642 and 1646. Warfare again errupted between 1648 and
1652, this time between parliament and the disgruntled army which it had assembled to fight the Royalists.
THE CROWN'S FISCAL DIFFICULTIES
Medieval theory dictated that the Crown should live on the revenues obtained from Crown property and certain dues which had been the traditionally the province of the Crown such as tonnage and poundage. Due to the effects of inflation - the rise in prices generally - the monarchy found itself unable to raise sufficient revenue by these means and was thus embarassed financially.
Rather than seeking grants from parliament to make up the shortfall, grants which would invariably involve the surrender of power by the Crown to parliament as a >quid pro quo, the monarch sought to revive the old and lapsed feudal dues which the crown had claimed and to levy the ship money which had been due on ports and maritime counties throughout the country in general.
Although a bench of judges remodelled for the purpose declared the taxation legal, it proved extremely umopular throughout the country. The taxes were opposed on principle by the middle classes, merchants and smallholders - and the social and economic changes which had occured during the sixteenth century had given the middle class increasing power in Parliament. This discontent at increased taxation was excacerbated by the social policies of the Stuart kings.
The Long Parliament impeached Strafford and Laud and suppressed the Star Chamber and other organs of government. Rebellon in Ireland presented parliament with another opportunity to press fresh demands upon the Crown in the form of the Grand Remonstrance. Charles I attempted to arrest five members of Parliament, Haselrig, John Hampden, Hollis, Pym and Strode, supposedly for treason. When Charles I refused to accept the Nineteen Propositions in 1642 - the reforms demanded by Parliament - war between the two sides became inevitable.
| 1640.Nov.03 | | The Long Parliament called by king Charles I
The parliament sat through the Civil War (1640-1645), the execution of Charles I and the Interregnum or Commonwealth which followed to be dissolved on March 14th, 1660 |
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| 1642.Jan.04 | | Charles I unsuccessfully attempts to arrest 5 members of parliament
They were spirited away before the royal troops arrived |
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| 1642.Jul | | Cromwell personally sends arms valued at �100 to Cambridge
He had already contributed �600 to the proposed Irish campaign and �500 for raising forces in England - very large sums from his small estate |
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| 1642.Aug.22 | | Charles I raises the royal standard in Nottingham: the king was refused entry to the House of Commons to arrest some of its members (from this point on no monarch was allowed entry)
An anachronistic medieval gesture, the raising of the royal standard signals the start of the Civil War |
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| 1642.Oct.23 | | Battle of Edgehill: Oliver Cromwell faught in the battle |
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| 1642.Oct.29 | | Charles I and the Royalist army enter Oxford |
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| 1642.Nov.11 | | Charles I and the Royalist army move eastwards to Colnbrook |
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| 1642.Nov.13 | | Battle of Turnham Green, west of London. Royalist army under the King, Parliamentarians under Robert Devereux
Outnumbered by the 24,000 Pariamentarians, no battle was fought as the Royalists went south to Kingston and on to Reading in Berkshire |
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| 1643 | | Cromwell became leader of the army of the Eastern counties |
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| 1643 | | The Long Parliament enforced censorship on printers and publishers |
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| 1643 | | Battles of Bradock Down, Stratton, Lansdown (Sir Bevil Grenville killed) and Roundway Down.
Royalists take Bristol
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| 1643.Jul | | Cromwell appointed governor of the Isle of Ely |
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| 1643.Jul.05 | | Battle of Lansdown Hill; Parliamentary garrison from nearby Bath defeated by the Royalist army but with apalling losses |
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| 1643.Jul.26 | | Capture of Bristol |
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| 1643.Sep.05 | | Articles of surrender signed and Royalists take control of Exeter following a seige |
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| 1643.Oct.11 | | Battle of Winceby secures Leicestershire for Parliament |
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| 1644.Jan | | Scotland joins Charles II in war against the English Parliament |
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| 1644.Jan.22 | | Cromwell becomes 2nd in command under the earl of Manchester as lieutenant-general of the Eastern Association |
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| 1644.Feb.16 | | Cromwell\\\'s influence greatly increased as he becomes a member of the Committee of Both Kingdoms |
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| 1644.May | | Cromwell repulses Gorings attempt to relieve beseiged Lincoln
He subsequently took part in Manchesters campaign in the north |
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| 1644.Jun | | Essex relieves Lyme Regis |
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| 1644.Jul | | Royalist attempt to take Dorchester, Dorset |
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| 1644.Jul.02 | | Battle of Marston Moor, near York: the Royalists are routed by Cromwell |
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| 1644.Jul.23 | | Essex relieves Plymouth |
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| 1644.Aug | | Royalists defeat Essex at Lostwithiel (after laying seige to the Cornish town throughout August) and push Essex to the old earthworks at Castle Dor
Charles I stayed at the nearby Boconnoc estate during the seige |
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| 1644.Aug.12 | | Charles I takes Respryn Bridge cutting Essex (sheltered in the Fowey valley hoping for naval support) off from the north |
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| 1644.Sep.02 | | Phillip Skippon surrenders Parliamentary forces leaving Charles I in control of Devon and Cornwall
Essex and Lord Robartes had slipped away to Plymouth on a small boat. The 6,000 parliamentarian troops disarmed now and allowed to leave - they marched to Southampton and Portsmouth but 5,000 died en-route of starvation and exposure |
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| 1644.Oct.27 | | Failure of the attack upon the king at Newbury |
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| 1645 | | Jan-March: Formation of the New Model Army |
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| 1645.Mar | | 10,000 Clubmen meet at Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Mere, Wincanton to resist the depredations of the Civil War armies
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| 1645.Jun | | Clubmen gather at Sturminster Newton and petitions for Civil War to cease |
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| 1645.Jun.13 | | Parliament wins the Battle of Naseby and, effectively, the Civil War |
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| 1645.Sep.11 | | Prince Rupert surrenders Bristol to Parliamentary forces |
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| 1646.May.05 | | Charles I surrenders to the Scots in Scotland |
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| 1646.Jun.24 | | Surrender of Oxford and Faringdon to Parliamentary forces (Fairfax and Cromwell) effectively ends the Civil War
]]or 20th ???[[ Cromwell uses his influence in favor of granting lenient terms
Following the surrender, Royalist forces held prisoner in Wiltshire were released and allowed to return to their homes |
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| 1647.Jan | | Scots surrender King Charles to Parliament in exchange for �400,000 |
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| 1647.Nov | | King Charles escapes to the Isle of Wight |
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| 1648.Jan | | Parliament renounces its allegiance to King Charles I |
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| 1648.Mar.02 | | Civil War breaks out in support of the king |
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| 1648.Jul | | The Scots under Hamilton, loyal again to Charles I, invade northern England |
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| 1648.Aug.19 | | Battle of Preston (Aug 17-19): Oliver Cromwell defeats the Scotts invaders loyal to Charles I |
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| 1649.Jan.30 | | Execution of Charles I for treason outside the Banqueting House, Whitehall - beheaded by the hangman Richard Brandon
Cromwell allowed the head to be sown back onto the body for the sake of the royal family |
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| 1650 | | Newly arrived governor of Barbados (1650-51), Francis, Lord Willoughby of Parham, declares for Charles II. |
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| 1651.Sep.03 | | Future Charles II of England defeated at the Battle of Worcester (the last major battle of the civil war) and flees to France |
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| 1652.Jan | | 2 warships and about 1,000 soldiers under General-at-Sea George Ayescue, sent by the Commonwealth quell the Royalists on Barbados in the Caribbean who had taken refuge there |
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| 1658.Sep.03 | | Death of Oliver Cromwell (-1599), Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, from malaria (or poisoning). He was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard
The dying Puritan refused quinine from cinchona, the only known treatment for malaria, because it was introduced by the Catholic Jesuits |
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| 1659 | | Resignation of Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector |
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| 1660.Apr.16 | | Dissolution of the Long Parliament summoned by Charles I in 1640
The parliament, called by Charles I in 1640, had sat through the Civil War (1640-1645), the execution of the king and the Interregnum or Commonwealth which followed |
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