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A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6) cover

A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 36: BOOK VIII. THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE KING, DOWN TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR.
By Leopold von Ranke
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History - BritishHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

The volume traces political developments in seventeenth-century England, focusing on periods when the crown governed without parliamentary consent, its fiscal and religious policies, and the growth of ecclesiastical and constitutional conflict. It examines diplomatic relations and military engagements with continental powers, the escalation of disputes with Scotland over church governance and covenanting resistance, and efforts at negotiation that repeatedly failed. The narrative follows the widening breach between royal authority and representative institutions, the reorganization of military forces, factional divisions at home, and the progression from political crisis into armed struggle culminating in the monarch’s downfall.

BOOK VIII.
THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE KING, DOWN TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR.

In a sense quite different from that in which James I thought to achieve the union of the two crowns and kingdoms, was that union destined to be accomplished; and already everything was smoothing the way thereto. The special object of the first two Stuart kings was to complete, on Tudor principles, the institutions of Church and State in England, and to extend the same to Scotland. But they had thereby awakened in the land of their birth a spirit of resistance at once aristocratic and religious. In direct opposition to the King, the Scots took up an attitude of ecclesiastical and political independence, which never was paralleled in any other monarchy. The King hoped to crush the Scottish movement by the strength of royal influence in England; but the consequences were the very opposite, for the movement spread into England also.

When the Scots entered England their first and chief demand was that the King should settle the home affairs of Scotland; but they added two other demands which concerned England as much as Scotland. They pressed for the punishment of those who had caused the troubles, that is to say, of the chosen counsellors of the King in matters both spiritual and temporal, and also for the summoning of an English Parliament, in which peace might be arranged.

They thus fully expressed the wishes of all the domestic opponents of Charles I: no further extension of them was necessary to imply the overthrow in England also of the political system that had hitherto prevailed. On the question how far the King would yield depended the future of his government, of his own life, and of the two nations.