Religion's Role In The English Civil War

The 17th century was a chaotic time period in England. England saw a transition in their nation’s religion during the reign of different monarchs. Before the start of the 17th century, England was under a Roman Catholic monarch with Queen Mary. Mary attempted to turn the Church of England into a Catholic Church and in the process earned the name “Bloody Mary”. She earned this name through her executions of many Protestants in England. However once Mary was unsuccessful in creating a Catholic England and was no longer the monarch, the Church went back to a Protestant Church. With the church now being Protestant, the Catholic minority in England began to become upset with the church and even plotted to make the church Catholic again through violence.

This attempted act by the Catholics started to strengthen the anti-Catholic attitudes in England. Later, the Puritans would become dissatisfied with the church and would eventually leave to make a new place for themselves in America where they could practice freely without persecution. All of this religious tension in England between the Catholics and Protestants which more tensions will be discussed later, could be seen as a precursor to the English Civil War that takes place in 1642. When Charles I came to power as monarch in the three kingdoms (England, Scotland, Ireland), many people in the kingdoms were unhappy with his powers he was taking as king and even some in Parliament were not happy with his views either. Soon, civil war broke out in England between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists over many different issues including politics and religion. After the English Civil War ended in 1651, a lot had happened in the country that would affect not only the people in England, but also the citizens. The end of the war brought a victory home for Parliamentarians, as well as the execution of Charles I occurred in 1649. After his father’s execution, Charles II was then forced into exile in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell had become the ruler of the three kingdoms and established the Republican Commonwealth. Now that we know how the English Civil War ended and who was involved, the next question is what was the reason for war in the first place? Some will argue that the overall main reason that these two sides fought was for political gains and power. This idea is correct later on in the war, however a big reason these two sides started fighting was because of religious reasons. Religion could be seen not only at the beginning of the war, but all the way throughout the war as well. Religion indeed played a big role in the starting of this civil war and it can be seen with the Catholic and Protestant relations before the war, the threats to Protestantism from Ireland and Scotland, and with Oliver Cromwell coming to power at the end of the civil war.
The first evidence of religion playing a role in the English Civil War is in the relationship between Catholics and Protestants.

These two opposing religions had their differences be known be the other side and would fight for their ideas to be the ones all to follow. Conrad Russel states in his book The Causes of the English Civil War, that England “was a society with several religions, while still remaining a society with a code of values and a political system which were only designed to be workable with one”. Inside the Church of England was essentially two churches, Protestant and Catholic. Both sides were determined that their religion was going to be the one in the church and not the one outside looking in. Both sides wanted to control the authoritative powerhouse of England and would do anything to have the Church of England become the church of their religion. However, religious differences did not just occur between the citizens, it also occurred between King Charles I and Parliament. First off let’s look at King Charles himself. Charles was a very religious monarch who liked his worship to be High Anglican. He also believed the hierarchy of priests and bishops was very important, which alarmed Parliament because they believed that King Charles was leaning towards the idea of Catholicism in England. King Charles’ form of worship was seen by the Puritan faith as a form of popery. This upset them because they wanted a pure worship without icons or bishops. To clarify, popery is the doctrines, practices, and ceremonies associated with the pope or the papal system; Roman Catholicism. Charles also wanted to support William Laud who was the leader of the High Church Anglican Party because they had recently became prominent. Parliament strongly disagreed with the King’s decision because they feared that Laud would promote Roman Catholicism ideas and

values.