English Civil Wars

Thus, stressed by rebellion in Scotland and Ireland, and with tensions driven by religious and other grievances, parliament put their grievances to Charles (the Grand Remonstrance), and also tried to take control of the army raised to quell Irish rebellion so it could not be used against them. Charles refused and levied treason charges against one member of the House of Lords and five of the Commons and enforced the order himself. The accused escaped. Rebuffed, Charles left London to the north of England. Parliament made one more attempt to place the army under their control, and also to gain the right to decide about the future of the church. This last ultimatum did not lead to resolution, and when the King formally raised the royal standard at Nottingham on August 22 s the First English Civil War was triggered.

	First English Civil War 1642-46
Start	22nd August 1642, King Charles raised his standard at Nottingham
Events	23rd October 1642 Edgehill 2nd July 1644 Martson Moor 3rd April 1645 New Model Army created by the Self Denying Ordinance 14th June 1645 Naseby
End	5th November 1645 King Charles retired to Oxford. 5th May 1646 King Charles left Oxford in disguise and surrendered to the Scottish army besieging Newark. King Charles taken to Newcastle upon Tyne by the Scots, who tried unsuccessfully to get him to accept Presbyterianism as the official English religion. Parliament bought-off the Scottish army and took control of King Charles. King Charles sent into captivity in Holmby House, Northants.
Comments	Parliamentary Army commanded by Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl Essex Royalist Army commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, aged 22 The first English standing army was formed by Oliver Cromwell in 1645. This New Model Army was highly disciplined and well-trained and was never defeated. Alexander Leslie, (1580-1660) the first Earl Leven, who commanded the Scottish army that fought on the side of Parliament in the English Civil War, took the surrender. Interestingly it was the Earl's son David, the third Earl of Leven, who raised a regiment of foot on 18th March 1689 which became the Kings Own Scottish Borderers.

Parliament disbanded half of the Army (including all officers above Colonel except for the Commander-in-Chief). The remaining Army was either sent to Ireland or kept on security duties in England. Pay due in arrears was not provided, and the Army became in conflict with Parliament. This continued, until in early June1647 when the Army took control of the King

Resentment at more extreme aspects of Puritanism coupled with increased power of county committees of which some had become virtual local dictatorships.

	Second English Civil War 1648-1649
Start
Events
End	This campaigning season ended with the execution of King Charles on 30th January 1649, and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, the period known as the Interregnum.
Comments	"King, Lords and Commons, land-lords and merchants, the City and the countryside, bishops and presbyters, the Scottish army, the Welsh people and the English Fleet, all now turned against the New Model Army. The Army beat the lot". This is the succinct description given by Sir Winston Churchill.

30th January 1649 - The Commonwealth of England, a republican form of government, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England and later of Scotland and Ireland. Members of the Long Parliament serve as government.

To avoid the automatic succession of Charles I's son Charles Stuart, an Act of Parliament was passed on 30 January forbidding the proclaiming of another monarch.

30th January 1649 - Prince Charles Stuart declares himself King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. At the time all three Kingdoms had not recognized him as ruler.

5th February 1649 - In Edinburgh, Scotland claimant King Charles II of England is declared King in his absence. Scotland is the first of the three Kingdoms to recognize his claim to the throne.

1st May 1650 Charles signed the Treaty of Breda, promising to impose Presbyterianism in England

23rd June 1650 - Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland, the only of the three Kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.

24th June 1650 Charles signs the Scottish Covenant and proclaimed king of Scotland

3rd September 1650 Scots Covenanter army was defeated by the Parliamentary army under Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar

3 September 1651 Charles Stuart defeated at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, following which Charles is said to have hidden in an oak tree at Boscobel House, subsequently escaping to the continent in disguise.

	Third English Civil War 1650-51
Start	June 1650 when Charles II was crowned in Scotland and marched with the Scots Covenanters on England
Events	3 September 1650 Dunbar 3rd September 1651 Worcester
End	3rd September 1651 at Worcester, where Cromwell defeated Charles Stuart who then fled abroad and thus ending the civil wars.
Comments

He was forced to flee in exile and lived mostly in the Netherlands. During the political crisis in the Commonwealth, Charles issued the Declaration of Breda (April 1660), expressing his willingness to settle all disputed issues with Parliament. After the Convention Parliament agreed to restoring Charles as king, he was publicly proclaimed king on 8 May 1660.

8 May 1660, publicly proclaimed to have been King since 30 Jan 1649 in Westminster and London1 (regnal years counted from 30 Jan 1649)

23 Apr 1661, crowned as King of England, Westminster Abbey. His reign marked a period of relative stability after the upheaval of the English Revolution. Noted for subservience and insistence on royal prerogative, his first Parliament was overwhelmingly Royalist and give him free rein.

6 Feb 1685, deceased. Although a member of the Anglican church, Charles recieved the last rites of the Roman Catholic church. He was succeeded by his brother, James II.

INTERREGNUM (1649-1660)

Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious toleration. In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer of the throne. Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited Charles I's son, Charles, to become King.

May 1660 Declaration of Breda in which Charles promised pardons, arrears of Army pay, confirmation of land purchases during the Interregnum and 'liberty of tender consciences' in religious matters.

1661 Militia Act vested control of the armed forces in the Crown, and Parliament agreed to an annual revenue of £1,200,000 (a persistent deficit of £400,000-500,000 remained, leading to difficulties for Charles in his foreign policy).

1660/1 Triennial Act of 1641 was repealed - there was no mechanism for enforcing the King's obligation to call Parliament at least once every three years.

1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, only the lands of the Crown and the Church were automatically resumed; the lands of Royalists and other dissenters which had been confiscated and/or sold on were left for private negotiation or litigation.

Restoration of the Monarchy

The English Monarchy was restored in May 1660, when Charles Stuart was invited back to England from Europe where he had been since the 1649 execution of his father Charles I. This restoration saw England have a King again, but this time the upper hand was with Parliament and not the monarch. General George Monck's Regiment of Foot had been instrumental in the restoration of Charles II. The King showed his gratitude to Monck by bestowing on him the Order of the Garter, which is now the basis of the Regimental cap star.

Because of its associations with the excesses of Cromwell's Commonwealth, on 26 August 1660, Parliament passed an act ordering the disbandment of the entire New Model Army. No exceptions, including General Monck's regiments, were allowed, although one concession was made: they should be the last to disappear.

Even though the New Model Army had been disbanded, Charles II needed to raise a military royal household to protect the royal person and key points in late 1660. He modelled this army on the Maison du Roi of Louis XIV. This was to be the first peacetime standing army in Britain since the Roman occupation.

The troops to form the core of this new standing army paraded at Tower Hill on 14 February 1661. The men symbolically laid down their arms and with them their association with the New Model Army. They were immediately ordered to take them up again as Royal troops in the New Standing Army, as the First, Second, and Third Guards. The First and Third obeyed with alacrity; the regiment of General Monk stood still, to the surprise of the king, who inquired of Monck the reason for their insubordinate bearing. The veteran replied that his regiment declined to be considered second to any other; and, says the legend, Charles remarked 'Very well; they shall be my Coldstream Regiment of Foot-guards, and second to none.' Hence the motto 'Nulli Secundus' or second to none, on their regimental colour.