Text 35: charles I and the civil war

One of the chief threads that make up the pattern of English history, a thread that runs through it from the earliest times almost to our present day, is the struggle between the king and the people (or the Parliament) to decide which should be supreme. At first for many centuries the king was all-powerful, but gradually his powers were reduced and those of Parliament built up until now it is the Parliament that, in all but name, is the chief power in the land.

And in this long struggle one of the most decisive moments came in the seventeenth century. Charles I was on the throne. As a man he was admirable, sincerely religious, a faithful husband and a loving father. As a king he was dishonourable and untrustworthy. He was brought up to believe in the "Divine Rights of Kings", and hated the idea of a Parliament, believing that its only purpose was to vote the money that he thought necessary. To get the money he lightly gave any promise that Parliament asked for, and just as lightly broke that word of honour. Time and again he was trusted and time and again he was false to that trust, until it was forced on the people that no promise that he gave was of any value. At last, when Charles entered the House of Commons itself with the intention of arresting the five men who were the leaders of the party that opposed him, people realised that if freedom and truth and justice were to live at all there was no choice but to resist him by force.

The actual fighting in the Civil War broke out in 1642. The Royalists fought bravely but not always shrewdly, and were eventually outmatched by the parliamentary forces. Seeing that his cause was lost, the king gave himself up and was imprisoned, brought to trial and found guilty of having made war on his people. He was sentenced to death and beheaded right outside the Whitehall palace. Politically, it was a totally unnecessary end, but Charles I faced it with impeccable courage and «nothing in his life became him like the leaving it».

Text 36: the royalists and the parliamentarians

At first the tide of battle in the English Civil war of 1642-49 went completely against the Parliamentary forces, and they were hopelessly defeated in almost every battle. It was natural that they should be. The majority of the country landowners and the wealthy men, most of whom had been trained in arms and had weapons and horses, supported Charles I. The Royalists were far more attractive than the Parliamentarians. They had learning, courtesy and good manners; they loved poetry, music and art.

The Parliamentarians had none of this charm. They were mostly Puritans, men who wanted a simpler and plainer form of religion, and it led them to destroy pictures, the lovely stained-glass windows of churches and often the churches themselves. The Puritans dressed in plain clothes of dull colouring; their hair was cut close (they were even called "Roundheads"). To them all pleasures, even the most innocent, were sinful things. They scorned learning and art; they were bitterly intolerant to the opinions of their enemies and the pleasures of their friends. On the other side of the picture, they had a courage that no defeats could crush; they had a religious faith that inspired every act of their lives.

But courage and faith are not enough to win battles. Leadership and training are necessary, too. The leader of the Parliamentary forces was Oliver Cromwell, a country gentleman from Huntingdon. He had been in Parliament, a rough, ungraceful figure, unskilful as a speaker but known for his strength of character and his deep sincerity and religious feeling. Cromwell saw that if the Parliamentary army was to be victorious it must not only be fearless and full of faith, but it must be as well trained. Cromwell gathered his soldiers for courage, strength, horsemanship and religious feeling. He trained his men in complete obedience, filled them with the desire to fight for freedom, Parliament and religion, combining the spiritual and the practical as in his famous order: "Trust in God, and keep your powder dry."