‘A World Turned Upside Down’?

1. ‘A World Turned Upside Down’? Charles I & The Civil War

2. 1625- 42 • Succession of Charles I, 1625 • Tensions with Parliament • Threat of War • Petition of Right • Assassination of Buckingham • The Three Resolutions • Dismissal of Parliament • ‘Personal Rule’ 1629-1641 • Laud’s Reforms • ‘Ship Money’ • Clash with Scots • Recall of Parliament 1641- 1642 Key Dates Charles I, King of England (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3957043150/in/set-72157621948306318/lightbox/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

3. The Civil War – Key Dates • 1642-49 • The First War 1642-46 • Peace Talks 1646-1648 • The Second War1648-1649 • Pride’s Purge, 1648 • Execution of Charles I, 1649

4. The Reign of Charles I Charles, Prince of Wales King Charles I of England, son of James I, grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3395324295/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

5. The King in all his Majesty 1636 King Charles I, grandson of Mary Queen of Scots (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3811988086/in/set-72157615975183532/lightbox/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

6. Queen Henrietta Marie 1635 Henrietta Maria, Queen of Britain, wife of Charles I (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/4015725906/in/set-72157622486903162/lightbox/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

7. The Royal Children 1635 Charles II, when Prince of Wales, James II, when Duke of York, and Mary, Princess Royal--the three eldest children of Charles I and Henrietta Maria (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/4014962527/in/set-72157622486903162/lightbox/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

8. Extracts from Parliament's Petition of Rights, 1628 Of late divers commissions under Your Majesty's great seal have issued forth, by which certain powers have been assigned and appointed commissioners, with power and authority to proceed within the land according to the justice of martial law against such soldiers and marines or other dissolute persons going with...and by such summary course and order as is used by armies in time of war, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and to cause them to be executed and put to death according to the law martial... We do humbly pray, Your most excellent Majesty...that the aforesaid commissions...may be revoked and anulled; and that hereafter no commission of like nature may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid, lest by color of them any of Your Majesty's be destroyed or put to death contrary to the laws or practises of the land.

9. Charles I comments following his Dismissal of Parliament, 1629 ‘Princes are not bound to give account of their actions, but to God alone.'

10. John Hampden MP and leading opponent of Ship Money John Hampden (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63794459@N07/6135353027/lightbox/) / Skara kommun (http://www.flickr.com/photos/63794459@N07/) / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

11. Archbishop Laud 1630s William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3846241876/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

12. Parliament’s Nineteen Propositions, June 1642 Photograph by Kate Watson

13. THE KINGS MAIESTIES ALARUM FOR OPEN WAR, Declared by His setting up His Standard at Dunsmore-Heath. Joh. Brown, Cler.Parl. , August 20, 1642 [The King] Declares His affront at the City of Coventry, by denying Him entrance into the City, and His Resolution thereupon, to plant Ordnance against it, and batter down the City, and all other Cities and Townes that shall deny His admittance...AND His command at all His subjects on the North side of the Trent, or 20. miles Southward thereof, to attend His person on the 24. of this moneth. His Maiesties Army already consisting of 11000. Foot, and 6000. Horse, with 46 pieces of Ordnance. Richard Baxter, Presbyterian minister and initial supporter of Parliament, Reliquae Baxterianae, 1696 Many of those who supported Parliament, especially among the nobility and gentry, were mainly concerned about public safety and liberty. However, it was mainly differences about religious matters that stirred ordinary men and filled up Parliament’s armies. They were filled with determination and courage. The matter of bishops, or no bishops, was not the main thing that stirred them, for thousands that wished for good bishops were on the Parliament’s side. But ordinary people throughout the land, who were then called Puritans, both preachers and people, supported the Parliament.

14. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon & Royalist History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars, 1667–74 Training as volunteers for Parliament happened only in those towns and by those inferior people who were well known for faction and division in religion. The people generally were loyally inclined to the King. In the counties in the west of England most of the gentry were engaged against Parliament, as they were in truth throughout the Kingdom, yet the common people, especially in parts of Somerset, were generally too much inclined to Parliament. A Declaration of the Inhabitants of the county of Cheshire, August 1642, (A public declaration of neutrality.) We owe our laws, liberties and property both to the goodness of the King and to the great care of the honourable Parliament. Our loyal affections and judgements will not permit us to call ‘For the King’ or ‘For the Parliament’. The King and Parliament cannot be separated; they must laugh and cry, live and die together. We do not wish to involve this county in blood. No ammunition, or forces whatsoever, shall enter the county in a hostile manner.

15. Charles I, Letter to Prince Rupert, after the fall of Bristol, 12 September 1645 • Nephew. Though the loss of Bristol is a blow to me, your surrender of it as you did caused me greater distress. What is to be done when one who is so near to me, both in blood and friendship, submits himself to so cowardly an action? On 12 August you reassured me that, if no mutiny happened, you would keep Bristol for four months. Did you keep it for four days? Was there anything like a mutiny? I desire you to leave England. • Charles I, letter to his wife, Henrietta Maria, 1 July 1646. • (Charles was in the custody of the Scots and she was at the French court.) • Dear Heart, I had the contentment to receive your letter of 28th June upon Saturday last. The same day I got a true copy of the proposals for a political settlement of the current troubles, which will be put to me in ten days’ time. I now do assure you that they are such as I cannot agree to them without loss of my conscience, my crown, and my honour. As I can in no way consent to them, in my opinion a flat denial is to be delayed as long as possible. But how to make a denying answer is all the more difficult.

16. The NMA & the Levellers and Diggers ‘Free born John’ – John Lilburne, Levellers Leader John Lilburne, political agaitator (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/3865424488/) / Lisby (http://www.flickr.com/photos/60861613@N00/) / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

17. Extracts from the Petition of the New Model Army, 21 March 1646 1. The demands of the war have made us take many actions which the law would not allow. We humbly desire that, before our disbanding, a full and sufficient provision be made by way of a treaty or Ordinance of Parliament, to which royal assent may be desirable, in order to give us freedom from prosecution and ensure our security... 3. That those who have voluntarily served the Parliament in the late wars may not hereafter be compelled to serve as soldiers out of this kingdom. Sir Lewis Dyve, Letters to Charles I, 1647, (Dyve was a royalist prisoner in the Tower of London who shared a cell with John Lilburne) 29 September. Six regiments have dismissed their old Agitators as unfaithful to the trust given them by the soldiers. They have chosen new men in their place who had a solemn meeting yesterday in this town. 5 October. Some of these new Agitators meet here in town every day. I am told by Mr Lilburne that they are determined to do their utmost to suppress Cromwell’s faction.

18. The World Turned Upside Down, 1646/7 Work found at http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2007/10/22/the-world-turned-upside-down/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/)

19. The World Turned Upside Down, anon, pamphlet, 1646/7, selected extracts Listen to me and you shall hear, news hath not been this thousand year: Since Herod, Caesar, and many more, you never heard the like before. Holy-dayes are despis'd, new fashions are devis'd. Old Christmas is kickt out of Town. Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down. Captain John Clarke, Debates of the Army Council, 16–17 July 1647 (The famous Putney debates between soldiers and grandees.) Cromwell suggested that the best way to put right the difference between the Parliament and the army was by way of a treaty. I presume to say, in the name of these gentlemen of the army, that they too wish it might be so. But we have great fears and suspicions that these treaties, because they will be managed by a power so ill-disposed towards us, will prove to be destructive and deceptive. They will not give us certainty for our security, nor for the settlement of the kingdom.

20. The Trial of Charles I, 1649 Lord President: Charles Stuart, King of England; The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament, being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation (which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it) have resolved to make inquisition for Blood, and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice, to God, the Kingdom, and themselves, and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves, They have resolved to bring you to Trial and Judgment; and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice, before which you are brought... M. Cook. My Lord, I am commanded to charge Charles Stuart, King of England, in the name of the Commons of England, with Treason and high Misdemeanors; I desire the said Charge may be read... The Charge being read the Lord President replied: Lord President. Sir, you have now heard your Charge read, containing such matter as appears in it... The Court expects your Answer. The King. I would know by what power I am called hither. . . . by what Authority, I mean, lawful; there are many unlawful Authorities in the world, Thieves and Robbers by the highways: but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence, and carried from place to place, (and I know not what), and when I know what lawful Authority, I shall answer.

21. Remember, I am your King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring upon your heads, and the Judgment of God upon this Land, think well upon it, I say, think well upon it, before you go further from one sin to a greater; therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here, and I shall not be unwilling to answer, in the meantime I shall not betray my Trust: I have a Trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent, I will not betray it to answer a new unlawful Authority, therefore resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me. . . . I will stand as much for the privilege of the house of Commons, rightly understood, as any man here whatsoever. I see no House of Lords, here that may constitute a Parliament... Lord President. Sir, you have held yourself, and let fall such Language, as if you had been no ways Subject to the Law, or that the Law had not been your Superior. Sir, The Court is very well sensible of it, and I hope so are all the understanding People of England, That the Law is your Superior, that you ought to have ruled according to the Law, you ought to have done so. Sir, I know very well your pretence hath been that you have done so, but Sir, the difference hath been who shall be the Expositors of this Law, Sir, whether you and your Party out of Courts of Justice shall take upon them to expound Law, or the Courts of Justice, who are the Expounders; nay, the Sovereign and the High Court of Justice, the PARLIAMENT of England, that are not only the highest expounders, but the sole makers of the Law. Sir, for you to set yourself with your single judgment, and those that adhere unto you, to set yourself against the highest Court of Justice, that is not Law.

22. Sir, as the Law is your Superior; so truly Sir, there is something that is Superior to the Law, and that is indeed the Parent or Author of the Law, and that is the People of England... Now Sir, if so be the King will go contrary to that End, or any other Governor will go contrary to the end of his Government; Sir, he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust, and he ought to discharge that Trust, and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governor. This is not Law of yesterday Sir... but it is Law of old; and we know very well the Authors and the Authorities that do tell us what the Law was in that point upon the Election of Kings, upon the Oath that they took unto their People; and if they did not observe it, there were those things called Parliaments; the Parliaments were they that were to adjudge … the plaints and wrongs done of the King and the Queen, or their Children, such wrongs especially when the People could have no where else any remedy. Sir, that hath been the People of England's case, they could not have their remedy elsewhere but in Parliament. Sir, that road we are now upon by the command of the highest Courts hath been and is to try and judge you for these great offenses of yours. Sir, the Charge hath called you Tyrant, a Traitor, a Murderer, and a public Enemy to the Commonwealth of England. Sir, it had been well, if that any or all these terms might rightly and justly have been spared, if any one of them at all. The King’s Answer King: Ha!

23. Death warrant of King Charles I 1649 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/2713926474/) / UK Parliament (http://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/) / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) Warrant for the King’s execution, January 29, 1649