Carlo I e la guerra civile inglese: riassunto

Charles I. When James I died in 1625, his son Charles I became king. Charles was in favor of Catholicism for the idea of the unlimited power of the king and was determinate to be an absolute king more than his father, so he was always in contrast with Parliament. But Parliament was made up of puritan, that have the economical power, so they wanted the political power too. When Charles was in need of money was obliged to summon Parliament, that had to control the economical laws, but the members of Parliament said that if they didn’t have a voice in the political decisions of the country they would have not accepted the taxes imposed, so Charles closed Parliament. He summoned and then he closed Parliament other times, but in 1628 Parliament succeeded in having the Petition of right signed by the king. It was a confirmation of Magna Charta that limited the king’s power in several ways: for instance he laws concerning taxes and money had to be signed by Parliament. But king and Parliament were still in contrast, so when Charles asked for money for a rebellion in Scotland Parliament refused to give him the authorization for raising taxes and the king after three weeks closed Parliament, known as Short Parliament. However he still needed money so he summoned Parliament again, but at this point members of Parliament decided that king had to sign a document that said he couldn’t close Parliament if the members didn’t agree with him, so he was not more allowed to close Parliament when he wanted and for this reason it lasted for the following years and became known as Long Parliament.

 

 

CIVIL WAR. In 1642 the civil war broke out and divided country into two groups: Cavaliers, that belonged to aristocracy and supported the king, and people that belonged to the middle classes and were in favor of Parliament, above all puritans. Aristocratic people had long hairs, so puritans, in contrast with them, decided to cut their hair, symbol of sin, very short, in this way they were called Roundheads. The parliamentary faction were lead by Cromwell, that raised up the army called the Iron side. In 1647 the king was captured by Scottish, that give him to puritans. King was defeated because he had to fight in two different sides: in the civil war and in the rebellion in Scotland. Cromwell took control of London and arrested 100 members of Parliament belonged to the House of Lords, loyal to the king, and the members that remained formed the Rump Parliament. In 1649 the king was executed after a trial and that’s important because for the first time a king is killed legally. It’s also the first and the last time that we have a republic in England and not a monarchy.

 

Charles I: riassunto

Cromwell established the Commonwealth and declared himself the Lord Protector of England and Ireland. Cromwell understood that in order to improve economy in England he had to improve English trade so he imposed the Navigation acts, laws that forbade foreign ships to enter English ports; but most of the goods that travelled around the world were carried by dutch ships, so a war against Holland broke out and Cromwell won. After civil war puritans were a very strong social class and they had the real power, so they improved the economical situation: in fact from an economical and financial point of view England developed, but from a social point of view the situation got worse because of puritan strict rules.
THE RESTORATION. In 1660 the monarchy was restored because Richard was different from his father and he was unfit to govern. People didn’t like to live in the strict way of Puritanism and tolerated no more its strong moral rules; so Parliament decided to call back the heir of Charles from exile. At the beginning Charles II went on exile to Netherland, but since it was a puritan country he moved to Paris and he stayed at the court of Luis XVIII.