Crown and Parliament
Parliament against the crown- Religious disagreement- Civil war

The Stuart monarchs, from James I. Onwards, were less successful than Tudors. They quarrelled with Parliament and this resulted in civil war. The only king in England ever to be tried and executed was a Stuart.
William of Orange became king by Parliament’s election, not by right of birth. When the last Stuart, Queen Anne, died in 1714, the monarchy was no longer absolutely powerful as it has been when James VI. Rode south from Scotland in 1603. It had become a parliamentary monarchy controlled by a constitution.

Stuarts were bad rulers. They resulted from a basic change society. During the seventeenth century economic power moved even faster into to hands of the merchant and landowning farmer classes.
The Crown could no longer raise money or govern without they cooperation. These groups were represented by the House of Commons. Commons demanded political power. The victory of the Commons was unavoidable.
The political developments of the period also resulted from the basic changes in thinking in the 17th century. By the time Queen Anne died, age of reason and science had arrieved.

Parliament against the Crown
The first sign of trouble between Crown and Parliament came in 1601, when the Commons were angry over Elizabeth´s policy of selling monopolies.
Like Elizabeth, James I. tried to rule without Parliament as much as possible. James was clever and well educated. He believe in the divine right of kings, he believed that the king was chosen by God and therefore only God could judge him. He expressed these opinions openly, however this le to trouble with Parliament.
When Elizabeth died she left James with a huge debt, larger than the total yearly income of the Crown. James had to ask Parliament to raise a tax to pay the debt. Parliament agreed, but in return insisted on the right to discuss James´s home and foreign policy
Sir Edward Coke, as Chief Justice made decisions based on the law, which limited the king´s power. King and his council could not make new laws. Laws could only by made by Act of Parliament. Coke reminded Parliament of Magna Carta, interpreting it as the great charter of English freedom. This was the first quarrel between James and Parliament, and it started the bad feeling, which lasted during his entire reign, and that of his son Charles.
James was successful in ruling without Parliament between 1611 and 1621 because Britain remained at peace.
Thirty Years War in Europe, Parliament wished to go to war against the Catholics. James would not agree
Charles I. found himself quarrelling with the Commons. Charles dissolved Parliament.
Petition of Right, established an important rule of government by Parliament, because the king had now agreed that Parliament controlled both state money, the “national budged”, and the law.
Charles saw no reason to explain his policy or method of government to anyone.

Religious disagreement
Charles began to make serious mistakes. These resulted from the religious situation in Britain. His father, James, had been pleased that the Anglican Church had bishop.
Puritans like the Scottish Presbyterians and wanted a democratic Church.
Charles shared his father´s dislike of Puritans, he had married a French Catholic, and the marriage was unpopular in Protestant Britain. Charles appointed an enemy of the Puritans, William Laud, as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Laud brought back into Anglican Church many Catholic practices. Anti-Catholics feeling had been increased by an event over thirty years earlier, in 1605. a small group of Catholics had been caught trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament with king James inside. One of these man, Guy Fawkes, was captured in the cellar under the House (5 November- the anniversary, occasion for celebration with fireworks and bonfires)
Laud tried to make the Scottish Kirk accept the same organisation as the Church in England.
In spring 1638 Charles faced a rebel Scottish army. Charles knew his army was unlikely to win against the Scots, so he agreed to respect all Scottish political an religious freedoms, and also to pay a large sum of money to persuade the Scots to return home.
It was impossible for Charles to find this money except through Parliament. Parliament made Charles accept a new law which stated that Parliament had to meet at least once every three years. Charles was not willing to keep his agreements with Parliament

Civil war
Events in Scotland made Charles depend on parliament, but events in Ireland resulted in civil war. James I. had continued Elizabeth´s policy and colonised Ulster (the northern part of Ireland)
In 1641, at a moment when Charles badly needed a period of quiet, Ireland exploded in rebellion against the Protestant English, and Scottish settlers. As many as 3,000 people, men, women and children were killed, most of them in Ulster. In London, Charles and Parliament quarrelled over who should control an army to defeat the rebels. Charles´s friendship towards the Catholic Church increased Protestant fears.
In 1642 Charles tried to arrest five MPs in Parliament. Although he was unsuccessful, it convinced Parliament and its supporters all over England that they had good reason to fear.
Charles moved to Nottingham, where he gathered an army to defeat those MPs who opposed him. The civil War had started. Most of the House f Lords and a few from the Commons supported Charles. The Royalist, known as “Cavaliers”, controlled most of the north and west. But Parliament controlled East Anglia and the southeast, including London.
Parliament was supported by the navy, by most of the merchants and by the population of the London. The Royalists had no way of raising money. In 1645 the Royalist army was finally defeated. Most people were happy that the war had ended. Trade had been interrupted, an Parliament had introduced new taxes to pay for the war