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The British Civil War

The British Civil War. Mark Knights. Link to earlier themes. The inclusive nature of the state The role of religion Print culture Radicalism Loyalism. Rebellion or revolution/civil war?.

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The British Civil War

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  1. The British Civil War Mark Knights

  2. Link to earlier themes • The inclusive nature of the state • The role of religion • Print culture • Radicalism • Loyalism

  3. Rebellion or revolution/civil war? Are we seeking to explain a rebellion, a movement by a large number of peers and gentlemen to force a change of policy and ministers on Charles I? This would seem to be a political, rather limited affair, with a limited chronology Or are we seeking to explain a revolution, an assault on and radical overturning of the existing structures? This would seem to be a social, ideological, economic and religious civil war as well as political revolution. Christopher Hill; Mike Braddick; John Walter (the latter both strong advocates of a negotiated state)

  4. The impact of war 1642-48 • Loss of life: larger percentage of population may have died than in First World War • Destruction of property

  5. http://1641.tcd.ie/ • Fully searchable digital edition of the 1641 Depositions at Trinity College Dublin Library, comprising transcripts and images of all 8,000 depositions, examinations and associated materials in which Protestant men and women of all classes told of their experiences following the outbreak of the rebellion by the Catholic Irish in October 1641

  6. Religious war? • The ‘long reformation’ • Arminian (anti-calvinist); move communion table ‘altar-wise’ and rail it off in east end; ceremonies; vestments of clergy. • Protestation Oath 1641 (over 63,000 subscribers in Devon, for example) Other oaths: 1643 Solemn League and Covenant Engagement 1650

  7. Was there a right of resistance? • Nehemiah Wallington, a pious London wood turner, left notes on many tracts, including one in 1640 which accepted that individuals could not resist; but when King maintained a faction that oppressed the ‘people in their law and liberties and most of all in the true religion’, making ‘all his subjects slaves’, then the whole people could ‘stand up as one man to defend themselves and their country’

  8. Iconoclasm • 1641, 163 and 1644 ordinances; • January 6, 1644 William Dowsing records: "We brake down about a hundred superstitious pictures; and seven fryers hugging a nun; and the picture of God, and Christ; and divers others very superstitious."

  9. Radicalism • The levellers. John Lilburne, Richard Overton, William Walwyn • Popular sovereignty, hostility to tyranny of king or of parliament, religious toleration, free press, equality before the law, extension of the franchise, separation of civil and military powers, ‘free born’ Britons • Debate within the army (Putney 1647)

  10. Print • Collapse of government censorship 1641 released flood • George Thomason collected about 30 tracts a week, amounting to 20,000 1640-1660 • Arguments for the liberty of the press

  11. The extent of popular loyalism Adherence to church of England: 1641 saw 29 mass petitions in favour of prayer book – the one from Somerset had 14, 350 sigs Dec 1647 riots in London, Norwich and Canterbury vs Parliament’s suppression of Christmas festivities Contested legacy:

  12. 1661 - Cromwell as tyrant, between perfidy and cruelty

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