King Charles example essay topic

The Parliament was an elected organization set up by the king to manage the country to save the King the effort. Although officially ruled by the King, Parliament was increasing it's power so rapidly that by the 1600's it could no longer be relied on to do what the King wanted. King Charles 1st came into conflict with his Parliament in 1629 when he ordered Parliament to raise taxes and it refused. His response was to abolish Parliament and he ruled Parliament on his own for 11 years.

However, the people didn't support him and he ran short of money so he had to reinstate Parliament in 1640. However, conflict broke out again in 1642 when Charles tried to have 5 members of Parliament arrested who had been actively disagreeing with his policies. The MPs fled into the back of the streets of London but when the King went after them, the citizens expelled him angrily from their city. This was a direct violation by the people of the supreme power of the King and marked the beginning of the English Civil War.

Those English who supported the King (the Cavaliers) had support in north England and Wales and the parliamentarians (Roundheads) had support in the rest of England. Despite the fairly even start, however, the Cavaliers were fought back and in 1646 the Roundheads forced the King to surrender. However, at the cease fire negotiations Charles would not agree to the Roundhead terms and after a stalemate the war erupted again in 1648. Once again the Cavaliers were defeated but this time he Roundheads did not accept a surrender and instead captured the and executed Charles in 1649. England now had no King. For the next 11 years was a Republic.

It was ruled from 1633 to 1658 by a general named Oliver Cromwell, who was a fundamental Protestant but an extremely cruel man. He was given the title 'Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England', but he had been active in Ireland long before he undertook that role. In 1641, just before the Civil War, the Irish of Ulster had begun an uprising and attacked the planters who had settled 30 years before. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Protestant planters were murdered by the Irish at places such as Portadown. Due to the war, the English did nothing about this and the death-toll became heavily exaggerated over time. In 1649, after the Civil War had ended, Cromwell landed at Dublin with 12,000 men with the intention of punishing those who had up risen.

He first attacked Drogheda and captured it, slaughtering over 3000 people. He then marched on Wexford town and massacred several hundred people there. The surrounding towns of Cork, Bandon, Kinase, and Youghal surrendered. Cromwell left Ireland in 1650 having dealt a severe blow to the uprising Irish. A problem of equal concern to Cromwell, however, was the fact that most of the soldiers in the Roundhead army still needed payment for their time in the Civil War, but Parliament had no money to give to them. So Cromwell decided to pay them in land.

He forcibly moved thousands of Irish from their homes in Munster and Leinster and resettled them in countries Clare, Gala way, Mayo andRes common. This was by far the poorest land in the Ireland and, as well as this, they were not allowed to live within 3 miles of the coast. This strip, called the 'MileLane' was given to Cromwell's soldiers. In 1652 the newly cleared land in Munster and Lie nster was given to Protestants in what was called the 'CromwellianSettlement'. There was now no part of Ireland where Catholics owned more than 1/2 of the land. The main reason for this was Cromwell's belief in fundamental Protestantism which made him hate Catholics.

He claimed to be acting on God's behalf and expelled about 1000 Catholic priests from Ireland. In 1660, Cromwell died and was buried in state in Westminster Abbey in London. However, unable to find a suitable successor as Lord Protector, Parliament reinstated the monarchy, with reduced powers, with King Charles II. Although Charles relaxed the anti-Catholic laws that Cromwell had introduced, he didn't make any attempts to reverse the land confiscations in Ireland.

He had Cromwell's body exhumed, hanged, decapitated and the body thrown in a latrine [toilet]. His head was put on a post where it remained until a storm finally dislodged it over 50 years later.