Civil War, Religion or Economy

To what extent do you sham Lawrence St 1s view that organized worship rather than economic interests influenced the fetching of sides among the nobility in 1642? Religion was a considerable part of 17th century England, and plenty be seen as one of the highest impart grammatical constituents to the civil war. Most of the pansydom consisted of Protestants with a minority of Catholics, however this did not involve there was no friction between the two. The religious quarrels began right at the lead of Charles reign, when Charles married Henrietta Maria, a French Catholic.Although Charles didnt direct to marry her his father, pile, set up the jointure the public, especially the Puritans, didnt like having a Catholic as Queen. A few extremists point saw this as a abridge that Charles was secretly Catholic After the poof dissolved sevens, he made William predicate the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1633. While extol was Archbishop, he made m some(prenominal) changes to the perform. Most of these changes knotted beatifying the Church and bringing patronage robes for priests, statues and stained-glass windows.All these things reminded the face of Catholicism, and it did not please the Presbyterians (puritans) who believed that church should save be about you and God, no devotion was required and it was considered to be unnecessary. In 1636, Archbishop Laud decided to introduce the English requester Book (which stated how services should be run) into Scotland. There was nationwide rioting, because no one valued to follow the new collection Book. Scotland was a Presbyterian (Puritan) country, and they thought that the English solicitation Book was far too Catholic to use in Scotland.This ultimately direct to many Scots, called the Covenanters, marching down the country in an attempt to invade England. At this point, Charles had to call parliament to ask for taxes to honorarium for the war, hardly was horrified to see that around of the MPs were on the Covenanters side. sevens concur that the Prayer Book was too Catholic, so Charles dissolved them again, but after he ran out of specie to pay the Scots, he was strained to call Parliament again. These actions curb the view of Source 6 that the creation believed in an authoritarian popish plan to undermine English laws and liberties, and significantly straightforward trust.This plot was made probable by the alarming support from the ugly councillors at court. The Grand Remonstrances famous phrases signify these views and suggest that it was joint belief that the King and his advisors were involved in a popish plot. Parliament number one put Laud on trial, and assemble him guilty. Later they decided to execute Strafford on charges of organising an army in Ireland, where he g everyplacened. It sullen out that this was a big mistake. As soon as Strafford was executed, the Irish Catholics rebelled against the Protestants, precept they were rebelling for the King.Although it was clear this was not true, Parliament did not trust the King when he asked them for an army, and so refused, believing he would use it to military press them instead. Notably, in contradiction to both Sources 5 and 6, Source 7 states that the aristocracy held no clear alignments as war broke out. There is give tongue to to be no clear association of wealth or political sympathies before the war, but correlations do appear in 1645. However, religion is considered to be far much decisive than any socio-economic correlation, suggesting that if any part could be attributed to the taking of sides, it would in fact be religion.This is support by the fact that in Yorkshire, all over a third of the Royalist gentry were Catholics, and over half the Parliamentarians were Puritans. In blood line to the view that religion was the master(prenominal) influencing factor in the taking of sides among the gentry in 1642, it is also believed that economic interests were responsible for influencing the gentry. James was the first King to reign over both England and Scotland, and when he came down from Scotland it is said that he was astonished at how large England was, while James had needed to usurp notes for his travelling expenses.When James died in 1625, Charles came to the throne, and he, like his father, had very little currency. erstwhile Charles became King, the County Factionwanted him to go to war with the Catholics in Spain, so Charles asked them for taxes to use on the war. They refused to pay enough, so the war was hopeless, and Parliament blamed the King for this. The reason Parliament granted so few taxes was that they wanted to make sure they were called again. Charles, a level believer in the Divine veracious of Kings, thought that he should not bring on to rule with Parliament, and the only thing that unplowed him calling it was money.One good example of the focusing Parliament made sure they were called back in Char les reign was tonnage and poundage. These were duties obligate on certain imports and exports. It was normal for these duties to be decided in the first Parliament of a monarchs reign, but in the drive of Charles, they only decided on it for one year, so the King would be forced to call them again. Although Charles tried to ask for more than money, Parliament refused, because they believed he spent it on his favourites. Because of this, Charles had to get himself more money.He began using the Church Courts, exploiting taxes such as ship money, and selling monopolies and titles. He also open up a Court of sense experience Chamber, which he used to fine people firmly to raise money. Since the judges in the Star Chamber were officials of the Crown, and there was no jury, Charles could be sure of getting a halcyon result. Parliament was furious with this, and immediately pull up thePetition of Right, which asked the King to dismiss illegal taxation. The King signed it, but only because Parliament threatened to prosecute Buckingham, one of the Kings favourites.The quarrels about money went on, and eventually Charles decided to dissolve Parliament. He reigned without them for 11 years. When the new prayer book was brought into Scotland, a group called the Covenanters attempted to invade England. Charles called a Parliament to try and get taxes to hold the Covenanters, but they refused, so Charles dissolved them again. He was forced to pay the Scots ? 850 a day to stop them advancing, and eventually, in 1641, his money ran out, and he had to call Parliament he was bankrupt and at their mercy, so money was definitely a key factor in the outbreak of the civil war.With the economic depression and impoverishment of the populace, the gentry were curb to rebel against the king. Source 5 suggests that this was the main reason why the gentry rebelled against the king. In contrast to Source 6 which suggests religion was the reason, Source 6 implies that the gentr y were and part of a blind withstand against the depressing economic situation the found themselves in. In conclusion it can be suggested that neither economic interest nor religion were individual influences in the taking of sides in 1642.It would be a much more accurate judgement to suggest that a mixture of the two were responsible. The combined fears of a popish plot and a move depression, or even loyalty to the king may build motivated the gentry in taking sides. This is implied by the categorization of evidence from all three sources, discover economic influences and significant religious motivations that would have been completely relevant to the population, but more specifically to the gentry.