GCSE · History · AQA · Spec 8145

English Revolution and Civil War

Most MPs only wanted Charles I to change how he ruled. So how did he end up tried, beheaded and replaced by a republic in 1649? Follow the dates.

History · Cause & effect

From Personal Rule to Restoration, 1629 to 1660

Tap each year. 'Because' and 'So' mark a link you can use to explain. 'Before' and 'Next' only tell you the order.

Causes ←

What led here

Before: three years of war between king and Parliament since 1642.

Event

The New Model Army

1645

Parliament sets up the New Model Army, a professional and fully funded force. An Oak quiz puts its strength at 22,000 soldiers. Oliver Cromwell is among its commanders.

→ Consequences

What followed

So: according to The National Archives, it turns the war in Parliament's favour.
Next: by 1646 the king's armies are beaten.
Watch out: Don't turn every 'Next' into a 'Because'. Cromwell died in 1658 and the monarchy returned in 1660, but what the timeline shows between them is chaotic government, not a single cause.
UK note

For AQA GCSE History (8145), this topic sits in the thematic study Britain: Power and the people, c1170 to the present day, on Paper 2.

AQA mark schemes credit Oliver Cromwell with the 1645 victory over the king at Naseby.

Why war came

Religion, politics or money?

Which kind of quarrel is each grievance?

Still to sort

Religious (0)

About faith and the Church

Political (0)

About how the king governs and who he keeps close

Where the line is: Archbishop Laud was a churchman, but the complaint about him sits here: it is about the king refusing to part with unpopular advisers.

Financial (0)

About money and tax

4 of 4 still to sort.

Parliament's quarrels with Charles I came in three kinds. Put each grievance where it belongs.

Watch out: Judge the grievance, not the person. An archbishop can be at the centre of a political complaint.

The Putney Debates, October 1647

The army's generals and ordinary soldiers met in St Mary's Church, Putney, to argue about how the nation should be governed. Switch sides: who should have a say?

The Grandees

The Agitators and Levellers

Tap a claim from either side to see the evidence behind it.

UK note

AQA mark schemes mention the Levellers as a seventeenth-century radical group, claiming they drew inspiration from the ideas of the Peasants' Revolt, and note that Cromwell did not support them.

Who put the king on trial?

Did Parliament set out to get rid of the monarchy?

January 1649. Charles I is tried for treason, and on 30 January he is beheaded. A classmate shrugs: 'Simple. Parliament wanted rid of the king, so Parliament voted to kill him.'

Which of these is closest to what you think right now?
How sure are you?
UK note

AQA's additional specimen mark scheme notes that Charles's opponents objected to what they saw as his abuse of royal power rather than to monarchy itself, that contemporaries reacted with horror, and that the break in the monarchy left a lasting mistrust of radical change to institutions.

Oliver Cromwell

Did the man who fought for Parliament uphold its authority?

The claim

Oliver Cromwell upheld Parliament's authority.

Place each piece of evidence to load the balance. Mark the strong ones — they count double.

  1. Cromwell fought for Parliament as a commander of its New Model Army.

    Evidence 1: does it support or challenge the claim?

  2. He was a member of the Rump Parliament as well as an army general.

    Evidence 2: does it support or challenge the claim?

  3. In the early Interregnum, Parliament governed.

    Evidence 3: does it support or challenge the claim?

  4. In 1653 he used New Model Army soldiers to throw out the Rump by force.

    Evidence 4: does it support or challenge the claim?

  5. The army then chose 140 Puritans it trusted to form the Barebones Parliament.

    Evidence 5: does it support or challenge the claim?

  6. In 1653 Cromwell and the army set up the Protectorate, and he ruled as Lord Protector.

    Evidence 6: does it support or challenge the claim?

  7. From 1655 to 1657 he ruled without Parliament, through the army and his major-generals, who worked to stop royalist plots and to gather taxes.

    Evidence 7: does it support or challenge the claim?

  8. His rule was unpopular because it weakened Parliament and leaned heavily on the army.

    Evidence 8: does it support or challenge the claim?
UK note

AQA mark schemes say Cromwell was driven by religious belief and ideas of democracy, and that he pushed Parliament towards executing the king.

Before and after: Crown and Parliament

Charles I (king until 1649)vsCharles II (king from 1660)

Read across each row. What changed between father and son?

Focus

The king's claim to power

Charles I (king until 1649)

Divine right, which his father James I taught him as a child: God chose the monarch, who answered to God alone. Subjects had to obey and could neither limit his powers nor depose him.

Charles II (king from 1660)

He came back to a throne that had stood empty since 1649, when subjects tried and beheaded his father.

The insight

The gap to notice: a theory that said kings could never be deposed, and a son who inherited a throne his father had lost to his own subjects.

How the king treated Parliament

Charles I (king until 1649)

Like other monarchs of his century, he did not treat Parliament as an equal. Monarchs expected it to pass the taxes and laws they wanted, and often dissolved a Parliament that displeased them.

Charles II (king from 1660)

He worked with Parliament more co-operatively.

How long Parliament sat

Charles I (king until 1649)

Not at all for eleven years: he governed without calling it from 1629 to 1640.

Charles II (king from 1660)

He let it sit for eighteen years without a break.

Old enemies

Charles I (king until 1649)

He went to war with Parliament in 1642 and was tried by the Rump of his opponents in 1649.

Charles II (king from 1660)

He left almost all former Parliamentarian fighters unpunished.

UK note

AQA's additional specimen mark scheme treats the execution of Charles I as unprecedented, with no legal precedent, and as a turning point that permanently changed how royal authority related to Parliament.

An AQA mark scheme argues that the civil war Cromwell fought shifted power towards Parliament and in time paved the way for the Glorious Revolution.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

A king who said he answered to God alone was tried and beheaded by his own subjects. How did it come to that, and what had changed by the time the crown came back?

What you need to know

  • Charles I believed in the divine right of kings: God chose the monarch, who answered to God alone, and subjects could neither limit his powers nor depose him.
  • Parliament's quarrels with Charles were religious, political and financial, and together they led to civil war in 1642.
  • Parliament's New Model Army, set up in 1645, turned the war in Parliament's favour, according to The National Archives. By 1647 its unpaid soldiers refused to disband without a settlement.
  • At Putney in 1647 the army argued about who should have a voice: the Grandees defended order and property, while the Agitators and Levellers said a voice in politics was a natural right.
  • The army, not Parliament as a whole, forced the king's trial. Pride's Purge in December 1648 left a Rump of his opponents, who tried him. He was beheaded on 30 January 1649.
  • The Rump then abolished the monarchy. During the Interregnum (1649 to 1660) Cromwell became the most powerful man in England, and from 1653 he ruled as Lord Protector.
  • After Cromwell died in 1658 government became chaotic, and in 1660 the monarchy returned under Charles II, who worked with Parliament more co-operatively than his father had.

The big picture

How Charles I's quarrels with Parliament led to civil war in 1642, how the New Model Army won the war and then refused to go home, why a purged Rump Parliament put the king on trial and beheaded him in January 1649, what Oliver Cromwell's rule meant for Parliament, and how Crown and Parliament stood once the monarchy returned in 1660.

Key points

1Divine right: God chooses the monarch, and the monarch answers to God alone.
21629 to 1640: the Personal Rule, eleven years without Parliament.
31641: the Grand Remonstrance lists 204 complaints. 1642: civil war begins.
4The causes of war were religious, political and financial, and they worked together.
51645: the New Model Army is set up and turns the war (The National Archives).
6October 1647: the Putney Debates, Grandees against Agitators and Levellers.
7December 1648: Pride's Purge leaves the Rump. January 1649: the trial, then execution on 30 January.
81649 to 1660: the Interregnum. 1653: Cromwell becomes Lord Protector. 1658: he dies.
91660: the Restoration. Charles II lets Parliament sit for eighteen years without a break.

Worked example

Problem

Explain the significance of the execution of Charles I. How do you show significance instead of just retelling what happened on 30 January 1649?

⚠ Watch out

Writing 'Parliament executed the king'. By January 1649 it was only the Rump, the MPs Pride's soldiers had let in because they opposed Charles, that voted to try him. Name the army and the purge, not just 'Parliament'.

🧠

Memory hook

From 'answerable to God alone' to 'answerable to a court'. Charles I's claim broke in January 1649, when a purged Parliament put him on trial. Remember the four links that broke it: army, purge, Rump, trial.

✓

Check yourself

Cover the page. Put these in order: Pride's Purge, the Personal Rule, the Putney Debates, the Restoration, the Grand Remonstrance, the execution. Then say which link in the chain made the trial possible.

Flashcards

(16)
What was the divine right of kings?
The belief that God chose each monarch, who answered to God alone. Subjects had to obey and could neither limit a king's powers nor depose him for bad rule.
What was the Personal Rule?
The eleven years, from 1629 to 1640, when Charles I governed without calling Parliament.
What was the Grand Remonstrance of 1641?
Parliament's list of 204 complaints about how the country had been governed during Charles I's reign.
Give one religious, one political and one financial grievance against Charles I.
Religious: his marriage to the Catholic Henrietta Maria, or church reforms said to bring back Catholic practices. Political: keeping unpopular advisers such as Strafford and Laud. Financial: higher taxes such as ship money.
What was the New Model Army?
A professional, fully funded army that Parliament set up in 1645 to fight the king and the Royalists. The National Archives says it turned the war in Parliament's favour.
What happened at the Putney Debates?
In October 1647 the army's generals and ordinary soldiers met in St Mary's Church, Putney, to debate how the nation should be governed. The Grandees defended order and property; the Agitators and Levellers said a voice in politics was a natural right.
What did the Levellers' Agreement of the People call for?
Government's authority coming from the people, Parliaments elected at fixed, regular intervals, laws applying equally to all, and guaranteed freedom of religion and conscience.
Who did the Levellers want to have the vote?
Every man born free in England, except servants, paupers and others who depended on someone else. They also wanted a single chamber instead of the House of Lords.
What was Pride's Purge?
In December 1648 army leaders sent Colonel Thomas Pride to ring Parliament with soldiers and let in only MPs who opposed the king.
What did the Rump Parliament do?
It voted to try Charles I for treason. After his execution on 30 January 1649, it abolished the monarchy.
Why was the trial of Charles I disputed?
Charles argued that no English law allowed a king to be tried, and many judges stayed away, including the New Model Army's commander, Sir Thomas Fairfax.
What do 'the Interregnum' and 'the Commonwealth' mean?
The Interregnum is the span from 1649 to 1660, when England had no monarch. The Commonwealth is the name for the republic the Rump created by abolishing the monarchy.
Why was Cromwell the most powerful man in England during the Interregnum?
He was both a member of the Rump Parliament and a New Model Army general.
What was the Protectorate?
The new form of government that Cromwell and the army set up in 1653, under which Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector.
What did the major-generals do?
From 1655 to 1657 Cromwell ruled without Parliament through the army and his major-generals, who worked to stop royalist plots and to gather taxes.
How did Charles II treat Parliament after the Restoration of 1660?
He worked with it more co-operatively than his father, let it sit for eighteen years without a break, and left almost all former Parliamentarian fighters unpunished.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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