Wars of the Three Kingdoms

After 1541, monarchs of England styled their Irish territory as a Kingdom—replacing the Lordship of Ireland—and ruled there with the assistance of a separate Irish Parliament. Also, with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, Henry VIII integrated Wales more closely into the Kingdom of England. Scotland, the third separate kingdom, was governed by the House of Stuart.

By means of the English Reformation, King Henry VIII made himself head of the Protestant Church of England and outlawed Catholicism in England and Wales. In the course of the 16th century, Protestantism became intimately associated with national identity in England; Catholicism had come to be seen as the national enemy, particularly as it was embodied in the rivals France and Spain. Catholicism, however, remained the religion of most people in Ireland and for many Irish it was a symbol of native resistance to the Tudor conquest of Ireland.

In the Kingdom of Scotland, the Protestant Reformation was a popular movement led by John Knox. The Scottish Parliament legislated for a national Presbyterian church—namely the Church of Scotland or the "Kirk"—and Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, was forced to abdicate in favour of her son James VI of Scotland. James grew up under a regency disputed between Catholic and Protestant factions; when he took power, he aspired to be a "universal King", favouring the English Episcopalian system of bishops appointed by the king. In 1584, he introduced bishops into the Church of Scotland, but met with vigorous opposition, and he had to concede that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland would continue to run the church.

The personal union of the three kingdoms under one monarch came about when King James VI of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I to the English throne in 1603, when he also became King James I of England and of Ireland. In 1625, Charles I succeeded his father, and marked three main concerns regarding England and Wales; how to fund his government, how to reform the church, and how to limit (the English) Parliament's interference in his rule. At that time, he showed little interest in his other two kingdoms, Scotland and Ireland.[10]

The spark—riot in St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, reputedly started by Jenny Geddes

James VI remained Protestant, taking care to maintain his hopes of succession to the English throne. He duly became James I of England in 1603 and moved to London. James concentrated on dealing with the English Court and Parliament, running Scotland through written instructions to the Privy Council of Scotland and controlling the Parliament of Scotland through the Lords of the Articles. He constrained the authority of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and stopped it from meeting, then increased the number of bishops in the Church of Scotland. In 1618, he held a General Assembly and pushed through Five Articles of Episcopalian practices, which were widely boycotted.

After his death in 1625, James was succeeded by his son Charles I, who was crowned in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, in 1633, with full Anglican rites. Charles was less skillful and restrained than his father; his attempts to enforce Anglican practices in the Church of Scotland created opposition which reached a flashpoint when he introduced the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. His confrontation with the Scots came to a head in 1639, when he tried and failed to coerce Scotland by military means during the Bishops' Wars.

Charles shared his father's belief in the Divine Right of Kings, and his persistent assertion of this standard seriously disrupted relations between the Crown and the English Parliament. The Church of England remained dominant, but a powerful Puritan minority, represented by about one third of Parliament, began to assert themselves; their religious precepts had much in common with the Presbyterian Scots.

The English Parliament and the king had repeated disputes over taxation, military expenditure, and the role of the Parliament in government. While James I had held much the same opinions as his son regarding Royal Prerogatives, he usually had enough discretion and charisma to persuade Parliamentarians to accept his thinking. Charles had no such skill and, faced with multiple crises during 1639–1642, he failed to prevent his kingdoms from sliding into civil war. When Charles approached Parliament to pay for a campaign against the Scots, they refused. They then declared themselves to be permanently in session—the Long Parliament—and soon presented Charles with a long list of civil and religious grievances requiring his remedy before they would approve any new legislation.

During the English Civil War, the English overseas possessions became highly involved. In the Channel Islands, the island of Jersey and Castle Cornet in Guernsey supported the King until a surrender with honour in December 1651.

Although the newer, Puritan settlements in North America, notably Massachusetts, were dominated by Parliamentarians, the older colonies to the south sided with the Crown. Friction between Royalists, most of whom were Anglican, and Puritans in Maryland came to a head in the Battle of the Severn. The Virginia Company's settlements, Bermuda and Virginia, as well as Antigua and Barbados, were conspicuous in their loyalty to the Crown. Bermuda's Independent Puritans were expelled,[11][12] settling the Bahamas under William Sayle as the Eleutheran Adventurers. Parliament passed An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego in October, 1650, which stated that

due punishment [be] inflicted upon the said Delinquents, do Declare all and every the said persons in Barbada's, Antego, Bermuda's and Virginia, that have contrived, abetted, aided or assisted those horrid Rebellions, or have since willingly joyned with them, to be notorious Robbers and Traitors, and such as by the Law of Nations are not to be permitted any manner of Commerce or Traffic with any people whatsoever; and do forbid to all manner of persons, Foreigners, and others, all manner of Commerce, Traffic and Correspondence whatsoever, to be used or held with the said Rebels in the Barbados, Bermuda's, Virginia and Antego, or either of them.

The Act also authorised Parliamentary privateers to act against English vessels trading with the rebellious colonies:

All Ships that Trade with the Rebels may be surprized. Goods and tackle of such ships not to be embezeled, till judgement in the Admiralty.; Two or three of the Officers of every ship to be examined upon oath.

Far to the North, Bermuda's regiment of Militia and its coastal batteries prepared to resist an invasion that never came. Built-up inside the natural defence of a nearly impassable barrier reef, to fend off the might of Spain, these defences would have been a formidable obstacle for the Parliamentary fleet sent in 1651 under the command of Admiral Sir George Ayscue to subdue the trans-Atlantic colonies, but after the fall of Barbados, the Bermudians made a separate peace that respected the internal status quo. The Parliament of Bermuda avoided the Parliament of England's fate during The Protectorate, becoming one of the oldest continuous legislatures in the world.[13]

Virginia's population swelled with Cavaliers during and after the English Civil War. Even so, Virginia Puritan Richard Bennett was made Governor answering to Cromwell in 1652, followed by two more nominal "Commonwealth Governors". The loyalty of Virginia's Cavaliers to the Crown was rewarded after the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy when Charles II dubbed it the Old Dominion.

Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Ireland (proclaimed such in 1541 but only fully conquered for the Crown in 1603), tensions had also begun to mount. Thomas Wentworth, Charles I's Lord Deputy of Ireland, angered Catholics by enforcing new taxes while denying them full rights as subjects; he further antagonised wealthy Irish Catholics by repeated initiatives to confiscate and transfer their lands to English colonists. Conditions became explosive in 1639 when Wentworth offered Irish Catholics some reforms in return for their raising and funding an Irish army (led by Protestant officers) to put down the Scottish rebellion. The idea of an Irish Catholic army enforcing what many saw as already tyrannical government horrified both the Scottish and the English Parliaments, which in response threatened to invade Ireland.

Modern historians have emphasised the lack of inevitability of the civil wars, noting that the sides resorted to "violence first" in situations marked by mutual distrust and paranoia. Charles' initial failure to end the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640 quickly persuaded the antagonists that force could serve them better than negotiation. The imposition of Bishops and other Anglican practices to the Scottish Kirk were opposed by most Scots, who supported a Presbyterian system of governance led by a General Assembly, and in individual churches by ministers and committees of elders. The 1638 National Covenant pledged to oppose such imposed "innovations." Signatories were known as Covenanters.

King Charles I and Prince Rupert before the Battle of Naseby

In Ireland, alienated by Church of England domination and frightened by the rhetoric of the English and Scottish Parliaments, a small group of Irish conspirators launched the Irish Rebellion of 1641, ostensibly in support of the "King's Rights." The uprising featured widespread violent assaults on Protestant communities in Ireland, both Anglican and dissenter Protestants in Ulster whose practice was similar to the Scottish Kirk. In England and Scotland, rumours spread that the killings had the king's sanction, which, for many, foreshadowed their own fate if the king's Irish troops landed in Britain. Thus the English Parliament refused to pay for a royal army to put down the rebellion in Ireland; instead Parliament decided to raise its own armed forces. The king did likewise, rallying those Royalists (some of them members of Parliament) who believed their fortunes were best served by loyalty to the king.

The English Civil War ignited in 1642. Scottish Covenanters (as Presbyterians there called themselves) joined forces with the English Parliament in late 1643 and played a major role in the ultimate Parliamentary victory. Over the course of more than two years, the king's forces were ground down by the efficiency of those of Parliament, including the New Model Army, backed as they were by the financial muscle of the City of London. On 5 May 1646, at Southwell, Charles I surrendered to the Scottish army besieging Newark-on-Trent. What remained of the English and Welsh Royalist armies and garrisons surrendered piecemeal over the next few months.[14]

Meanwhile, the rebellious Irish Catholics formed their own government—Confederate Ireland—intending to help the Royalists in return for religious toleration and political autonomy. Troops from England and Scotland fought in Ireland, and Irish Confederate troops mounted an expedition to Scotland in 1644, sparking the Scottish Civil War. There, the Royalists gained a series of victories in 1644–1645, but were crushed after the main Covenanter armies returned to Scotland upon the end of the first English Civil War.

The Scots handed Charles over to the English and returned to Scotland, the English Parliament having paid them a large sum for their expenses in the English campaign. After his surrender, Charles was approached by the Scots, the Presbyterians in the English Parliament, and the Grandees of the New Model Army, all attempting to reach an accommodation with him and among themselves which would achieve peace while preserving the crown. But now, a breach between the New Model Army and Parliament widened day by day, until the Puritans in Parliament, with allies among the Scots and the remaining Royalists, saw themselves strong enough to challenge the Army, which began the Second English Civil War.[15]

The English and Scots armies lovingly embrace each other

The New Model Army vanquished the English Royalist and Parliamentarians, as well as their Scottish Engager allies. On account of his secret machinations with the Scottish Engagers, Charles was charged with treason against England.[16] Subsequently, the Grandees and their civilian supporters failed to reconcile with the king or the Puritan majority in Parliament. The Grandees acted and soldiers were used to purge the English Parliament of those who opposed the Army. The resultant Rump Parliament of the Long Parliament then passed enabling legislation for putting Charles I on trial for treason. He was found guilty of treason against the English commons and was executed on 30 January 1649.[17]

After the execution of King Charles I the Rump Parliament passed a series of acts declaring that England was a republic; that the House of Commons—without the House of Lords—would sit as the legislature; and that a Council of State would act as the executive power. In the other two kingdoms the execution of Charles caused the warring parties to unite, and they recognised Charles II as king of Great Britain, France and Ireland, which would lead to a Third English Civil War.

To deal with the threat to the English Commonwealth posed by the two kingdoms (Ireland and Scotland), the Rump Parliament first appointed Cromwell to invade and subdue Ireland. In August 1649, he landed an English army at Rathmines shortly after the Siege of Dublin was abandoned by the Royalists following the Battle of Rathmines. Then, in late May 1650, Cromwell left one army to continue the Irish conquest and returned to England and to take command of a second English army preparing to invade Scotland. On 3 September 1650, he defeated the Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar and his forces then occupied Edinburgh and Scotland south of the River Forth. Cromwell was advancing the bulk of his army over the Forth towards Stirling, when Charles II, commanding a Scottish Royalist army, stole a march on the English commander, and invaded England from his base in Scotland. Cromwell divided his forces, leaving part in Scotland to complete the conquest there, then led the rest south in pursuit of Charles II.[18]

The Royalist army failed to gather much support from English Royalists as it moved south into England; so, instead of heading directly towards London and certain defeat, Charles aimed for Worcester hoping that Wales and the West and Midlands of England would rise against the Commonwealth. This did not happen and, one year to the day after the Battle of Dunbar, the New Model Army and the English militia regiments vanquished the last Royalist army of the English Civil War at the Battle of Worcester, on 3 September 1651. It was the last and most decisive battle in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.[19]

• Bennett, Martyn (1997). The Civil Wars in Britain and Ireland, 1638–1651. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19154-2.
• Bennett, Martyn (2000). The Civil Wars Experienced: Britain and Ireland, 1638–1661. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15901-6.
• Kenyon, John; Ohlmeyer, Jane, eds. (1998). The Civil Wars: A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1638–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866222-X.
• Russell, Conrad (1991). The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637–1642. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-822754-X.
• Stevenson, David (1981). Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates: Scottish-Irish Relations in the Mid-Seventeenth Century. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN 0-901905-24-0.
• Young, John R., ed. (1997). Celtic Dimensions of the British Civil Wars. Edinburgh: John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-452-4.

• Aylmer, G. E. (1986). Rebellion or Revolution?: England, 1640–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-219179-9.
• Hill, Christopher (1972). The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. London: Temple Smith. ISBN 0-85117-025-0.
• Morrill, John, ed. (1991). The Impact of the English Civil War. London: Collins & Brown. ISBN 1-85585-042-7.
• Woolrych, Austin (2000) [1961]. Battles of the English Civil War. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-175-8.
• Worden, Blair (2009). The English Civil Wars: 1640–1660. London: W&N. ISBN 978-0297848882.

• Lenihan, Pádraig (2000). Confederate Catholics at War, 1641–1649. Cork: Cork University Press. ISBN 1-85918-244-5.
• Ó hAnnracháin, Tadhg (2002). Catholic Reformation in Ireland: The Mission of Rinuccini, 1645–1649. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820891-X.
• Ó Siochrú, Micheál (1999). Confederate Ireland, 1642–1649: A Constitutional and Political Analysis. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-400-6.
• Ó Siochrú, Micheál, ed. (2001). Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s. Dublin: Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-535-5.
• Perceval-Maxwell, M. (1994). The Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-2173-9.
• Wheeler, James Scott (1999). Cromwell in Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-2884-9.

• Stevenson, David (1973). The Scottish Revolution, 1637–1644: The Triumph of the Covenanters. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6302-6.
• Stevenson, David (1980). Alasdair MacColla and the Highland Problem in the Seventeenth Century. Edinburgh: John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-055-3.