The British Problem or The English Civil War?

Paper Summary:

The paper examines whether or not it is possible to extract the English Civil War from its wider British context. The paper discusses to what extent the regional conflicts in Ireland and Scotland were contributing factors in the outbreak of war. This paper considers whether the impact of this war can be seen as truly British or merely English. In conclusion, the writer shows that the impact of the war is seen to have had an impact on Britain.

From the Paper:

"It is not surprising that within a period of such immense change and upheaval various interpretations of the problem's origins should arise. It is even less surprising when these events are placed into a context where multiple kingdoms interact and yet the relationships between each are still only loosely defined at best. For all James I's attempts at a legal union, by 1640 the only union between the two kingdoms of England and Scotland was their crowns on the head of the stubborn and often unpredictable Charles I. Edwards notes how 'the traditional title of the English Civil War has lost favour among historians'# and now the idea of a 'British War' or a British Problem seems to have replaced it. The essential premise of the most noted revisionist work, that of Conrad Russell is a denial 'that there was anything wrong enough with the English kingdom as a whole to break its structure apart ... and to divide its ruling elites into two opposing camps.'# Consequently one looks to wider British affairs to attempt to explain the seemingly rapid implosion of the political world in the early 1640's, and revisionist interpretations conclude that the Scottish victory at Newburn in August 1640 was really the first outbreak of the British problem. Whilst one can not doubt the importance of the British element in forcing Charles' hand in 1640, after all 'for eleven years he had ruled effectively without parliament'# and in 1640, as a result of the Scottish invasion he was forced to call one. This, however, should not detract from the essentially English problems Charles' faced. Why was the King of England unable to rely on the support of his parliament and nobility, his natural supporters, against their traditional and hated enemy? One only has to consider the scathing attack on the Scots by Weldon in James I's reign to see this hated. This therefore illustrates another important aspect of the crisis of the 1640's, an essentially English problem of lack of support for the king."

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