The Civil War/ The British Wars

The English Civil Wars (1642-1651) stemmed from conflict between Charles I and
Parliament over an Irish insurrection. The first war was settled with Oliver Cromwells
victory for Parliamentary forces at the Battle of Naseby. The second phase ended with
Charles defeat at the Battle of Preston and his execution in 1649. Charles son then
formed an army of English and Scottish Royalists, which prompted Cromwell to invade
Scotland. The following year, Cromwell shattered the remaining Royalist forces and
ended the wars of the three kingdoms, though Charles II eventually ascended to the
throne.

The civil wars of seventeenth-century England also involved the two other kingdoms
ruled by the Stuart dynasty, Scotland and Ireland. The invasion of England by a Scottish
army seeking religious concessions precipitated political deadlock in London, which paved
the way for a rebellion by Catholic Ireland.

The struggle between King Charles I and his Westminster Parliament over who should control
the army needed to crush the Irish insurrection in turn provoked the outbreak of civil war in
England.Initially northern and western England, together with much of Ireland, stood
for the king, while the southeast, the Royal Navy, and Scotland fought for Parliament.
However, at Marston Moor , Charles lost control of the north and the following year, at
Naseby, the Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell routed his main field army.
Having pacified all England, Parliament turned to the conquest of Ireland and Scotland.

The Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland dragged on until the fall of Galway in April 1652
because of the outbreak of the third English Civil War. Early in 1650, Charles II, cobbled
together an army of English and Scottish Royalists, which prompted Cromwell to invade
Scotland.At the Battle of Dunbar, he won control of most of Scotland. The following year
at Worcester,Cromwell shattered the remaining Royalist forces and ended the wars of
the three kingdoms.

The overall outcome of the war was threefold: the trial and execution of Charles I; the
exile of his son, Charles II; and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the
Commonwealth of England and then the Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell's personal
rule. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended
with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland.
Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot
govern without Parliament's consent, although the idea of parliament as the ruling power
of England was legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution in 1688.