Sir I And His Archbishop Of Canterbury William Laud

In 1637 Charles I and his Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud demanded that the new English Book of Common Prayer be used in Scotland as well as in England. In this move to achieve uniformity between the Scottish and English churches Charles created huge amounts of anxiety and anger in the Scottish people- many of whom were Presbyterian and strongly anti-Catholic. The Scots feared that the Kirk would be Anglicized with Charles and Laud’s Armenian and revolted against this religious policy. The Scottish rebellion can be viewed as sowing the seeds for civil war in England by 1642 by fracturing that delicate and fragile union of the Three Kingdoms created by James I. However, there other factors which must be considered when looking at the†¦show more content†¦The ‘Long Parliament’- a direct result of events in Scotland, was disastrous for Charles. Pym and the rival faction took the opportunity provided by the ‘Long Parliament’ to pass the â⠂¬ËœGrand Remonstrance’- a list of grievances against the king. Charles was also forced to execute Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Stafford and William Laud. The execution of Wentworth left a vacuum for royal authority in Ireland leading to the Irish rebellion in 1641. The historian John Morrill highlights the significance of the ‘Long Parliament’ in that Charles would no longer have the freedom to conduct his preferred ‘Personal Rule’ and therefore managers of the Parliament ‘set their sights high’ - rightfully anticipating great change from it. Therefore, the Scottish rebellion clearly had a huge impact on Charles’s rule. His authority and royal prerogative was diminished when he was forced to call a Parliament that listed grievances against him. An allegiance was forged between the English Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters who were both strongly anti-papist and anti-Catholic which alienated Charles. Conrad Russell believes that we cannot say the civil war was a result of long-term causes, rather it was the result of a short-term failure to solve a political crisis and he places emphasis on the idea that it was the closely intertwined nature of the Three Kingdoms that led to civil war. Russell states ‘there are more senses than