due to the stupid politics the civil war is started in the england

Causes of the Civil War

The Civil War did not start as a revolution. Those involved did not set out to remove the Monarchy and replace it with a Republic.  Conflicting attitudes towards Royal authority and religion brought about a series of events which escalated into armed conflict.
Charles I believed he ruled with the Divine Right of Kings. This meant he thought he was King by the will of God and therefore his decisions could not be challenged or questioned.
  This ideology was opposed by those who believed there should be a limit to Royal authority; that the people and their representatives, that is Parliament should have more say in how the nation was governed.  Tied up with this were arguments over the Church and religion. There were deep divisions over what religious practices, forms of worship and organisational structure the Church should have.

Religion

Religion was a major cause of the English Civil War. It was part of a Europe wide conflict between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
At the start of his reign (1625) King Charles I had married the Roman Catholic Henrietta Maria of France. Included in her marriage treaty were provisions that she be allowed to practice her religion freely at Court. It was also made a condition of the treaty that King Charles I set about lifting restrictions for recusants (that is Catholics who refused to attend Anglican Church services). The marriage was not a popular one. At this time Roman Catholics were distrusted and feared. The reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary as she came to be known) had seen the persecution of Protestants. Within living memory there had been the attempted invasion of England by Roman Catholic Phillip II of Spain in 1588 (The Spanish Armada); the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a Catholic plot to blow up James I in the Houses of Parliament; and the on-going Thirty Years War, ultimately a religious conflict which saw Roman Catholic nations trying to wipe out Protestantism in Europe.
King Charles I was deeply religious. He believed that he ruled with the Divine Right of Kings. He preferred a High Anglican form of worship, with ceremonies, rituals and lavish ornamentation.  Charles thought the hierarchy of bishops and priests to be important. This caused alarm for some Protestants as it appeared that Charles was leaning towards Catholicism. The Puritans, who were extreme Protestants, considered all of this to be forms of ‘Popery’. They wanted a purer form of worship without rituals and without religious icons and images. Puritans believed that they had a personal relationship with God and did not need bishops.
In 1633 William Laud was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury by King Charles I.  William Laud was a Protestant but thought the Puritans too extreme. Like King Charles I, Laud also favoured a High Anglican form of worship. William Laud wanted to impose uniformity of worship based on The Book of Common Prayer. Bishops were considered important to the running of the Church. Laud also wanted to bring back some of the ceremonies and rituals. Decorative features such as statues and stained-glass windows were reintroduced. Priests were to wear vestments as a sign of their elevated status as members of the clergy. William Laud saw this as the ‘beauty of holiness’. Puritans saw this as an attempt to make the Church more Roman Catholic.  There was much opposition to this religious change. William Laud saw Puritans as a threat to the Church and pursued his critics in the courts. In 1637 William Prynne, John Bastwick and Henry Burton were convicted in the Star Chamber of seditious libel for criticising Laud’s policies in a pamphlet. They had their cheeks branded and their ears cropped.
In 1637 King Charles I and Archbishop Laud imposed a new Prayer Book on the people of Scotland. It was a revised edition of the English Prayer Book. When it was introduced riots broke out in Edinburgh. The Scottish Presbyterians thought that the new Prayer Book had too many similarities to Catholicism. They saw it as an attack on the true Protestant religion and on their freedom to choose how they worshipped. Although Scotland had Charles I as its King, it was still a separate kingdom from England. Scotland had its own government, laws and established church – The Kirk. Charles’ response was to insist on the full implementation of the new Prayer Book and punishment for those who refused. He considered their refusal to be an attack on his Royal authority.
In 1638 the Scottish people signed a Covenant in which they promised before God to defend and preserve the true religion and pledged loyalty to the King.
In 1639 King Charles sent an army to try and enforce the new Prayer Book in Scotland. King Charles already distrusted by some as having leanings towards Catholicism was now declaring war on his loyal, Protestant subjects.
The English army was easily defeated in what was later known as the First Bishops’ War. In 1640 King Charles was defeated in the Second Bishops’ War. He was forced to sign the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640, which stipulated that the Covenanter (Scottish) troops were to be paid £850 a day in maintenance while they still occupied northern England.

Money

A key factor which led to the outbreak of the Civil War was King Charles and his lack of money.
Charles’ father King James I, had led a lavish, extravagant lifestyle, which had left the Royal treasury depleted. The cost of running the Royal household of Charles I was similarly expensive. King Charles was a patron of the arts and spent vast sums of money on musicians to entertain his Court and in buying works of art.
King Charles needed to call Parliament to ask for money. In June 1625 Parliament had only granted the King tonnage and poundage (income from customs duties) for a single year, rather than for life as was customary. This meant that Charles would be forced to call Parliament again to grant further taxes.
Parliament refused to grant King Charles enough money to finance military campaigns against Spain and France. Charles dismissed Parliament and sought to raise income through a Forced Loan. That is money from taxes levied without the consent of Parliament. Refusal to pay often resulted in imprisonment without trial. This caused much discontent.  In 1628 a Commons’ Petition of Right was drawn up which stated that the king could not levy taxes on his subjects without the assent of Parliament, nor arbitrarily imprison them. Although King Charles initially agreed to the Petition it was never properly enacted as a statute.
In March 1629 Charles dismissed Parliament and began what he called his ‘Personal Rule’ and what his opponents called the ‘Eleven Years’ Tyranny’.  As only Parliament could legally grant taxes King Charles had to find other non-Parliamentary sources of revenue.  Charles exploited the Royal prerogative and imposed knighthood fees on landowners worth £40 or more a year (distraint of knighthood). Monopolies were sold to rich merchants, even though this was forbidden by Parliamentary Statute. Forest boundaries were reinstated to their ancient limits, so that forest fines could be levied on those who now found themselves within the new boundaries. In 1635 the King demanded ship money from all the counties of England and not just those on the coast.  Wealthy land owner, John Hampden MP, was tried in court for non-payment of ship money as he believed the King had no legal right to collect it. King Charles made himself very unpopular amongst those people who were traditionally royal supporters.
After his defeat in the First Bishops’ War, King Charles called Parliament in April 1640 to raise money for another campaign against Scotland. Not having been called for eleven years Parliament had a long list of grievances they wished to present to the King. Parliament refused to grant the money and Charles dissolved Parliament after less than a month.
After defeat in the Second Bishops’ War, the terms of the Treaty of Ripon stated that King Charles had to pay the Scottish Covenanters £850 a day while they occupied northern England. With huge debts the only option King Charles had was to call Parliament and ask for money.  This became known as the Long Parliament. King Charles’ financial situation meant that only Parliament had the means to raise enough money to pay the Covenanters and cover the costs of the unsuccessful Bishops’ Wars.  Parliament finally had the opportunity to present their grievances and push through reforms.

Parliament

Under the reign of James I there had been a breakdown in relations between Parliament and the Monarchy.  Charles I had a similar negative view of any interference by Parliament in his rule. It was within the King’s royal prerogative not to call Parliament but they did have their purpose. As well as being necessary for raising taxes and passing legislation they could also be used as a source of advice and as a means of getting grievances heard.

The Short Parliament

King Charles called Parliament in April 1640 to raise money for the Second Bishops’ War. He needed Parliament to grant taxes to finance an army. Parliament expressed concern over King Charles and his administration and wanted their grievances heard.   The Puritan MP, John Pym was particularly outspoken in the call for reform. King Charles dissolved Parliament after only three weeks when his request for money was refused. [S. R .Gardiner, 1884]