Trace the connection between the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. What was the significance of the end result of this period of history?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
To evade any check on his power, King Charles I of England ruled for eleven years without summoning Parliament, his kingdom’s representative body. Lacking Parliament’s consent to new taxes, he raised funds by coercing “loans” from wealthy subjects and applying existing tax laws more broadly. In 1640 a rebellion in Scotland forced him to summon Parliament to approve new taxes to pay for an army. Noblemen and churchmen sat in the House of Lords while representatives from towns and counties sat in the House of Commons. Before it would authorize new taxes, Parliament insisted on strict guarantees that the king would never again ignore the body’s traditional rights. King Charles refused and attempted to arrest his critics in the House of Commons in 1642, plunging the kingdom into the English Civil War. Militarily defeated in 1648, Charles refused to compromise. A year later a “Rump” Parliament purged of his supporters ordered his execution. Parliament then replaced the monarchy with a republic led by the Puritan general Oliver Cromwell, who ruled until his death in 1658. Cromwell expanded England’s presence overseas and imposed firm control over Ireland and Scotland, but he was also unwilling to share power with Parliament. With his death, Parliament restored the Stuart line in the person of the executed king’s son, Charles II (r. 1660–1685). James II, his brother, then inherited the throne, but he provoked new conflict by again refusing to respect Parliament’s rights and by baptizing his heir as a Roman Catholic. The leaders of Parliament forced him into exile in the bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Bill of Rights of 1689 formalized this new constitutional order by requiring the king to call Parliament frequently to consent to changes in laws or to raise an army in peacetime. Another law reaffirmed the official status of the Church of England but extended religious toleration to dissenting Puritans.