Do you know what a Civil War is? It means that people living in the same country start fighting with each other in a really uncivil manner, on political or on religious grounds. England suffered two major civil wars, one in the 13th century and one in the 15th century.

The War of the Roses between the aristocratic families of York and Lancaster were fought from 1455 to 1487. This civil war marked the end of one ruling dynasty, the Plantagenets, (who belonged to the family of York) and brought the Tudors (who belonged to the family of Lancaster) to the throne.

Richard the third, the last Plantagenet King died fighting against the Lancaster force on the fields of Bosworth in 1487. So Henry VII (Harri Tudur in Welsh) became the first Tudor King to reign over England. He reigned from for 23 years from 1485 to 1509. His son was Henry VIII, who dissolved the church, married six wives and could not keep them, and was one of the finest examples of what a bad king should be like!

After the war of the Roses, England had to face another Civil War. In 1625, Charles I became the King of England. Ever since the time of James I (1566-1625) called the "wisest fool in Christendom," the kings of England and France decided that it was their divine right as things to do whatever they wished.

They had been divinely chosen by God to be kings. And as God never made mistakes, kings also never needed to answer for anything that they did. So the fight between the English Parliament and the king started at the time of King James.

James suspended the Parliament and the country was run with the help of his friends. So naturally, all the members of Parliament were extremely annoyed. They were chosen to run the country, they were, so there. In 1621, King James recalled the Parliament again. He wanted his son the future Charles I to marry a Spanish princess for political reasons. "Does that mean that the future Kings of England will be Catholics?" shouted the parliamentarians. "That is not acceptable, your Majesty. Spain is not our friend." So you can understand that the friendship between king and Parliament was not a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

So naturally when King Charles came onto the throne and suspended the Parliament, just because he did not like some of their decisions, they decided that they did not need this king on the throne.

Charles I was also a believer of the divine right of kings. So as a king could never be wrong, it must be Parliament which is wrong. The Parliament and the king kept arguing on matters of religion and money. So in 1642 he decided to arrest five important members of parliament to show them that they could not get away with irritating a king. That was supposedly the last straw for the members of Parliament.

If important members of Parliament could be arrested, what would be the fate of anybody who opposed the wishes of the King? This was the cause of the English Civil War between king and Parliament.

Well, the King lost his battle for control over England against Parliament and was arrested by the parliamentarian (Puritan) forces. On 30 January 1649, King Charles the first was beheaded by the parliamentarian forces led by Oliver Cromwell.

England went into a state of shock, because a king had been beheaded by the common people and that is why the cult of the Martyr king St. Charles Stuart came up in England. England was then “ruled" by Oliver Cromwell, until his death in 1660. That was when Charles II, came back from exile and was crowned King of England.

On 30 January 1661, Oliver Cromwell's remains were exhumed and he was executed posthumously, for ordering the killing of a king.

What about Charles II? One of his courtiers wrote about him --

We have a pretty witty king,/Whose word no man relies on/He never said a foolish thing/Nor ever did a wise one. The amused King answered. “This is very true: for my words are my own, and my actions are my ministers’....”

This is an original news article © The Kids Window

One in a series of articles about British history written for children, see our range of kids historical dressing up costumes.  

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