- The Oxford Handbook of The English Revolution
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Civil War and Revolution in England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Post-Reformation Politics, or on Not Looking for the Long-Term Causes of the English Civil War
- The Rise of the Covenanters, 1637–1644
- The Collapse of Royal Power in England, 1637–1642
- The Irish Rising
- War and Politics in England and Wales, 1642–1646
- Scottish Politics, 1644–1651
- The Centre Cannot Hold: Ireland 1643–1649
- The Regicide
- Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649–1658
- English Politics in the 1650s
- The Restoration in Britain and Ireland
- Oliver Cromwell
- Parliaments and Constitutions
- The Armies
- The Revolution in Print
- State and Society in the English Revolution
- Urban Citizens and England’s Civil Wars
- Crowds and Popular Politics in the English Revolution
- ‘Gender Trouble’: Women’s Agency and Gender Relations in the English Revolution
- State, Politics, and Society in Scotland, 1637–1660
- State, Politics, and Society in Ireland, 1641–1662
- The Persistence of Royalism
- Varieties of Parliamentarianism
- Political Thought
- Religious Thought
- ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’: The Literature of Civil War, Revolution, and Restoration
- The Art and Architecture of War, Revolution, and Restoration
- The Long-Term Consequences of the English Revolution: Economic and Social Development
- The Long-Term Consequences of the English Revolution: State Formation, Political Culture, and Ideology
- Cultural Legacies: The English Revolution in Nineteenth-Century British and French Literature and Art
- The English Revolution in British and Irish Context
- Kingdom Divided: The British and Continental European Conflicts Compared
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
In explaining the collapse of royal power in England in 1642, despite the relative resilience of the regime during the previous decade, this chapter highlights the role of the Scottish prayer book rebellion in destabilizing British politics and providing a precedent for successful rebellion against the crown. It then explores the role of the noble-led ‘Junto’ in the Long Parliament, emphasizing that their determination to strip Charles of much of his authority within a parliamentary commonwealth drove much of the political conflict of 1641–2. The king’s efforts to resist this through attempted coups against the Junto, notably the First Army Plot and the Attempt on the Five Members, proved ill-judged and led to his flight from London. The main question thereafter was whether he could gather enough support to fight a civil war and regain his capital. In May–June 1642 he persuaded forty peers to join him at York and thereafter, despite final efforts at settlement, armed conflict became unavoidable.
Keywords: Charles I, Junto, prayer book rebellion, English civil war, First Army Plot, Attempt on the Five Members, Personal Rule
Richard Cust is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Birmingham. He has published a number of books and articles on early Stuart politics, including Charles I. A Political Life (Harlow, 2005) and Charles I and the English Aristocracy, 1625-1642 (Cambridge, 2013).
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- The Oxford Handbook of The English Revolution
- List of Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Civil War and Revolution in England, Scotland, and Ireland
- Post-Reformation Politics, or on Not Looking for the Long-Term Causes of the English Civil War
- The Rise of the Covenanters, 1637–1644
- The Collapse of Royal Power in England, 1637–1642
- The Irish Rising
- War and Politics in England and Wales, 1642–1646
- Scottish Politics, 1644–1651
- The Centre Cannot Hold: Ireland 1643–1649
- The Regicide
- Security and Reform in England’s Other Nations, 1649–1658
- English Politics in the 1650s
- The Restoration in Britain and Ireland
- Oliver Cromwell
- Parliaments and Constitutions
- The Armies
- The Revolution in Print
- State and Society in the English Revolution
- Urban Citizens and England’s Civil Wars
- Crowds and Popular Politics in the English Revolution
- ‘Gender Trouble’: Women’s Agency and Gender Relations in the English Revolution
- State, Politics, and Society in Scotland, 1637–1660
- State, Politics, and Society in Ireland, 1641–1662
- The Persistence of Royalism
- Varieties of Parliamentarianism
- Political Thought
- Religious Thought
- ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’: The Literature of Civil War, Revolution, and Restoration
- The Art and Architecture of War, Revolution, and Restoration
- The Long-Term Consequences of the English Revolution: Economic and Social Development
- The Long-Term Consequences of the English Revolution: State Formation, Political Culture, and Ideology
- Cultural Legacies: The English Revolution in Nineteenth-Century British and French Literature and Art
- The English Revolution in British and Irish Context
- Kingdom Divided: The British and Continental European Conflicts Compared
- Index
