English Civil War
Parliament against the crown
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts between Parliamentarians and Royalists in mid-seventeenth-century England, fought over governance and the power of the crown.
King Charles I was ultimately defeated and executed.
The term often appears in discussions of constitutional history and the origins of parliamentary democracy: The English Civil War established that kings couldn't rule without Parliament's consent.
Government by elected officials
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- divine rightGod-granted ruling authority
- constitutionalismGovernance bound by fundamental laws
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
absolutism · tyranny · petition · militia · taxation · prerogative · Levellers · franchise
English republican military leader
- Charles IStuart king beheaded 1649
- RoundheadsCivil War anti-monarchists
- CommonwealthAssociation of sovereign states
- regicideMurdering a monarch
Clarendon · 1640s · Stuart · execution · Restoration
Mounted military force
- infantryGround combat troops
- musketeersSoldiers armed with firearms
- pikemenSoldiers armed with long-shafted weapons
- siegeEncirclement forcing surrender
battlefield · fortifications · skirmish · garrison · artillery · tactics · Newbury · casualties
English Protestant reformers
- PresbyteriansElder-governed Protestant denomination members
- IndependentsThose without party ties
- AnglicansChurch of England members
- CalvinismPredestinarian Protestant theology
iconoclasm · Book of Common Prayer · bishops · sectarians · toleration · Providence · Quakers · Baptists
Highborn but not noble
- nobilityTitled ruling class
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
- yeomanrySmall freeholding farmer class
- merchantsThose who conduct commerce
tenants · enclosure · feudalism · landowners · sequestration · class · allegiance · loyalty
republicanism
Government by elected officials
- monarchyRule by crowned sovereign
- divine rightGod-granted ruling authority
- constitutionalismGovernance bound by fundamental laws
sovereignty · absolutism · tyranny · petition · militia · taxation · prerogative · Levellers · franchise · liberty
Cromwell
English republican military leader
- Charles IStuart king beheaded 1649
- RoundheadsCivil War anti-monarchists
- CommonwealthAssociation of sovereign states
regicide · Clarendon · 1640s · Stuart · execution · Restoration
cavalry
Mounted military force
- infantryGround combat troops
- musketeersSoldiers armed with firearms
- pikemenSoldiers armed with long-shafted weapons
siege · battlefield · fortifications · skirmish · garrison · artillery · tactics · Newbury · casualties · dragoons
Puritans
English Protestant reformers
- PresbyteriansElder-governed Protestant denomination members
- IndependentsThose without party ties
- AnglicansChurch of England members
Calvinism · iconoclasm · Book of Common Prayer · bishops · sectarians · toleration · Providence · Quakers · Baptists · church reform
gentry
Highborn but not noble
- nobilityTitled ruling class
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
- yeomanrySmall freeholding farmer class
merchants · tenants · enclosure · feudalism · landowners · sequestration · class · allegiance · loyalty · neutrals
- BritainWales, Scotland, London, Northern Ireland, UK
- British historyWilliam the Conqueror, Victorian era, Elizabethan era, Tudor era, Oliver Cromwell
- WarsWorld War I, WWI, cold war, Korean War, Gulf War
- Early ModernRenaissance, 1500s, 1600s, Reformation, sixteenth century
- 1600s EuropeLouis XIV, Glorious Revolution, Peace of Westphalia, Versailles, William of Orange
- Civil WarsBosnian War, Yugoslav Wars, secession, brother against brother, divided nation
English Civil WarGlorious Revolution
England's 1688 regime change
English Civil Warexternal conflict
Opposition from outside sources
Hundred Years' War · Napoleonic Wars · Spanish Armada · Seven Years' War · World War I
civil, civic, civilian, civilized, civilization, uncivilized, civility, English, England