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In response to rising tensions with King Charles I, Parliament presented this document to protest arbitrary imprisonment and Charles' lack of acknowledgement of Parliaments control over taxation. In response to the suggestion that he was ignoring English traditions of parliamentary participation in government, Charles dissolved parliament for eleven years.
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Charles I ordered the Scottish Church to adopt the English Prayer Book, essentially demanded Calvinist conversion to Anglicanism. This sparked a revolt in Scotland that Charles could not afford to subdue.
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To pay for the suppression of Scottish rebels after they marched into Northern England, Charles recalled Parliament. From 1640-1653, this body refused to grant taxes without many concessions. The members abolished many of the king's avenues of income, impeached his leading ministers, and abolished his special courts. A special poll tax was used to pay off the Scottish army. This body was forcibly dissolved by Cromwell in 1653.
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This act called for concessions that would create near parliamentary sovereignty. An Irish rebellion had drawn into question whether Charles could be trusted to command an invading army for fear that it would also be used to impose absolute rule on England. Charles refused to agree to the demands and declared the act illegal and Parliament traitorous. This began the English civil War.
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The conservative royalists, called the Cavaliers, fought the puritan opposition, the Roundheads. In the early years, the Cavalier forces were very sucessful in the north and west where the nobility was powerful. However, by the end of the war the king would lose control over most of the country.
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Oliver Cromwell organized the Roundheads with Puritan discipline and became both a political and military leader. Defeat of the royalist forces temporarily paused the civil war.
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After purging oppostition, Cromwell's supporters formed the "Rump Parliament," put the king on trial, and had him executed. The army controlled resistance and England had a new government cotrolled by radical Protestants.
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Parliamentarian victory!
