Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which nominally lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In September 1640, King Charles I issued writs summoning a parliament to convene on 3 November 1640. He intended it to pass financial bills, a step made necessary by the costs of the Bishops' Wars against Scotland. The Long Parliament received its name from the fact that, by Act of Parliament, it stipulated it could be dissolved only with agreement of the members; and those members did not agree to its dissolution until 16 March 1660, after the English Civil War and near the close of the Interregnum.
The parliament first sat from 1640 until 1653. Following Pride's Purge in 1648, the remaining members sat as the Rump Parliament until Oliver Cromwell suspended it in April 1653, replacing it with a succession of nominated and elected parliaments.
In the chaos following the death of Cromwell in September 1658, the Rump was reinstalled in May 1659, and in February 1660 General George Monck allowed the members barred in 1648 to retake their seats, so that they could pass the necessary legislation to allow the Stuart Restoration and dissolve the Long Parliament. This cleared the way for a new parliament to be elected, which was known as the Convention Parliament. Some key members of the Long Parliament, such as Sir Henry Vane the Younger and General Edmond Ludlow, were barred from the final acts of the Long Parliament. They claimed the parliament was not legally dissolved, its final votes a procedural irregularity by Monck to ensure the restoration of King Charles II of England. On the restoration Monck was rewarded with a dukedom.
The Long Parliament later became a key moment in Whig histories of the seventeenth century. American Whig historian Charles Wentworth Upham believed the Long Parliament comprised "a set of the greatest geniuses for government that the world ever saw embarked together in one common cause" and whose actions produced an effect which, at the time, made their country the wonder and admiration of the world, and is still felt and exhibited far beyond the borders of that country, in the progress of reform, and the advancement of popular liberty. He believed its republican principles made it a precursor to the American Revolutionary War.
Execution of Strafford
Charles found himself unable to fund the Bishops' Wars without taxes; in April 1640, Parliament was recalled for the first time in eleven years, but when it refused to vote taxes without concessions, he dissolved it after only three weeks. The humiliating terms imposed by the Scots Covenanters after a second defeat forced him to hold fresh elections in November, which produced a large majority for the opposition, led by John Pym.Parliament was almost immediately presented with a series of "Root and Branch petitions". These demanded the expulsion of bishops from the Church of England, reflecting widespread concern at the growth of "Catholic practices" within the church. Charles' willingness to make war on the Protestant Scots, but not to assist his exiled nephew Charles Louis, led to fears he was about to sign an alliance with Spain, a view shared by the experienced Venetian and French ambassadors.
This meant ending arbitrary rule was important not just for England, but the Protestant cause in general. Since direct attacks on the monarch were considered unacceptable, the usual route was to prosecute his "evil counsellors". Doing so showed even if the king was above the law, his subordinates were not, and he could not protect them; the intention was to make others think twice about their actions. Further, they started to create a series of committees and sub-committees starting with the Grand Committee for Religion appointed on 6 November 1640.
Their main target was the Earl of Strafford, former Lord Deputy of Ireland; aware of this, he urged Charles to use military force to seize the Tower of London, and arrest any MP or peer guilty of "treasonable correspondence with the Scots". While Charles hesitated, Pym struck first; on 11 November Strafford was impeached, arrested, and sent to the Tower. Other targets, including John Finch, fled abroad; Archbishop William Laud—by then sufficiently unpopular that in May 1640 a large armed mob attacked Lambeth Palace, seeking to kill him—was impeached in December, joining Strafford in the Tower.
At his trial in March 1641, Strafford was indicted on 28 counts of "arbitrary and tyrannical government". Even if these charges were proved, it was not clear they constituted a crime against the king, the legal definition of treason. If he went free, his opponents would replace him in the Tower, and so Pym immediately moved a bill of attainder, asserting Strafford's guilt and ordering his execution.
Although Charles announced he would not sign the attainder, on 21 April 204 MPs voted in favour, 59 against, while 250 abstained. On 1 May, rumours of a military plot to release Strafford from the Tower led to widespread demonstrations in London, and on 7th, the Lords voted for execution by 51 to 9. Claiming to fear for his family's safety, Charles signed the death warrant on 10 May, and Strafford was beheaded two days later.
Committees established by the Long Parliament
On 5 November 1640 parliament created several committees to parcel out the work they intended to address. The first committee was the Committee for Privileges and Elections under the leadership of John Maynard, MP for Totnes. On the next day, 6 November, parliament established the Grand Committee for Religion.The Grand Remonstrance
This seemed to provide a basis for a programme of constitutional reforms, and Parliament voted Charles an immediate grant of £400,000. The Triennial Acts required Parliament meet at least every three years, and if the King failed to issue proper summons, the members could assemble on their own. Levying taxes without consent of Parliament was declared unlawful, including Ship money and forced loans, while the Star Chamber and High Commission courts abolished.These reforms were supported by many who later became Royalists, including Edward Hyde, Viscount Falkland, and Sir John Strangways. Where they differed from Pym and his supporters was their refusal to accept Charles would not keep his commitments, despite evidence to the contrary. He reneged on those made in the 1628 Petition of Right, and agreed terms with the Scots in 1639, while preparing another attack. Both he and Henrietta Maria openly told foreign ambassadors any concessions were temporary, and would be retrieved by force if needed.
In this period, 'true religion' and 'good government' were seen as one and the same. Although the vast majority believed a 'well-ordered' monarchy was a divinely mandated requirement, they disagreed on what 'well-ordered' meant, and who held ultimate authority in clerical affairs. Royalists generally supported a Church of England governed by bishops, appointed by, and answerable to, the king; most Parliamentarians were Puritans, who tended to believe that church leaders should be appointed by their congregations.
However, Puritan meant anyone who wanted to reform, or 'purify', the Church of England, and contained many different opinions. Some simply objected to Laud's reforms; Presbyterians like Pym wanted to reform the Church of England, along the same lines as the Church of Scotland. Independents believed any state church was wrong, while many were also political radicals like the Levellers. Presbyterians in England and Scotland gradually came to see them as more dangerous than the Royalists; an alliance between these three groups eventually led to the Second English Civil War in 1648.
While it is not clear there was a majority for removing bishops from the Church, their presence in the House of Lords became increasingly resented due to their role in blocking many of these reforms. Tensions came to a head in October 1641 with the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion; both Charles and Parliament supported raising troops to suppress it, but neither trusted the other with their control.
On 22 November, the Commons passed the Grand Remonstrance by 159 votes to 148, and presented it to Charles on 1 December. The first half listed over 150 perceived 'misdeeds', the second proposed solutions, including church reform and Parliamentary control over the appointment of royal ministers. In the Militia Ordinance, Parliament asserted control over appointment of army and navy commanders; Charles rejected the Grand Remonstrance and refused to assent to the Militia Ordinance. It was at this point moderates like Hyde decided Pym and his supporters had gone too far, and switched sides.
First English Civil War
Increasing unrest in London culminated in 23 to 29 December 1641 with widespread riots in Westminster, while the hostility of the crowd meant the bishops stopped attending the Lords. On 30 December, Charles induced John Williams, Archbishop of York and eleven other bishops, to sign a complaint, disputing the legality of any laws passed by the Lords during their exclusion. This was viewed by the Commons as inviting the king to dissolve Parliament; all twelve were arrested.On 3 January 1642, Charles ordered his Attorney-general to bring charges of treason against Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, and Five Members of the Commons; Pym, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Arthur Haselrig, and William Strode. This confirmed fears he intended to use force to shut down Parliament. The members were pre-warned, and evaded arrest.
Soon after, Charles left London, accompanied by many Royalist MPs, and members of the Lords, a major tactical mistake. By doing so, he abandoned the largest arsenal in England and the commercial power of the City of London and guaranteed his opponents majorities in both houses. In February, Parliament passed the Clergy Act, excluding bishops from the Lords; Charles approved it, since he had already decided to retrieve all such concessions by assembling an army.
In March 1642, Parliament decreed its own Parliamentary Ordinances were valid laws, even without royal assent. The Militia Ordinance gave them control of the local militia, or Trained Bands; those in London were the most strategically critical, because they could protect Parliament from armed intervention by any soldiers which Charles had near the capital. Charles declared Parliament in rebellion and began raising an army, by issuing a competing Commission of Array.
At the end of 1642, he set up his court at Oxford, where the Royalist MPs formed the Oxford Parliament. In 1645 Parliament reaffirmed its determination to fight the war to a finish. It passed the Self-denying Ordinance, by which all members of either House of Parliament resigned any military commands, and formed the New Model Army under the command of Fairfax and Cromwell. The New Model Army soon destroyed Charles' armies, and by early 1646, he was on the verge of defeat.
Charles left Oxford in disguise on 27 April; on 6 May, Parliament received a letter from David Leslie, commander of Scottish forces besieging Newark, announcing that he had the king in custody. Charles ordered the Royalist governor, Lord Belasyse, to surrender Newark, and the Scots withdrew to Newcastle, taking the king with them. This marked the end of the First English Civil War.