English Civil War: When James I of England became king, he set up the Divine Right of Kings. He said that God established the king to rule the nation and his subjects must always submit to him. He wanted his subjects to believe that they were violating God’s law if they did not obey the king. He wanted absolute power over his country and this was his way of doing that. The Puritans believed that they must obey their king if he does not contradict God. But if he does go against God’s law, then his subjects are free to go against the king’s law. Also, if the king violates the Scriptures then the people have the right to find a better ruler and to replace the wicked king. The Anglican Church wanted to rearrange its leaders so that the people would have more influence than the king. The king obviously did not like that idea since he wanted as much power as he could get. So he tried to prevent them from reforming their system. By the time that Charles I came to the throne, the people were angry that they could not redo their system. They gathered together and made an army under Oliver Cromwell to force the king to give the people their rights. On the advise of Henrietta Maria, the Charles’ wife, Charles tried to gather foreign Catholic armies to help. He gained money by collecting ship money as a tax to fund the protection of the sea ports. When the people discovered that he was not using the protection tax to protect them, they started to rebel against him. The Puritans believed that Charles was violating God’s law and not protecting his people. The people wrote a Petition of Right that Charles signed and claimed to agree with. Later when he tried to deny his signature and act against the Petition of Right, the people determined to replace him and probably kill him. The people went to the Parliament, which checked the king’s power, and asked them to get rid of Charles I. Another conflict began when Archbishop Laud imposed the Book of Common Prayer onto the Presbyterian churches of Scotland. The Book of Common Prayer had been given to the churches of England by Elizabeth I. The Scottish churches did not like the Anglican church imposing ideas into their Presbyterian worship. War broke out between the forces of Oliver Cromwell and Charles I. Eventually Charles was beheaded and Cromwell became the Lord Protector of England.
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