The English Civil War: Harbinger of Modernity

Chung Hon Michael Cheng Madyson Muscarello Senior Division Group Website

E-mail interview with Prof. John H. Zammito, professor of European history at Rice University Interview Transcript

1) What were the long-term political impacts of the English Civil War in regards to the monarchs relationship to Parliament? Re: 1 a monarchy can never be the same after a king has been overthrown and executed. It is my view that this was a tremendously important event in the long-term decline of the idea of monarchy as the natural and inevitable form of government for the West. More specifically, it certainly made the idea of absolute monarchy implausible if not downright impossible in Britain thereafter, and thus it decisively altered the relation between the crown and Parliament. The later adventures of the Stuarts Charles II and James II only confirmed what the Civil War set in motion, the drive towards constitutional monarchy.

2) What do modern historians regard to be the primary causes of King James Is break with Parliament? Re: 2 I dont know all the literature intimately. My own gleanings suggest that it was quite significant that James I was a Scot, who did not understand and was not eager to learn how the English system, and especially the powers of Parliament worked. Moreover, his extravagant theory of absolute monarchy was deeply out of touch with the long-standing idea of rights of Englishmen going all the way back to Magna Carta the idea of an ancient constitution. The provoking issue money was only the tinder for what would have been a fiery outcome in any other circumstances, as well. The fact that the later Tudors could finesse both the money issues and the traditional prerogatives of Parliament only added

further to the misunderstandings that James I had of governance in England. The interesting question, for me, is why you dont ask about Charles I, who had a far longer exposure to the English system and yet botched these relations far more thoroughly than his father.

3) What effect did the English Civil War have on subsequent revolutions in other countries, namely those in America and France? Re: 3 As a European historian, I am thoroughly convinced that the English Civil War was an indispensable prelude to the American and French Revolutions, both in terms of the regicide and in terms of the social components of the civil war.

4) Would you divide the English Civil War into two or three separate events, and depending on your classification, what were the defining events of each of them? Re: 4 This is a technical question that I have really no expertise in assessing.

5) What is the historical significance of the Levellers? Re: 5 My sense is that the Levellers matters more in retrospect the imaginary of later social revolutionaries than they did in the actual event. But the idea of radical religious sects demanding a more egalitarian social-political order was a truly terrifying idea for the established order whether it be the Anabaptists of the Reformation or the Levellers of the English Civil War. All radical revolutionaries could look back on these as their models. And nothing works better to arm the minds of rebels than to think they have a privileged access to Divine intentions.

6) Would you consider the English Civil War to be a catalyst of capitalism and if so, how? Re: 6 I dont think the English Civil War was the catalyst. I think capitalism was well under way before and would have established itself without the Civil War. But it didnt hurt that the gentry and the city won and the court and the peers lost out. It created a better environment for the growth of capitalism.

7) What long-term impacts did the reign of Cromwell as lord protector have on Britain? Re: 7 Beyond regicide, social severity and the problem of succession made the English people more interested in the restoration of monarchy and a less austere (Puritan) cultural life. That is about all that occurs to me. A specialist might give you a better idea.

8) How did this war set the tone for the political scene of Britain in the coming century? Re: 8 It made violent civil war an option in contexts of political controversy. That made the Revolution of 1688-89 more imaginable and executable. It also made the American revolt more conceivable. It also put deep fear into the British about further revolutions hence Edmund Burkes denunciation of the French Revolution, primarily out of fear that it would incite a similar outburst in Britain.

9) What are your opinions regarding Cromwell and King James I? Re: 9 All I think I have already stated above. Why is Charles I never raised in this set of questions? NOTE: The interviewer meant to ask the professor about Cromwell and King Charles I, not King James I.

10) How were the Bishops Wars influential in the English Civil War? Re: 10 This is a question for a specialist. I have nothing to contribute.

11) Was it a legitimate fear Christian leaders had in England that the queen might be able to convert the king to Catholicism? Re: 11 She certainly converted her sons! That suggests this was not a totally misguided concern.

12) What factors contributed to the instability of the political and social climate in England leading up to the wars? Re: 12 Religious disunity, first and foremost. The Scottish-English common reign, despite vast and hostile differences between the two kingdoms. The Scottish background of the Stuart dynasty. The tension of court and country (and behind it the rise of capitalism).