Historical Context: English Civil War
Henry Bellingham began directing the copying of texts into his commonplace book no earlier than 1649. (There is strong evidence that suggests that he started the book sometime between February 1649 and his death in October 1650.) The first text that he entered was Sir Robert Filmer's The Anarchy of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy, which was a treatise that responded to the political crisis that England experienced during the mid-seventeenth century. Many of the texts in the commonplace book betray that Bellingham (and the book's other authors) were reading and making notes in an attempt to make sense of the political turmoil that had enveloped the kingdom.
King vs. Parliament
Charles I was a more principled than pragmatic monarch, which inflamed those groups who did not share his opinions about the constitution of the government. By the end of the 1620's, Charles's relationship with his Parliaments had grown tense over fiscal and religious issues. Some Protestants were still quite distressed at the remnants of Romish religion in the Church of England, and they felt threatened by a monarch who seemed to be gradually dismantling the Protestant Reformation. There were many concerns about the high cost, and mismanagement, of English involvement in religious wars on the Continent. Parliament was the place where these grievances were aired, especially since members knew that the king was more inclined to listen if funding for the monarchy was affected. Nevertheless, as tensions grew, Charles silenced criticism by refusing to call a Parliament. He decided that it would be easier to rule without the bother of Parliament demanding further reforms to the Church of England at the same time that the body continued to underfund the monarchy. During the era of the Personal Rule (1629-1640), Charles revived extra-Parliamentary methods of raising cash, such as ship money, and used his courts to suppress opposition to his "innovations" in government. Charles believed that he was fulfilling the duties of his coronation oath, whereas his opponents believed that he was abusing the judicial system, illegally taking money from his subjects, and generally destroying Parliament, England's most prized political institution.
Charles was not only the king of England, but also the king of Scotland and Ireland. One of his goals was to bring religious uniformity to his three kingdoms, which had come to different religious settlements. Most Irish were Roman Catholic, despite attempts by the Tudors and Stuarts to replace the Roman Catholic Church with a moderately Calvinist Church of Ireland. Ireland did not take well to religious reformation.
On the other hand, the Scottish Kirk was unabashedly Calvinist, the most reformed church of the three kingdoms. It preferred a presbyterian form of government, which meant that control of the church was diffuse, located primarily in the hands of local parish sessions and synods. King James VI (1567-1625) had reintroduced bishops to the church governance in order to assert his control over the Kirk. This was similar to the traditional hierarchical church government by bishops that was still in place in England. In 1637, Charles and Archbishop Laud (the head bishop of the Church of England) introduced a prayer book into the Scottish Kirk in order to promote conformity in the kirk's liturgical practice. They took this step without consulting the Scots. The introduction of the prayer book followed a decade of tensions in that kingdom fueled by the perception that Charles acted like an English king who bullied the Scots, refused to give them patronage, and ignored the kingdom's needs. This was the last straw: the Scots refused to enforce the prayer book and abolished the episcopacy in 1638. Charles I, with the advice of Thomas Wentworth, Lord Deputy of Ireland, responded with force to this challenge to his authority.
Unfortunately for Charles, there were many in England who sympathized with the Scots: some appreciated presbyterianism, some opposed Charles' authoritarianism, almost everyone was distressed about effects of the Personal Rule. His campaigns did not go as well as hoped, and he was forced to call a Parliament in England in order to fund his campaign against the Scottish rebellion. In 1640, a Parliament was summoned, but it was short and disastrous. Parliament refused to grant the king funds until their many grievances had been addressed; what is more, some members of the English Parliament were openly hostile to the idea of funding a war with the Scots, due to their sympathy with the Scottish plight under the monarch. Once again advised by Thomas Wentworth, Charles dismissed Parliament without agreement — and without funding.
Meanwhile, the Scots noticed English bitterness concerning Charles' approach to governance and negotiating religious differences. They, like the English, were also very fearful of his willingness to make deals with the Catholic Spanish in order to secure funding — and money always came with strings attached. Instead of waiting for Charles to come up with the funds to invade Scotland and put down the rebellion, the Scots invaded England and secured control of strategic coal supplies.
Charles was forced to call another Parliament in 1640 in order to deal with the Scots. From this point, he lost control of the crisis. There were riots throughout England as Charles attempted to regain the trust of his subjects through the use of oaths and petitions; these instruments, intended to rally his supporters, further divided the kingdom. At the same time that he was battling the Scots, his own Parliament in England tried Thomas Wentworth, one of his close allies and Deputy of Ireland, for treason. When Wentworth could not be convicted of treason by means of a trial, Parliament passed a bill of attainder that declared him guilty of treason anyway. Charles was intimidated by rioters outside of his palace into assenting to the bill, whereupon Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and Deputy of Ireland, was beheaded by popular consent.
The situation did not improve after the death of Wentworth. By 1641, Ireland was in full rebellion against England and Scotland, in what had originally started as a Catholic movement to disarm Protestants in Ireland. Parliament forced the king to agree that the body could not be disbanded without its consent. This bill was without precedent in Parliamentary history: the body had traditionally been understood as an arm of the monarchy. Parliament stripped the king of his courts and other instruments of the Personal Rule, which humiliated Charles. Then Parliament excluded bishops from the House of Lords in open defiance of the king. The last insult was Sir John Hotham's refusal to allow Charles access to his own royal arsenal at Hull. When Parliament voted to raise a volunteer army, Charles had no choice but to raise the royal standard. In the summer of 1642, civil war broke out in England between supporters of the king (royalists, or cavaliers) and supporters of Parliament (Parliamentarians, or roundheads)
The 1640s were characterized by persistent conflict between king and Parliament, punctuated by attempts to negotiate an end to the wars. Although its players seem primarily English (King and Parliament), and the action seems focused on London and Westminster, the issues were British in scope and origin. The war was ultimately about defining the role of the king, but that necessarily affected the definition of the English Parliament and whether subjects of the crown enjoyed the traditional rights they claimed.
By late 1648, the Army had secured control of Parliament. They purged the members who did not agree with their radical vision of republican government. The resulting fraction of the original members summoned in 1640 has become known as the Rump Parliament. This body created the High Court of Justice to try the king for his crimes against Parliament and his subjects. Charles I was found guilty and executed on January 30, 1649. With the same blade, the Rump Parliament also abolished the monarchy. England became a commonwealth, governed by the Council of State from 1649-1653. In December 1653 however, Oliver Cromwell was installed as the Lord Protector, a life-long elected office that governed the commonwealth in conjunction with the Council of State. After Cromwell's death in 1658, the Protectorate fell apart under the leadership of his son, Richard. Monarchy was restored to England, and the Stuart dynasty to the throne, in 1660.
The regicide left a deep impression on the English, especially the governing classes. Most people disliked Charles I and his policies, but many were shocked that a small minority could take control and execute their king. Most people did not have a problem with monarchy, they simply did not agree with Charles' authoritarian approach to kingship. The intense struggle between Charles and his Parliament, however, sparked a vehement debate in political philosophy. An existing — and perhaps more spirited debate — over the role of the state in religion was also fueled by this ideological conflict. In Henry Bellingham's Book you can read some of the texts that were circulating during an era of political turmoil.