You're Dead to Me
Causes of the British Civil Wars: Royalists versus Parliamentarians
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
Greg Jenner is joined in 17th-Century England by Dr Jonathan Healey and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about King Charles I and the causes of the British Civil Wars.This year marks the 400th anniversary of Charles I coming to the throne on 27th March 1625. Less than two decades later, his antagonistic relationship with Parliament would ignite a civil war, one that would end with his capture, trial and execution, and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. The war is remembered as a fight between Cavaliers and Roundheads, but what did each side actually believe in, and what were the causes of this conflict? Tracing the breakdown of the relationship between the King and Parliament, this episode takes in clashes over taxation, religion and the limits of royal power, disastrous wars, unpopular advisers, and Charles’s attempts to rule without Parliament altogether. It also moves outside London, exploring popular uprisings against everything from the King’s taxes and contentious church reforms to the 17th-Century cost-of-living crisis. If you’re a fan of royals behaving badly, political bust-ups, rebellion and revolution, you’ll love our episode on the causes of the British Civil Wars.If you want to hear more from Toussaint Douglass, check out our episode on abolitionist Frederick Douglass. And for more Stuart history, listen to our episodes on King James I and VI and scandalous actress Nell Gwyn.You’re Dead to Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Matt Ryan Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: James Cook
Chapter 1: What are the causes of the British Civil Wars?
You may have seen him on BBC Three's Stand Up for Live Comedy or loads of Dave shows like Outsiders, Hypothetical, Question Team or Late Night Mash. And you will remember him from our episode on Frederick Douglass. It's Toussaint Douglass. Welcome back to the show, Toussaint.
Thanks so much for having me, Greg. You also forgot to mention that, just like John, I also have a connection with Kellogg's. I had cornflakes this morning, so I'm also very academic myself. I'll leave it to him mostly, but just to say that, you know, I dip my toes in some milk.
Tucson, last time you proved yourself a bit of an American history aficionado. You knew quite a lot about Frederick Douglass.
Yeah, well, he was one of my heroes. So someone I, yeah, and also I did study kind of American history at uni a bit. So I had a little bit of a little bit of a help there. This one, not so much. When you told me about the British Civil Wars, I did think it was like a British version of like the Marvel kind of film or something like that, the Civil War film. So that's my starting point.
So, yeah, I'll probably be leaving a lot of the history to John, but I'll chip in every now and then, I'm sure.
So what do you know? This is the So What Do You Know? This is where I have a go at guessing what you, our lovely listener, might know about today's subject. And as you've probably heard of the British Civil Wars, or rather, you've probably heard of the English Civil War. That's not really a name we use that much anymore. And also, there aren't that many movies about it or pop culture about it.
We've got King Charles popping up in To Kill a King. There was the show The Devil's Whore. There was Blackout of the Cavalier Years. Recently, we've had Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galatine seducing their way into the early Stuart Court in Mary and George, which was very rude and naughty. I enjoyed it. But I reckon most listeners are going to be unsure of the details here.
I think probably you're thinking of Roundheads versus Cavaliers or Oliver Cromwell and his ugly wart or Charles I being beheaded. But how did a civil war actually start? And just how long is a long parliament? Let's find out. The British Civil Wars or the War of the Three Kingdoms or the English Civil War. I mean, there's loads of names for it, but they started in 1642. They lasted about a decade.
But today we're going to do the prequel. We're going to go Phantom Menace, Toussaint. We're going to basically do... In fact, Phantom Menace had loads of chat about tax and import duties. That's what we're doing as well. So lucky you.
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Chapter 2: Who were the key figures in the British Civil Wars?
But the two really crucial ones were, get this, fines for people who were wealthy enough to become knights but hadn't presented themselves to become knights at the king's coronation. So he fined people for that. It's called distraint of knighthood. It's very controversial, as you can imagine.
And the other thing he did was he found the boundaries of the old medieval forests and he found that basically they covered about a third of the country. And said, right, OK, there's all these medieval laws against building houses or having land on the forests. And said, well, you know, I know there's a massive town here now, but in 1200, this was a forest. So I'm going to fine you as well.
And again, it was very controversial and people didn't like it very much.
Right. Tucson, if you need to sort of rustle up, I don't know, let's say three billion quid. What strategies would you go for?
If I needed a quick three billion, I think I would just draw my face onto a piece of paper and just say that's three billion. He's the king. Isn't that what money is?
I mean, that might work. I don't know. Maybe that works in some dictatorships. I don't know. But I think that tends to lead to hyperinflation. But, you know, I'm not an economist. Something he does do is he turns to ship money. What is ship money?
Well, ship money is a well-established or was a well-established way of raising ships for the Navy. And basically what happened was that coastal communities were told you need to provide a ship for the Royal Navy and that would protect the country. What Charles did was he he kind of rolled it out to inland counties on the fairly sensible premise that basically they get protected as well.
And it was very, very controversial because he was essentially doing a new tax and he was doing it without parliament. The way he did it was very, very clever. He said, basically, it's an emergency. And the emergency is the French and pirates and the Turks as well. And he said, there's loads of pirates in the English Channel. They keep coming here and being a pain. So it's an emergency.
So I need to have a tax without parliament. And people argued, well, that's all very well. But, you know, it doesn't look like that much of an emergency. There's like two pirates, mate. Come on. And he says, well, I'm the king and I get to decide when it's an emergency. Rather cleverly, he's kind of basically said in emergencies, I can have your money and I get to decide when it's an emergency.
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Chapter 3: How did taxation issues lead to civil unrest?
And to you, lovely listener, join me next time as we untangle the complicated origins of another historical happening. But for now, I'm off to go and petition my local council with a 24-yard-long petition about potholes. They're going to feel my petty wrath. Bye! This episode of You're Dead to Me was researched by Matt Ryan. It was written by Emmy Rose Price Goodfellow, Emma Neguse and me.
The audio producer was Steve Hankey and our production coordinator was Ben Hollands. It was produced by Emmy Rose Price Goodfellow, me and senior producer Emma Neguse and our executive editor was James Cook. You're Dead to Me is a BBC Studios audio production for BBC Radio 4.
Hello, Russell Cain here. I used to love British history, be proud of it. Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, massive fan of stand-up comedians. Obviously, Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor. That has become much more challenging, for I am the host of BBC Radio 4's Evil Genius, the show where we take heroes and villains from history and try to work out, were they evil? or Genius.
Do not catch up on BBC Sounds by searching Evil Genius if you don't want to see your heroes destroyed. But if, like me, you quite enjoy it, have a little search. Listen to Evil Genius with me, Russell Cain. Go to BBC Sounds and have your world destroyed.
I'm Helena Bonham Carter and for BBC Radio 4, I'm back with a brand new series of history's secret heroes.
And he tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent. She will work undercover and if she is caught, she's going to be shot.
Join me for more stories of unsung heroes, acts of resistance, deception and courage from World War II. Subscribe to History's Secret Heroes wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 8: How did the royalists and parliamentarians differ?
And eventually that then cascades into the next step, which is to actually raise armies. But before then, Parliament had put together another document... which sounds a bit less like a ballroom dance, I reckon. The 19 propositions, or maybe it does. The 19 propositions, which basically is another attempt to say, look, things have got bad.
The way that we solve this is we get control of the government. We take it away from the king. We get control of the militia. And of course, there's no way that Charles would agree to this. It's two political positions which are very much apart.
And that then, again, sort of feeds into this arming, creation of armies, by which and by the summer, basically, Charles has decided that it's all gone too far. The only way I can deal with this is to declare war on the rebels, as he calls them, on the Earl of Essex, their leader. And that's why he went to Nottingham and raised his standard on the 22nd of August. Yeah.
Why did he choose Nottingham to declare war? Is it because it already looks like a bit of a battlefield? No, I'm joking. I really like Nottingham. I've already alienated Portsmouth. I don't want to lose Nottingham. I've got a long history with Nottingham. I went to uni there. It's really good. Some fond memories. My first mugging was in Radford, so I've got a lot of... I really like Nottingham.
I mean, it's a fair point. Why not? Is it just because it's in the middle of the country? Is that just a good sensible?
Yeah, he just really hates Leicester. He wanted to give a bit of just a bit of a bit of trade to that. I mean, he does. I mean, one of the things that Charles was executed for was for laying waste to Leicester. That was literally in the charge against him. But no, it's because it's right in the centre of London. A bit of metropolitan elite there.
It was right in the centre of the country and it was a great base for raising troops in the Midlands and also possibly going over towards Wales where Charles knew that he had a lot of support.
So on the fateful day, 22nd of August, 1642, having come to power in 1625, Charles I raised the royal standard at Nottingham and then apparently the wind blew it down, which was never a good sign, and thus declared the British Civil Wars, the English Civil War, whatever you want to call it, but he declared war. Charles had come to power in 1625.
So it's 400 years this year since Charles has come to power. The question I want to ask you, Toussaint, which side would you have sided with? Would you have gone king or parliament?
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