Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

This made the people very angry. They said the worst times were come again, when the kings fancied they might rob their subjects, and put them in prison when they pleased.

Charles was a very affectionate man, and he could not help loving and trusting others instead of making use of his own sense and trusting his people, as Queen Elizabeth had done. So he allowed the queen to advise him in most things, and Laud, Bishop of London, in others; particularly in matters of religion. So he began to oppress the Puritans in England. In poor Ireland, a harsh man, the Earl of Strafford, a great friend and favourite of King Charles, governed in such a cruel manner that everybody complained.

He sent English clergymen to preach in those parts of Ireland where the poor people could only understand Irish, and punished the people for not listening: and when some of the bishops (particularly good Bishop Bedel) begged him to have mercy upon the Irish, he threatened to punish them most severely for speaking in their favour.

All this time the king and queen and their friends were going on taking money by unlawful means from the people, till he was obliged to call a parliament. Then the gentlemen of the Commons insisted on Lord Strafford and Archbishop Laud being punished. Indeed, they would not be satisfied until Charles consented that Strafford’s head should be cut off.

Now, though Strafford well deserved some punishment, he had done nothing which by law deserved death; and therefore Charles ought to have refused his consent. The king had often quarrelled with the parliament, and acted contrary to its advice when he was in the wrong; but now that it would have been right to resist he gave way, and Strafford, who loved Charles, and whose very faults were owing to the king’s own wishes and commands, was beheaded by his order.

Strafford going to Execution.

This was a sad thing for Charles. His friends found that he could not defend them, and many went away from England. The king still wanted to take money, and govern in all things, without the parliament; he even went so far as to send some of the Commons to prison. And the parliament became so angry at last that a dreadful civil war began.

The king put himself at the head of one army, and he sent to Germany for his nephew, Prince Rupert, a cruel and harsh man, to assist him. The queen went to France and Holland, to try to get foreign soldiers to fight in the king’s army against the parliament. The king’s people were called Cavaliers.

The parliament soon gathered another army together to fight the king, and made Lord Essex general; and the navy also joined the parliament: and all the parliament people were called Roundheads.