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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
XXV. ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND, 1603-1715 A.D.
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 23
PRESYBTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS
The surrender of the king ended the Great Rebellion, but left the political situation in doubt. By this time the Puritans had divided into two rival parties. The Presbyterians wished to make the Church of England, like that of Scotland, Presbyterian in faith and worship. Through their control of Parliament, they were able to pass acts doing away with bishops, forbidding the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and requiring every one to accept Presbyterian doctrines. The other Puritan party, known as the Independents, [23] felt that religious beliefs should not be a matter of compulsion. They rejected both Anglicanism and Presbyterianism and desired to set up churches of their own, where they might worship as seemed to them right. The Independents had the powerful backing of Cromwell and the "New Model," so that the stage was set for a quarrel between Parliament and the army.
[23] Also called Separatists, and later known as Congregationalists.
"PRIDE'S PURGE," 1648 A.D.
King Charles, though a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, hoped to find profit in their divisions. The Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons was willing to restore the king, provided he would give his assent to the establishment of Presbyterianism in England. But the army wanted no reconciliation with the captive monarch and at length took matters into its own hand. A party of soldiers, under the command of a Colonel Pride, excluded the Presbyterian members from the floor of the House, leaving the Independents alone to conduct the government. This action is known as "Pride's Purge." Cromwell approved of it, and from this time he became the real ruler of England.
EXECUTION OF CHARLES I, 1649 A.D.
The "Rump Parliament," as the remnant of the House of Commons was called, immediately brought the king before a High Court of Justice composed of his bitterest enemies. He refused to acknowledge the right of the court to try him and made no defense whatever. Charles was speedily convicted and sentenced to be beheaded, "as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good of the people." He met death with quiet dignity and courage on a scaffold erected in front of Whitehall Palace in London. The king's execution went far beyond the wishes of most Englishmen; "cruel necessity" formed its only justification; but it established once for all in England the principle that rulers are responsible to their subjects.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
