Wars of the Three Kingdoms

This article is about the British Isles. For the three kingdoms period in ancient China, see Three Kingdoms.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Part of the European wars of religion
Charles I in Three Positions by Anthony van Dyck, 1635–1636
Monarch of the Three Kingdoms: Charles I in Three Positions by Anthony van Dyck, painted 1635–1636[1]
Date1639–1653
Location
British Isles
Result

English Parliamentarian victory

Territorial
changes		 Annexation of the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland by the Commonwealth of England
Belligerents
Royalists Covenanters Confederates Commonwealth of England Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Casualties and losses
50,000 English & Welsh[2] Unknown Unknown 34,000 English & Welsh[2]
+127,000 non-combat English and Welsh deaths (including 40,000 civilians)[a]
Total: 868,000+ dead[b]

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms,[c] sometimes known as the British Civil Wars,[d][e] were a series of intertwined conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bishops' Wars, the First and Second English Civil Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the Anglo-Scottish War of 1650–1652. They resulted in victory for the Parliamentarian army, the execution of Charles I, the abolition of monarchy, and founding of the Commonwealth of England, later The Protectorate, a unitary state which controlled the British Isles until the Stuart Restoration in 1660.

Political and religious conflict between Charles I and his opponents dated to the early years of his reign. While the vast majority supported the institution of monarchy, they disagreed on who held ultimate authority. Royalists (or 'Cavaliers') generally argued political and religious bodies were subordinate to the king, while most of their Parliamentarian (or 'Roundhead') opponents backed a limited form of constitutional monarchy and opposed the Personal Rule Charles had imposed. This was worsened by differences over religion and religious freedom. Reformed Protestants such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters opposed the changes Charles tried to impose on the Protestant state churches of England and Scotland. In Ireland, the only one with a Catholic majority, the Irish Confederates wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater self-governance, and a reversal of land grants to Protestant settlers.

The conflicts began with the Bishops' Wars of 1639–1640, when Scottish Covenanters who opposed Charles' religious reforms gained control of Scotland and briefly occupied northern England. Irish Catholics launched a rebellion in 1641, which developed into ethnic conflict with Protestant settlers. The Irish Catholic Confederation, formed to control the rebellion, held most of Ireland in the ensuing war against the Royalists, Parliamentarians, and Covenanters. Although all three agreed on the need to quell the rebellion, none trusted the other two with control of an army raised to do so. In August 1642, failure to break the resulting political deadlock sparked the First English Civil War, which pitted Royalists against both the Parliamentarians and their Covenanter allies in England and Wales.

The war in England ended when Charles surrendered to the Scots in 1646, but divisions among his opponents and his refusal to make significant political concessions caused a renewed outbreak of fighting in 1648. In the Second English Civil War, Parliamentarians again defeated the Royalists and a Covenanter faction called the Engagers. The Parliamentarian New Model Army then purged England's parliament of those who wanted to continue negotiations with the king. The resulting Rump Parliament approved his execution in January 1649 and founded the republican Commonwealth of England. In the Treaty of Breda, the Scots agreed to restore Charles II to the English throne, but were defeated in the 1650–1652 Anglo-Scottish war. Under Oliver Cromwell, the Commonwealth conquered Ireland and most Irish Catholic lands were seized. The British Isles became a united republic ruled by Cromwell and dominated by the army. There were sporadic uprisings until the monarchy was restored in 1660.

  1. ^ "Charles I (1600–1649) 1635–before June 1636". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  2. ^ a b Carlton 1994, p. 206.
  3. ^ Ohlmeyer, Jane H. (24 April 2018). "English Civil Wars : Causes, Summary, Facts, & Significance". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  4. ^ Carlton 1994, p. 214.
  5. ^ Raymond 2005, p. 281.
  6. ^ Carlton 1994.
  7. ^ Gaunt 1997.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).