Chapter Origins of Age of Milton and Marvell by History

that followed were always conservative - a return to a balanced constitution in which the King and Parliament worked in harmony and with mutual respect. The inherent structural weaknesses of the state, the personal failings and policies of Charles I were exposed. When faced with a Parliament in England unwilling to allow arbitrary government to continue, and his Scottish and Irish subjects determined to resist the drive for uniformity in the Church and state the King sought to create, royal authority subsequently collapsed in each of the three kingdoms. There are views that the Civil War was a conflict of religion, a politico- confessional war between Puritanism and Anglicanism. Certainly, the divisions over religion proved to be some of the most difficult to reconcile prior, during and after the Civil War. Ultimately the Civil War was the result of a complicated religious and political situation that encompassed the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Its causes are diverse and perhaps the most notable point is that right up until the precipitation of war in the summer of 1642 civil war was never inevitable.