GCE History Teachers' Guide - Unit 3 - WJEC

GCE AS and A HISTORY UNIT 3 Teachers' Guide 22
EXEMPLAR 1
'Parliament was more responsible than the King for the outbreak of the Civil War.'
How valid is this assessment of the outbreak of the first Civil War?
DOCUMENT 1
'It was in Parliament and particularly in the House of Commons that the opposition built its
institutional base. Men fought and even paid to be members of it, instead of having to be
paid their expenses as an inducement to serve. With its control over taxation, especially for
war, and its control over legislation, especially concerning religion, it was strategically placed
to demand redress of grievances. During the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, many things happened to increase Parliament's powers and to diminish the
capacity of the Crown to control it. The House of Commons grew from about 300 to 500.
The members gained experience and a sense of continuity owing to the enhanced frequency
of Parliamentary sessions between 1590 and 1614. They developed an efficient committee
system, which freed them from manipulation by a Crown appointed Speaker, and by the
early seventeenth century Parliamentary leaders were beginning to emerge, men who built
their careers on playing key roles in debates and on committees in the House. The Crown
had trouble with this body at all times in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
but slowly the nature of the trouble changed and became far more menacing.
DOCUMENT 2
[Lawrence Stone, an academic historian and specialist in
early modern British history, writing in a specialist text-book,
The Causes of the English Revolution (1972)]
'And whereas by command from Us, we did by our Serjeant of Armes demand them in our
House of Commons, that their Persons might accordingly be arrested for High Treason, to
which demand we have received from the said House a message only, where we expected
Obedience. We went our Selfe the next day in Person to our said House of Commons,
requiring the delivery up of the said Persons, but found that they (being struck with the
conscience of their own guilt of so heinous crimes) were absent and fled, not willing to
submit themselves to Justice, there being in us no intention at all to use any force against
them, or any of them, but to proceed against them in a legal, fair way. We have therefore
thought fit to publish this their escape and command all Justices of Peace, Mayors, Sheriffs,
Bailiffs, Constables to use their best diligence and industry in inquiring and searching for the
said Denzell Hollis, Sir A. Haslerigge, J. Pym, J. Hampden and William Strode. And if they
shall find them, send them with sufficient guard, unto our Tower of London. And if any
Person shall directly conceal or maintain the said Hollis, Haslerigge, Pym, Hampden and
Strode, we will proceed against them for their said neglect of this Our commandment, with all
severity.'
[From a declaration issued on behalf of the King, demanding the arrest of five members of
Parliament (January 1642)]