In the mid-16th century, England had Queen Mary I of England, who earned herself the less-than-pleasant moniker of “Bloody Mary". While in power, Mary vowed to restore papal authority and revert England to Catholicism, placing the bullseye on Protestants. Laws against heresy made a bloody comeback, which saw hundreds of Protestants dragged to the stakes. Naturally, the oppressed began to revolt. Bands of insurgents flooded the city streets, torching city buildings and governmental establishments. Ambitious assassination plots were hatched across the land as conspirators conjured up planned poisonings, midnight sneak attacks, and other desperate ways to dispose of the tyrants.

Despite assassination attempts, King James I would continue to reign, and England has more often been faced with the claims of competing kings and queens than with a period of no monarch at all. The major exception to that rule came in the 11 years between 1649 and 1660, when England was a republic. Following the disastrous reign of Charles I and the civil wars that led to his execution, Parliament, and the army ruled England.

That situation was one that would not have been possible without the Bishops’ Wars that preceded it. In the 1630s, Charles’ high-handed approach to politics caused further trouble north of the border, and not just because of the lands he had taken back from the nobility. The Scots were Presbyterian Protestants, and Charles wanted to enforce the same religious practices on them as he supported in England. His attempt to enforce use of the English Book of Common Prayer led to a rebellion by the Scots in 1639, a rebellion which ultimately became known as the Bishops’ Wars.

Wars were expensive to fight, and even the measures Charles had used throughout the 1630s could not fund a war to bring the Scots into line. Thus, in 1640, he reluctantly recalled Parliament, his sole purpose being to raise taxes. Within a month, it was clear that Charles would not get the taxes he wanted, and Parliament was once again dissolved, earning it the nickname of the Short Parliament.

The king could make the English Parliament go away, but he could not do the same for the Scottish rebellion. Many Scottish soldiers were veterans of the bitter religious fighting in Europe, which was then in the middle of the Thirty Years War. After they beat the English at the Battle of Newburn on August 28, 1640 and occupied northern England, Charles was forced to make a humiliating peace. Adding insult to injury, he had to summon Parliament to raise money he had promised to the Scots in return for an end to the war. In return for the funds he so desperately needed, Parliament forced Charles to accept measures that prevented him from dissolving Parliament, as well as the execution of one of his key advisors and other measures loathsome to the monarch. Less than two years later, the First English Civil War would commence.

The Bishops’ Wars: The History of the Religious Conflicts that Engulfed Britain and Led to the First English Civil War examines one of the most tumultuous periods in England’s history. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Bishops’ Wars like never before.