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The Protestation of 1641 was an attempt to avert the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of reli ...
.
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
passed a bill on 3 May 1641 requiring those over the age of 18 to sign the Protestation, an oath of allegiance to King Charles I and the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...
, as a way to reduce the tensions across the realm. Signing them was a necessity in order to hold public office. Those that were not willing to sign it were also listed under it as refusing to pledge its oath. The Protestation was also a part of a context of political, religious, and social anxiety due to intense changes in a short period in England during the Early Modern era. As further changes and armed conflict loomed closer, both Parliament and those loyal to the king attempted to find ways to avoid it. One of the ways they found to do that was via oath of allegiances, the first of which was the Protestation. It began in May 1641 with the intention of getting all Englishmen above the age of 18 to swear a vow to defend King Charles I and the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...
. Ultimately it failed and tensions continued to escalate between
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
and King Charles I, eventually leading to the start of the English Civil Wars in August 1642. However, the Protestation is an enlightening historical phenomenon that help us understand the process that led to the English Civil Wars and attempts that people made to avert a costly conflict, even from those at the center of the hostilities. In the context of the English Civil Wars, the Protestation is an interesting, but often unexplored topic. Apart from its implications in population census and local historiography, it provides an understanding of how people during the decade of 1640 attempted to avoid a potentially costly and bloody conflict. It happened not once, but three times until the civil wars broke out. The Protestation also fits in the timeline of the English Civil Wars, which shook the realm and altered its relationships. Their outcome was the beheading of King Charles, the temporary suspension of kingship under Oliver Cromwell's rule, and the
English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to b ...
under Charles II, showing the complexity of events and general social anxiety reigning during Stuart England.


Background

The antecedents of the Protestation can be divided into political and religious aspects. Religiously, the 16th and 17th centuries were a period of vast changes and religious conflicts. Starting in 1517, the
Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...
of
Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
began the process of ending the Catholic hegemony in Western faith and its political consequences. It reached the British Isles during the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
, when multiple acts of Parliament on religious reform were passed, ultimately leading to the Break with Rome in 1534, when the
Act of Supremacy The Acts of Supremacy are two acts passed by the Parliament of England in the 16th century that established the English monarchs as the head of the Church of England; two similar laws were passed by the Parliament of Ireland establishing the Eng ...
was passed. Most Englishmen, however, remained Catholic and conflicts and anxiety lingered. In 1641, amid fears of the Protestant Reformation being in danger of being undone, alleged Papist plots, and Catholic influence under the court of Charles I, the House of Commons during the
Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
was ordered by royal decree to prepare a national declaration to help reduce the tensions across England on the matter. That national declaration became the Protestation of 1641 and was, in fact, the first of three oaths of allegiance imposed by the
Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
between May 1641 and September 1643, being followed by Vow and Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant. Throughout the buildup to the English Civil Wars, discontentment among Protestants for the measures of the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is J ...
William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 164 ...
that intended to transform the Church of England into a more ceremonial one, according to the theology of Arminianism, led to conflicts between the Church of England and Puritans. In political terms, Charles was forced to end his Personal Rule and call Parliament to increase taxes so he could raise an army to put them revolts in Scotland and Ireland down. The
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
and the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
instead, led by
John Pym John Pym (20 May 1584 – 8 December 1643) was an English politician, who helped establish the foundations of Parliamentary democracy. One of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War, his u ...
, focused instead on protesting against the government and were quickly dissolved by Charles as an attack against the King, being known as the
Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...
. Charles decided to go on the offensive against the Scottish revolt without Parliament and recalled
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, (13 April 1593 ( N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1 ...
from
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
to lead his army in Scotland. Strafford had successfully controlled the Irish revolt by convincing the Catholic
gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest co ...
to pay taxes in exchange of future religious benefits, thus increasing the revenue of Charles I and pacifying Ireland. However, upon Strafford's failures in the battlefield and economic shortcomings from the expenses both English and Scottish armies, as Charles I was the King of both, he followed the advice of his Magnum Concillium, the House of Lords when the Parliament was not in section, and recalled Parliament to increase taxes and raise a new army to defeat the Scottish rebellion. This Parliament is known as the Long Parliament, as it met for twenty years between 1640 and 1660. The Long Parliament, however, would turn out to be more hostile against Charles I's interests than the Short Parliament had been. Once more under the leadership of John Pym, it began to vote on laws that would limit royal power, such as with the prohibition on taxation without Parliamentary consent and the control of Parliament over the King's ministers. Even though the Members of Parliament were strongly opposed to Charles I, they also attempted to enact legislation to reduce tensions and avert the likelihood that an armed conflict between the King and Parliament, the first of them being called as the Protestation. Its intent was to prevent the conflicts between both factions from turning into a costly civil war.


Protestation

Reacting to scares and anxiety that the Protestant Reformation was in danger of being replaced, especially due to the Catholic influence around King Charles I, a ten-man committee of the House of Commons was selected to draft a national declaration. From this, stemmed the first oath of allegiance to King Charles I and to the Protestant Reformation in the Church of England. It was written on 3 May 1641 and passed in Parliament, soon all members of the House of Commons had sworn under it and on the following day, so did the members of the House of Lords. Then, letters were sent from the speaker of the House of Commons to
sheriffs A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of each
Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
communicating them about the decision and for them to also swear into it, as well as the Judges of Peace. The final step was for the sheriffs and Judges of Peace to read it in Church and have all present sign it, which should be all of the population as they were obligated to go to church every Sunday under penalty of fine. Those that refused to sign under it were also written in the list and were deemed unfit to sit in a public office. This process lasted until February and March 1642. The text of the oath that these Englishmen were asked to swear under was the following: "I, _ A.B. _ do, in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to maintain, and defend as far as lawfully I may, with my Life, Power and Estate, the true Reformed Protestant religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations, within this Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine, and according to the duty of my Allegiance, to His Majesties Royal Person, Honour and Estate, as also the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and any person that maketh this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful Pursuance of the same: and to my power, and as far as lawfully I may, I will oppose and by all good Ways and Means endeavour to bring to condign Punishment all such as shall, either by Force, Practice, Councels, Plots, Conspiracies, or otherwise, doe any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present Protestation contained: and further, that I shall, in all just and honourable ways, endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace betwixt the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland: and neither for Hope, Fear, nor other Respect, shell relinquish this Promise, Vow and Protestation." By forcing all Englishmen above 18 years old to sign an oath of allegiance to King Charles I and to the Church of England, the hope was that they would unite under the King and not engage on a potentially bloody internal conflict. However, on 18 January 1642, following King Charles I's attempt to arrest the
Five Members The Five Members were Members of Parliament whom King Charles I attempted to arrest on 4 January 1642. King Charles I entered the English House of Commons, accompanied by armed soldiers, during a sitting of the Long Parliament, although the Fi ...
of Parliament on 4 January, the speaker of the House of Commons
William Lenthall William Lenthall (1591–1662) was an English politician of the Civil War period. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons for a period of almost twenty years, both before and after the execution of King Charles I. He is best remembered ...
sent out an additional letter to sheriffs across England demanding that all males over 18 years old to take the oath. Lenthall's assumption was that those that refused to do so would be Catholics and thus unfit to occupy an office in the Church or State of England, as well as to facilitate identifying potential backers of King Charles I across England. However, it was not an effective way of distinguishing Catholics, as some of them signed the oath with reservations to their faith, while other Protestants refused to sign it at all. The lists were returned to Parliament later in 1642, being known the Protestation Returns. Ultimately, the Protestation failed to accomplish its goals. Had it been successful as an oath of allegiance, its two successors, the Vow and Covenant and the
Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...
, would not have been necessary. Further, it was ineffective in uniting the realm under Charles I and averting a civil war, as the English Civil Wars began shortly after. Finally, it did not allow Parliament to distinguish between Catholics and Protestants, due to the disparity between those that signed the list and known Catholics, as per the recusancy lists. Rather than being an instrument against internal conflicts, it fed on them when Speaker Lenthall send the additional letter demanding that all men above 18 years old sign the oath as a response to Charles I's attempt to arrest the Five Members of Parliament. However, these lists have been useful to historians as a partial census of population, a guideline to estimate it, an important tool for genealogists in search of ancestors from before the English Civil Wars, and for academics interested in last name distributions before the civil wars erupted.


Aftermath

Following the failure of the 1641 Protestation, the Long Parliament tried two more times to organize an oath of allegiance to King Charles and the Church of England, but they saw the same fate as its predecessor. The Long Parliament then turned its focus to Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford, and accused him of treason and other minor crimes. Strafford was beloved by Charles I and the king did not want any sort of punishment against him. Not affected by this, John Pym was able to obtain notes from the King's Privy Council where Strafford claimed that Charles I was absolved from the rules of government because he had done his duty and his subject failed on theirs, thus Charles was allowed to use his army that was in Ireland to suppress all revolts against him. Soon afterwards, Pym proposed a
Bill of Attainder A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
on Strafford to execute him, which after some resistance was approved by the House of Commons and the House of Lords on 21 April 1641. Charles I initially refused to sign it, and without his signature Strafford would be safe. However, on 10 May, fearing the safety of his family, Charles I signed it and Strafford was decapitated two days later. It was hoped that with the execution of Strafford and the Protestation, tensions between Parliament and King would be deescalated, but the opposite occurred. Still in May 1641, the Long Parliament passed the Triennial Acts, demanding that Parliament meet at least at every three years, even without a Royal summons. Further, it prohibited any source of increased revenue for the Crown without Parliament consent, such as Charles I's
Ship Tax Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs cou ...
. At this time, however, Parliament was still focusing its efforts against bad counselors that were blamed for Charles I's failures, and not the King himself. As conflicts escalated, both sides suspected of each other. Parliament suspected that Charles I wanted to impose Armianism on them and force them to comply to his royal prerogative by military force. Charles and royalists were distrustful and resented by the continuous Parliamentary demands, which they saw as against the king's royal prerogative and position. Neither party was able to develop the conflicts further at this point, as the Irish, fearing the imposition of Protestantism in their Catholic land rebelled and that country descended into chaos. Soon, rumors began circulating that Charles I was backing the Irish rebels and that he at anytime would turn against Puritans, just as Strafford had suggested, thus spreading panic across the Puritans. Charles I, attempting to end his Parliamentary problems once and for all, marched into Parliament on 4 January 1642, with 400 soldiers planning to arrest the
Five Members The Five Members were Members of Parliament whom King Charles I attempted to arrest on 4 January 1642. King Charles I entered the English House of Commons, accompanied by armed soldiers, during a sitting of the Long Parliament, although the Fi ...
of Parliament, leaders behind the demands of Parliament. However, they had fled and Charles was not able to arrest them for treason. When he asked the Speaker of the House of Commons about their location, William Lethal replied that he was a servant of Parliament and would not answer the king's requests. Just a few days afterwards, Charles I fled London for the country for his safety, while cities and towns declared itself for one of the factions, although most of England remained neutral. As Summer advanced, negotiations between King and Parliament did not lead to fruition and the stalemate remained. On 22 August 1642, Charles I raised his
Royal Standard In heraldry and vexillology, a heraldic flag is a flag containing coats of arms, heraldic badges, or other devices used for personal identification. Heraldic flags include banners, standards, pennons and their variants, gonfalons, guidons, and ...
and a war that for long had been looming started as last. On one side, the Cavaliers or Loyalists were followers of the Church of England that wanted to maintain the traditional forms of government in Church and State based on the monarch. On the other, the Parliamentarians or Roundheads were Puritans that wanted to defend what they thought was the traditional form of Church and State that had been unjustly altered by Charles due to ill advice during his 11 years of personal rule. What followed was 9 years of civil wars between 1642 and 1651, the first one ending when Charles I was placed under Parliament custody and put to trial. In the succession of the trial of Charles I, he was executed for treason in 1649 and the kingship was replaced with
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...
's
Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execut ...
. Given the outcome of the conflicts between Charles I and Parliament, it is clear in hindsight that the Protestation failed and was always bound to do so, but for people at the time under the constraints that they were under and being ignorant of the future, the Protestation was a valid try at avoiding a costly civil war.


References

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Sources

*Carlton, Charles, Archbishop William Laud, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul, 1987. *Carlton, Charles, Charles I: The Personal Monarch, Great Britain: Routledge, 1995. *Coward, Barry, The Stuart Age, London: Longman, 1994. *Coward, Barry, The Stuart age: England, 1603–1714, Harlow: Pearson Education, 2003. *Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil war 1603–1642, Vol.9 1883. Cambridge, 2011 *Kelsey (2003). "The Trial of Charles I". English Historical Review. 118 (447): 583–616. doi:10.1093/ehr/118.477.583. *Purkiss, Diane, The English Civil War: A People's History, London: Harper Perennial, 2007. *Sherwood, Roy Edward, Oliver Cromwell: King In All But Name, 1653–1658, New York: St Martin's Press, 1997. *Vallance,E., Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism, and the Political Nation, 1553–1682. 2005. *Walter, John, Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. *Wedgwood, C. V., The King's War: 1641–1647, London: Fontana, 1970. *Whiteman, Anne The Protestation Returns of 1641–1642’. Local Population Studies, 60. 1995. *Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Fifth Report of The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Part I, Appendix 3 *"The Protestation Oath of 1641". Cornwall OPC Database. https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/extra-searches/protestation-returns/protestation-oath-of-1641/ .Retrieved 2 May 2019.


See also

* Protestation Returns of 1641–1642 *
English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
*
Commonwealth of England The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execut ...
*
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of reli ...
* Early Modern England *
English Restoration The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to b ...
* Trial of Charles I * Stuart England English Civil War Protestation Protestation 1641 in England 1641 works 17th-century documents