1625–1689

The English Civil War, Cromwell's Protectorate, and the Glorious Revolution

Under Charles I (from 1625) many bishops championed the divine right of episcopacy and rejected Calvinism. Archbishop William Laud persecuted Puritans and tried to impose Anglican liturgy on Scotland. The 1637 attempt to introduce the Book of Common Prayer there provoked a Scottish revolt. The revolt forced the king to summon the Short and then the Long Parliament (1640). Parliament executed the Earl of Strafford and barred bishops from the House of Lords.

Civil war broke out in 1642. Oliver Cromwell's cavalry crushed the king at Naseby. Parliament executed Laud in 1645 and abolished the episcopate. But then a split arose between the Presbyterian Parliament and the army of Independents. Parliament's purged "Rump" tried Charles I and beheaded him on 30 January 1649.

Cromwell suppressed revolts in Ireland and Scotland and took the title Lord Protector. He pursued a relatively tolerant policy toward Presbyterians, Baptists and moderate Episcopalians through a board of 38 "triers" (1654). This toleration lasted until the Restoration.

After Cromwell's death, General Monk restored Charles II to the throne (1660). Charles reinstated the episcopate and the Book of Common Prayer. James II converted to Catholicism, and in 1688 a Catholic heir was born to him. This prompted the English nobility to invite the Protestants William of Orange and Mary. The result was the bloodless "Glorious Revolution" and James II's flight.