On the avowal by Parliament of the refusal of the governor of Hull
to open the gates to the King, the members of the Royalist party
withdrew from Westminster; and on August 22nd, 1642, the uplifting of
Charles' standard on a hill at Nottingham announced the outbreak of the
Civil War.
On the well-trodden ground of the progress of the war, it is unnecessary
for our purposes to dwell. The issues involved were truly tremendous.
The evolution of the English Constitution had left it undecided to whom
the supreme power in the nation did rightfully accrue: and this was,
perhaps, the most practical question at issue.[29:1] As between
Parliament and King, the question was, whether the supreme power was to
continue to be wielded by a king whose temporal jurisdiction was to be
limited only by ancient laws interpreted by judges of his own creation
and removable at his pleasure, or by the representatives of the nation
in Parliament assembled? It was left to the Model Army to remind the
members of the Long Parliament that their power, as that of "all future
representatives of this nation, is inferior only to theirs who choose
them."[29:2] However, to make both King and Church responsible to
Parliament was, in truth, the one common aim of the whole Parliamentary
party; and, as Gardiner well points out,[29:3] "every year which passed
after the Restoration made it more evident that, for the time at least,
the most substantial gains of the long conflict had fallen to those who
had concentrated their efforts on this object.
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