SOURCE: "The Rebels of 1642," in The English Civil War and After, 1642-1658, edited by R. H. Parry, University of California Press, 1970, pp. 22-40.

In the following essay, Pennington examines the political issues surrounding the English Revolution, arguing that by the time King Charles I acknowledged the revolutionaries in 1642, a revolution had already taken place within the government: Parliament had already become the ruler of the country.

There are some phrases and sentences so irresistibly attractive to writers of history that they appear, with minor variations, in an enormous range of books. Some classic favourites ('this was an age of transition'), having served for almost every time and place, slowly fall into disrepute. Others are tied to a single episode; and of these the hardiest may well be the bare statement of fact 'On August 22 Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham.' There is a good chance that...