ABSTRACT
In 1639 Scottish troops repulsed an English army seeking to impose the king's authority; the next year the Scots crossed into England. From 1639 to 1642, England experienced the characteristic elements of state breakdown: a state crisis, as Englishmen refused to pay the Ship Money levies in 1639 following the army's failure to defeat the Scots, leaving the government bankrupt; an elite rebellion, as many county leaders refused to obey the king's writs to join the Royal Army, instead cooperating with Parliament to raise an alternative force; and popular disorders, as merchants, shopkeepers, and craftsmen forcibly wrested control of London from the aldermen, as crowds in the city prevented the bishops from attending Parliament and forced the king and his family to leave London for fear of violence, as rural riots in the fens and Crown forests frightened conservative elites while anti-Catholic riots intimidated the king's supporters, and as large-scale uprisings threatened royal authority and English landlords in Ireland. By 1642, English, Scots, and Irish were choosing sides (or seeking to avoid involvement) in what would become a civil war between royalist and parliamentary forces. These events mark the opening stages of what is called the Great Rebellion or the English Revolution.
