ABSTRACT
The Puritan movement climaxed in the parliamentary struggle with Charles I, which precipitated civil war and resulted in the executions of Archbishop Laud and Charles himself in 1649. As the civil war approached, the Puritans became a party within Parliament and the country. As the Parliamentary army became stronger and more successful and its generals, capped by Oliver Cromwell, better leaders, the need for Scottish assistance declined and the English Puritans grew stronger. As a party, the Puritans developed a political thought based upon covenant that served them well in raising and governing armies when the war came. The center of Puritan political thought was in Cambridge, just as the major English royalists were products of Oxford. Under Charles II Puritans were again persecuted, though not as severely as the Scottish Covenanters, as king and parliament legislated policies of Anglican uniformity. After the Glorious Revolution, the Puritans began to recede as an overt political force.
