Board: AQA | Option: 1D | Component: Component 1 (Breadth Study) | Assessment Objective: AO3
This option examines the most dramatic constitutional crisis in British history: the breakdown of the Stuart settlement, the Civil War, the trial and execution of Charles I, the Interregnum, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution. Students trace the conflicts over religion, taxation, and the limits of royal authority that culminated in the constitutional monarchy of 1689 — and engage with a rich historiographical tradition that continues to divide historians.
What this option covers
- James I: divine right kingship, relations with Parliament, and religious tensions
- Charles I: the Personal Rule, ship money, and the breakdown of the constitutional settlement
- The origins and outbreak of the Civil War: religion, finance, and political culture
- The course of the Civil War and the New Model Army
- The Interregnum: the trial of Charles I, the Commonwealth, and Cromwellian rule
- The Restoration: Charles II, the Cavalier Parliament, and religious settlement
- James II, the Glorious Revolution, and the Bill of Rights 1689
Key historiographical debates
- The causes of the Civil War: Whig constitutionalism, Marxist class conflict, or revisionist contingency?
- Was there a ‘crisis of the seventeenth century’ across Europe?
- How revolutionary was the Glorious Revolution? (The revisionist case against 1688 as a watershed)
- Cromwell: liberator, dictator, or reluctant revolutionary?
AO3 Interpretation Pack — coming soon
An AO3 Interpretation Pack for AQA 1D is in development. When complete, it will cover the major historiographical debates examined in this option, with named historians, paired comparison tasks built to AQA mark scheme logic, and provenance prompts for every debate. The first debate will be free and open to all.
