AQA A Level History: The English Revolution, 1625–1660, 7042/2E - 5 June 2019

Does anyone have any predictions for the essays?

my history teacher said that there has been essay Qs on what caused the war/s, but nothing on the actual war itself, like why the royalists were defeated? could be a potential oneee

Yeah I agree with you, looking through the past exams i reckon that the Civil war, restoration and Personal Rule will probably come up. For the past two years plus that Sample Assessments there has always been a question on the breakdown of relations from 1625-9 so that is definitely not coming up again which is a shame.

I also think the sources will be a lot earlier as the earliest sources were on the regicide which is quite late into the course so maybe the sources could be on the break down of relations from 25-29

Thoughts? A style was good, B style questions not so nice.

I found the source question decent, I loved the civil war question but the Ireland one wasn't too great. Didn't bother with the protectorate question

Yeah I agree with you, looking through the past exams i reckon that the Civil war, restoration and Personal Rule will probably come up. For the past two years plus that Sample Assessments there has always been a question on the breakdown of relations from 1625-9 so that is definitely not coming up again which is a shame.

I also think the sources will be a lot earlier as the earliest sources were on the regicide which is quite late into the course so maybe the sources could be on the break down of relations from 25-29

3/4 right not that bad. That last question was so horrible though, did anyone do it ?

Some did because they didn’t like the Ireland one

I genuinely could not even answer it though, how would you structure it?
dont worry if you didn't do it, I am just genuinely interested because to me the question made no sense.

I didn’t do it either, I mean the attempts at settlement between 53-58 was the NA, MG’s, 1st PP and the 2nd PP.
For-
Links to the army would be that the first PP was ended because they wanted more power from the army in the Instrument of gov?
Link to the James Nayler case of 1657 ending the 2nd PP and how that was due to the religious zeal of the army?
Not sure on a final point.
Against-
1st PP ended and MG’s started because of western design and penruddock’s uprising?
MG’s ended because of their zeal, erosion of tradition and how expensive it was?
NA ended due to how there was both radicals and moderates in it reducing its efficiency?
I think that’s what I would go with but that’s just from the top of my head.

this is very good mate and makes a lot of sense, it sounds like you would have done very well if you had answered it.
We really did not cover this in too much depth and the textbooks were useless on it as well.
how do you feel you did on the other questions?

Personally I preferred the Protectorate question over the Ireland one. My basic structure was:

For:
*Council of State being largely army officers - caused discontent in the 1st PP who wanted less army influence + reduction in the army. They refused to pass any of the ordinances that O.C and the C.O.S had drafted before the meeting due to this.
*A bit about the M.Gs, how they were disliked
*2nd PP wouldn't vote for the Desimation tax which funded the M.Gs, leading to the end of the M.Gs and annoyed Cromwell - settlement less likely
*Members of the 2nd PP being excluded by the C.O.S to try and make meetings more successful - heavy army influence and after a month attempts at settlement/reform broke down again
*Bit about the army wanting radical reform but governing class mainly being more moderate, linked to the regicide/Pride's Purge/etc

Against:
*Some historian quotes (Coward and Hutton) saying O.C would never be able to work with a parliament
*1st PP attacked O.C's authority directly, e.g the legitimacy of the constitution
*Cromwell himself wanted religious reform but parliament were against any radical changes
*Aftermath of the civil war - parliament were reluctant to make any large social/religious changes
*A little bit about the regicide and how it hadn't been widely supported, and was only a 'last resort' after negotiations came to nothing. Cromwell was linked with the regicide so settlement made difficult
*Opposition to Cromwell - in the 2nd PP Haselrig claimed all government since the Long Parliament/Pride's Purge had been illegitimate

Conclusion:
*Summary of all points and concluded that military basis was the main reason for the failure to reach settlement


Honestly I would have done anything else above Wentworth in Ireland, I know next to nothing on it. It seems quite a few people did Ireland over Cromwell though.

Regicide was 1649, question was 1653-58 btw