Charles I forced his way into the House of Commons on 5 January 1642 with an armed escort and attempted to arrest five MPs and a peer for making treasonable charges against the queen, Henrietta Maria. The raid did not come as a complete surprise and Charles’ targets had time to flee onto riverboats on the Thames before melting into the London crowds. Unnerved and fearful of arrest, the remaining MPs put Parliament into recess and Westminster appeared to close down completely for a few days.

Parliament’s primary concern that week had been an uprising by Catholic Ulster gentry in October 1641, which had escalated into a widespread revolt, engulfing all of Ireland. London’s popular press was full of lurid, illustrated accounts of the atrocities wrought by Catholic Irish rebels against their English neighbours, who had settled in Ireland in large numbers during the early decades of the 17th century. As Charles was in Scotland when the rebellion broke out in Ireland, he gave Parliament special powers to direct England’s response to the Irish revolt. Progress was slow and the king returned to London in the winter of 1641 to take personal control of the English military response.