To put an army in the field Charles was forced to convene Parliament, which he, like his father, had tried to ignore for over a decade. Once Parliament assembled, conflicting loyalties led to a Royalist Party and a Parliamentary Party. The Parliamentarians, clearly a majority, were agreed on the broad Puritan principles but were divided over the form of the church. On the one hand were Presbyterians; on the other were Independents (or Congregationalists). United in their hatred of Archbishop Laud, the Parliamentarians succeeded in bringing him to trial and seeing him beheaded.
