"Why the English Civil War?" Topic

"This post concerns two interlinked questions:

Why do I wargame the English Civil War?

Why do I refer to the 'English Civil War'?

I deliberately use the old school term here, and not the Wars of the Three Kingdoms or the British Civil War(s). I do wonder if the 'BCW' as a bit of a misnomer as there wasn't really a polity referred to as Britain at that time and the inclusion of Ireland stretches the point even further. I have nothing against the term the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – this is more accurate than BCW if we're considering the wider series of conflicts that occurred in these islands in the period 1639-1651. I'm not one of those people who says things like 'It's political correctness gone mad'. It's just that I have restricted myself to action in England (and Wales!). That's not to say I won't, in gaming terms, venture north of the border at some point, though it's less likely my gaming will take me across the Irish Sea…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I've always thought it should be referred to as the Third English Civil War.

The first was between King Stephen and Queen Matilda.

The second was the War of the Roses.

The fourth was the Jacobite Wars.

Only the third? What about John v. almost everybody? Henry III v. Montfort? Edward II v. Isabella?

I do have something against the term "Wars of the Three Kingdoms" – it's shameful cultural appropriation of the most non-PC sort. I am still bitterly disappointed from the first time I saw the term in a book title and my hopes soared, only to be dashed when I realised that it wasn't the military history of the real Three Kingdoms that I'd wanted for so long.

THREE kingdoms? England and Scotland make two but Ireland wasn't united enough to be a kingdom, surely?

British Civil Wars makes sense in geographic rather than political terms as most of the British Isles were involved at some point.

Can the earlier dynastic struggles be properly termed 'civil' wars? 1642-9 is the first period where the general population, rather than just the nobiiity, was actively involved both militarily and politically.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

but Ireland wasn't united enough to be a kingdom, surely?

Legally it was; Henry VIII was proclaimed King of Ireland in 1542, and his successors remained so until the Act of Union.

Yeah, but..saying it doesn't make it so (smile)