Editing English Civil War (section)

==English overseas possessions==
{{Section citations needed|date=December 2024}}
{{Further|English overseas possessions in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms}}
During the English Civil War, the English overseas possessions became highly involved. In the Channel Islands, the island of Jersey and [[Castle Cornet]] in Guernsey supported the King until a surrender with honour in December 1651.

Although the newer, Puritan settlements in North America, notably [[Massachusetts]], were dominated by Parliamentarians, the older colonies sided with the Crown. Friction between Royalists and Puritans in Maryland came to a head in the [[Battle of the Severn]]. The [[Virginia Company of London|Virginia Company's]] settlements, [[Bermuda]] and [[Virginia]], as well as [[Antigua]] and [[Barbados]], were conspicuous in their loyalty to the Crown. Bermuda's Independent Puritans were expelled, settling the [[Bahamas]] under [[William Sayle]] as the [[Eleutheran Adventurers]]. Parliament passed [[An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego]] in October 1650, which stated that:
{{Blockquote|...due punishment [be] inflicted upon the said Delinquents, do Declare all and every the said persons in Barbada's, Antego, Bermuda's and Virginia, that have contrived, abetted, aided or assisted those horrid Rebellions, or have since willingly joyned with them, to be notorious Robbers and Traitors, and such as by the Law of Nations are not to be permitted any manner of Commerce or Traffic with any people whatsoever; and do forbid to all manner of persons, Foreigners, and others, all manner of Commerce, Traffic and Correspondence whatsoever, to be used or held with the said Rebels in the Barbados, Bermuda's, Virginia and Antego, or either of them.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/pp425-429#p3 |author=His Majesty's Stationery Office, London |date=1911 |via=British History: Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 |title=October 1650: An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego)}}</ref>}}

The Act also authorised Parliamentary [[privateer]]s to act against English vessels trading with the rebellious colonies:
{{Blockquote|All Ships that Trade with the Rebels may be surprized. Goods and tackle of such ships not to be embezeled, till judgement in the Admiralty.; Two or three of the Officers of every ship to be examined upon oath.}}

Far to the North, Bermuda's regiment of Militia and its coastal batteries prepared to resist an invasion that never came.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tanksalvala |first=Sarah |date=26 October 2021 |title=English Civil Wars 27: Witch Trials in the Devil's Isles |url=http://americanhistorypodcast.net/ecw-27-witch-trials-in-the-devils-isles |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=American History Podcast |quote=If you've been listening, and if you remember, Bermuda was the colony that tore itself apart first when war broke out in England.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tanksalvala |first=Sarah |date=1 August 2020 |title=English Civil Wars 18: Declarations of Independence |url=http://americanhistorypodcast.net/ecw-18-declarations-of-independence |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=American History Podcast |quote=in six colonies, the reaction was strong enough to turn into rebellion. These were Bermuda, Virginia, Maryland, Newfoundland, Barbados and Antigua.}}</ref> Built-up inside the natural defence of a nearly impassable barrier reef, to fend off the might of Spain, these defences would have been a formidable obstacle for the Parliamentary fleet sent in 1651 under the command of Admiral [[George Ayscue]] to subdue the trans-Atlantic colonies, but after the fall of Barbados, the Bermudians made a separate peace that respected the internal status quo. The [[Parliament of Bermuda]] avoided the Parliament of England's fate during [[The Protectorate]], becoming one of the oldest continuous legislatures in the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lefroy |first=John Henry |title=Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685, Volume I |date=1981 |publisher=The Bermuda Historical Society and The Bermuda National Trust (the first edition having been published in 1877, with funds provided by the Government of Bermuda), printed in Canada by The University of Toronto Press |location=Bermuda}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hollis Hallett |first=A. C. |title=Bermuda Under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |isbn=0-921992-14-9 |location=Bermuda |page=337 |quote=1652 Dec Assizes Civil Actions}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tanksalvala |first=Sarah |date=22 September 2021 |title=English Civil Wars 23: Empire |url=http://americanhistorypodcast.net/ecw-23-empire |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911110025/http://americanhistorypodcast.net/ecw-23-empire |archive-date=11 September 2022 |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=American History Podcast |quote=in England, Parliament had purged the Somers Islands Company of members who opposed the Commonwealth, so its remaining members pushed Bermuda into submission.}}</ref>

Virginia's population swelled with Cavaliers during and after the English Civil War. Even so, Virginia Puritan [[Richard Bennett (Governor)|Richard Bennett]] was made Governor answering to Cromwell in 1652, followed by two more nominal "Commonwealth Governors". The loyalty of Virginia's [[Virginia Cavaliers (historical)|Cavaliers]] to the Crown was rewarded after the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy when Charles II dubbed it the ''Old Dominion''.