The civil war started because of the king's believe in his divine right to rule the country as opposed to parliaments belief that the country should be ruled by representatives of the people, the people being land-owners not the common man.. . But that isn't the reason he was defeated, the regular army was professional but small, wars always required larger armies but the raising of Armies was either done using foreign mercenaries via taxes or through landowners loyal to the crown commanding and training men living on their land.. . Charles attempted to raise taxes without parliamentary approval, when they refused he threatened to disbanded parliament, this was cyclical with either parliament or the crown giving ground whilst attempting to save face, until finally parliament was disolved and refused to back down. . . Unfortunately for Charles the treasury didn't have sufficient funds for mercenaries so he was relying upon landowners loyal to the crown for his soldiers, fighting soldiers of the landowners loyal to parliament. The landowners basically fell into two camps, either high order protestantism (broadly similar in ceremony and pomp to catholism) or to the puritans strict but more basic and without pomp.. . During this period of unrest the kings closest advisors tried to impose the protestant prayer book upon the Scots presbyerians, they refused and fought the kings forces in defence of their beliefs, the kings forces lost the war and he had to go cap in hand to parliament to ask for money to raise an army, they refused and Charles, advised by a close friend finally disolved parliament.. . Needing money he was finally forced to recall parliament who agreed but only if the man responsible for closing parliament was executed. Parliament continued to agrevate the king and after sending armed troops into parliament in an attempt to arrest his main critics, parliament became more against the king, the situation escalated quickly and the country was divided. . . Cromwell and some of the other parlimentarians trained soldiers in a new way, they became known as the New Model Army, highly disiplined and very well trained troops, and the Parliamentariens generals were better tacticians than the Loyalists, a combination that was simply too strong for the loyalists. . Once the new model army took London, Charles attempted to incite the Scots to fight for him against the puritans but the Scots were promised virtual atonomy in their religous practice by the puritans who had similar religous practices and they refused.. The king was effectively defeated and was put on trial for his crimes against the people, he lost and was beheaded.. . or were luckier in that the battles that were fought generally went their way not the loyalists.