1485–1688

The Union of the Crowns

The death of Elizabeth I left a vacancy on the English throne. There was only one viable successor—the
son of her one-time rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. James I’s accession effectively united the kingdoms of
Great Britain under the rule of a Scottish dynasty, the House of Stuart.

The Sutherland portrait of James VI/I
James’s kingships of Scotland and England
were separate. However, many saw him as
the King of Great Britain—a title that he
would occasionally use himself.
T
he infant James became James VI
of Scotland in 1567, after his
mother’s ousting. His father had
been murdered (see p.138).
Questions of control
James’s tutors brought him up a
learned man—and a committed
Protestant. Yet he had absolutist
instincts. Casting envious glances
southward at the hierarchical structure
of the Church of England, he tried to
bring back bishops to introduce order
to an overly democratic Scottish Kirk.
Catholics constituted a still more
frightening enemy within. James’s
mother had been Catholic, and some had
plotted to topple Elizabeth I in her favor.
For this reason, some English Catholics
had high hopes for his reign—while
Protestants had corresponding fears. As
King of England, he calmed the latter
by taking a hard line against Catholics.
There was a degree of desperation in
the Catholic response: early attempts
to topple James only strengthened his
Protestant position. The conspiratorial
ferment intensified in its turn: hence
the plan to blow up the House of Lords

“ What God hath conjoined let during the State Opening of Parliament,
on November 5, 1605.
The English Parliament was

no man separate. I am the potentially another enemy. What James

saw as its obstructionism was a spur
to his writings on monarchy and his
husband and the whole isle is theory of the “divine right of kings.”
Paradoxically, the Gunpowder Plot

my lawful wife… ” JAMES I OF ENGLAND, 1603

B EF O R E Fears of secret Catholic sympathies
were allayed by his marriage to the
unimpeachably Protestant Princess
Relations between the countries of Britain Anne of Denmark. In 1603, James
had been fractious for centuries. Wales’s succeeded Elizabeth and was warmly
princes had been put down by England’s welcomed by the English people as he
Edward I, who also rejoiced in his nickname progressed triumphantly south.
of “Hammer of the Scots.”
An uneasy union
SCOTTISH BATTLES His coronation was momentous in
Gains made by bringing about a “Union of the
Edward I in Scotland Crowns”, since James I of England was
were eroded by still James VI of Scotland. His promise
Robert the Bruce to return regularly to his homeland was
❮❮ 93, who helped soon neglected. Even so, the system
Scotland win its seemed to work. James wanted more
independence at the general union, with harmonized laws,
Battle of Bannockburn trade tariffs, and taxation, although
in 1314 ❮❮ 94–95. neither the English nor the Scottish
Further skirmishes Parliaments were enthusiastic.
occurred between the
two nations ❮❮ 116–17. Enemies within
England inflicted a James was formidably clever, but
SCOTTISH ROYAL terrible defeat on an apparent lack of common sense
COAT OF ARMS
Scotland at Flodden saw him labeled “the wisest fool
in 1513 ❮❮ 138. in Christendom.” His denunciations
of witches seem tragically misguided.
QUEEN WITHOUT A SUCCESSOR Antiwitchcraft legislation dated
Elizabeth I had Mary Queen of Scots back to 1563 in Scotland, but it was
executed ❮❮ 138. However, her lack of with James’s encouragement that
an heir left the way clear for Mary’s son, large-scale persecution began in
James, to succeed. 1590. Hundreds of women (and
some men) were killed after
summary show-trials.
(see pp.160–61), and the crackdown
on Catholics that followed, helped ease
relations between King and Parliament.
Spanish stalemate
The religious question reared up again
in the affair of the “Spanish Match”
when James tried to marry his son
Charles to the Infanta Maria, for
diplomatic reasons. The episode
was famously satirized by Thomas
Middleton’s play A Game at Chess
(1624). The wooing of Spain and
her infanta was deeply unpopular.
Tracts against witchcraft
James VI helped ferment the hysteria about witches,
claiming innocent lives in Scotland. His Daemonology
(1597) offered a learned justification for the persecution.
He is shown here examining convicted witches.
King James I Bible
A Protestant and indefatigable scholar, James was
fascinated by the challenges of scriptural translation.
He commissioned an “Authorized Version” of the Bible
(1604–11) that is still relevant today.
AF TER
The countries of the British Isles retained
their own identities, but English dominance
was to remain in the ensuing years.
CROMWELL’S TREATMENT
Cromwell cruelly suppressed the Irish, bullying
the Scots into an unequal union 174–75 ❯❯.
DANGEROUS ABSOLUTISM
England and Scotland shared much—not least
their Protestantism. James’s son, Charles I,
upset the Scots by trying to impose his
Anglican hierarchy on the Kirk 166–67 ❯❯.
His absolutism engulfed England in the
Civil War 168–69 ❯❯.
THE LAST CATHOLIC MONARCH
James II’s Catholic and autocratic leanings lost
him his throne in the Glorious Revolution of
1688 188–89 ❯❯. An Act of Union followed
a few years later in 1707, bringing about the
creation of Great Britain 202–03 ❯❯. Bonnie
Prince Charlie’s bid for the Crown in 1745
menaced the Union briefly, resulting in the
Battle of Culloden 204–05 ❯❯, but most Scots
and English united against the Stuart threat.

158
The Unification of the Crowns
The Union of England and Scotland was given an allegorical spin when
Peter Paul Rubens made it the centerpiece of his ceiling painting
(1632–34) at the Banqueting House in Whitehall. It shows James’s
son Charles being brought to the throne by personifications of
England and Scotland.
DECISIVE MOMENT November 5, 1605

The Gunpowder Plot

The plot to kill the King and bring the Houses of Parliament crashing
down helped shape British history for generations. Yet the ineptness
of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators did little to console those
who had hoped for a new monarch to safeguard their freedom
and loosen the grip of Protestantism.

G
uy, or Guido, Fawkes is the most
notorious of a clique of Catholic
conspirators who plotted to blow
up Parliament and King James I during
the State Opening of 1605. They meant
to strike a blow against a state whose
laws had deprived them, they believed,
of their just rights. Led by Robert
Catesby, a veteran of Essex’s Rebellion
of 1601 against Queen Elizabeth I, they
included the Earl of Northumberland’s
cousin, Thomas Percy, and Francis
Tresham. Fawkes, a former soldier,
provided the military experience.
Catholic uprising
Percy’s ties with Northumberland, a
Catholic sympathizer, were crucial.
Though there is no clear evidence that
the Earl was involved, the conspirators
relied on him to rally support. For, shot
through with wishful thinking, the plot
did not stop at the assassination of the
King: the attack was to spark a general
uprising. The King’s young daughter,
Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed
as a Catholic queen. But the Catholic
powers on the Continent were
skeptical. Spain disliked the idea of
overturning the monarchical order, and
the Pope was worried that the plan
would rebound on English Catholics.
Clumsy conspirators
Preliminary meetings between the
conspirators began in May 1604. Later
that year, they bought a cellar in a
nearby property that ran underneath
the precincts of Parliament. They also
rented rooms in a house just across the
River Thames, so that they could carry
gunpowder across at night.
They were discovered when an
anonymous letter—from Tresham, it
is suspected—warned Lord Monteagle,
brother-in-law of Tresham, to stay at
home. A search of Parliament by the
authorities on the eve of the opening
found Fawkes in the midst of his
preparations. The others were quickly
caught. Two were killed resisting
capture and the remainder were
interrogated, perhaps tortured, and
finally tried and condemned to death.

“ … devise some excuse to shift

off your attendance at this
Parliament, for God and man
hath concurred to punish the
wickedness of this time.”
ANONYMOUS LETTER TO LORD MONTEAGLE, OCTOBER 26, 1605

Executed for treason

Guy Fawkes and three co-conspirators were executed
outside Parliament on January 31, 1606. They were
dragged on wattled hurdles before being “hanged,
drawn, and quartered”—hanged until half dead,
their innards “drawn” out, and their bodies cut into
four. The public were encouraged to light bonfires
to celebrate the King’s escape.

161
 1485–1688

B EF O R E

England was itself the creation of what

might be described as colonial expansion.
Colonial Expansion
Since the departure of the Romans halfway
England’s earliest ventures into colonial expansion had been ill-fated, and at the beginning of the
through the first millennium, it had been 17th century that still seemed to be true. The project slowly gathered momentum and successful
occupied by successive waves of settlers.
English colonies were established on North America’s eastern seaboard and many Caribbean islands.
INVADED ISLAND

T
Anglo-Saxon raiders established their own he Age of Discovery had been new century: exaggerated claims, wanted. Raleigh was beheaded
kingdoms ❮❮ 24–25. The Vikings came to under way for a couple of centuries disappointing results—and a grisly end. in 1618, as a goodwill gesture to
plunder but the Danes settled and farmed when James I came to the throne Raleigh came back from an expedition the Spanish king.
❮❮ 46–47. The Normans crossed the in 1603, but England had not been as to Guiana in 1595 with a
Channel from France, making England a successful as Portugal and Spain in desire to find the fabled A faltering start
colonial conquest of a sort ❮❮ 68–69. conquering new territories. Given South American By this time, James at
the daring shown by so many of its kingdom of El Dorado. least had a colony to
OVERSEAS CONQUESTS seafarers, it was perhaps surprising that Queen Elizabeth’s his name—quite
Norman lords occupied Ireland in the there was no overseas English empire. favorite was nothing literally: adventurer
12th century. The territories they took there Elizabethan adventurers had made like as popular with John Smith had
passed to the English kings as (arguably) the many attemps to establish colonies in her successor: named a
country’s first overseas colony ❮❮ 80–81. America. All had met with failure. Sir James suspected settlement
That such possessions could bring trouble was Francis Drake established a colony at Raleigh of plotting “Jamestown.”
already becoming clear. Ireland was the scene Nova Albion (believed to have been in against him and Arriving in the
for successive rebellions in the 16th century California) during his circumnavigation had the adventurer New World in
❮❮ 156–57. This apparently did nothing to imprisoned. But in 1607, and faced
diminish England’s appetite for conquests
overseas. Intrepid adventurers like Frances
Drake and Walter Raleigh proved more
60 The number of Jamestown settlers
who survived the “starving time”
of 1609–10, out of an original 500.
1616, he allowed
himself to be talked
round by Raleigh
with the challenge of
starting a community
from scratch, both he
successful at attacking others’ colonies than The island had to be abandoned for and released him, and his genteel
in establishing outposts of their own a time in the spring of 1610. tempted by the Pocahontas companions
❮❮ 146–47 in the 16th century. promise of untold Given an Anglicized identity as Rebecca on her marriage learned the hard
of the world. The Roanoke settlement treasures. to the Englishman John Rolfe, the Powhatan princess way just how
came to a mysterious—and presumably Raleigh, however, became a Christian and worked hard for peace. She many skills they
tragic—conclusion later on in the returned from even visited England, dying there in 1617 of smallpox. lacked. Writing
Penn’s treaty with the Indians 1580s. What happened to this “Lost a search for El home to his
The Quaker leader William Penn was granted what Colony” is not known. Dorado without much more to show financial backers in London, he had
became Pennsylvania by King Charles II in 1681, for a long and expensive expedition called on them to send him colonists of
but felt it his duty to reach a separate agreement Dreams and disillusions than the booty from a Spanish colony a different kind. “When you send again,”
with the Lenape who actually lived there. The fate of its founder, Sir Walter he had sacked. Since James had he entreated them, “rather send but
Raleigh, seemed somehow to set been trying to cultivate good 30 carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners,
the tone for exploration in the relations with Philip III, this fishermen, blacksmiths, diggers up
was the last thing he had of trees, roots, well provided… than

“ The next day till noon we
traded: the king feasted all the
company; and the afternoon
was spent in playing, dancing,
and delight.”
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH DESCRIBES AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE
POWHATAN CHIEF, 1608
a thousand of such we have.” Without
such essential workers, the colony
had very nearly gone the way of its
predecessors, well over two-thirds of
its population perishing in the early
“starving time”, when the colony was
also under siege by the native
Powhatan Confederacy.
Commerce and conflict
The start of tobacco
cultivation brought an
economic lifeline—and
made a magnate out
of one far-sighted
settler, John Rolfe.
His subsequent
marriage to
Pocahontas,
daughter of
Chief Powhatan,
brought peace with
the Powhatan
Confederacy—at least
until the 1620s. As
Jamestown grew
inexorably, however,
new settlers extended
its boundaries ever
further on to
Powhatan land.
In 1622, a new young
chief, Opechancanough,
decided that enough
was enough. His
warriors attacked the
outlying settlements century. Europeans were
of the English. The
raiders came with
meat and cereals, as
though to trade, and were
welcomed into the settlers’ homes
before falling on their hosts and
massacring them: more than 300 men,
women, and children were killed.
A port in a storm
In 1609, a ship en route to Jamestown
was blown off course in rough weather: Northeast Passage around the Northern
it finally made landfall far to the south
in the Bermudas. The English seafarers
called the island group the Somers Isles the other way. After voyages in 1607
for their commander, Admiral James
Somers. A new settlement was quickly
established there. Captain Henry Powell
stumbled on Barbados in much the
same way in 1625; it was settled two
years later by employees of Sir William
Courten’s merchant company. The
template for the kind of plantation
system, which was to be used
throughout the American colonies,
was established here: big
estates, where cash-crops
were cultivated by slave
labor. The slaves
at this stage were
mostly white: many
were more properly
described as
indentured labor,
forced into
servitude by debt,
though others had
been transported as
punishments for crimes,
or in some cases simply
abducted from port cities.
In the aftermath of the
English Civil War, Cromwell
sent Royalist POWs to America.
Crops included cotton, tobacco,
and (from the 1640s) sugar.
Hudson’s horror
Terms of trade The New World was
Long in use in the still seen less as an
Americas, tobacco was end in itself than as
unknown in the Old a stepping stone to
World until the 16th the riches of the East
Indies. The Virginia
soon hooked, and it became settlements were
a vital currency for trade. established with this
goal in mind. The
search was on for the
fabled Northwest Passage around North
America to the Pacific. (This route
does actually exist, but is only now
appearing thanks to global warming.)
Hence the interest of the Muscovy
Company, which, after several
unsuccessful attempts to find a
Cape of Scandinavia and Eurasia’s
Arctic coast, sent Henry Hudson to sail
and 1608, exploring the waters around
Nova Scotia and Greenland, he set out
C O L O N I A L E X PA N S I O N
Pilgrim Fathers
A group of English Puritans set off from Delftshaven, AF TER
the Netherlands, in 1620. America was a land not
only of opportunity but of religious freedom.
England did not look back: some Scots
saw the Act of Union (1707) as another
in 1610 to chart the Hudson Strait and land-grab, but the Britain it produced
Bay. The conditions he encountered was unabashedly imperialistic.
were truly horrendous; Hudson’s crew
rose up in mutiny and he himself was EXPANSION OF THE NEW WORLD
lost, presumably murdered. Britain’s empire expanded in the 18th century
212–13 ❯❯. But the American colonies had
Religious refugees been lost by 1781 214–14 ❯❯. One of the
The Pilgrim Fathers, a party of Puritan decisive battles was at Princeton in 1777. New
refugees whose ship, the Mayflower, territories were opened up, meanwhile, in
arrived on the coast of Massachusetts Australia and New Zealand 294–95 ❯❯.
in 1620 were one of the earliest and
certainly the most famous of many BRITISH EMPIRE
groups to flee England’s intolerant In the Victorian period Britain’s soldiers and
climate. They were followed by sailors fought to build an empire on which
others—and not just Puritan “the sun never set” 290–91 ❯❯.
Protestants. A group of Catholics
crossed the Atlantic in the 1630s under
the protection of George Calvert, Lord
Baltimore. The Quakers followed later,
settling in Barbados in the first instance;
only from 1681 did they arrive in
America. The son of a famous general,
50,000 The number of early
settlers to England’s
North American colonies who came as
convicts. Thousands more came as
indentured servants—debtor-slaves.
peace-loving William Penn was granted
territory there by Charles II in return
for a debt the King had incurred with
his father. The settlement was named
Pennsylvania, in honor of Penn and the
region’s rich forests (“sylvan” deriving BRITISH FORCES WERE DEFEATED AT
THE BATTLE OF PRINCETON, 1777
from the Latin for “woods”); its capital
was Philadelphia—in Greek, the city
of “brotherly love.”
163
London and the River Thames, 1611
London in the early 17th century was a huge, bustling metropolis—one
of the world’s greatest cities. In this panorama by cartographer John
Speed, the dominance of the Thames, the city’s main commercial artery,
is clear. North of the Thames, on the top left of the view, in the City, is
old St. Paul’s Cathedral. To the right are the piers and arches of London
Bridge, then the river’s only crossing. In the foreground, on the south
bank of the river, Southwark Cathedral is the largest building.
 1485–1688
Robert Filmer’s book Patriarcha
According to the political theorist, Robert Filmer, what
the father was in his family, the king was in his realm:
God’s representative, to be given absolute obedience.
B E F O R E
England had always been a monarchy,
but since medieval times the Crown had
ruled in cooperation with Parliament.
Inevitably, there were tensions.
DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP
England’s nobles reined in royal power in 1215
when they compelled King John to sign Magna
Carta ❮❮ 86–87. But difficulties had continued,
on and off, since the Reformation. Parliament
looked askance at King James’s mother’s
Catholicism and his Scottish birth ❮❮ 158–59.
Commotion in the House of Commons
Charles I bursts into the chamber with his guards,
demanding the surrender of five wayward members.
The King had violated all convention, and for nothing,
since the men were gone. As
Charles ruefully remarked:
“All the birds have flown.”
Charles I and Parliament
An absolutist king and an increasingly confident Parliament came into collision in the reign of Charles I.
With neither side inclined to compromise on basic principles, political turbulence was guaranteed. Yet
no one could have predicted quite how completely or how rancorously relations were to break down.
J
ames I had believed in the divine
right of kings, but as a Scots
outsider, threatened by Catholics,
he had been forced to compromise. His
successor, Charles I, felt more secure.
This would be his undoing. As Prince
Charles, he had traveled to Madrid to
seek the marriage of the Infanta. When
this unraveled, he made his addresses
to Spain’s rival Catholic power, France,
and married Princess Henrietta Maria,
Louis XIII’s sister.
On becoming king in 1625, Charles
showed his reluctance to reign
alongside Parliament. He dissolved it at
the slightest provocation, from 1629
dispensing with it altogether. Instead,
he introduced a streamlined (and less
accountable) executive. A renewed and
strengthened Court of Star Chamber
(see pp.132–33) dealt with those who
opposed his despotic ways.
His style set him against the Puritans.
Strict, “pure” Protestants, they rejected
the authority of any hierarchy of
bishops. They would be ruled spiritually
by their individual consciences and by
scripture, and saw Charles’s Church as
Catholic authoritarianism returned. The
King’s pet clerics, such as William Laud
and Robert Filmer, did not disagree.
Arguing for Anglicanism’s Catholic
roots, they rejected the Protestantism
of Luther and Calvin, and preached
the divine right of kings. Laud was
anointed Archbishop of Canterbury in
1633. Charles shared their vision of an
English Church whose clear hierarchy
he controlled—not the association of
autonomous local congregations the
Puritans favored. In 1637, he tried to
bring Scotland into line by enforcing
the Anglican liturgy, and responded to
resistance with the Bishops’ Wars of
1639 and 1640. Charles won, but gave
way on key demands and saddled
England with enormous debts.
Parliament returns
To approve taxes to raise new revenue,
he recalled Parliament. Angry at being
sidelined for 11 years, it demanded
reforms, so three weeks into the “Short
Parliament” Charles dissolved it. But,
needing money, he swallowed his pride
and recalled it again. It passed the
Triennial Act, meaning that Parliament
had to be recalled every three years,
and that the King could not simply
decide to do without it. In 1641, he had
to agree to a law forbidding him from
dissolving Parliament. His Court of Star
Chamber was outlawed too.
In an atmosphere of growing rancour,
Charles became convinced that leading
MPs had discreetly supported the Scots
in the Second Bishops’ War. Outraged,
in January 1642, he went with his
guards to Parliament to arrest key MPs.
He found them gone—warned of his
arrival. But the King’s invasion of the
chamber trampled all over the tradition
of royal respect for the rights of
Parliament’s House of Commons.
Trust broke down completely: King
and Parliament were at war.
KEY MOMENT
RIOT AT ST. GILES’
Charles I’s attempts to bring the Kirk
(Scottish Church) into line with Anglican
liturgy and institutional organization were
deeply resented in Scotland. In 1637,
these feelings flared up into open revolt
in St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh’s High
Kirk, after market trader Jenny Geddes
threw a footstool at James Hannay, the
minister reading out the Collect from the
Book of Common Prayer. Widespread
rioting resulted, followed by thousands
signing a defiant National Covenant in
Greyfriars Kirkyard in February 1638. In
1643, the English Parliament was to join
with its Scots equivalent in signing a
Solemn League and Covenant, respecting
the autonomy of the Kirk.
AF TER
The disagreement between Charles I and
Parliament was too profound to be easily
smoothed over. It was too bitter to have
anything other than a tragic end.
CONTINUING STRUGGLE
In 1642, relations between Crown and
Parliament broke down entirely and the
nation was plunged into civil war 168–69 ❯❯.
After Charles I’s execution in 1649 170–71 ❯❯,
an attempt was made to govern England
without a monarchy 172–73 ❯❯. However,
the new Commonwealth collapsed, resulting in a
restored Crown in 1660 176–77 ❯❯. In 1688,
with the Glorious Revolution, it seemed that at
last a solution to the differences between
Crown and Parliament had been found with the
overthrow of James II and the installation of
William III as a constitutional monarch
188–89 ❯❯. But the Stuarts were not finished,
and tried repeatedly to reclaim the throne for
James’s successors 202–03 ❯❯.
Charles I
Anthony Van Dyck’s 1637 equestrian portrait of
Charles I shows the King as an armored knight,
the protector of his subjects. Less than a decade
later, however, the King was to drag his subjects
into a hugely destructive civil war.
 1485–1688
B EF O R E
England’s medieval rulers had dominated
their peers through their courage and
charisma. All that had changed by the
outbreak of the Civil War in 1642.
CENTRALIZED POWER
The seething rivalries of late-medieval
England’s great aristocratic houses eventually
boiled over into the Wars of the Roses
❮❮ 122–23, but Henry VII’s accession brought
this conflict to an end. To prevent further
outbreaks of civil strife, he and his Tudor
successors set about constructing a more
centralized English state ❮❮ 132–33. Henry VIII
also established royal control over the country’s
religious life ❮❮ 136–37. The first Stuart ruler,
James I, inherited sweeping royal powers.
AN OVERBEARING MONARCH
Too rigid an imposition of order can,
paradoxically, promote disorder. The system is
liable to break down when there is no sense
of give and take. When Charles I’s arrogant
absolutism proved more than Parliament could
stand, he reacted by dispensing with Parliament
altogether ❮❮ 166–67. Finally, in 1642, any
sense of government by consent collapsed
completely. The King and his Parliament were
not just at odds but actually at war.
Battle of Marston Moor
A turning point in the Civil War, the combined forces
of Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians
defeated Royalist forces at Marston Moor on 2 July 1644.
168
F
eeling his authority imploding, victory. They scattered the King’s gaining ground, but at Newbury, in
Charles I was forced to flee his enemies with ease only to lose their September 1643, their fortunes were
own capital. He traveled into focus and fall to plundering. The reversed. Again, after a successful
the country to drum up support. Roundheads were able to regroup. charge, they dissipated their advantage
Charles raised his standard at In the end, this early encounter and the Parliamentarians secured the
Nottingham on August 22, 1642: was inconclusive. victory. Even so, neither side could
2,000 noble followers rallied to the The King continued toward London, really consider itself victorious and
royal flag. Called Cavaliers, from the attracting new recruits as he went: a lengthy stalemate ensued.
French chevalier, meaning “horseman” Essex was waiting for him, west of the
or “knight”, they expected to fight city at Turnham Green. His army, too, New Model Army
on horseback; far fewer infantry— had grown with the addition of local A significant voice in earlier political
traditionally drawn from the lower volunteer militias from across southern controversies, but marginalized
classes—heeded the call. England—so many that Charles once the shooting started,
Expensively mounted and dressed, did not dare attack. The two Oliver Cromwell now
the Cavaliers wore their hair long and armies spent several
flowing—in stark contrast with the months circling around Oliver Cromwell
severely cropped Roundheads recruited one another, The inexperienced Cromwell
by Lord Essex to oppose them. shrinking from proved an instinctive
anything but the general and able military
Early encounters briefest of attacks. administrator. He
The Cavaliers had the advantage at Gradually, through masterminded the
Edgehill, Warwickshire, on October 23, these skirmishes, Roundhead victory
yet still contrived to throw away the the Royalists were in the Civil War.
The Civil War
“We are so many frighted people,” wrote Margaret Eure in June 1642. “For my part, if I hear but a door
creak I take it for a drum.” The Civil War may have divided England—and, ultimately, the entire British
Isles—down the middle, but it brought desperate terror, death, and suffering to all alike.

Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose.
Although he had his eye on the
Matchlock musket bigger British picture, his allies,
The Civil War saw the widespread use of clan chieftains, were pursuing
firearms for the first time on British soil. Lit by local rivalries, and their efforts
a match or fuse, the matchlock was slow to fire, were fatally unfocused.
and most effective used in large-scale volleys. Back in England, Cromwell
was establishing a New
came into his own as a military Model Army of
commander. Having raised his 20,000 troops.
own mounted militia in his native Most were
Cambridgeshire, he proved an able cavalry—Cromwell’s
commanding officer and had been speciality by now—but there
appointed Lieutenant-General of Horse were also foot-soldiers and artillery.
by the time of the Battle of Marston They were known as Ironsides because
Moor, in July 1644. of the iron breastplates that they wore.
Even then, the battle could They were trained and drilled—and
not have been won had it not enthused with the
been for the presence of Lord justice of the cause.
Leven’s Covenanting Scots Cromwell’s efforts
and the discipline they showed paid off at Naseby,
under heavy fire. From Northamptonshire,
1644, a Scots Civil War was in June 1645.
continuing in parallel with Defeated, Charles
the English conflict. The was captured and
Royalists were led by imprisoned.
former-Covenanter James
A second civil war
New Model Army’s catechism Charles reached a
Protestant faith, moral idealism, and secret deal with
ruthless practicality combined in Scottish nobles and
Cromwell’s idea of his New Model Army. succeeded in starting
Its rules were recorded in a “catechism.” a second civil war.
New Model Army helmet
Cromwell’s Roundheads
protected their shaven crowns
with helmets like this. Other
armor was light—usually little
more than a simple breastplate.
Under the “Engagement” of 1647, he
offered to establish the Presbyterian
Church (in both Scotland and England)
for three years in return for their
support. The deal split the Kirk:
powerful figures were against getting
involved. Even so, in 1648, the Duke
of Hamilton led an invasion, prompting
a Royalist revival south of the Border.
Cromwell’s defeat of the Scots at
Preston caused this to collapse quickly.
Some members of the Long Parliament
still wanted an accommodation with
the King, fearing the power of the New
Model Army. Pride’s Purge amounted
to a military coup: officers led by
Colonel Thomas Pride prevented
moderates from entering the Commons
chamber to vote. The hardline
“Independents” had their way, and
Charles was tried and executed.
Mopping up
Cromwell put down Catholic resistance
in Ireland in no uncertain terms,
perpetrating notorious massacres at
Drogheda and Wexford. In his absence,
in 1650, the late King’s son, Charles II,
led the Scots Royalists in another
invasion of England. Cromwell returned,
headed north, and laid siege to
Edinburgh. Although forced by a
shortage of supplies to withdraw to
Dunbar, he defeated the pursuing
Royalists there on September 3. He
delivered the final blow in England
at Worcester a year later.
T H E C I V I L WA R
AF TER
The immediate consequence of the
Civil War was a traumatized nation.
The conflict killed a higher percentage
of the population of the British Isles
(anything up to 10 percent) than any
other hostilities, before or since.
CROMWELL’S RULE
Cromwell’s victory led to the creation of a
kingless Commonwealth 172–73 ❯❯. Hopes that
it would prove a utopia of freedom were quickly
dashed. The rule of the Lord Protector turned
out to be as despotic as Charles I’s had been. His
death—and the Restoration of royal power
with the accession of Charles II in 1660—came
as a relief to most 176–77 ❯❯.
THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
England was marked in the long-term by the
conflict between king and Parliament. The claims
of these two institutions were debated furiously.
It was no abstract discussion. At stake were
political power and opportunity, while
religious feeling lent the arguments a special
spiritual and moral edge. There was a fear that
James II would restore absolutist monarchy.
This was the background that made the
accession of William III in 1688, a Glorious
Revolution, rather than a mere coup 188–89 ❯❯.
WILLIAM III AND THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT
FEAR OF REVOLUTION
The deep and disturbing fear in England of
a repetition of the Civil War was perhaps in
part responsible for the caution with which
most of the population reacted to the
French Revolution of 1789 236–37 ❯❯.
However, the (broadly) democratic ideals
its victors had fought for remained strong,
informing the 19th-century movement for
electoral reform 268–69 ❯❯.
Death warrant
of Charles I
Whether from a thirst
for justice or for the sake
of safety in numbers,
59 Parliamentarians
signed this document
in January 1649.
169
DECISIVE MOMENT January 31, 1649

The Execution of the King

England had already seen the world turned upside down in its
Civil War: that any man should rise against his ruler could hardly
have been imagined. What, then, was the country to make of a
trial, which having convicted the King of treason, went on to
claim the right to take his life?

T
o say that Charles I’s situation was
unprecedented barely begins to do
it justice; it was revolutionary. The
idea that a monarch, who was seen as
the head of the state, might be tried
for treason challenged conventional
wisdom. Yet times had changed, and
common assumptions had been
shifting subtly. The King’s enemies, the
Parliamentarians (see p.166), argued
that Charles’s first duty was to his
country—a country they claimed to
represent. For them, the King of
England was “not a person, but an
office” whose holder had to govern
the country according to English law.
A criminal King
A special court of commissioners
was created by an Act of Parliament
for Charles’s trial. It went without
saying that they all supported Oliver
Cromwell, Parliament’s most powerful
military leader. The trial opened on
January 20, 1649 at Westminster Hall.
Led by Parliament’s chief attorney,
John Cooke, the prosecution charged
Charles not only with breaches of
England’s constitution, but with
betraying England itself. By soliciting
the Scots’ invasion during the Civil
War (see pp.168–69), he had effectively
conspired against his country. The King,
Cooke insisted, had to take responsibility
not only for these crimes, but for all the
resultant bloodshed.
Defiance and death
Charles I never agreed to recognize the
court, and refused to plead one way or
the other. Whatever he might or might
not have done, he was answerable only
to God, he said. He was asked to plead
three times and each time he refused
on the same grounds. It was no surprise
when, at the end of a hearing that
lasted a week, he was found guilty on
all charges. Charles’s death warrant was
signed by 59 commissioners. Having
been imprisoned in St. James’s Palace,
he was taken out to a public scaffold
in front of the Banqueting House in
Whitehall on January 31. There, before
an awestruck crowd, he was beheaded.

“ I would know by what power

I am called hither… by what…
lawful authority?”
KING CHARLES I TO THE PARLIAMENTARY COURT THAT PRESUMED TO TRY HIM

The King loses his head

“I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible
Crown, where no disturbance can be,” reportedly
said Charles I on the scaffold prior to his execution.
He was then cleanly beheaded by his anonymous
executioner with a single stroke of the ax.

171
 1485–1688

B EF O R E

The execution of Charles I was the

crowning outrage of a chaotic and
traumatic period, which, in the words
The Commonwealth
of the ballad of 1643, had left “the Following the Civil War, England headed out into uncharted waters, constitutionally and politically.
world turned upside down.” What had been a kingdom was now effectively a republic. Many believed passionately that they were
A DESPOTIC KING building a new and better society; others felt alienated by the new elite with their righteous tone.
Charles I’s despotic ways undoubtedly upset

many of his countrymen, and the controversy
he caused divided Scotland and Ireland too
❮❮ 166–67. Even so, most had been horrified
to find their country convulsed by civil war.
The quarrel was in itself upsetting, but the scale
of the carnage seen during the Civil War
grew far beyond what anyone could have
imagined ❮❮ 168–69.
CROMWELL’S VICTORY
The victorious Parliamentarians held the
Stuart King responsible for the bloodshed. The
King himself appeared entirely unrepentant
for his part in what had happened. He
contemptuously refused to cooperate
in a trial ❮❮ 170–71.
T
he dispute between Parliament
and the King was brutally
resolved. The Long Parliament
(called by Charles I in 1640) had been
reduced by Pride’s Purge of December
1648 (see p.169). What remained was
jokingly called the Rump Parliament,
and this was itself divided. While the
aristocracy had been ousted, along
with the King, those members who
remained still belonged to the gentry
and had their interests at heart.
Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament
On April 20, 1653—apparently unconscious of the irony
that Charles I had gone down this path before him in
1629—Oliver Cromwell decided to dispense with the
services of Parliament altogether.
With a balance to strike between
upholding tolerance and maintaining
social order, the Rumpers opted for
safety-first conservatism. The clamorous
demand for reform of the legal system
was crystallized by Matthew Hale’s
commission of 1652, which called for
protection for poor defendants against
abuse by the authorities or wealthy
litigants. Parliament quickly lost its
nerve and none of the commission’s
recommendations made it into law.
In religious policy too, Parliament
wanted to send reassuring signals
to the English elite and European
governments. The Church of England
remained the established religion,
though the Act of Uniformity of 1559
was repealed. This, at least in theory,
meant freedom of worship for all
Englishmen and women—although its
scope did not include Catholics or the
wilder nonconformists.
Religious sects
The Rump was concerned lest it
should be thought that the country
had collapsed into anarchy. There is no
doubt that, in the ferment unleashed
by the bringing down of the monarchy
and the pinning back of the Church’s
authority by Protestant “people power”,
small and self-willed sects of every sort
were flourishing. Their “enthusiasm”
(a derogatory expression at the time)
in bearing witness to their beliefs

172
 T H E C O M M O N W E A LT H

The Commonwealth Laureate John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

The creator of Paradise Lost (1667), John Milton, is was a vividly realized allegory of
regarded as the Commonwealth Laureate, inspired Christian salvation. The former
by Puritan principles to produce his greatest work. Parliamentarian soldier became
a preacher and was jailed after
the Restoration for attending
sin. While some groups threatened nonconformist meetings.
English social structures, sects such as
the Ranters seemed to be stepping Tax burden
outside society altogether. The economic outlook during the
Commonwealth was gloomy, with
A puritan aesthetic huge liabilities left from the Civil War,
There was a literary reawakening and continuing conflicts in Scotland
too. Parliamentary supporter Andrew and Ireland. Beleaguered by hostile
Marvell wrote lyrics in a witty, Catholic powers, England embarked
sometimes knotty “metaphysical” style, on a major program of shipbuilding
harking back to Elizabethan poets such from 1649. This was backed up by the
unnerved more conservative Christians. Navigation Act of 1651 (see pp.178–79).
The Quakers were typical of these new COMMONWEALTH A term from the Ironically, in 1652, this crudely
groups—and the threat they posed. early English concept of the common protectionist measure precipitated
From the late-1640s on, they spoke out weal—meaning “good” or “welfare”. war—not with Catholic Spain or
for social justice. A strict interpretation It suggested a community of interests, France, but with the Protestant Dutch.
of the commandment against murder ruled not by a king, but by collective
meant that they condemned all war considerations of the public good. The Protectorate
and military service—a profoundly The general disillusion found a focus in
problematic attitude for the state. as John Donne. But his friend John Parliament, which Cromwell upbraided
The Levellers, though not themselves Milton, a sometime aide of Cromwell, in ringing terms on April 20, 1653. “Ye
a sect, were also driven by religious was clearly inspired by Commonwealth sordid prostitutes,” he cried, “have ye
convictions to denounce all values (though he was not to complete not defil’d this sacred place, and turned
inequalities in society. Paradise Lost, his epic of Man’s creation the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves?
and fall, until after the Restoration). … In the name of God, go.” The tone
Mad or menacing? may have been moralistic, Playing cards
The Fifth Monarchists but the intent was cynical Cromwell plays the pipe for his morris-dancing military
placed their trust in the enough: Cromwell was commander, Lord Thomas Fairfax, on one of a set of
prophecy of the Book seizing power in a coup. satirical “cavalier cards.” The Puritans’ distrust of all such
of Daniel, which holds For a few months, a pagan pleasures was notorious.
that a fifth monarchy, Barebones Parliament,
with Christ as King, directly appointed by
would succeed those Cromwell and the AF TER
of Assyria, Persia, leaders of the New Model
Macedonia, and Rome. Army, went through the
It was to become at constitutional motions. No The mass of the population was not
least partly real in one was convinced, and disposed to mourn the passing of the
17th-century England this assembly was dissolved Commonwealth. Charles II’s return
after 1666 (the year in December 1653, and was welcomed with relief.
whose number would Cromwell appointed Lord
of course contain Protector—or dictator. A TIME OF CELEBRATION
the “number of the The “Merry Monarch” seemed determined
beast”, from the Book Intolerance for all to continue celebrations throughout his reign.
of Revelations). Although strongly religious, The Restoration period became as much
As their nickname Cromwell was, in principle, a byword for decadent revelry as the
suggests, the Ranters more indulgent to the sects Commonwealth had become for seriousness
were regarded by than the Rump had been. and sobriety 176–77 ❯❯. Over time, public
respectable society as As dictator, however, he disapproval at royal decadence would
mad. They saw God found dissent threatening. be deepened by renewed anger at Stuart
in all creation; and so completely did The Pilgrim’s Progress The flow of Puritan intransigence (and suspected Catholic
they consider themselves to have John Bunyan’s allegorical account of Christian’s long emigrants from England not only leanings). Charles II’s younger brother James,
been “justified by faith”, in Luther’s and hazardous journey to reach the salvation of the continued but intensified. Not that was to be ousted in the Glorious Revolution
theological terms, that they believed Celestial City is utterly simple in its conception, but non-Puritans could be any happier of 1688 188–89 ❯❯.
themselves to be completely without has endured, a classic of Commonwealth literature. in an England whose government had
puritanized every aspect of everyday TRADE AND SCIENCE

“ Where is that good, or where is life. Sacred images and statues in the
old cathedrals were destroyed. Theaters,
inns, and other haunts of immorality
In some respects, life continued as it had done
under the Commonwealth. Britain’s commercial
interests were unchanged and conflict with

that liberty so much pretended, were closed, and restrictions placed

on Sunday games and “pagan” festivals.
the Dutch came quickly 178–79 ❯❯. Meanwhile,
major intellectual and scientific advances,
Christmas was not abolished as such, made with royal support, suggested that, despite
so dearly purchased…?” although so many of the associated
celebrations were indeed outlawed
the stereotypes, all seriousness had not been
entirely set aside 184–85 ❯❯.
that Christmas Day became a day
LEVELLER PAMPHLET ENGLAND’S NEW CHAINS DISCOVER’D, FEBRUARY 1649 like any other day.

173
 1485–1688
B EF O R E
The English Revolution did not happened in
isolation. Both Scotland and Ireland had to
some extent been involved.
SYMPATHY AND HOSTILITY
Scotland’s Presbyterians felt a close kinship
with England’s Puritans and shared their vexation
at Charles I’s interference in their Church. Their
disputes with Charles had eventually led to the
Bishops’ Wars ❮❮ 166–67. While their High
Church opponents had supported the Stuart
King, Charles had eventually done a deal with
a powerful Presbyterian group, who in 1648
invaded England on his behalf ❮❮ 168–69.
Catholic Ireland had by contrast viewed the
rise of the Parliamentarians with alarm—even
rising up in rebellion in 1641. England’s new
regime felt a particular contempt for the “popish
superstition” under which they saw the Irish as
laboring, but they felt much as any other recent
rulers of the English state had done. Ireland was
the same poor and uncivilized province that
had rejected Henry VIII’s modernizing attempts
and had later risen up against Elizabeth I in the
Nine Years’ War ❮❮ 156–57.
The Parliamentarians could not allow either
country to continue in open rebellion—or even
as a haven for the disaffected and a base for
future attacks against England.
MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES, PUBLISHED 1640
Edinburgh Castle
The Scottish version of the Union Flag flutters proudly in
the sky above the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, but it took
a century or more of wrangling to get it there.
Scotland and
Ireland Subdued
Locked into their life-and-death struggle, the two sides in the English Civil War spared little concern for
the other countries of these islands. Yet Scotland, Wales, and Ireland had all been involved. If not yet a
“united kingdom”, these were clearly countries whose historical destinies were closely interwoven.
O 2,000
ne less obvious consequence punishment for earlier rebellion. Hence The number of men “put
of the English Civil War was the gloating tone of his reports of to the sword” in a single
its underlining of English massacres at Drogheda (September night at Drogheda, in 1649, by Cromwell’s
preeminence in the British Isles. The 1649) and Wexford (October 1649). own account. Most historians believe that
conflict could even be seen as part of Further victories were achieved at hundreds more—including many women
a wider War of the Three Kingdoms, Duncannon, Clonmel, and Galway. and children—were also massacred.
which started with the First Bishops’
War in 1639, when Charles I invaded And so to Scotland with the King in 1647 (see p.169), he
Scotland to impose the Anglican liturgy To Cromwell, the Scots were more felt more sorrow than anger. In 1649,
on the Scottish Kirk (Church). Wales “godly” than the Catholic Irish. Scots Scots Presbyterians had proclaimed
was swept up in England’s internal Presbyterians had fought alongside his Charles I’s son as King Charles II, and
conflict in 1648, but its half-hearted men at Marston Moor, so the hatred he in 1650 allied with him in the shape of
revolt against Parliament that year had for the Irish was not seen in his a Solemn League and Covenant. With
was quickly put down. Scottish dealings. Although appalled by Ireland now subdued, Cromwell felt
the Presbyterian lords’ “Engagement” compelled to invade Scotland. The
Divine slaughter
The Irish revolt of 1641 had been both
a trigger for the English Civil War and a
tragedy for Ireland. At first, Catholic
Royalist forces remained secure while
the Parliamentarians were occupied
with fighting in England. But the Irish
were eventually trounced at Rathmines
by the Parliamentarian commander
Michael Jones (a Welshman) in August
1649. Soon after, Oliver Cromwell
arrived, and what followed was really
an extended mopping-up—and, in
Cromwell’s eyes, a divinely ordained

Battle of Dunbar
“Praise the Lord, all ye nations!” Oliver Cromwell led his
men in the singing of the 117th Psalm before the Battle
of Dunbar in 1654. Most historians have ascribed to
Cromwell’s generalship the fact that his Ironsides
went on to win against overwhelming odds.
Scots’ army, led by the Earl of Leven,
dug in around Edinburgh and stopped
Cromwell and his New Model Army in
their tracks. Cromwell’s ragged retreat
to Dunbar almost became a rout before
he managed to regroup his forces. His
Scots pursuers allowed him to tempt
them down from the high ground,
on which they would have been
impregnable, after which he outflanked
them to secure an improbable triumph.
An uncomfortable union
Victory against the odds at Dunbar
convinced Cromwell (yet again) that
God was on his side. Many Scots were
becoming unhappy about their alliance
with a king whose beliefs and principles
they distrusted. But they were still
determined to resist the English
invader. Yet Cromwell prevailed, and
Scotland was effectively conquered. A
face-saving show of free union was put
on: leading officers and Presbyterian
nobles were scapegoated so ordinary
Scots could be said to have been misled.
Their lands confiscated, they were sent
into slavery in Barbados and America.
Scots members were welcomed into the
now weakened English Parliament.
Meanwhile, those of Ireland’s Catholics
not already transported to Barbados
and other Caribbean islands—more
than 50,000 in all—were told by
Cromwell that they could go “to Hell or
Connaught.” Under the punitive terms
of the Act of Settlement of 1652, some
50 percent of the Irish adult male
population was at least technically
living under a death sentence. Catholic
landowners, and a few Protestants,
deemed disloyal, lost their lands
and were granted smaller
leases in western
Ireland. In the newly
S C OT L A N D A N D I R E L A N D S U B D U E D
confiscated lands, a sort of informal
plantation policy was carried out, with
parcels handed to retiring veterans of
the New Model Army. Some of these
were sold on to speculators. Ironically,
of the 10,000 or so who stayed, many
adopted the customs of the country,
either they or their descendants
eventually converting to Catholicism.
Cromwell currency
The only individual other than a reigning monarch to
appear on a British coin, Cromwell wears the laurel
wreath of the Roman emperor
on this English shilling.
KEY MOMENT
BATTLE OF WATERFORD
Waterford, in southeastern Ireland, was
besieged twice by Parliamentarian forces.
The first attempt was made toward the
end of 1649. In wretchedly cold and
damp conditions, Cromwell’s army, 6,000
strong, squatted outside the city for
several fruitless weeks. They were short
of supplies, and their effective numbers
were steadily reduced by the ravages of
disease. On December 2, Cromwell gave
up the effort and withdrew his troops.
His general, Henry Ireton, returned
with an army the following summer,
having spent the spring campaigning in
the surrounding region, gradually cutting
off the city from its hinterland. The tables
had now been turned. Thomas Preston’s
Irish garrison was running out of
provisions, while an outbreak of plague
was carrying off more of the defenders
every day. With
no prospect of
relief, Waterford
surrendered on
August 6, 1650.
WATERFORD
CASTLE
AF TER
An uneasy calm returned to the British Isles
as the 1650s began: if not peace, at least
order had been restored.
REBELLION AND UNION
Oliver Cromwell’s atrocities left a legacy of
bitterness in Ireland. Consequently, the Irish
sided eagerly with the supplanted Stuart James II
after the Glorious Revolution 188–89 ❯❯.
Thereafter, their readiness to rebel against
Britain was repeatedly in evidence—most
obviously in 1798 238–39 ❯❯, and in the fight
for Home Rule 300–01 ❯❯. And, of course, in
the 20th century, when all but six northeastern
counties of Ulster broke away completely
from Britain 332–33 ❯❯.
In Scotland, a formula was found for making
conquest look like consensual union. It
involved portraying Scotland’s Royalist officers
and Presbyterian nobles in a bad light, while
treating most Scots sympathetically. Yet many
disagreed, and resentment of the union that
was sealed in 1707 was to be a factor in the fury
of the Jacobite rebellions 202–03 ❯❯.
175
 1485–1688

B EF O R E

Britain had survived without a monarchy

for a decade since the reign of Charles I
was cut short in 1649.
The Restoration
Rejoicing greeted the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 as the atmosphere of the Commonwealth had
DEATH OF THE KING become oppressive. However, moralists deplored the moral license liberation brought by the return of
Charles I’s quarrels with his Parliament had
ended with his execution ❮❮ 170–71. His son, fun and fashion and the mood darkened as Charles II seemed to revert to absolutist Stuart type.
who had fought with him in the Civil War, led

G 13
a Scottish army into England in 1650, with the eneral John Lambert moved to
intent of bringing about his own restoration of fill the vacuum left by Richard
the Stuart monarchy. This invasion was beaten Cromwell’s collapse, attempting a
back, and Cromwell defeated the Scots at the second New Model Army coup. General
Battle of Dunbar ❮❮ 168–69. Charles II fled George Monck rose in resistance: he
to France and remained in exile. had served both the Royalist and
Commonwealth causes. Now, however,
COLLAPSE OF THE PROTECTORATE he openly courted the exiled King.
Cromwell’s Commonwealth ended up offering all It was probably at his suggestion that
the rigidity of the most absolutist Stuart rule with on April 4, 1660 Charles made the
none of the fun ❮❮ 172–73. He died in 1658 Declaration of Breda. It offered an
and bequeathed the Protectorate to son Richard. amnesty to his and his father’s old
His father had governed enemies (the “regicides” excepted).
through fear, and when Charles undertook to be guided by
he was unable to Parliament if restored, implicitly
inspire that, his waiving any claim to a divine right
authority quickly to rule. Under Monck’s protection,
crumbled. those MPs expelled in Pride’s Purge
“Tumbledown of 1648 (see p.169) were recalled.
Dick” was This Convention Parliament invited
deposed within Charles II back to take up his throne.
two years.
The monarchy restored
The end of the Interregnum (period
between monarchs) came on May 8.
CROMWELL’S DEATH MASK Cheering crowds greeted the restored
King when he arrived in London on
May 28. The Convention Parliament
passed the Indemnity and Oblivion
Act, delivering on Charles’ promise of
forgiveness, before its replacement by
an elected (though overwhelmingly
Royalist) Cavalier Parliament. This
rolled back resented Commonwealth
reforms, reinstating maypoles, mince
pies, and other festive treats. Charles
wanted to restore popular celebrations.
Reign of revelry
Charles II was notorious for his
mistresses: Nell Gwynn, Barbara
Villiers, and Molly Davis were only the
most famous. Puritan sobriety was
banished—at least at court and in
fashionable London, where men and
women vied to outdo one another in
flamboyance and flair. The moral tone
was free and easy: the stereotypical
Restoration rake was by no means
mythical, and was represented not
only by the King but by other brilliant
libertines, such as George Villiers and
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. The
reopened theaters offered much
raunchier fare than had ever been
seen before on the English stage.
The number of the regicides—
signatories of Charles I’s
death-warrant—who were executed.
Three more, including Cromwell, were
already dead but were exhumed and
“executed”, their half-decomposed
corpses hanged, drawn, and quartered.
For the first time, women’s roles were
played by actresses rather than boys in
drag. Playwright Aphra Behn became
England’s first known professional
woman writer.
Taking liberties
Meanwhile, however, Charles was
quietly clawing back some of the
religious freedoms he had promised,
introducing measures restricting the
freedoms of nonconformist Protestants.
Charles was eager to boost England’s
overseas trade, but this brought
Return of the monarch
Charles rides through London on the eve of his
coronation in 1661. The Restoration of the monarchy
was a restoration of pomp and splendor; a dash of
much-craved color for a country sunk in drabness.

The Merry Monarch
They called him the “Merry Monarch”, but the glint in
his eye was not just of lust. Charles had a steely side,
and the absolutist inclinations of his Stuart forebears.
England into conflict with the Dutch—
hence the Second Anglo-Dutch War,
1665–67 (see p.179). However, there
were fears that Charles was too
outward-looking. His marriage to the
Portuguese (and Catholic) Catherine
of Braganza hardly helped.
A secret treaty
Charles went too far for Parliament
when he made his Declaration of
Indulgence in 1672, offering religious
toleration to Nonconformists. Parliament
was furious, guessing that his real aim
was to ease the situation for Catholics.
T H E R E S TO R AT I O N
They would have been more enraged
still had they been aware of the secret
treaty Charles had made with Louis XIV
at Dover in 1670, stating his long-term
intention of embracing Catholicism and
reestablishing it as state religion. He
also committed himself to an alliance
with France against the Dutch Republic
in return for lavish payments.
Charles went to war without
involving Parliament, but the Third
Anglo-Dutch War proved far more
expensive than anticipated. Louis’
grants did not begin to cover the costs;
the Dutch refused to be defeated, and
Charles had to recall Parliament to
introduce new taxes. They refused.
Anxiety became hysteria when news
broke of the King’s brother James’s
conversion to Catholicism. Charles’s
officially stated disapproval scarcely
mattered. Given his lack of legitimate
children, his crown would go to James.
In 1679, 1680, and 1681, MPs brought
in an Exclusion Bill to cut James out of
the succession, but Charles dissolved
Parliament before it could be passed.
“… such a Restoration was Rebirth of theater
The Cavalier aesthetic was flamboyantly elegant, witty,
and risqué. All these qualities were on show in the
never seen in the mention of comedies of William Wycherley, John Vanbrugh, Aphra
Behn, George Farquhar, William Congreve, and others.
any history, ancient or modern.” AF TER
DIARIST JOHN EVELYN, 1660
Charles had been welcomed back on to the
throne, but his death was disquieting—not
because he would be missed—but once
again because of familiar anxieties that
a Stuart king was taking the country back
to Catholic absolutism.
THE POPISH PLOT
Such anxieties stalked the latter
part of Charles’ reign.
The supposed
Popish Plot of
1679 might have
been a hoax
got up by the
arch-Protestant
mischief-maker
Titus Oates, but it had been
believed (and 15 innocent
priests and lay-Catholics
executed) because it
corresponded to existing fears.
FEAR OF CATHOLICISM
Fear of a Catholic monarch
loomed so large in the reign
of James II that his Protestant
subjects felt they had to oust him
in the Glorious Revolution of 1688
188–89 ❯❯. This fear was to return
in 1715 and 1745 202–03 ❯❯. TITUS OATES
177
 DECISIVE MOMENT September 2–6, 1666
The Great Fire of London
This great conflagration decimated 80 percent of the City of London,
destroying familiar landmarks. New buildings would fill the gaps,
including Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, transforming the
skyline, and establishing new building patterns and standards that
helped to create modern London.
O
n September 5, 1666, famous
diarist Samuel Pepys climbed the
tower of All Hallows Church,
close by his home in Seething Lane,
and beheld a terrifying sight: raging fire
as far as he could see. It seems the fire
first sparked into life in the small hours
of Sunday, September 2 at Thomas
Faryner’s bakery in Pudding Lane, near
London Bridge. By the following day,
it had advanced west and north. King
Charles II tasked his brother, the
Duke of York, with controlling the
fire-fighting operation—there was
no true fire service at this time.
The summer had been hot and dry,
the level of the River Thames was low,
and a brutal wind blew from the east.
Closely packed buildings, many largely
timber, easily caught fire. For days,
the flames ripped down narrow,
twisting streets and through wooden
warehouses stuffed with flammables
such as oil, brandy, and pitch.
Buildings were pulled down and
blown up with gunpowder to provide
windbreaks. On September 4, old
St. Paul’s was engulfed and its lead roof
melted “down the streets in a stream”,
“ The churches, houses, and all
on fire and flaming at once; and
a horrid noise the flames
made, and the cracking of
houses at their ruins.”
SAMUEL PEPYS’S DIARY, 1666
182
according to diarist John Evelyn.
Many of London’s hysterical citizens
suspected arson. Some foreigners were
lynched and the Spanish ambassador
gave refuge to others. The fire was
finally extinguished on September 6.
The next year, it was officially declared
an accident caused by the hand of
God, heat, and wind.
A new city
After the disaster, Christopher Wren,
John Evelyn, and Robert Hooke
presented the King with ambitious
rebuilding plans. Wren wanted to raise
a magnificent Renaissance city with
wide streets, but his ideas were deemed
too costly and impractical. The new city
arose slowly on the old plan, with some
wider streets, new sewers, and (for the
first time) sidewalks. Buildings were
made of brick rather than wood.
Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, completed
in 1711, became one of the world’s
most-admired buildings. Along with his
jointly designed monument to the fire,
and a number of satellite churches, he
helped to shape the City’s new profile
and create an iconic skyline.
The fire by night
This painting, called The Great Fire of London in 1666,
was created by 17th-century Dutch maritime artist Lieve
Verschuier (c.1630–86). Many contemporary paintings
depicted the event, providing historians with an
important strand of evidence for what happened.

The Glorious Revolution
The 17th century had already seen one king killed by order of “the people” and the country plunged
into bloody civil war. When a second Stuart monarch, James II, seemed determined to shape the nation
to his despotic will and dictate its religious beliefs, his throne was soon under threat.
B EF O R E
Tensions between the monarchy and
those who considered themselves the
representatives of the country were
nothing new.
THE MONARCHY AND THE PEOPLE
Magna Carta curtailed the power of the
monarchy, although it did not benefit the people
as a whole ❮❮ 86–87. The Tudors redressed
the balance, aiming to centralize power
❮❮ 132–33. James I viewed the matter in
philosophical, even theological terms, presenting
learned arguments for the divine right of kings
to rule ❮❮ 158–59. His son, Charles I, was
prepared to go to war with his Parliamentary
opponents ❮❮ 170–71 over this theory, and to
defy them to the death when he was defeated.
Parliament’s victory was a mixed blessing: it
was hard to see how the cause of democratic
CHARLES I AS CHRISTIAN MARTYR
representation or accountability was
advanced by the dictatorship into which the
Commonwealth quickly descended ❮❮ 172–73.
Charles II’s Restoration was welcomed, but
the King’s absolutist inclinations soon became
evident ❮❮ 176–77.
ROYAL RELIGION
Charles II’s apparent leanings toward
Catholicism also caused tension between the
monarchy and the people, while his younger
brother, James II, was an avowed Catholic
❮❮ 177. In the eyes of English Protestants,
that (clearly hierarchical) faith was the natural
accompaniment to Stuart absolutism. It was
not one they wanted anything to do with.
William III landing at Torbay
Seen in this painting from c.1680 as a heroic
deliverer, many regarded William as a usurper, and
James II’s ousting as the most cynical of coups.
T
he Duke of York was a
controversial figure even before
he became King James II: his
conversion to Catholicism upset many;
his marriage to Mary of Modena made
matters worse. The object of Exclusion
Bills (see p.177) and assassination plots,
he had no illusions as to his popularity.
Yet he was unflappable in his arrogance
or, as he saw it, his consciousness of
his divine right as king.
Some later historians have tended
to see James as an inadequate,
cowardly, and weak man. In fact, he
was courageous and experienced in
7 The number of nobles—the
“Immortal Seven”—who
democratically decided that William of
Orange should occupy the British throne.
battle. During his French exile, he
saw front line service against the
Fronde—an uprising of disenchanted
nobles in the 1650s.
Monmouth’s folly
Resistance to James II was quick in
coming. The Duke of Monmouth was
Charles II’s illegitimate son and James’s
nephew. However, he was also a
Protestant and hoped to take the
throne. Landing in Lyme Regis with a
small force in June 1685, he marched
inland through a strongly Protestant
region, recruiting supporters at a
series of pretend coronations. Failing
to take Bristol, he tried Bath before
moving on to Warminster. An
attempt to open a second front in
Scotland having failed, Monmouth’s
men fell back before being
defeated at Sedgemoor on July 6.
Judge Jeffreys’ Bloody Assizes
followed: more than 300
rebels were executed.
James’s decision to raise a
standing army, rather than
recruiting soldiers ad hoc, sent out
the message that he was at war
with his subjects. His Declaration
of Indulgence toward Catholics
caused outrage in 1687 and
the birth of a son, and legal
successor, provoked panic.
By invitation
A group of Protestant nobles, already
in negotiation with William of Orange,
Stadtholder (the chief of state) of the
Dutch Republic, became even more
eager for him to depose James and
reign as William III. His wife, Mary
(James II’s daughter), had the better
claim, but William wanted to be more
than Prince Consort.
His first invasion fleet was dispersed
by winds in October 1688; he later
landed at Torbay. James was unfazed
until he found his officers defecting
in droves. He fled for France, but was
captured. William turned a blind eye
while they escaped, so James could not
become a focus for royalist unrest.
A Convention Parliament in January
1689 issued a Declaration of Rights,
asserting that James’s attempt to flee
amounted to abdication and branding
his actions as king unconstitutional.
William III and Mary II were (unusually)
made joint co-rulers in his place.
Draft for democracy
The Declaration of Rights was primarily
a stick to beat James II with. As
formalized in December 1689 as the
Bill of Rights, however, it became the
blueprint for a constitutional monarchy.
The King and Queen would be held
in the highest respect as heads of
state, but would not be allowed to
disregard the wishes of the people’s
parliamentary representatives.
Birth of James Francis Edward Stuart
In this letter of June 24, 1688, Louis XIV of France
congratulates James II’s wife Mary of Modena on
her son’s birth. “James III” was seen by Stuart
supporters as rightful king of England.
T H E G LO R I O U S R E VO L U T I O N
Mary and William
Shown here enthroned in heaven, William and Mary
reigned over England together. At Mary’s insistence,
theirs was a partnership of equals.
AF TER
James’s overthrow
was first described
as a Glorious
Revolution in
1689, and since
then, its centrality
to the modern
British identity
has never been
in doubt.
ELECTRESS SOPHIA OF HANOVER
LAST OF THE
STUART KINGS
The Stuarts, unsurprisingly, believed that an
outrageous injustice had prevailed. James
fought unsuccessfully to win back his throne
196–97 ❯❯. William’s failure to leave a
dynasty merely prompted Parliament to seek
out another ruler, Sophia, Electress of Hanover
(granddaughter of James I), whose successors
were to reign into the 19th century 200–01 ❯❯.
JACOBITE SUPPORT
Stuart supporters—known as Jacobites from
Jacobus, the Latin form of James—continued to
keep faith, in Scotland especially. A number of
unsuccessful uprisings were staged in the
decades that followed 202–03 ❯❯.
NO REVOLUTION
The French Revolution of 1789 did not spark
a similar overthrow of the British state
236–37 ❯❯. Possibly the constitutional
upheavals of 1688 and after had satisfied
the desire for moderate democratic
change in Britain.
189
Chapter 9 � King Versus Parliament

The fi rst two Stuarts attempted to exert Tudor-like authority in

England without the tact of the Tudors and came into conflict
with the latent, but growing, power of the gentry. Parliamentary
privilege versus royal prerogative became the focal point of the
conflict and resulted in the alienation of the House of Commons.

The Religious Question

The growing Puritan influence among the gentry and the free­
dom from foreign invasion meant that the Eliz abethan settlement
could no longer remain ::;afe from attack. J ames I, however, had no
intention of sacrifi cing the episcopal structure. Since the ecclesi­
astical government was linked so closely to royal authority, King
James argued that _a retreat in religion was a retreat for royalty.
Since neither compromise nor toleration in religion were consid­
ered virtues in this age, both the King and the Puritans took un­
yielding positions.
The Background of James. 'Yhen ::\Iary Stuart abdicated the
throne and fled for safety to England, her only child became King
of Scotland before he was a year old. For the next thirty-nine
years James survived the plots of kidnappers, a grasping nobility,
militant Presbyterian churchmen, and "a thousand intrigues" to
prove himself the adept master of an unruly kingdom. He had
received a superior education under the tutorship of George
Buchanan and was scholarly and intelligent in a pedantic way. The
King was a theorist, understanding books far better than he did his
subj ects-a French contemporary called him the "wisest fool in
Christendom." In the Stuart tradition he believed that he was born
to rule and \Hote a treatise on the divine right of kings to support
his argument for absolutism. James loved hunting, riding, and male
favorites, and was inclined to be lazy and to conduct government
affairs in an erratic manner.
Accession of James. James >Vas overjoyed to become ruler of
England and to leave Scotland and its Kirk for a richer and more
secure kingdom where he could govern the church as well as the
state. To that end he had handled his relations with Elizabeth most
1 05
 1 06 � King Versus Parliament
properly, even to the point of only mildly protesting to her the
execution of his mother. Thus in 1 603 when the two kingdoms
were j oined under one crown, it was the easiest accession of any
new English dynasty. Elizabeth's acknowledgment, the support of
Robert Cecil and the Privy Council, and the enthusiastic greeting
of the people attested to the logic in their choice of the new King.
But the Scottish King never fully grasped the differences between
the two kingdoms, and his initial popularity soon faded.
Religious Hopes. Puritans and Catholics were optimistic that
King James would be more sympathetic to their cause than was
Elizabeth. The Puritans hoped that his years as King of Presby­
terian Scotland would permit them to bring about reforms in Eng­
land ; the Catholics noted that his mother was Catholic and that
J ames had been tolerant of the Catholic faith in Scotland and
seemed friendly toward Spain. James could not please both parties
and was rather content with the Elizabethan church.
Hampton Court Conference, 1 604. Some eight hundred Puritan
preachers presented the Millenary Petition to J ames in which they
requested a simpler ritual than that decreed by Elizabeth, a greater
emphasis on preaching, and the abolition of certain ceremonies,
such as the cross in baptism. They also requested a new translation
of the B ible. J ames granted the petitioners an audience at Hampton
but became enraged by their suggestion to abolish the office of
bishop . The conference ended with the Puritans dissatisfied and the
King critical of their demands. The King's agreement to authorize
a new version of the Bible (the King J ames Version, 1 61 1 ) was the
only constructive result.
Catholic Plots. When the early friendliness of King James to
the Catholics changed to official disfavor, certain Catholics resorted
to plots which threatened his life. The "By-Plot" of 1603 hoped to
capture James, whereas the Gunpowder Plot of 1 605 aimed at
blowing up both the King and Parliament. Guy Fawkes was caught
with kegs of gunpowder in the cellar of Parliament j ust before the
session opened. This spectacular plot shocked the country and
aroused Parliament to enact additional penalties against the Catho­
lics. The Anglican settlement was not to be altered in the reign of
J ames.

James and his Parliaments

Religion and finances became the leading issues generating fric­

tion between James and his Parliament. The King never appreci­
ated two important differences between his two kingdoms : the
 James and his Parliaments �� 1 07
power of the nobility and the weakness of Parliament in Scotland
were not duplicated in seventeenth-century England. When Par­
liament had challenged the Crown in medieval days the powerful
barons led the opposition ; after 1604 the opposition came from the
Commons.
Parliamentary Privileges. In 1604 few established rules existed
that clearly indicated the rights and privileges of Parliament. The
Commons, however, soon asserted its undefined privileges as in­
alienable rights and developed a political doctrine to back its
position.
The First Parliament, 1604-1 1 . The Goodwin Case which arose
out of a disputed election created the first clash between the
Crown and Parliament. The Commons argued that it, and not the
Court of Chancery, was the j udge of its own membership. Finally
the King yielded, but with little grace. In 1606 the Exchequer
Court found in fa vor of the King in the Bates C ase. The decision
recognized the right of the King to levy impositions of duties
because there were no limitations on the King's power except his
own forbearance. Both merchants and Parliament protested the
additional customs. In the session of 1611 James offered to sur­
render some of his rights, such as wardship, in return for a guaran­
teed annual income of £200,000. However, the negotiations over
this "Great Contract" broke down, whereupon James lectured the
members on their failure to respect the prerogatives of the Crown
and dismissed them. Parliament then sent an "Apology" to James
that was actually a defense of their privileges. Such privileges, said
the Apology, were derived from law and tradition, and not from
the King.
The Second ( or A ddled) Parliament, 1614. After three years of
trying to govern without parliamentary grants, King James was
forced to rail Parliament into session. The Commons demanded the
redress of grieYances before Yoting any money bills. After a stormy
two-month session James dissolved Parliament because it had not
passed any acts or granted him any money. For the next seven years
James governed without Parliament, and to obtain revenue he ex­
ploited eYery possible resource at his disposal from forced loans to
the selling of titles.
The Third Parliament, 1621 . The Thirty Years' War caused
James to summon this Parliament which promptly retaliated for the
dismissal of Chief Justice Coke, the leading opponent of the royal
prerogati\·e, in 1616. Resurrecting its old weapon of impeachment,
Parliament indic ted two courtiers for abu:oing monopolies and the
brilliant Sir Francis B acon, the King's Chancellor, for receiving
 1 08 � King Versus Parliament
bribes. Parliament then examined foreign policy which James, like
Elizabeth, considered none of their business. In the second session
the King lost his temper over the freedom of speech issue and
dissolved Parliament.
The Fourth Parliament, 1 624. The King's last Parliament was
the most friendly to him because it was anxious to fight Spain and
the Catholic League and to assist the German Protestants. James
permitted the members to debate foreign affairs, to impeach his
financial genius and Treasurer, the Earl of Middlesex, and to invade
the royal prerogative by limiting royal control over monopolies.
Parliament subsidized an elaborate expedition against Spain. How­
ever, James died in 1625 before the fleet set sail.
Parliamentary Theory. The attack of the Commons on royal
prerogatives and proclamations was supported by the common law
courts which had formerly been allies of the Crown. Led by the
tough, irascible Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of the
King's Bench, the courts supported the assumption that parliamen­
tary privileges had an ancient, and not necessarily royal, origin, that
the King was under law (rex sub lege) , and that the courts were
independent of the Crown. They were not, however, as James
proved by removing Chief .Justice Coke. Nevertheless, the claims
of the j udges emboldened Parliament to continue its piecemeal
encroachments on royal prerogatives. James was never browbeaten
by his Parliaments and only gave in on the matter of royal monopo­
lies because he knew when to compromise. He was wise enough to
sense the danger signals and to warn his son, Charles.
Royal Favorites. At first .James relied on Elizabeth's chief coun­
cilor, Robert Cecil, but gradually royal favorites replaced Cecil
(who died in 1 612 as Earl of Sali8bury) and the Privy Council in
influence. The two leading courtiers were Robert Carr, whom
James made Earl of Somerset, and George Villiers, who eventually
became Duke of Buckingham. The King's dependence on these
incompetents aroused the resentment of the Court. With the rise of
favorites the Councilors lost their influence on parliamentary legis­
lation since they no longer introduced legislation, as previously in
the days of Elizabeth. "By the third decade of the seventeenth
century, the commons were in charge of the initiation, formula­
tion, and passage of laws. They were the tail that wagged the
dog. " 1

1 George L. Haskins, The Growth of English R ep resentative Government

(London, 1948), pp. 126-7.
 Foreign Affairs &� 1 09
Foreign Affairs

James vigorously pursued a policy of peace even under the most

trying conditions and succeeded, except during the first and last
years of his reign. The Thirty Years' War caught him in a di­
lemma : he curried favor with Spain and hoped to marry his son to
the Spanish Infanta ; at the same time his daughter Elizabeth and
her husband, the Elector of the Palatinate, were being harried by a
Catholic coalition. England's old enmity toward Spain finally
brought war in 1 624 and reconciled Parliament to the King.
Scotland and Ireland. King .James hoped for the union of Eng­
land and Scotland, but Parliament was opposed to the idea and even
refused free trade and English citizenship to the Scots. Except for
removing the danger of border warfare and French influence in
Scotland, the two countries remained separate nations with a com­
mon King for another century. James tried to pacify the Irish by
having his Deputy terminate martial law, dismiss old charges
against Irish rebel::: , and restore certain tribal lands to Irish tenants.
Ho\\·ever, the attempt to enforce the Anglican supremacy led to
new uprisings in northern Ireland. The English Government re­
sponded by seizing land in six northern counties and settling Scotch
Presbyterians, \Yelsh, and English in the area known as Ulster.
Queen Elizabeth had introduced this Anglo-Protestant colonization
and the Stuarts and Cromwell continued the settlement.
Spain. In 1604 James and Robert Cecil ended the war with
Spain that had dragged on since the year of the Armada. The peace
halted an expensive and fruitless war, but was unpopular in Parlia­
ment, particularly among the Puritans and the commercial class.
When James pursued a pro-Spanish policy, he was greatly influ­
enced by Buckingham and the Spanish ambassador, Count Gon­
domar. J ames had Sir Walter Raleigh executed to placate Spanish
demands and attempted to negotiate a marriage between his heir,
Charles, and the Spanish Infanta. Buckingham and Charles went to
Spain to complete the negotiations but returned in 1 623 humiliated
and empty-handed-a slight which turned them into angry foes of
Spain. Charles and Buckingham and Parliament eventually pre­
vailed on the King to declare war on Spain in 1 624. The twenty­
year peace was over, and Buckingham dispatched a series of expedi­
tions to the Continent, all of which were frightful failures. The
first expedition to free the Pal atinate failed because of mismanage­
ment, sickness, and starvation.
The Thirty Years' War. In 1618 bitter religious wars broke out
 1 1 0 �� King Versus Parliament
in Germany between the Protestant Union of principalities and the
Catholic League. The war began in Bohemia where Protestants
deposed their fanatical Catholic King and invited Frederick, the
Elector of the Palatinate, to take the throne. The vengeance of the
Catholics and the Hapsburgs was swift and cruel. After one winter
of rule Frederick and Elizabeth ( daughter of James) were ousted,
and the Palatinate given to Maximilian of the Catholic League. This
deYC!opment complicated .J ames's Spanish policy because the Spanish
Hapsburgs had j oined with the German Hapsburgs against Fred­
erick . The flight of his daughter from Catholic forces and the
failure of his son's marriage negotiations in Spain reversed James's
policy and won him popularity with his subjects. But England had
suffered from military stagnation for twenty years and was in no
position to take effective action.
American Settlement. The unsuccessful efforts of the Eliza ­
bethans to colonize Virginia did not deter Englishmen from trying
again a generation later. The London Company succeeded in estab­
lishing Jamestown in 1 607 as England's first permanent colony.
The export of tobacco propped up the colony's meager economy,
and in 1 6 1 9 Virginia set up the first colonial legislature fashioned
on the parliamentary model of the mother country. In 1 62 0 a sec­
ond settlement colony was planted in Massachusetts by Separa­
tists who left the Old World on the ":l\Iayflower" in order to fol­
low freely their religious beliefs in America. Nine years later,
under a charter granted by King Charles, the Massachusetts B ay
Colony provided a haven for English Puritans to set up their ver­
sion of a Christian community. This colony prospered and a steady
stream of immigrants gave it a population of fourteen thousand by
1 640. Bermuda was also settled during the reign of King James and
a legislature was introduced in 1 624.

Charles I

Parliamentary and Puritan opposition coalesced in King Charles's

reign ( 1 625-49 ) to challenge his high-handed and small-minded
manner of ruling. The King's expensive and futile foreign policy
only added to his predicament. By ending the wars and governing
without Parliament, Charles put off some of his problems, but nei­
ther he nor his advisers really understood or cared to grapple with
the basic problem that plagued his reign : how to negotiate with a
Parliament that refused to accept the traditional royal prerogatives.
Character of Charles. The twenty-five-year-old King was more
dignified and attractive than his father, but, like his father, he held
 Charles I &>� 1 1 1
exalted notions o f kingship and relied on royal favorites. Charles
acquired a good reputation as a religious and family man ; never­
theless, he was petty and indecisive and conspicuously lacked the
art of political managership.
Foreign Affairs. After the pacifist policy of .James, Charles and
Buckingham promoted within four years six reckless military ad­
ventures against the German Catholics, Spain, and France, none of
which succeeded. Thereafter, Charles, lacking financial subsidies
from Parliament, because essentially a spectator in the political­
religious maneuvers of the Thirty Years' War.
Spain. Charles asked his first Parliament ( 1 625) for £40,000 to
sustain the war against Sp'a in but refused to discuss his campaign
plans with Parliament. When the Commons refused to grant funds,
Charles went ahead with his plans. The result was a badly-organized
and ill-equipped expedition landing near Cadiz. The demoralized
and drunken soldiers failed to take the city, and on the way back
to England the fleet was mauled by a storm.
, France. Meanwhile England was also drifting into conflict with
France. Charles's marriage to Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII,
in the first week of his reign purchased a fleeting friendship with
France but raised suspicions that the King was susceptible to Catho­
lic influence. When English ships loaned to France were ordered
by Cardinal Richelieu against the French Huguenots at La Ro­
chelle, the crews mutinied. Months later war broke out between
England and France ( 1 627) , and t hree expeditions were sent to
relieve the beleaguered French Protestants at La Rochelle. Buck­
ingham led the second expedition to the Isle of Rhe, where he was
repulsed by the French after losing half of his men. In 1 630 Eng­
land made peace \\·ith France and Spain, and the nation now be­
came preoccupied with internal controversies.
Charles and Parliament. Since Charles considered such matters
as "rnr and peace beyond the pale of parliamentary j urisdiction, he
did not justify his requests for money. In turn Parliament, led by
such squires as .John Eliot, Thomas Wentworth, John Pym, and
.John Hampden, raised a whole list of grievances and claimed addi­
tional po,vers.
The First Parliament, 1625. Parliamentary opposition to Buck­
ingham and the King's Catholic marriage prevented Charles from
receiving more than one-seventh of his financial request, while
tonnage and poundage were voted for only a year instead of for
life as was customary.
The Second Parliament, 1 626. The members of Parliament re­
fused to vote war supplies for the King, and John Eliot's oratory
 1 1 2 � King Versus Parliament
led to impeachment proceedings against the Duke of Buckingham.
To save his favorite minister, Charles dissolved Parliament and de­
manded forced loans from each taxpayer. This aroused opposition,
and arrests were made for refusal to pay. Soldiers were quartered
in private homes to save expenses. But the King still required addi­
tional revenue.
The Third Parliament and the Petition of Right, 1 628. Charles
was forced to summon a third Parliament to raise more money ;
however, the leaders of Parliament-Eliot, Coke, Pym, and Went­
worth-were determined that no subsidy would be granted until
the King redressed their grievances. A Petition of Right was
drafted which limited royal prerogative and requested the King to
protect ancient liberties. It forbade imprisonment without showing
cause, martial law in time of peace, forced loans or taxes without
parliamentary consent, and the billeting of soldiers in private
homes without consent of the occupants. Charles reluctantly signed
the petition in order to haYe his sub8idies approYed. The petition,
like the Magna Charta of 1215, became, in time, a constitutional
landmark in limiting the power of the monarchy, although its im­
mediate effects were slight.
Second Session, 1629. Charles dismissed the first session of Par­
liament to stave off an attempt to remove Buckingham from offi ce.
But during the adj ournment Buckingham was assassinated by John
Felton, a naval officer, and the nation rej oiced as the King grieved.
When Parliament reconvened religious grievances took priority
over fi scal matters, and the Commons launched an attack on the
High Church policies of the B ishops. \Vhen the Speaker attempted
to adjourn the fruitless session, members held him in his chair while
the Commons hastily passed three resolutions condemning anyone
who introduced innovations in religion, or who advised levying
tonnage and poundage without parliamentary consent, or who
would pay such taxes. When Parliament was finally dissolved, Eliot
and eight other members were arrested ; three of them were sent to
the Tower, and Eliot died there three years later.
Personal Rule, 1629-40. For the next eleven years King Charles
ruled without summoning Parliament. To save money he made
peace with France and Spain ; to raise sufficient money to govern
England, royal officials invoked every possible source of revenue
short of parliamentary grants.
Revenues. Customs revenues were not sufficient to pay ex­
penses ; therefore, the King levied fines on individuals who had
violated long dormant forest laws, invented new monopolies and
sold patents to companies, and invoked an old statute that required
 Charles I &� 1 1 3
all landholders with a n annual income o f £40 t o b e knighted. A
large fee was charged i f they became knights ; a steep fine if they
refused. The levy arousing the greatest opposition was the ship
money tax which seacoast towns had paid in earlier centuries to
provide ships for defense against a threatened invasion. But Eng­
land was at peace and Charles demanded the tax of inland as well
as coastal counties. John Hampden, a 'vealthy Puritan, refused to
pay his tax, arguing that it usurped Parliament's power of the
purse. In court the King won the legal verdict, but not the popular
one.
Thomas lVentworth. After the assassination of Buckingham
( 1 628) Charles relied largely on two advisers, Thomas Wentworth
( later the Earl of Strafford ) and Archbishop Laud. Wentworth was
a parliamentary leader until he changed sides after the p assage of
the Petition of R ight for personal adYantage and because he feared
that parliamentary extremism would result in a breakdown of Gov­
ernment. As President of the Council of the ?forth he imposed
law and order on the region so effectinly that Charles made him
Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1633. His Irish policies \Vere thorough,
because of the high-handed manner with which he reorganized fi­
nances and stimulated trade. His methods kept Ireland temporarily
docile, but he alienated both the "old English" C atholic gentry and
the "ne\v English" Puritans during hi::- administration.
Charles and the Church. In 1 633 William Laud became Arch­
bishop of Canterbury and, as the King's chief adviser, won royal
support for religious uniformity in public worship according to
High Church (Anglo-Catholi c ) tradition. Puritans accused him of
reverting to Catholicism but Laud, through the Courts of Star
Chamber and H igh Commission, took stern measures against his
critics. His measures promoted a Puritan migration to New Eng­
land and provoked the chain of ennts that led to civil war in
England.
Charles and the Scots. In 163 7 , \Yhen Charles and Laud at­
tempted to force a new prayer book and an Anglican episcopacy
on Presbyterian Scotland, the Scots rioted and resisted the innova­
tions. A National CoYenant was signed which pledged allegiance to
Charles but swore to resist to death all religious changes contrary
to their Kirk ( Church ) . Charles determined to invade Scotland but
could find neither men nor money to meet the Scottish army that
was commanded by Alexander Leslie, and \Yai' forced to abandon
his campaign. The First B isl10ps ' \Yar ( 1 639 I ended in a truce with­
out a battle. Strafforcl ach·i:;ed the King to call a Parliament and
appeal to English patriotism in order to raise money for fighting the
 1 1 4 � King Versus Parliament
Scots. The Short Parliament of 1 640 assembled in an angry mood and
refused to vote funds until it had discussed grievances. Within
three weeks Charles dissolved Parliament and made desperate ap­
peals for funds and men to fi ght a Second Bishops' 'Var ; however,
he met with little success. The Scots invaded England with ease and
forced Charles to terms which stipulated that they would stay in
English territory and receive £850 daily from the King until a
settlement was signed. To pay the bill Charles was forced to sum­
mon another Parliament in 1 640 which turned out to be a Long
Parliament.
 Chapter 10 �� Civil War and
Interregnum

The Long Parliament provided the stage for a confrontation between

the King and Parliament, as the House of Commons c laimed for
itself additional royal prerogatives. The ensuing civil war began
largely as a struggle behveen the King and the parliamentary
gentry and ended with the army as victor and Oliver Cromwell as
the commanding figure. Cromwell's republican experiments were
serious attempts to find a satisfactory, constitutional substitute for
the monarchy ; however, each alternative failed. He was able to
restore England's influence in foreign affairs and to provide the
country with order, prosperity, and greater religious toleration.
Since military rule was not an acceptable substitute for the mon­
archy, the Stuart dynasty returned upon Cromwell's death.

Steps to Civil War

The Long Parliament was in general agreement in its efforts to

curb the King's powers by legislation, but thereafter Parliamentar­
ians divided as Pym steered the radical wing of the House of Com­
mons toward religious issues and an attempt to control the army.
Instead of capitalizing on this division to gain supporters, Charles I,
with his genius for miscalculation, forced the issue by sending armed
men into the House of Commons, thereby coalescing the opposition
against him.
Parliamentary Triumphs. Under Pym's leadership the Long
Parliament accomplished a mild constitutional revolution in its first
two years. But when revolutionary changes were also demanded in
the church and in the control of the militia the positions of the
royalists and of the radicals became irreconcilable.
l\Iost of the constructive work of this Parliament was accom­
plished in its early months and included : ( I ) the abolition of such
prerogative courts as the Star Chamber and the High Commission ;
( 2 ) no dissolution of Parliament without its mvn consent ; (3) the
Triennial Act demanding that Parliament meet at least every three
years ; and ( 4) no type of taxation without parl iamentary consent.
Execution of StraHord ( \Ventworth ) . Parliament attempted to
puni�h Strafford for his supposed influence over the royal policies
115
 1 1 6 �� Civil War and Interregnum
of the previous decade. When the impeachment proceedings failed
to convict, the Commons resorted to a bill of attainder which
needed neither legal proof nor a trial, but still required the King's
consent. Charles had promised to protect Strafford, but mob and
parliamentary pressures intimidated him into signing the death
warrant, and in M ay, 1 641 , Strafford was executed. Archbishop
Laud was also imprisoned and later ( 1 645) executed.
Parliamentary Division. The proposal of the Puritans to abolish
bishops ( the " Root and Branch" bill) and radically reform the
church alienated a considerable number of Parliamentarians who
had previously backed political bills. In the summer of 1 64 1 the
division was widened by the news of a far-reaching rebellion in
Ireland and the massacre of English and Scottish settlers in Ulster.
Parliament wished to crush the rebellion by sending over an army,
but did not want to place a large force under the control of the
King for fear that he might use it to enforce his authority in
England. Therefore, the radical members drew up a resolution, the
Grand Remonstrance, in which they stated their grievances and
demanded parliamentary approval of both the King's advisers and
the army officers. After a stormy debate the bill passed the Com­
mons by only eleven votes, which was evidence that the conserva­
tive members were opposed to any sweeping changes in the tradi­
tional political arrangement.
Attack on the Commons. Instead of waiting and winning over
a few more members, Charles committed a political error by
marching into the House of Commons with an armed guard to
arrest five of its leading members ; however, the members had been
forewarned and had fled. Soon after this abortive coup, Charles
rode north to raise an army and to show by force that he was King.
His subj ects gradually took sides and prepared for war. In June,
1 642, Parliament sent the King an ultimatum ( the Nineteen Propo­
sitions) requiring that he surrender virtually all his remaining pre­
rogative powers. Such preposterous demands indicated that any
hope of compromise was past, and in August civil war began.

Course of the War

At first the Royalists were victorious because of the quality of

their cavalry and leadership, yet time favored Parliament because
of its superior resources, manpower, and the backing of the navy.
By 1 646 Parliament was victorious, even though Charles was not
willing to recognize this fact. The King's dealings with the Scots
 Course of the War &� 1 1 7
brought o n a short second Civil War that Cromwell's forces won
easily, and that left the army in control of the country. The army
promptly purged Parliament of the members it disliked. The result­
ing Rump Parliament constituted a court to try the King for trea­
son. This illegal court convicted Charles and had him executed.
1 The King was dead ; Cromwell and the army were the new rulers.
Royalist Support. Geographically, the King's support centered
in the north and in the west. His party included most of the nobil­
ity, many of the gentry, Roman Catholics, and the supporters of
t the established church. Lacking sources of revenue, Charles called
upon the loyalty of his peers and gentry to provide him with
money and services. And i'n his· two nephews, Prince Rupert and
Prince :Maurice, Charles found competent military leaders.
Parliamentary Support. Although the lines of demarcation were
never sharp between the two sides, Parliament drew its maj or
strength from the south and east of the country. Support also came
from the navy, merchants, yeomen farmers, and opponents of High
Anglicanism. Parliament had greater resources at its disposal for
fighting a war, but the commander-in-chief, the Earl of Essex,
lacked generalship and a plan of attack. Not until Thomas Fairfax
and Oliver Cromwell took over command could parliamentary
leadership rival that of their opponents.
Civil War, 1642-46. The royalist superiority in cavalry gave
Charles the edge in the campaigns of the first two years. Parliament
then negotiated with Scotland and signed the Solemn League and
Covenant ( 1 643) in which it was agreed to establish the Reformed
(Presbyterian) church in England in return for the assistance of a
Scottish army. At l\larston :-.Ioor (near York) in 1 644 the Parlia­
mentary and Scottish armies won their fi rst important battle, but
were unable to follow up their victory. In the next year, with the
help of the Self-Denying Ordinance, Parl i ament reorganized the
army, forced the old leadership to resign, and made Sir Thomas
Fairfax the new commander. D rawing hea,·ily on Oliver Cromwell's
disciplined and dedicated troops, a Kew l\Iodel army was created
which decisively defeated the Royalists at the battle of X aseby
(1645) . Thereafter, the King's position was hopeless and the fol­
lowing year he surrendered to the Scots. By the end of 1 646 the
first Civil War ended when the Scots agreed to surrender Charles
to Parliament and go home.
The Disputed Peace. Parliament had triumphed onr the King ;
however, Parli ament did not represent the views of Cromwell's
army, and the army was the real power in the land. Factions ap-
D �'Co��1 ,----, Area under
L___J Royal Control
I
I
� Area. under
� Parliamentary � Parlia.mentary
r-"I Area under
Control Control

Summer Winter
1643 1643-44

THE CIVIL WAR

l,__J Royal Control

r-1 Area under r-1 Area under
L__J Royal Control

� Parliamentary � Control
�=�
� Area under

Control

Winter Summer
1644-45 1645
 Course of the War t>� 1 1 9
pearecl i n Parliament and in the army, a s the victors quarreled
among themse!Yes and attempted to negotiate separately with the
King. Ch arles responded by trying to play off Parliament, the
army, and the Scots against one another. He made conflicting
promises to each group r n that in the end his scheming made all the
parties suspicious of his integrity. Ko party, at first, had any inten­
tion of deposing the King, and the argument revolved around reli ­
gious controversy. The Presbyterian members o f Parliament
wanted to impose the :National Connant on England, but the sec­
tarians in Parliament and in the army opposed a Presbyterian estab­
lishment. \"\'hen Parliament ordered the Xew �Iodel army either to
disband \Yithout back pay or to go to Ireland under Presbyterian
officers, the army threatened mutiny. In the summer of 1 64 7,
Oliver Cronrn·ell, who had sen·ed as the mediator for the vari­
ous parties, threw in his lot with the army. Cromwell and his
followers proceeded to draft the Heads of the Proposals as a com­
promise measure to save the nation from both royal absolutism and
the democratic republican proposals advocated by the Levelers
! the follmYers of .John Lilburne ) and other raclirals in the army.
Crom\Yell's moderate proposal was ignored by both Parliament and
the King. Charles escaped from his army captors to the Isle of
\Yight \Yhere he negotiated \Yith the Scots to invade England and
restore him to the throne in return for his support of a Presbyte­
rian church settlement.
The Second Civil War, 1648. The Scottish inva:;ion of 1648
precipitated the second Civil \\'ar. General Fairfax crushed Royal­
ist uprisings in the south of England ·while Cromwell's veterans
moved north to rout a superior Scottish-Royalist army near Pres­
ton. After Preston the army dominated the situation and vented its
wrath on both Parliament and Charles. The soldiers were con-
' ,·inced that Charles was a �Ian of Blood for breaking his word and
reviving the war, and that Parliament was little better because of its
efforts to negotiate with such a King even after the second war
broke out. In December ( 1 648) Colonel Pride purged Parliament
of its Presbyterian supporters. The remaining members-the Rump
-took orders from the army.
Regicide. The purged Hou:;e of Commorn: , consi5ting of less
than one hundred members, appointed a court of commissioners to
try the King as a traitor. Charles never accepted the legality of this
tribunal and refused to speak in his own defense. The verdict \YaS
ne,·er in doubt, for the army had decided upon the execution of the
King. In January, 1 649, Charles met his death with calmness and
dignity.
 120 �� Civil Wa r and In terregnum
The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-60

The execution of the King transformed England into a republic

vvhich few Englishmen had foreseen or actually desired. The Gov­
ernment now rested on the power of the army and its rather reluc­
tant hero, Oliver Cromwell. In the ensuing interregnum Cromwell
experimented with various alternatives to monarchy, but each at­
tempt foundered over the incompatibility of a constitutional gov­
ernment and the "rule of the saints." Cromwell 's leadership saved
England from the grim prospects of either anarchy or tyranny, and
he achieved prosperity and order in the country and won respect
abroad by a vigorous and successful foreign policy but failed to find
a satisfactory alternatin to monarchy . Cromwell's death brought in­
creasing civilian discontent and the restoration of the Stuarts.
Cromwell and the New Government. The Rump Parliament
passed an act which abolished the monarchy and the House of
Lords and set up a Council of State of forty-one members to ad­
minister the realm . For the next four years this Council served as
the nominal executive, but real, if somewhat disguised, power was
in the hands of Cromwell . Only Cromwell 's statesmanship and self­
restraint kept him from abusing his almost unlimited authority,
because the constitutional checks demanded by earlier Parliaments
of the Stuarts were never applied to him. He was devoutly reli­
gious and confident that God was on his side ; yet, he was neither
intolerant of other faiths nor a "puritan in the narrow sense,'' for
he "liked music and dancing." 1 Led on by the force of circum­
stances more than by personal ambition, Cromwell successfully met
internal and external challenges to the Government.
The Radical Opposition. Cromwell 's Gonrnment was opposed
not only by Royalists but also by radicals within the army. The
war had undermined the previous religious and social order, and
zealous pamphleteers played upon the feelings of the disenchanted.
Some of the Independents in the army were seeking to legalize
religious pluralism ; others went further in their demands. John
Lilburne and his Levelers advocated a democratic republic ;
whereas Gerrard Winstanley and his fellow Diggers aimed at an
agrarian communism that would abolish all manors and landlords.
But in politcial and social viewpoints Cromwell and his middle
party were not innovators. Thus, when choosing members of the
Council of State, they excluded radicals. Both Fairfax and Crom­
well acted decisively to smother further revolutionary threats and

1 E . L. Woodward, History of England (New York : Harper, 1962 ) , p. 108.

 The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1649-60 �·� 121
minor mutinies in the army. Lilburne was imprisoned, and a few
executions took place. Cromwell turned next to foreign threats.
Foreign Affairs. Cromwell 's active foreign policy brought to­
gether Ireland, Scotland, and England under a single Government
and made England respected in Europe as a powerful naval and
commercial power. "Cromwell and B lake, rather than Queen Eliza­
beth and Drake, really made England mistress of the seas." 2
Ireland. Royalists and Catholics had joined forces under the
Marquis of Ormonde in support of Charles II, son of the executed
king, and were attempting to gain control of all of Ireland. In
August, 1 649, Cromwell al).d his troops landed in Ireland, relieved
Dubl in, and within ten months had crushed the rebellion. Crom­
well's massacre of the defenders in Drogheda for refusing to sur­
render was an obj ect lesson to other cities, but \Vas also a blight on
his reputation. The land settlement that followed produced addi­
tional Irish resentment against Cromwell. About hvo-thirds of the
land south of Ulster was confiscated and given to English Protes­
tants who soon built up extensive estates. For the next two-and-a­
half centuries the hostility between the English-Protestant ( and often
absentee) landlords and the Irish tenants remained unresolved.
Scotland. From Ireland Cromwell returned to England to lead
another army ( 1 650) against the Scotch Covenanters who were
rnpporting Charles Stuart's second attempt to gain the throne.
Cromwell's efforts for a peaceful negotiation failed, and the supe­
rior forces of the Scots hemmed in his army at Dunbar. But his troops
,,·on a decisive victory, taking ten thousand prisoners. During the
winter Charles was crowned King at Scone and in the spring a new
Scottish army moved into England-and into the trap Cromwell
had planned . The royal army was surrounded and decimated at
\Yorcester. Charles escaped and fled to the Continent . The battle
of Worcester ended the Civil War and united Ireland, Scotland,
and England under one Commonwealth Government.
The TFar icith the Dutch, 1652-54. Triumphant over British
opposition , Cromwell next faced Holland which was England's
chief commercial and naval rival . The Republican navy under
Robrrt B lake had won respect by forcing the rebellious Virginian
and \Yest Indian colonies to acknowledge the Commonwealth, and
by routing Prince Rupert's fleet. In 1651 Parliament p assed the
Kavigation Act which favored England's commercial class by re­
stricting the maritime trade of the Dutch. The act which reflected

2 RobertEckles and Richard Hale. Bril nin, !IPr Peoples and the Common­
wealth (Xew York : l\IcGraw-Hill, 1954 ) , p . 152.
 1 22 � Civil War and Interregnum
the economic rintlry of the period decreed that trade with Eng­
land and her colonies could be carried only in English ships or in
ships of the producing country, and that all goods from the colo­
nies must be in English ships. Other causes that contributed to the
outbreak of hostilities with Holland included : ( 1 ) disputes over
fishing rights off the coast of England ; ( 2 ) the harboring of the
Royalist supporters of Charles by the Dutch ; and (3) the refusal of
Dutch ships to dip their flags to English warships in the Channel.
Althou<rh indecisive sea battles followed, Dutch shipping interests
were so badly hurt that peace was made in 1 654 on terms favorable
to the English . Treaties \\'ere also concluded with Sweden, Den­
mark, and Portugal that benefited English commerce.
Spanish Policy. Cromwell also shared the Eliz abethan and Puri­
tan sentiment that Spain was more dangerous to England than
France. Admiral B lake's expedition to the l'dediterranean ( 1654-57)
wa s so impressive that England became the dominant naval power
in the ).Iediterranean for the first time. The attack on Spain in the
\Yest Indies \\�as only partially successful . Jamaica was taken, but
the attempt to seize Santo Domingo failed. The harassment of Span­
ish possessions led to all-out war with Spain and an alliance between
England and France. In the Anglo-French land campaign against
Spain in the Spanish Netherlands, the English troops won the Battle
of the Dunes and received Dunkirk from Louis XIV for their aid.
Constitutional Experiments. Although successful abroad. Crom­
well failed to fi_nd a satisfactory constitutional basis for his Govern­
ment. All efforts foundered over the issue of sovereignty between
the rule of the elect-the army leadership-and the elected-the
various Parliaments.
The Commonwealth. For four years ( 1 649-53) Cromwell at­
tempted to negotiate the differences between the Rump Parliament
and the army since he was the pivotal figure in both. But dissatis­
faction with Parliament grew in the army and in the nation. The
Rump Parliament was charged with corruption and appeared to be
interested primarily in its own tenure of office when it refused to
hold a general election. In April, 1 653, Cromwell forcibly dissolved
the R11mp Parliament and replaced it with a nominated "Parliament
of Saints." This body was handpicked by Cromwell's council from
candidates supplied by the independent churches ; Cromwell had no
intention of ruling by military authority alone. The Nominated
Assembly was zealous but amateurish. 'When its views on religion
became too radical for army leaders, the Assembly was dissolved,
and the Commonwealth came to an end.
The Instrument of Government, 1 653. The outcome was a new

..
 The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 1 649-60 &� 123
constitution drawn up by army officers to replace the Common­
wealth. The Instrument provided for an executive ( Cromwell)
who was to be the Lord Protector. A council of state ;vould advise
the Protector and share control of the army with him. A one-house
Parliament would be elected every three years by an enlarged fran­
chise representing England, Scotland, and Ireland. Toleration was
granted to all Christians except Anglicans and Roman C atholics.
Checks and balances were included to prevent the tyranny of
either Protector or Parliament. The first Protectorate Parliament
met in 1 654 and immediately attempted to amend the Instrument to
its advantage. One hundred members ·were dismissed for refusing
·
to accept Cromwell's four constitutional "fundamentals," but when
the remainder continued to wrangle, Cromwell dissolved Parlia­
ment in January, 1 655.
Military Rule. As a temporary expedient England and \Vales
were divided into eleven military districts with a major general
placed over each. The people disliked the military arrangement,
and \Yar with Spain created the need of increased subsidies. There­
fore, in 1 656 a second Parliament convened which was carefully
chosen by the army officers and screened by the council of state.
Even this select group asserted its independence from the army and
could not be effectively controlled. One of its first acts was to
discontinue the rule of the m aj or generals and to propose a new
constitution .
Humble Petition and Advice. Leaders in Parliament, wishing to
return to a more traditional system of Government, next proposed
that Cromwell should become King, that a second chamber, called
the "other house," should be filled with the King's appointees, and
that the po\wrs of Parliament should be increased. Crom;wll de­
clined the Cro\Yn because acceptance \YOuld have violated the
whole republican argument. But he accepted the other features of
the constitution and the new Parli ament met in January, 1 658.
Almost immediately the House of Commons demanded control
over both Cromwell and the "C"pper House, instead of paying atten­
tion to the war with Spain. Once again, Cromwell dissolved Parlia­
ment and, before he could assemble another one, he died in 1 658.
Fall of the Protectorate. Cromwell's death also doomed the Pro­
tectorate, because only the force of Cromwell's personality and the
loyalty of the army to its commander-in-chief had held the Gov­
ernment together. Oliwr's son and successor, Richard, lacked pres­
tige and ability to keep the support of the sectarians, the army, and
the Puritans. Besides , the nation \\"US weary of Puritan and army
control and ;;·as ready for the return of the Stuarts. Army corn-
 1 24 � Civil TVar and Interregnum
manders, led by Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert, defied Rich­
ard and grasped for power, while Royalist and republican uprisings
took place. Richard surrendered to the army which promptly re­
placed the Protectorate Government with the Commonwealth
! Rump) Parliament. However, this Parliament got along with the
army no better than in earlier years and was dismissed in October.
Finally General George Monck, commander of the army in Scot­
land, marched south to support civilian rule and oppose General
Lambert. In London he recalled the Long Parliament of 1 640 and
had it dissolve itsel f in favor of a freely-elected Convention Parlia­
ment. In 1 660 the Convention Parliament recalled Charles II from
exile.
Achievements of the Interregnum. The accomplishments of the
interregnum were the triumphs of Cromwell since he \Vas the
leader largely responsible for preserving order and individual l ib­
erty. His foreign policy brought security through strength and his
economic policies increased English prosperity. Religious pluralism
and free thought were saved from the extremism of sectarians and
the uniformity demanded by Anglicans and Presbyterians. The
.Tews were allowed to return to England after an exile of 350 years ;
civil marriages were legal ized ; public schools and universities were
reformed .
The Puritan Dilemma. Although Cromwell represented the loft­
ier ideals of Puritanism and frowned upon the "blue laws " that his
compatriots favored, he had no doubts about the rightness of the
Puritan position. He was convinced that he and his supporters were
God's agents sent to save England from the forces of tyranny,
whether foreign, Royalist, or religious. This conviction made it
impossible to resolve the constitutional conflict in the rivalry be­
tween the elect and the elected. Thus the Puritan position created
its own dialectic, for although it stressed individualism, it also
claimed the guardianship of the saints over the sinners. By 1 660
England was weary of this guardianship and anxious for a return to
the old ways, perhaps because "the sinners were more numerous
than the saints . " 3

3 Woodward, History of England, p. 106.

 Chapter 11 �� Restoration and
Revolution

With the return of Charles II the monarchy, Parliament, and the

Anglican supremacy were restored in England, but not simply as a
replica of the days of Charles I . Charles II accommodated himself
to the changes, but his brnther, James II, could not. As a result
James lost the throne in the revolution of 1 688. The revolutionary
settlement transferred ultimate sovereignty from the King to Par­
liament and replaced a Catholic monarch with the Protestants, Wil­
liam and Mary. The new co-monarchs were rulers, not by divine
right or by strict heredity, but by an act of Parliament. King
William proceeded to marshal English resources against Louis XIV
whom both Charles and James had preferred to serve as clients.

Charles and the Restoration

Charles II l earned from the execution of his father some of the

risks involved when Parliament and King became hostile rivals.
Therefore, the R estoration brought unusual harmony between
monarchy and Parliament until Charles's religious and foreign poli­
cies produced such opposition that he reigned his last years without
Parliament in order to control the succession to the throne.
The Return of Charles. To allay the reservations of Englishmen
who had reasons to fear the restoration of the monarchy, Charles
issued the Declaration of Breda ( Holland) in which he promised :
( 1 ) to give the army its arrears i n pay before disbanding it ; ( 2 ) to
permit as much religious toleration as Parliament would allow ; ( 3 )
t o grant a general pardon t o a l l political opponents except t o those
designated by Parliament ; and ( 4) to let Parliament determine the
legitimacy of property titles acquired during the interregnum. The
Convention Parliament was satisfied with the Declaration, and in
.:Vlay, 1 660, Charles returned to London from exile. But the Resto­
ration did not restore all the powers of earlier Kings, for the acts of
1 640-41 to which Charles I had given assent (e.g., prerogative
courts, unparliamentary taxation, and the arbitrary arrest of mem­
ber:; of Parliament ,,-i thout cause) remained illegal. Before its dis­
solution in 1 661 the Convention Parliament, sympathetic to Charlcs's
proclamation of clemency, carried out a moderate policy. Troop:;
125
 126 �<5 Restora tion and Revolution
were paid and dismissed, except for a standing army of five thousand
soldiers, and only thirteen leading officials of the Cronnvellian period
"·ere put to death.
The New King. Charles II seemed to live only for pleasure and
the pursuit of mistresses. He cared little, i f at all , about policies
except those that were pleasing to his fancy. Yet, when circum­
stances demanded a display o f power, Charles could exert his latent
ability and carry on important negotiations successfully. Clever,
charming, selfish, and completely cynical, Charles mocked the
morals and fears ( Catholicism and Louis XIV) of England and held
onto his throne and the powers of the monarchy, even though he
wasted his authority in the pursuit of Francophile and pro-Catholic
policies. \Yhen threatened by political opposition, or when the
succession to the thronB- was challenged, the King could control the
situation with masterly abilities. Ordinary duties bored him, how­
ever, and he preferred to devote himself to more pleasant pastimes ;
hut he was cognizant of his father's fate and was never lazy to the
point of letting affairs of state get out of hand.
The Religious Settlement. The parliamentary election of 1661
brought hundreds of enthusiastic Royalists and Anglicans into the
House of Commons. The resultant " Cavalier Parliament" pro­
ceeded to penalize Puritans and D issenters, as well as R oman
Catholics, by a series of four acts known as the Clarendon Code
( 1 661 -65 ) : ( 1 ) The Municipal Corporations Act excluded from mu­
nicipal office all who refused to renounce the Solemn League and
Covenant, or to swear not to resist the King. ( 2 ) The Act o f
Uniformity required all clergy to u s e the revised Book of Common
Prayer in their services. When nearly one-fifth of the clergy re­
fused to comply, additional restrictions followed. (3) The Con­
venticle Act imposed harsh penalties for attending a religious serv­
ice ( conventicle) which did not conform to the Anglican l iturgy.
( 4) The Five Mile Act forbade nonconforming ministers to visit or
l ive within five miles o f any organized town where they had previ­
ously preached or taught school. These acts clearly restored the
Anglican supremacy but at the same time created modern non­
conformity in England, because many clergy and laymen no longer
found in the Anglican church the religious latitude which had
existed in the Elizabethan church. Thousands of Nonconformists in
England and Scotland went into hiding or were imprisoned. One
N"onconformist, .John B unyan, wrote part of The Pilgrim's Progress
while imprisoned in Bedford Gaol for dissenting views.
Foreign Affairs. The foreign policy of Charles II was motivated
by personal rather than national interests. The independent
 Charles and the Restoration t?� 127
strength of England under Cromwell soon shifted under Charles to
one of subserviency to French interests in return for the secret
payment of money to Charles by Louis XIV.
The Marriage of Charles. In 1662 Charles made an unpopular
but profitable marriage alliance with Catherine of Braganza, daugh­
ter of the King of Portugal. The marriage brought him a rich
dowry which included the ports of Tangier in North Africa and
Bombay in India ; the treaty also aligned England with France
against Spain. In the same year Charles sold Dunkirk to France in
spite of the opposition of his subj ects.
Ireland. Irish Catholics and Royalists had supported Charles
during the interregnum and welcomed the Restoration. In return
for their loyalty Charles restored to the Irish some of the land that
had been confiscated by Cromwell 's Government, but this action
antagonized his relations with English landlords in Ireland. More­
over, the English Parliament continued its traditional anti-Irish pol­
icies by excluding Irish ships from colonial trade and by making
illegal the shipment of cattle from Ireland to England.
The Dutch Wars. The continuing commercial rivalry between
Holland and England led to the Second Dutch War ( 1665-67) and
the seizure of New Amsterdam in America, which was renamed
Kew York. After the peace treaty Charles asserted a temporary
independence from Louis XIV by signing the Triple Alliance
( 1668 ) whi ch united England, Holland, and Sweden against the
expansionist designs of France. But Louis used bribery to persuade
Charles to break this alliance and to attack Holland again. Charles
dragged England into the Third Dutch War ( 1 672-74) which Par­
liament finally halted by refusing to grant additional funds. The
strain of naYal warfare against England, combined with the land
war against France, weakened the resources of the Dutch and con­
tributed to their decline as a major colonial and naval power.
Charles and Louis XIV. Charles II admired the glittering court,
the Roman Catholicism, and the unlimited royal power of Louis
XIV and instead of opposing France-in line with the balance of
power principle-he became an agent in Louis' scheme of expan­
�ion. In 1 670 Charles secretly signed the Treaty of Dover, whereby
he promised to break away from the Triple Alliance, to attack
Holland, and to connrt to Catholicism as soon as expedient. For
this alliance Louis provided Charles with substantial sums of
money. Charles kept his promise of declaring war on Holland, but
his efforts to relieve the restrictions on English Catholics provoked
instead a strong parliamentary protest.
Political Developments. The King and Parliament co-operated
 1 28 �� Restoration and Revolution
on most matters until growing suspicions of Charles's French and
Catholic sympathies resulted in legislative efforts to increase re­
strictions on English Catholics and to prevent James, the Catholic
brother of Charles, from succeeding to the throne. To save the
Stuart succession, Charles acted forcefully in destroying the politi­
ral opposition and ruling without Parliament. Louis XIV helped to
make this possible by granting additional money to Charles.
Fall of Clarendon . Lord Clarendon niade many enemies during
his years as chief minister ( 1661-67 ) . He distrusted the House of
Commons, censored the immoral activities of the royal court, and
was identified (unfairly) in the minds of Puritans with the harsh
Clarendon Code. The unsatisfactory foreign policy, including the
King's marriage, the sale of Dunkirk, and the war with Holland,
increased his unpopularity. And when the Dutch fleet humiliated
the English by sailing up the Thames in 1 667 and burning English
war ships anchored at Chatham, the King abandoned Clarendon to
his enem�es. He was dismissed and impeached, then fled to the
Continent where he wrote his History of the Rebellion.
The Cabal, 1667-73. Instead o f replacing Clarendon with an­
other chief minister, Charles decided to direct affairs himself, rely­
ing on five unofficial advisers who, for various reasons, favored the
efforts of the King to relax the Anglican supremacy. Two were
Catholics, Clifford and Arlington ; one was a skeptic and Charles's
farnrite, Buckingham. Ashley Cooper, later Earl of Shaftesbury,
was a latitudinarian in religion and an able essayist ; and the Earl of
Lauderdale was formerly Presbyterian. This cabal of advisers (so­
called because their initials spelt " cabal ") , broke up in 1 673 when
opposition to Charles's Declaration of Indulgence for non­
Anglicans resulted in the passage of anti-Catholic legislation and
bitterness between King and Parliament. Three members left the
cabal, and Shaftesbury became the leading critic of the King's
policies.
The Rise of Political Parties. The reaction of the fiercely anti­
Catholic Parliament to Charles's Declaration of Indulgence was .the
passage of the Test Act ( 1 673 ) which required all office holders,
civil and military, to take the Anglican sacrament and to deny
transubstantiation. By 1 674 the friendly Cavalier Parliament had
been transformed into a hostile critic of Charles's pro-French, pro­
papal policy . The King dropped his scheme for Catholicizing Eng­
land and tried to court Parliament by making the Earl of Danby
his ehief minister and the doctrine of royalty and Anglicanism the
rallying point for his supporters. The " court party" which
 Charles and the Res toration �� 129
emerged under D anby won the epithet Tory 1 from opposing
cliques. Rival factions ''"ho gravitated toward Shaftesbury and his
anti-Tory "country party," were later to be called \Vhigs.2 Their
supporters came from the city merchants and several powerful
aristocratic families who favored further limitations on royal
power, toleration for Protestant dissenters, and who were mili­
tantly anti-Catholic.
The Popish Plot , 1678. The factions opposed to Charles were
aided by the false tales of an unprincipled informer, Titus O ates,
"·ho inflamed the populace to hysteria by describing a Jesuit plot
to murder Charles, massacre Protestants, and set up, with the help
of the French, a C atholic .Government under J ames, duke of York.
A shocked and angry Parliament, led by Shaftesbury, impeached
and executed several Catholics and began to impeach D anby when
the secret dealings of Charles and D anby ''"ith Louis XIV were
rewaled. To saw D anby and his own family from attack, Charles
dissolved the Cavalier Parliament.
The Parliamen ts of 1678-81 . Charles 's second Parliament con­
vened in 1 679 with an anti-Catholic 'Whig maj ority dedicated to
excluding J ames from succession to the throne. Charles blocked the
excluo:ion bill by dissolving Parliament, but not before it had passed
the Habeas Corpus Amendment Act which prevented arbitrary
imprisonment and insured a speedy trial. A third Parliament met in
1 680 and the House of Commons immediately passed an Exclusion
Bill that made Charles's illegitimate son , the Duke of J\Ionmouth,
heir to the throne instead of Ja mes ; but the House of Lords re­
j ected it. A fourth Parliament \Yhich was summoned to Oxford in
1 681 to avoid the influence of the London mob 'ms dissolnd
\Yi thin a "·eek . Charles ruled his remaining years without Parliament.
Personal Rule of Charles II, 1 681-85. Once again Charles was
receiving subsidies from Louis XIY and no longer needed Parlia­
mentary grants. His last four years were a time of personal and
autocratic rule during which he struck hard at the \Yhig opposi­
tion. Shaftesburv fled to the Continent and died in Holland. Other
Whig leaders ":ere fraudulently charged with plotting the King's
death, and Lords Russell and Sydney were executed. \Yhig bor­
oughs lost their charters and Tory town governments and sheriffs
replaced the influence of such Whig organizations as the Green

1 An appellation for Irioh l'a t t le t h iens.

2 The political heirs of the Puritan opposition to Charles I , although the term
refers to Scottish robbers who murdered their Yietims.
 1 30 � Restoration and Revolution
R ibbon clubs. When Charles died in 1 685, the Whig opposition \]{
was scattered, the English monarch was a willing pensionary of �
France, and the succession had been preserved for the legitimate
heir, James. !1
Restoration Society. Reaction to Puritan morality was obserYed
most transparently in Charles's court where a studied eff01t was
made to imitate the gay and lavish court of Louis XIV. Wit,
worldly charm, and love affairs were the stepping-stones of success
in any political career. But society at Whitehall never represented
England. The nation which was still largely agricultural in i ts econ­
omy and proYincial in its outlook was often suspicious of commer­
cial and social life in London. Furthermore, the capital suffered
two disasters : the plague of 1 665 "·hich took 70,000 lives in Lon­
don alone ; and the Great Fire in 1 666 which destroyed over 13,000
buildings and gaYe the architect, Sir Christopher ·wren, a magnifi­
cent opportunity to rebuild the city.

The Last Catholic King

James II succeeded to the throne with a minimum of dissension,

because the nation expected only a mild Catholic interim until his
Protestant daughters came to the throne. James pushed to the ex­
treme his royal prerogatiYe of suspending laws. ·when his son and
heir to the throne was born, who would most assuredly be reared
Catholic, leading Englishmen inYited \Yilliam of Orange to lead a
reYolt against the King. The coup, which turned out to be blood­
less and successful, settled the constitutional issue of the century :
the sowreignty of Parliament triumphed over the divine right of
Kings.
Accession to the Throne. With the Anglican church preaching
the B iblical doctrine of non-resistance, the Whig opposition dead
or scattered, and the recent ciYil war still a Yivid memory, there
was little serious opposition to J ames's accession as long as the King
promised to uphold the established church and to keep his religion
private. James was serious-minded, honest, and devoutly Catholic,
but he was also arrogant and obstinate and, unlike his brother,
insensitiYe to the political and religious facts of English life. His
one overriding goal, like that of l\Iary Tudor, was to restore Ca­
tholicism to England.
Protestant Rebellions. The Duke of l\Iomnouth landed in south­
ern England in a reckless effort to win the throne, but only a few
thousand peasants and tradesmen j oined his ill-starred venture.
Royal troops, under John Churchill, crushed the rebels at Sedge-
 The Last Catholic King �� 131
moor. lVIonmouth was executed, and the "bloody assizes" under
Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys inflicted brutal vengeance on hundreds
of Monmouth's follmwrs. In Scotland a Protestant rebellion was
led by the Earl of Argyll ; however, his little army of Covenanters
was dispersed and Argyll was executed.
James and Parliament. With the "' higs in disarray, a co­
operatiYe Tory Parliament \YaS elected in 1 685 that was willing to
grant money to .James provided there were no religious changes.
However, ·when James asked for a standing army commanded by
Roman Catholic officers, Parliament protested and reduced the
King's subsidies . Angered by their criticisms James prorogued Par­
liament and neYer called an·o ther.
Pro-Catholic Policies. undeterred by political advisers or the
religious sensibilities of his subjects, King James proceeded to re­
store privileges to Roman Catholics. He encamped an army near
London commanded by C atholic officers ; appointed an ecclesiasti­
cal commission, headed by the notorious Jeffreys, to silence or
dismiss Anglican critics like B ishop Compton ; appointed Catholics
to official positions in uninrsities and in the royal administration ;
and issued two Declarations of Indulgences ( 1 687-88) which would
permit free public worship for Roman Catholics and Protestant
Konconformists. \\' h en seven bishops, including the Archbishop of
Canterbury, petitioned that the Declaration be withdrawn, James
had them arrested on a charge of seditious libel. Their trial became
a popular case, and crowds cheered the bishops \Yhen the j ury
acquitted them .
Foreign Policy. King James, like Charles II, aligned his foreign
policy with the interest of France \\·hich. at this time, was en­
croaching on neighboring countries. This threat produced a defen­
sive coalition ( League of Augsburg) of Protestant and Catholic
states which included Holland, Brandenberg, seYeral south German
states, and the Hapsburg Emperor. Enn Pope Innocent XI did not
endorse the Cathol icizing policies of Louis XIV and James II.
\Yhen .James persisted in these effort�, \Yilliam of Orange inter­
nned in English affairs on the grounds that his wife was heir to the
throne of England, that he needed English support to fight King
Louis, and that according to his agents in England influential Eng­
lishmen \Yould back him.
The Glorious Revolution, 1688. With the birth of King .James':;
son in the summer of 1 688, the prospects of an interim Catholic
monarrlr; \YCre shattered. �ince the Crown Prince became heir
presump t in in place of his Protestant hal f-sister, :\Iary. The pros­
pects of a Catholic dynasty and the exclusion of :\ Iary from the
 1 32 � R estoration and Revolution
throne dismayed many Englishmen, and in July seven influential
Whig and Tory leaders invited William of Orange to lead an Eng­
lish uprising so as to prevent King James from consolidating his
movements toward absolutism and Catholicism. Although the Eng­
lish were slow in rallying around William's forces, they did not
oppose his advance. Since the revolution was successful, bloodless,
and supported by the respectable members of society, the label
"Glorious" was soon attached to it.
The Dutch Invasion. William and Mary accepted the invitation
and made preparations for the invasion . James became alarmed over
the turn of events and began making concessions and promises to
the Church of England and to political opponents, but his efforts
were too l ate . On November 5, 1 688, William and his army landed
at Torbay in southwest England. The involvement of Louis XIV in
a war on the Rhine frontier relieved the Dutch from the fear of a
French invasion. J ames's position deteriorated rapidly as soldiers,
his commander-in-chief, John Churchill, and his daughter, Anne,
defected and turned against him ; even Whig and Tory peers began
raising forces in their local communities. James began negotiations
with William but became frightened when he remembered his fa­
ther's execution. In December he fled to France, conceding a blood�
less victory to William.
Change of 1l1onarchs. A convention Parliament met in January,
1689, to arrange a constitutional settlement ( following the prece­
dent of 1660 ) . After searching for a legal loophole that would not
force abandonment of the principle of hereditary succession to the
throne, the House of Commons finally declared that James had
violated the fundamental laws of the land, had fled the country, and
had left the throne vacant by his abdication. The Tories claimed
that the throne was not vacant but belonged to Mary, because in
their eyes James's son was spurious. However, 'William refused to
be a "gentleman-usher" to his wife, so the Crown was offered
j ointly to William and Mary. Most Tories joined with the Whigs
to forfeit the principle of strict succession ( and with it the divine
right of kings ) in fayor of a practical and Protestant settlement.
Those who refused the settlement and believed that .James was still
the legal monarch became known as J acobites.
The Bill of Rights, 1689. Parliament granted the throne to Wil­
liam and Mary on the conditions set forth in the Declaration (later
Bill) of Rights. This document cited the failings of James I I and,
like the Magna Charta and the Petition of Right, was not con­
cerned with political theories but rather with specific restrictions
on royal authority : ( 1 ) the use of the suspending power or the
 William and Mary (}� 133
dispensing power without parliamentary consent was declared il­
legal ; ( 2 ) Roman Catholics were prohibited from succeeding to the
throne ; ( 3 ) provisions would be made for frequent sessions of
Parliament and freedom of debate ; (4) standing armies were pro­
hibited ; and (5) the levying of taxes or forced loans without the
consent of Parliament was repudiated. The provisions of the settle­
ment made no attempt to revolutionize the political or social struc­
ture, because the leaders of the revolution wished to conserve the
established order in church and state which they cl aimed James II
had jeopardized. But a fundamental change actually occurred, inas­
much as sovereignty was n.ow transferred from King to Parliament
by the Bill of Rights. I f Parliament could enthrone monarchs by
legislative a ct, it could also dethrone them . .John Locke became the
patron saint of the rernlution when he j ustified its legitimacy with
his argument for the contract theory of government in Two Trea­
tises of Government ( 1 690) .
The Dilemma of the Clergy. Under Charles I the clergy and
Anglican royalists had few diYided loyalties because church and
King were on the same s ide. In 1 688 the situation was different.
The clergy had a legitimate monarch in James and preached non­
resistance to royal authorit�· I diYine right of kings ) . \Vere the
clerics to continue to support the King if he failed to support the
established church ? 'Yhen the Convention Parliament forced a de­
cision between elected Kings and hereditary Kings, many clergy
had difficulty switching their allegiance and over four hundred
clerics refused to take the oath of allegiance to Willi am ; they be­
came known as �on-jurors. The maj ority, however, accepted the
de facto King as the de jure King.

William and �lary

'Yilliam 's first problem was to make good his disputed title of
Kini! in the British Isles. Thereafter, he was primarily interested in
his li felong goal of h alting the expansionist designs of Louis X IV.
Under Wil liam and :.Iary a diplomatic rernlution occurred as Eng-
: land renrsed its foreign policy from being a satellite of Louis
XIV to becoming the leader of the coalition against France.
Revolutionary Settlement. The ac ceptance of \Yilliarn and :.I ary
as joint monarchs took different patterns in England, Scotland, and
Ireland. The Glorious ReYolution brought a serie::' of constitutional
reforms in England , prosperity to Scotland, but only repression
and bitterness in Ireland.
Constitutional Se ttlement . In England the Bill of Rights \Yhich