The English Civil War (1642-1649), Glorious Revolution (1689), and the Triumph of Constitutional Monarchy in Engla

1. The English Civil War (1642-1649), Glorious Revolution (1689), and the Triumph of Constitutional Monarchy in England

2. Roots of the War: The Stuart Succession 1603 -- The TUDOR royal line ends with the death of ELIZABETH I. Elizabeth named JAMES VI of Scotland (of the STUART line) heir to the throne. He became JAMES I of England (r. 1603-1625). James preached a political theory called thedivine right of kings, a theory of absolute monarchy. This went against the established practice under the Tudors of kings sharing power with Parliament.

3. Roots of the English Civil War: The English Reformation Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII (d. 1547) separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church for personal, dynastic, and financial reasons. He had Parliament declare the Crown to be head of the Church of England. Elizabeth made the break permanent. She negotiated a Church settlement in which the C. of E. would be largely Catholic in form, but Protestant in doctrine, with an acceptance of a diversity of theological opinion and religious practice among parishes. This has been characteristic of Churches in the Anglican communionto this day.

4. Roots of the English Civil War: The Religious Situation, 1603-1642 Some English families were Roman Catholics in secret, including many noble families. Others favored a C. of E. that outwardly closely resembled the Roman Catholic Church. Others wanted more reform, such as greater simplicity in worship and Church decoration, and emphasis on preaching over liturgy(ritualized worship). They were concerned that the C. of E. was too “papist.” Historians call the conservatives and moderates in the C. of E. ANGLICANS. Others, called PURITANS, were still more radical, wholly dissatisfied with the Elizabethan compromise and wanting a complete theocratic reform of English society following the ideas of the French reformer Jean Calvin.

5. James I (r. 1603-1625): Obnoxious -- Offended the English court with his Scottish entourage and his lectures on the divine right of kings. -- Declared: “As it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do, so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do.” -- Imposed new tolls on trade without approval of Parliament. -- Sold trading monopolies to favored courtiers. -- His financial situation worsened because he alienated Parliament, who then refused to approve new taxes. -- He did negotiate successfully between Anglicans and Puritans. -- King James Bible, 1611.

6. Charles I (r. 1625-1649) – More obnoxious -- Started an expensive war with Spain without adequate finances. -- Married Henrietta Maria, Catholic daughter of Louis XIII of France. -- Openly favored anti-Calvinist elements in the C. of E. and imposed a hierarchy of bishops on the Calvinist church in Scotland.

7. Charles I and Parliament -- Parliament refused to grant Charles new taxes to pay for war. -- Charles responded by demanding FORCED LOANS from subjects, quartering soldiers in their homes if they refused, or throwing them into prison without trial. -- PETITION of RIGHT (1628). Parliament forced Charles to accept the P. of R. Its provisions: 1) All taxes not approved by Parliament are illegal. 2) No quartering of soldiers in private homes. 3) No arbitrary imprisonment in peace time. -- For the next 11 years (1629-1640), Charles ruled without Parliament. -- Then in 1640 a Scottish army invaded and camped outside London, threatening to attack in retaliation for Charles’ religious policies.

8. The War Begins -- In return for funds to deal with the Scots, Parliament forced Charles to accept political and religious reforms. It even made him execute his chief minister. -- But Parliament was actually friendly toward the Scots, with whom most of them shared a common Calvinist religious outlook. -- 1642: Charles sent guards into the HOUSE of COMMONS to arrest five of its leaders. The arrest attempt was a failure. -- Charles formed an army. Parliament gathered its own troops and voted taxation to pay for them.

9. Cavaliers vs. Roundheads -- The King’s side (Cavaliers): aristocrats, large landowners, all loyal Anglicans. -- Parliament’s side (Roundheads): smaller landowners, tradesmen, artisans – mostly Puritans. Called Roundheads because they cut their hair short, in defiance of the long curly locks favored by the aristocracy.

10. The War -- Cavaliers enjoyed early victories; they had more military experience. -- 1644: Reorganization of Parliamentary forces into the NEW MODEL ARMY. -- 1646: Charles surrenders. The episcopate (hierarchy of bishops) abolished; a Calvinist-style Church is established in England. -- Most Roundheads favored returning Charles to the throne with limited powers. -- But radical Puritans, called INDEPENDENTS, opposed Charles absolutely. -- Charles took advantage of the disagreement and started to fight again. He was defeated and surrendered again in 1648. First page of a pamphlet of regulations and drill procedures for the New Model Army.

11. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) -- Leader of the Independents. -- Head of the New Model Army. -- Ejected all moderate Protestants Parliament by force. -- Compelled the “Rump Parliament” that remained to vote to end the monarchy.

12. REGICIDE -- Charles I beheaded, Jan. 30, 1649. -- House of Lords abolished shortly afterward. -- England became a Republic called the Commonwealth of England.

13. Levellers and Diggers The War – a brief moment of freedom from censorship -- inspired the public expression of radical political ideas. Two movements became especially prominent. LEVELLERS – Represented poor working people with long-standing grievances against kings, landowners, and priests. Levellers were active in the New Model Army. They found support in scripture for their radical notion that no man or class has a “divine right” to rule over another. In principle, all freeborn Englishmen are blessed by God with the power of reason, by which they are to rule themselves. In practice, governments should exercise power on loan from the “people” (i.e., freeborn men). Levellers called for -- a vote for every man over 21 (except servants, beggars, and royalists) -- Parliament as a democratic representative body, with members elected to regular terms, and the number of representatives from a district proportional to the size of the population -- absolute freedom of speech and religion DIGGERS (“True Levellers”) – Agrarian Christian communists. Understood the Bible to call for the abolition of private property and all social distinctions (see Acts 4:32-35, 42-47). Small groups took over land in S.E. England to farm in common.

14. Levellers and Diggers: Biblical Foundations A Leveller pamplet: “The relation of Master and Servant has no ground in the New Testament; in Christ there is neither bond nor free... The common people have been kept under blindness and ignorance, and have remained servants and slaves to the nobility and gentry...” “In the beginning of Time, the great Creator, Reason, made the Earth to be a Common Treasury, to preserve Beasts, Birds, Fishes and Man, the Lord that was to govern this Creation; for Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds and Fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, that one branch of mankind should rule over another ... And that Earth that is within this Creation made a Common Storehouse for all, is bought and sold, and kept in the hands of a few, whereby the great Creator is mightily dishonoured...” -- Gerard Winstanley, leader of the Diggers

15. From Commonwealth (1649-1653) To Protectorate (1653-1658) -- The Rump Parliament was the legislature of the Commonwealth. -- It got bogged down in attempts by its members to enrich themselves at the expense of their opponents. -- Cromwell, disgusted, dissolved Parliament in 1653. -- He ruled England as a Puritan military dictator under a written constitution called the INSTRUMENT of GOVERNMENT, which gave him extensive powers as “Lord Protector” for life.

16. Restoration of the Monarchy, 1660 -- Cromwell died in 1658. -- Parliament, and the English in general, were weary of Puritan dictatorship. -- Most annoying were prohibitions of public recreation (drinking, dancing, gambling). -- In 1660 Parliament proclaimed the exiled son of Charles I to be Charles II.

17. Conditions of the Restoration, 1660 -- Charles II restored bishops to the Church of England, but otherwise did not pursue anti-Calvinist policies. -- He agreed to respect Parliament and abide by the Petition of Right. -- Accepted all laws passed by Parliament just before the outbreak of war. -- Result: England came out of the war as a limited monarchy, with executive power defined as the “the king in parliament” – i.e., in consultation with leading commoners.

18. Rule of Charles II (r. 1660-1685) -- Declared limited toleration of “dissenters”, i.e. English Protestants who were not members of the C. of E. -- Agreed to the Petition of Right, and to the Magna Carta (1215), which asserted that the Crown was bound by the laws of England. -- Charles’ court was infamous for raunchy plays, dancing, and sexual licence. -- BUT Charles was an admirer of the French, including French notions of ABSOLUTE MONARCHY.

19. Whigs and Tories -- Charles’ supporters called TORIES, his opponents called WHIGS. -- Both sides feared royal absolutism and republicanism; they only differed over which one they feared more.

20. Charles provokes tension -- Sympathetic to Catholicism. He became an RC in a deathbed conversion in 1685. -- Suspended civil penalties against RCs and dissenters – on the grounds that as king, he had the right to ignore Parliamentary legislation. -- He insisted on his brother James’ right to succeed to the throne. James was an ardent Catholic. Parliament attempted to exclude James from succession, but failed. Still the controversy led to major Whig victories in Parliamentary elections. -- Charles received funds from LOUIS XIV of France; hence he did not have to rely on Parliament for money.

21. James II (r. 1685-1688) -- A Catholic and proud of it; expressed the wish that all the English would convert. -- Alienated Tories by suspending prohibitions against Catholics and dissenters holding public office. -- Seven bishops refused to read in church a decree of religious toleration in 1688. James imprisoned them. -- They were not found not guilty. -- Meanwhile, James’ wife Mary of Modena unexpectedly bore a son, who was to be heir to the throne and raised a Catholic.

22. The Glorious Revolution, 1688-1689 -- The bishops’ trial and the surprise royal birth were too much for Parliament -- A delegation of Whigs and Tories went to Holland and asked MARY STUART (James’ Protestant daughter by his first wife) and her husband, WILLIAM of ORANGE to invade England with an army. -- James fled; Parliament declared the throne vacant, so William and Mary could take it by right of succession.

23. BILL of RIGHTS, 1689 -- One of the most important pieces of legislation in the English-speaking world. -- It reaffirmed traditional English liberties: • Right to trial by jury. • Habeas corpus – the guarantee that one cannot be imprisoned without charge. • Right to petition the Crown for redress of grievances. -- It also affirmed that the monarchy is subject to the laws of the land.

24. Other Glorious Revolution Legislation -- Act of Toleration, 1689. Freedom of worship for dissenters (but they still were barred from public office). -- Act of Succession, 1701. Every future monarch of England must be a member of the C. of E. This put George, prince of the German state of Hanover, in the line of succession. -- Act of Union, 1707.England and Scotland formally united. This was to prevent the Catholic heirs of James II from succeeding to the Scottish throne.

25. Thomas Hobbes (1632-1704): Leviathan Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) responded to the turmoil of the English Civil War with his Leviathan(1651). Hobbes argued for tyrannical rule on the basis of his conception of the human being in the “state of nature.” Natural man is as a wolf to other men. In the state of nature, there is “war of all against all” Men surrender liberty to a sovereign ruler in exchange for peace and security. Having traded their liberty away, they have no right to take it back.The ruler may do anything to his subjects (short of killing them, which would defeat his purpose).

26. John Locke (1632-1704): Theorist of the Glorious Revolution His political masterwork: Two Treatises on Government(1690). Written before the G.R. The “state of nature” is marked by absolute freedom and equality. The law of nature is the only law in the state of nature. This law is the power of the human being to exercise reason. Reason is the foundation of natural rightsfor men, namely LIFE, LIBERTY, and PROPERTY.

27. Locke’s Social Contract Theory of Government Government is a practical necessity. Individuals cannot protect life, liberty, and property on their own. Government’s power is the combined power of all members of a society. Individuals surrender what powers they must to it. Other liberties they keep for themselves. Governmental authority is contractual and conditional. When government oversteps its authority, it violates the contract and “the people” can dissolve it and form another.

28. A Conservative Revolution The great landowners who invited William and Mary to take the English throne took Locke’s social contract theory as justification for their actions. James II had threatened their liberty and property; they had responded by dissolving and reforming government. After 1689 Parliament would dominate English government. This body would be controlled (until very recent times) by a “landed aristocracy whose common interests far outweighed their incessant competition for office....” (Coffin & Stacey) While English monarchs could never again pursue absolute rule, the social order of seventeenth-century England remained otherwise intact. The real winner of the struggle between King and Parliament was the landowning elite. Locke’s ideas would appeal to aristocratic English landowners in the American colonies such as Washington and Jefferson, who would use them as justification for separating the colonies from England and re-forming them into our present Republic.