THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY

1. THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY Charles II, Charles I’s son , hadspenthisexile in France , and hehadFrenchtastes. Howeverhewascleverenoughtoavoidhisfather’s inflexibility. The Courtwasdevoutedtopleasure, fashion and gossip replacingreligiousdebate. The Kingsupported the revival ofdrama and music. The landowners, bothnobles and gentry, resumedtheir leadership of society and the newlyelectedParliamentpunished the Puritans, excludingthemfrom public office.

2. It was a period of dichotomy in society; dignity coexisted with excess, purity with immorality, simplicity with ornamentation, self-respect alongside obsession with appearance. • Although Charles II was able not to quarrel with Parliament, Parliament was still concerned to avoid Roman Catholicism and despotism.

3. THE WHIGS AND THE TORIES • The discovery of unsuccessful “Popish Plots” favouring Charles’s openly Catholic brother, James, led to the emergence of two factions in Parliament . One was nicknamed “Tory” and consisted of the supporters of the King and his legitimate successors, the church of England and the landed gentry. The other was nicknamed “Whig” and consisted of both nobles and merchants, who did not want absolute power in the monarchy, and preferred religious toleration of protestant dissenters.

4. THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION • Charles II died without any legitimate heir , so his brother James II succeeded him on the throne. • At first he was supported by the Tories, until he began to place Catholics in positions of authority in the army and university. • James was a widower and his heirs were his two Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, who were married to the rulers of Holland and Denmark.

5. James had remarried the Catholic Mary of Modena , and in 1688 he became the father of a Catholic son and heir. • The Whigs and even the Tories were alarmed; another civil war could happen. • Parliament and William of Orange, Mary’s husband, negotiated secretely and James, his wife and baby son were forced to escape to France.

6. On 28th January William and Mary became joint monarchs at the requestofParliament. • A revolutionhadtakenplace ; the monarchhadbeenchosenbyParliament, notby divine right. Thisrevolutionhadbeenwithoutanyfighting – itwasknownas the “Bloodless” or “GloriousRevolution” . • With the Bill ofRightsthe parliament alone had the right toraisetaxes, pass laws and controlanarmy. • With the ActofSettlementof 1701, Parliamentalsodecided on the succession – if William and Mary diedchildless , Anne wastofollow and James’s son wasexcluded.

7. SCIENTIFIC RIGOUR AND INTELLECTUAL CLARITY • The first half of the 17th century in Europe had represented a critical stage in the replacement of one world view with another. • Scholasticism had produced a durable structure of thought based on ancient observations, on assumptions and above all, on logic. It had provided a convincing and satisfying theory of the nature of the universe as ordered, teleological, that is, designed to fulfil a particular purpose, and geocentric.

8. From the middle of the century onwards , a major current of thought, called “Natural philosophy”, had started exploring the universe to explain its mysteries. • England had a singular position in this field since the new rationalistic spirit and science were not seen as a challenge to religion, as in Europe, but rather as a means to a better understanding of the order and harmony of a God-created universe.

9. Science supportedpoliticsasitshowed a Godwhowasnotanarbitrarymonarch, butboundbyhisownwonderfullaws. • All the greatscientistsof the periodwere, in fact, menoffaith and science at the sametime. • The universe , nowheliocentric, was no longerseenasorganic and theological , butasmechanical and matter-based. • Thischangewasachievedby a newmethodofinquiringinto nature, basednot on acceptedauthoritiesbut on the mathematical–physicalexperimentalmethod.

10. THE ROYAL SOCIETY • The reign of Charles’s II saw a powerful surge of scientific achievement. The King granted a charter to a group of scientists to found the Royal Society on 22 April 1662. The Philosophical basis of the Royal Society differed from previous philosophies such as Scholasticism, which established scientific truth based on deductive logic, concordance with divine providence and the citation of such ancient authorities as Aristotle. The society’s aim was to overcome the mysteries of all the works of nature and to apply that knowledge for the benefit of human life.

11. The first membersweremenofdifferenttalents and interests, butallunitedby the common bond ofclassicaleducationasmuchasbytheirinterest in the newenquiries. Oneof the effortsmadeby the Royal Society was the removaloflanguagebarrierswithin the Sciences so asto create an Empire ofLearning , a sortofimaginary network ofsharedknowledgeacross the globe. The Royal society encouraged the free circulationof information and the spread ofcommunication . Among the currentactivitiesof the Royal Society are fundingscientificresearch , publishing , providing science advice , includingeducation, and increase public interest in science.

12. RATIONALIST PHILOSOPHERS • The rational tendencies of the Restoration were to be seen both in the works of the rationalist philosophers John Locke and Thomas Hobbes and in the studies of Isaac Newton . • Locke, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), insisted that the prime and fundamental source of human knowledge of the world outside was individual experience , gained through the senses and not innate. Experience and reason could not be separated .

13. Hobbes defended absolute monarchy in Leviathanin the belief that private individual selfishness had to be controlled by public force . • Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) put science in the top ranks of learning.