Revolution, Regicide, Restoration

1. The Seventeenth Century in England: Revolution, Regicide, Restoration

2. Review: King James I (r. 1603-1625) • Endorsed doctrine of “divine right of kings” (royal absolutism) • Excessive spending on celebration, feasts, splendor of court • Gunpowder treason and plot (Nov. 5, 1605): attempted assassination of king, Prince Henry, members of Parliament • Had several favorites (George Villiers, etc.) • Several children by wife, Anne of Denmark • Eldest son, Henry, a militant Protestant, would have succeeded James but died of typhoid fever in 1612 • Throne passed to son, Charles, on James’s death.

3. Charles I (r. 1625-1649)Latin: Carolus, hence the “Caroline Era” • Political tensions: • Acted like an absolutist ruler… only called sessions of Parliament together to vote on and enact new taxes. • 1620s: House of Commons (lower house) developing sense of its own independence and purpose; chafes at idea that Charles can dismiss the House at his whim. • Charles attempts to rule without summoning Parliament at all between 1629-1638.

4. Charles I (r. 1625-1649)Latin: Carolus, hence the “Caroline Era” • Religious tensions: • Catholic wife Queen Henrietta Maria protected Catholics in the court • Charles leans toward Catholic ritual, splendor • 1633: appoints William Laud as archbishop of Canterbury, alienating the already angry Puritans. • CULTURE WAR between Puritans and “high church” (i.e. semi-Catholic) officials and court, exemplified by reissue of Book of Sports. • Uprisings in Scotland and northern England force Charles to call “Long Parliament” in 1640.

5. The Long Parliament (1640-1649) and English Civil Wars • 1640: Charles calls “Long Parliament” to raise funds to fight uprisings • Parliament has another idea… it wants to secure its own rights and duties in face of Charles’s absolutist tendencies. • Begins abolishing extralegal taxes and courts • Reins in bishops’ powers • Arrests king’s ministers, including Archbishop Laud. • 1641: Charles tries to arrest members of Parliament for treason; Londoners rise up against him. • 1642: Parliament votes to raise an army. • 1642-1648: two English Civil Wars (“Cavaliers” vs. “Roundheads”) • 1649: Charles executed; “Rump Parliament” votes to establish new government: Commonwealth of England

6. England as Protectorate (1653-1660) Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England 1653: Oliver Cromwell (political and military leader) sworn in as Lord Protector for life under England’s first written Constitution. -attempts to “heal and settle” the nation after revolution 1658: Cromwell dies, son Richard accedes to Lord Protector; is inept ruler and resigns in 1659. 1660: Parliament recalls exiled prince Charles -May 1660: Restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II.

7. King Charles II, ca. 1660-1665

8. Cultural change – 1640 - 1660 • Collapse of government in 1640s meant no more press censorship (previously a Crown responsibility) • -Flood of treatises on all questions and affairs of church and state. • Parliament abolished public plays and sports. • -Theatrical entrepreneurs had to refer to plays as “operas” in order to stage them. • Though not kind to Catholics, Cromwell exhibited religious toleration toward other groups and sects; readmitted Jews to England. • Emerging concepts: religious toleration, separation of church and state, freedom from press censorship, popular sovereignty • **During Restoration, freedom of journalistic commentary and political debate that flourished from the 1640s remained open.

9. The Cavalier poets • Cavalier poetic tradition begins with Jonson, continues with Thomas Herrick, Lovelace, Carew, Suckling. • Cavaliers celebrate the courtly ideal of the “good life”: food, wine, verse, hospitality, loyalty to the social order, sensuality; are fascinated with display and artifice. • Love lyrics display a “carpe diem” theme. Ben Jonson by Abraham van Blyenberch Many of the Cavalier poets called themselves the “Sons of Ben” or the “Tribe of Ben”… followers, students of Jonson