BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS
p> During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices
and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the
1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had
been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though
she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts
to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost
over Ј5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not
match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to
some Ј392,000. Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged
war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16
sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the
period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto
legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define
Parliament's constitutional position and rights.
Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he
would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages (as
in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain); marrying a fellow
countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth
used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic
policies. However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who
sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was,
in essence, 'married'. Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the
so-called 'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs: 'There is no jewel, be
it of never so high a price, which I set before this jewel; I mean your
love.' She seems to have been very popular with the vast majority of her
subjects.
Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive
leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home
and abroad. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a
legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession was a national holiday
for two hundred years.
THE STUARTS
The Stuarts were the first kings of the United Kingdom. King James I of
England who began the period was also King James VI of Scotland, thus
combining the two thrones for the first time.
The Stuart dynasty reigned in England and Scotland from 1603 to 1714, a
period which saw a flourishing Court culture but also much upheaval and
instability, of plague, fire and war. It was an age of intense religious
debate and radical politics. Both contributed to a bloody civil war in the
mid-seventeenth century between Crown and Parliament (the Cavaliers and the
Roundheads), resulting in a parliamentary victory for Oliver Cromwell and
the dramatic execution of King Charles I. There was a short-lived republic,
the first time that the country had experienced such an event. The
Restoration of the Crown was soon followed by another 'Glorious'
Revolution. William and Mary of Orange ascended the throne as joint
monarchs and defenders of Protestantism, followed by Queen Anne, the second
of James II's daughters.
The end of the Stuart line with the death of Queen Anne led to the
drawing up of the Act of Settlement in 1701, which provided that only
Protestants could hold the throne. The next in line according to the
provisions of this act was George of Hanover, yet Stuart princes remained
in the wings. The Stuart legacy was to linger on in the form of claimants
to the Crown for another century.
JAMES I (1603-25 AD)
James I was born in 1566 to Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband,
Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He descended from the Tudors through Margaret,
daughter of Henry VII : both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were
grandchildren of Margaret Tudor. James ascended the Scottish throne upon
the abdication of his mother in 1567, but Scotland was ruled by regent
untilJames reached his majority. He married Anne of Denmark in 1589, who
bore him three sons and four daughters: Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret,
Charles, Robert, Mary and Sophia. He was named successor to the English
throne by his cousin, Elizabeth I and ascended that throne in 1603. James
died of a stroke in 1625 after ruling Scotland for 58 years and England for
22 years.
James was profoundly affected by his years as a boy in Scottish court.
Murder and intrigue had plagued the Scottish throne throughout the reigns
of his mother and grandfather (James V) and had no less bearing during
James's rule. His father had been butchered mere months after James' birth
by enemies of Mary and Mary, because of her indiscretions and Catholic
faith, was forced to abdicate the throne. Thus, James developed a guarded
manner. He was thrilled to take the English crown and leave the strictures
and poverty of the Scottish court.
James' twenty-nine years of Scottish kingship did little to prepare him
for the English monarchy: England and Scotland, rivals for superiority on
the island since the first emigration of the Anglo-Saxon races, virtually
hated each other. This inherent mistrust, combined with Catholic-Protestant
and Episcopal-Puritan tensions, severely limited James' prospects of a
truly successful reign. His personality also caused problems: he was witty
and well-read, fiercely believed in the divine right of kingship and his
own importance, but found great difficulty in gaining acceptance from an
English society that found his rough-hewn manners and natural paranoia
quite unbecoming. James saw little use for Parliament. His extravagant
spending habits and nonchalant ignoring of the nobility's grievances kept
king and Parliament constantly at odds. He came to the thrown at the zenith
of monarchical power, but never truly grasped the depth and scope of that
power.
Religious dissension was the basis of an event that confirmed and fueled
James' paranoia: the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes and
four other Catholic dissenters were caught attempting to blow up the House
of Lords on a day in which the king was to open the session. The
conspirators were executed, but a fresh wave of anti-Catholic sentiments
washed across England. James also disliked the Puritans who became
excessive in their demands on the king, resulting in the first wave of
English immigrants to North America. James, however, did manage to
commission an Authorized Version of the Bible, printed in English in 1611.
The relationship between king and Parliament steadily eroded. Extravagant
spending (particularly on James' favorites), inflation and bungled foreign
policies discredited James in the eyes of Parliament. Parliament flatly
refused to disburse funds to a king who ignored their concerns and were
annoyed by rewards lavished on favorites and great amounts spent on
decoration. James awarded over 200 peerages (landed titles) as,
essentially, bribes designed to win loyalty, the most controversial of
which was his creation of George Villiers (his closest advisor and
homosexual partner) as Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was highly
influential in foreign policy, which failed miserably. James tried to
kindle Spanish relations by seeking a marriage between his son Charles and
the Spanish Infanta (who was less than receptive to the clumsy overtures of
Charles and Buckingham), and by executing Sir Walter Raleigh at the behest
of Spain.
James was not wholly unsuccessful as king, but his Scottish background
failed to translate well into a changing English society. He is described,
albeit humorously, in 1066 and All That, as such: "James I slobbered at the
mouth and had favourites; he was thus a bad king"; Sir Anthony Weldon made
a more somber observation: "He was very crafty and cunning in petty things,
as the circumventing any great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. inasmuch
as a very wise man was wont to say, he believed him the very wisest fool in
Christendom."
CHARLES I (1625-49)
Charles I was born in Fife on 19 November 1600, the second son of James
VI of Scotland (from 1603 also James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He
became heir to the throne on the death of his brother, Prince Henry, in
1612. He succeeded, as the second Stuart King of England, in 1625.
Controversy and disputes dogged Charles throughout his reign. They
eventually led to civil wars, first with the Scots from 1637 and later in
England (1642-46 and 1648). The Civil Wars deeply divided people at the
time, and historians still disagree about the real causes of the conflict,
but it is clear that Charles was not a successful ruler.
Charles was reserved (he had a residual stammer), self-righteous and had
a high concept of royal authority, believing in the divine right of kings.
He was a good linguist and a sensitive man of refined tastes. He spent a
lot on the arts, inviting the artists Van Dyck and Rubens to work in
England, and buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian
(this collection was later dispersed under Cromwell). His expenditure on
his court and his picture collection greatly increased the crown's debts.
Indeed, crippling lack of money was a key problem for both the early Stuart
monarchs.
Charles was also deeply religious. He favoured the high Anglican form of
worship, with much ritual, while many of his subjects, particularly in
Scotland, wanted plainer forms. Charles found himself ever more in
disagreement on religious and financial matters with many leading citizens.
Having broken an engagement to the Spanish infanta, he had married a Roman
Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, and this only made matters worse.
Although Charles had promised Parliament in 1624 that there would be no
advantages for recusants (people refusing to attend Church of England
services), were he to marry a Roman Catholic bride, the French insisted on
a commitment to remove all disabilities upon Roman Catholic subjects.
Charles's lack of scruple was shown by the fact that this commitment was
secretly added to the marriage treaty, despite his promise to Parliament.
Charles had inherited disagreements with Parliament from his father, but
his own actions (particularly engaging in ill-fated wars with France and
Spain at the same time) eventually brought about a crisis in 1628-29. Two
expeditions to France failed - one of which had been led by Buckingham, a
royal favourite of both James I and Charles I, who had gained political
influence and military power. Such was the general dislike of Buckingham,
that he was impeached by Parliament in 1628, although he was murdered by a
fanatic before he could lead the second expedition to France. The political
controversy over Buckingham demonstrated that, although the monarch's right
to choose his own Ministers was accepted as an essential part of the royal
prerogative, Ministers had to be acceptable to Parliament or there would be
repeated confrontations. The King's chief opponent in Parliament until 1629
was Sir John Eliot, who was finally imprisoned in the Tower of London until
his death in 1632.
Tensions between the King and Parliament centred around finances, made
worse by the costs of war abroad, and by religious suspicions at home
(Charles's marriage was seen as ominous, at a time when plots against
Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot in James I's reign were still fresh in
the collective memory, and when the Protestant cause was going badly in the
war in Europe). In the first four years of his rule, Charles was faced with
the alternative of either obtaining parliamentary funding and having his
policies questioned by argumentative Parliaments who linked the issue of
supply to remedying their grievances, or conducting a war without subsidies
from Parliament. Charles dismissed his fourth Parliament in March 1629 and
decided to make do without either its advice or the taxes which it alone
could grant legally.
Although opponents later called this period 'the Eleven Years' Tyranny',
Charles's decision to rule without Parliament was technically within the
King's royal prerogative, and the absence of a Parliament was less of a
grievance to many people than the efforts to raise revenue by non-
parliamentary means. Charles's leading advisers, including William Laud,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, were efficient but
disliked. For much of the 1630s, the King gained most of the income he
needed from such measures as impositions, exploitation of forest laws,
forced loans, wardship and, above all, ship money (extended in 1635 from
ports to the whole country). These measures made him very unpopular,
alienating many who were the natural supporters of the Crown.
Scotland (which Charles had left at the age of 3, returning only for his
coronation in 1633) proved the catalyst for rebellion. Charles's attempt to
impose a High Church liturgy and prayer book in Scotland had prompted a
riot in 1637 in Edinburgh which escalated into general unrest. Charles had
to recall Parliament; however, the Short Parliament of April 1640 queried
Charles's request for funds for war against the Scots and was dissolved
within weeks. The Scots occupied Newcastle and, under the treaty of Ripon,
stayed in occupation of Northumberland and Durham and they were to be paid
a subsidy until their grievances were redressed.
Charles was finally forced to call another Parliament in November 1640.
This one, which came to be known as The Long Parliament, started with the
imprisonment of Laud and Strafford (the latter was executed within six
months, after a Bill of Attainder which did not allow for a defence), and
the abolition of the King's Council (Star Chamber), and moved on to declare
ship money and other fines illegal. The King agreed that Parliament could
not be dissolved without its own consent, and the Triennial Act of 1641
meant that no more than three years could elapse between Parliaments.
The Irish uprising of October 1641 raised tensions between the King and
Parliament over the command of the Army. Parliament issued a Grand
Remonstrance repeating their grievances, impeached 12 bishops and attempted
to impeach the Queen. Charles responded by entering the Commons in a failed
attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament, who had fled before his
arrival. Parliament reacted by passing a Militia Bill allowing troops to be
raised only under officers approved by Parliament. Finally, on 22 August
1642 at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard calling for loyal
subjects to support him (Oxford was to be the King's capital during the
war). The Civil War, what Sir William Waller (a Parliamentary general and
moderate) called 'this war without an enemy', had begun.
The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 showed that early on the fighting
was even. Broadly speaking, Charles retained the north, west and south-west
of the country, and Parliament had London, East Anglia and the south-east,
although there were pockets of resistance everywhere, ranging from solitary
garrisons to whole cities. However, the Navy sided with Parliament (which
made continental aid difficult), and Charles lacked the resources to hire
substantial mercenary help.
Parliament had entered an armed alliance with the predominant Scottish
Presbyterian group under the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and from
1644 onwards Parliament's armies gained the upper hand - particularly with
the improved training and discipline of the New Model Army. The Self-
Denying Ordinance was passed to exclude Members of Parliament from holding
army commands, thereby getting rid of vacillating or incompetent earlier
Parliamentary generals. Under strong generals like Sir Thomas Fairfax and
Oliver Cromwell, Parliament won victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby
(1645). The capture of the King's secret correspondence after Naseby showed
the extent to which he had been seeking help from Ireland and from the
Continent, which alienated many moderate supporters.
In May 1646, Charles placed himself in the hands of the Scottish Army
(who handed him to the English Parliament after nine months in return for
arrears of payment - the Scots had failed to win Charles's support for
establishing Presbyterianism in England). Charles did not see his action as
surrender, but as an opportunity to regain lost ground by playing one group
off against another; he saw the monarchy as the source of stability and
told parliamentary commanders 'you cannot be without me: you will fall to
ruin if I do not sustain you'. In Scotland and Ireland, factions were
arguing, whilst in England there were signs of division in Parliament
between the Presbyterians and the Independents, with alienation from the
Army (where radical doctrines such as that of the Levellers were
threatening commanders' authority). Charles's negotiations continued from
his captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight (to which he had
'escaped' from Hampton Court in November 1647) and led to the Engagement
with the Scots, under which the Scots would provide an army for Charles in
exchange for the imposition of the Covenant on England. This led to the
second Civil War of 1648, which ended with Cromwell's victory at Preston in
August.
The Army, concluding that permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles
lived, decided that the King must be put on trial and executed. In
December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on
the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in
the first week of January 1649. On 20 January, Charles was charged with
high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead,
saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had
been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of
Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).
The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles
was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall,
London. The King asked for warm clothing before his execution: 'the season
is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine
proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.' On the scaffold, he
repeated his case: 'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the
people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life
and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in
Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a
sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an
arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the
Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I
am the martyr of the people.' His final words were 'I go from a corruptible
to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'
The King was buried on 9 February at Windsor, rather than Westminster
Abbey, to avoid public disorder. To avoid the automatic succession of
Charles I's son Charles, an Act was passed on 30 January forbidding the
proclaiming of another monarch. On 7 February 1649, the office of King was
formally abolished.
The Civil Wars were essentially confrontations between the monarchy and
Parliament over the definitions of the powers of the monarchy and
Parliament's authority. These constitutional disagreements were made worse
by religious animosities and financial disputes. Both sides claimed that
they stood for the rule of law, yet civil war was by definition a matter of
force. Charles I, in his unwavering belief that he stood for constitutional
and social stability, and the right of the people to enjoy the benefits of
that stability, fatally weakened his position by failing to negotiate a
compromise with Parliament and paid the price. To many, Charles was seen as
a martyr for his people and, to this day, wreaths of remembrance are laid
by his supporters on the anniversary of his death at his statue, which
faces down Whitehall to the site of his execution.
THE COMMONWEALTH INTERREGNUM (1649-1660)
Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649),
Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles
I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in
Scotland.
From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known
as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments
followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a
workable constitution without a monarchy.
Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a
troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the
issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious
toleration. In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of
Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer
of the throne. Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one
stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major
generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son
Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited
Charles I's son, Charles, to become King.
OLIVER CROMWELL (1649-1658)
Oliver Cromwell, born in Huntingdon in 1599, was a strict Puritan with a
Cambridge education when he went to London to represent his family in
Parliament. Clothed conservatively, he possessed a Puritan fervor and a
commanding voice, he quickly made a name for himself by serving in both the
Short Parliament (April 1640) and the Long Parliament (August 1640 through
April 1660). Charles I, pushing his finances to bankruptcy and trying to
force a new prayer book on Scotland, was badly beaten by the Scots, who
demanded Ј850 per day from the English until the two sides reached
agreement. Charles had no choice but to summon Parliament.
The Long Parliament, taking an aggressive stance, steadfastly refused to
authorize any funding until Charles was brought to heel. The Triennial Act
of 1641 assured the summoning of Parliament at least every three years, a
formidable challenge to royal prerogative. The Tudor institutions of fiscal
feudalism (manipulating antiquated feudal fealty laws to extract money),
the Court of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were
declared illegal by Act of Parliament later in 1641. A new era of
leadership from the House of Commons (backed by middle class merchants,
tradesmen and Puritans) had commenced. Parliament resented the insincerity
with which Charles settled with both them and the Scots, and despised his
links with Catholicism.
1642 was a banner year for Parliament. They stripped Charles of the last
vestiges of prerogative by abolishing episcopacy, placed the army and navy
directly under parliamentary supervision and declared this bill become law
even if the king refused his signature. Charles entered the House of
Commons (the first king to do so), intent on arresting John Pym, the leader
of Parliament and four others, but the five conspirators had already fled,
making the king appear inept. Charles traveled north to recruit an army and
raised his standard against the forces of Parliaments (Roundheads) at
Nottingham on August 22, 1642. England was again embroiled in civil war.
Cromwell added sixty horses to the Roundhead cause when war broke out. In
the 1642 Battle at Edge Hill, the Roundheads were defeated by the superior
Royalist (Cavalier) cavalry, prompting Cromwell to build a trained cavalry.
Cromwell proved most capable as a military leader. By the Battle of Marston
Moor in 1644, Cromwell's New Model Army had routed Cavalier forces and
Cromwell earned the nickname "Ironsides" in the process. Fighting lasted
until July 1645 at the final Cavalier defeat at Naseby. Within a year,
Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament. By
1646, England was ruled solely by Parliament, although the king was not
executed until 1649.
English society splintered into many factions: Levellers (intent on
eradicating economic castes), Puritans, Episcopalians, remnants of the
Cavaliers and other religious and political radicals argued over the fate
of the realm. The sole source of authority rest with the army, who moved
quickly to end the debates. In November 1648, the Long Parliament was
reduced to a "Rump" Parliament by the forced removal of 110 members of
Parliament by Cromwell's army, with another 160 members refusing to take
their seats in opposition to the action. The remainder, barely enough for a
quorum, embarked on an expedition of constitutional change. The Rump
dismantled the machinery of government, most of that, remained loyal to the
king, abolishing not only the monarchy, but also the Privy Council, Courts
of Exchequer and Admiralty and even the House of Lords. England was ruled
by an executive Council of State and the Rump Parliament, with various
subcommittees dealing with day-to-day affairs. Of great importance was the
administration in the shires and parishes: the machinery administering such
governments was left intact; ingrained habits of ruling and obeying
harkened back to monarchy.
With the death of the ancient constitution and Parliament in control,
attention was turned to crushing rebellions in the realm, as well as in
Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell forced submission from the nobility, muzzled
the press and defeated Leveller rebels in Burford. Annihilating the more
radical elements of revolution resulted in political conservatism, which
eventually led to the restoration of the monarchy. Cromwell's army
slaughtered over forty percent of the indigenous Irishmen, who clung
unyieldingly to Catholicism and loyalist sentiments; the remaining Irishmen
were forcibly transported to County Connaught with the Act of Settlement in
1653. Scottish Presbyterians fought for a Stuart restoration, in the person
of Charles II, but were handily defeated, ending the last remnants of civil
war. The army then turned its attention to internal matters.
The Rump devolved into a petty, self-perpetuating and unbending
oligarchy, which lost credibility in the eyes of the army. Cromwell ended
the Rump Parliament with great indignity on April 21, 1653, ordering the
house cleared at the point of a sword. The army called for a new Parliament
of Puritan saints, who proved as inept as the Rump. By 1655, Cromwell
dissolved his new Parliament, choosing to rule alone (much like Charles I
had done in 1629). The cost of keeping a standard army of 35,000 proved
financially incompatible with Cromwell's monetarily strapped government.
Two wars with the Dutch concerning trade abroad added to Cromwell's
financial burdens.
The military's solution was to form yet another version of Parliament. A
House of Peers was created, packed with Cromwell's supporters and with true
veto power, but the Commons proved most antagonistic towards Cromwell. The
monarchy was restored in all but name; Cromwell went from the title of Lord
General of the Army to that of Lord Protector of the Realm (the title of
king was suggested, but wisely rejected by Cromwell when a furor arose in
the military ranks). The Lord Protector died on September 3, 1658, naming
his son Richard as successor. With Cromwell's death, the Commonwealth
floundered and the monarchy was restored only two years later.
The failure of Cromwell and the Commonwealth was founded upon Cromwell
being caught between opposing forces. His attempts to placate the army, the
nobility, Puritans and Parliament resulted in the alienation of each group.
Leaving the political machinery of the parishes and shires untouched under
the new constitution was the height of inconsistency; Cromwell, the army
and Parliament were unable to make a clear separation from the ancient
constitution and traditional customs of loyalty and obedience to monarchy.
Lacey Baldwin Smith cast an astute judgment concerning the aims of the
Commonwealth: "When Commons was purged out of existence by a military force
of its own creation, the country learned a profound, if bitter, Lesson:
Parliament could no more exist without the crown than the crown without
Parliament. The ancient constitution had never been King and Parliament but
King in Parliament; when one element of that mystical union was destroyed,
the other ultimately perished."
Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector of England (1599-1658)
There is definitely an association between John Knox and Oliver Cromwell.
Knox, in his book The Reformation of Scotland, outlined the whole process
without which the British model of government under Oliver Cromwell never
would not have been possible. Yet Knox was more consistently covenantal in
his thinking. He recognized that civil government is based on a covenant
between the magistrate (or the representative or king) and the populace.
His view was that when the magistrate defects from the covenant, it is the
duty of the people to overthrow him.
Cromwell was not a learned scholar, as was Knox, nevertheless God
elevated him to a greater leadership role. Oliver Cromwell was born into a
common family of English country Puritans having none of the advantages of
upbringing that would prepare him to be leader of a nation. Yet he had a
God-given ability to earn the loyalty and respect of men of genius who
served him throughout his lifetime. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's
Progress served under his command in the English Civil War, and John
Milton, who penned Paradise Lost, served as his personal secretary.
Cromwell's early years were ordinary, but after a conversion experience
at age 27, he was seized by a sense of divine destiny. He became suddenly
zealous for God. He was a country squire, a bronze-faced, callous-handed
man of property. He worked on his farm, prayed and fasted often and
occasionally exhorted the local congregation during church meetings. A
quiet, simple, serious-minded man, he spoke little. But when he broke his
silence, it was with great authority as he commanded obedience without
question or dispute. As a justice of the peace, he attracted attention to
himself by collaring loafers at a tavern and forcing them to join in
singing a hymn. This exploit together with quieting a disturbance among
some student factions at the neighboring town of Cambridge earned him the
respect of the Puritan locals and they sent him to Parliament as their
representative. There he attracted attention with his blunt, forcible
speech as a member of the Independent Party which was made up of Puritans.
The English people were bent upon the establishment of a democratic
parliamentary system of civil government and the elimination of the "Divine
Right of Kings." King Charles I, the tyrant who had long persecuted the
English Puritans by having their ears cut off and their noses slit for
defying his attempts to force episcopacy on their churches, finally clashed
with Parliament over a long ordeal with new and revolutionary ideas. The
Puritans, or "Roundheads" as they were called, finally led a civil war
against the King and his Cavaliers.
When he discerned the weaknesses of the Roundhead army, Cromwell made
himself captain of the cavalry. Cromwell had never been trained in war, but
from the very beginning he showed consummate genius as a general. Cromwell
understood that successful revolutions were always fought by farmers so he
gathered a thousand hand-picked Puritans - farmers and herdsmen - who were
used to the open fields. His regiment was nicknamed "Ironsides" and was
never beaten once, although they fought greatly outnumbered - at times
three to one.
It was an army the likes of which hadn't been seen since ancient Israel.
They would recite the Westminster Confession and march into battle singing
the Psalms of David striking terror into the heart of the enemy. Cromwell's
tactic was to strike with the cavalry through the advancing army at the
center, go straight through the lines and then circle to either the left or
the right milling the mass into a mob, creating confusion and utterly
destroying them. Cromwell amassed a body of troops and soon became
commander-in-chief. His discipline created the only body of regular troops
on either side who preached, prayed, paid fines for profanity and
drunkenness, and charged the enemy singing hymns - the strangest
abnormality in an age when every vice imaginable characterized soldiers and
mercenaries.
In the meantime, Charles I invited an Irish Catholic army to his aid, an
action for which he was tried for high treason and beheaded shortly after
the war. After executing the national sovereign, the Parliament assumed
power. The success of the new democracy in England was short-lived.
Cromwell found that a democratic parliamentary system run by squires and
lords oppressed the common people and was almost as corrupt as the
rulership of the deposed evil king. As Commander-in-Chief of the army, he
was able to seize rulership and served a term as "Lord Protector."
During the fifteen years in which Cromwell ruled, he drove pirates from
the Mediterranean Sea, set English captives free, and subdued any threat
from France, Spain and Italy. Cromwell made Great Britain a respected and
feared power the world over. Cromwell maintained a large degree of
tolerance for rival denominations. He stood for a national church without
bishops. The ministers might be Presbyterian, Independent or Baptist.
Dissenters were allowed to meet in gathered churches and even Roman
Catholics and Quakers were tolerated. He worked for reform of morals and
the improvement of education. He strove constantly to make England a
genuinely Christian nation and she enjoyed a brief "Golden Age" in her
history.
When Charles I was beheaded, the understanding was that he had broken
covenant with the people. The view of Cromwell and the Puritans was that
when the magistrate breaks covenant, then he may legitimately be deposed.
The Puritan understanding of the covenantal nature of government was the
foundation for American colonial government. This was true of Massachusetts
and Connecticut and to a lesser extent in the Southern colonies. When the
Mayflower Compact was written, the Pilgrims had a covenantal idea of the
nature of civil government. This was a foundation for later colonies
established throughout the 1600s. These covenants were influenced by what
Knox had done in Scotland and what the Puritans had done in England.
RICHARD CROMWELL (1658-1659)
The eldest surviving son of Oliver Cromwell, Richard was Lord Protector
of England from September 1658 to May 1659, but failed in his efforts to
lead the Commonwealth.
Richard served in the Parliaments of 1654 and 1656 and some government
posts, but showed little of his father's ability. Constitutional changes in
1657 allowed Cromwell to choose his successor. He began to prepare Richard,
appointing him to the council of state and the House of Lords.
He was proclaimed Lord Protector immediately after his father's death, on
3rd September 1658. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth had been held together
by his father and Richard was no Oliver. It was an unstable mixture of
zealous reform and a yearning for stability, Parliamentary authority and
military power.
Richard soon faced serious problems. The army were disillusioned with a
government that had grown increasingly ceremonious. They grew more restless
when Richard appointed himself commander in chief. A new Parliament was
elected in 1659 but a vacuum of power prompted the army council to seize
power. In April 1659 it forced Richard to dissolve Parliament.
The officers now recalled the Rump Parliament, dissolved by Oliver
Cromwell in 1653. It dismissed Richard as Lord Protector; he officially
abdicated in May. Yet the Rump was incapable of governing without financial
and military support and the army itself remained bitterly divided. George
Monck, one of the army's most capable officers, marched south from Scotland
to protect Parliament but, on arriving in London, realised that only the
restoration of Charles II could put an end to the political chaos that now
gripped the state.
Richard, having amassed large debts during his time in office, left for
Paris in 1660 to escape his creditors, living under the name of John
Clarke. After living in Geneva, he returned to England in around 1680,
where he lived quietly until his death.
CHARLES II (1660-85)
Although those who had signed Charles I's death warrant were punished
(nine regicides were put to death, and Cromwell's body was exhumed from
Westminster Abbey and buried in a common pit), Charles pursued a policy of
political tolerance and power-sharing. In April 1660, fresh elections had
been held and a Convention met with the House of Lords. Parliament invited
Charles to return, and he arrived at Dover on 25 May.
Despite the bitterness left from the Civil Wars and Charles I's
execution, there were few detailed negotiations over the conditions of
Charles II's restoration to the throne. Under the Declaration of Breda of
May 1660, Charles had promised pardons, arrears of Army pay, confirmation
of land purchases during the Interregnum and 'liberty of tender
consciences' in religious matters, but several issues remained unresolved.
However, the Militia Act of 1661 vested control of the armed forces in the
Crown, and Parliament agreed to an annual revenue of Ј1,200,000 (a
persistent deficit of Ј400,000-500,000 remained, leading to difficulties
for Charles in his foreign policy). The bishops were restored to their
seats in the House of Lords, and the Triennial Act of 1641 was repealed -
there was no mechanism for enforcing the King's obligation to call
Parliament at least once every three years. Under the 1660 Act of Indemnity
and Oblivion, only the lands of the Crown and the Church were automatically
resumed; the lands of Royalists and other dissenters which had been
confiscated and/or sold on were left for private negotiation or litigation.
The early years of Charles's reign saw an appalling plague which hit the
country in 1665 with 70,000 dying in London alone, and the Great Fire of
London in 1666 which destroyed St Paul's amongst other buildings. Another
misfortune included the second Dutch war of 1665 (born of English and Dutch
commercial and colonial rivalry). Although the Dutch settlement of New
Amsterdam was overrun and renamed New York before the war started, by 1666
France and Denmark had allied with the Dutch. The war was dogged by poor
administration culminating in a Dutch attack on the Thames in 1667; a peace
was negotiated later in the year.
In 1667, Charles dismissed his Lord Chancellor, Clarendon - an adviser
from Charles's days of exile (Clarendon's daughter Anne was the first wife
of Charles's brother James and was mother of Queens Mary and Anne). As a
scapegoat for the difficult religious settlement and the Dutch war,
Clarendon had failed to build a 'Court interest' in the Commons. He was
succeeded by a series of ministerial combinations, the first of which was
that of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale (whose
initials formed the nickname Cabal). Such combinations (except for Danby's
dominance of Parliament from 1673 to 1679) were largely kept in balance by
Charles for the rest of his reign.
Charles's foreign policy was a wavering balance of alliances with France
and the Dutch in turn. In 1670, Charles signed the secret treaty of Dover
under which Charles would declare himself a Catholic and England would side
with France against the Dutch - in return Charles would receive subsidies
from the King of France (thus enabling Charles some limited room for
manoeuvre with Parliament, but leaving the possibility of public disclosure
of the treaty by Louis). Practical considerations prevented such a public
conversion, but Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence, using his
prerogative powers to suspend the penal laws against Catholics and
Nonconformists. In the face of an Anglican Parliament's opposition, Charles
was eventually forced to withdraw the Declaration in 1673.
In 1677 Charles married his niece Mary to William of Orange partly to
restore the balance after his brother's second marriage to the Catholic
Mary of Modena and to re-establish his own Protestant credentials. This
assumed a greater importance as it became clear that Charles's marriage to
Catherine of Braganza would produce no legitimate heirs (although Charles
had a number of mistresses and illegitimate children), and his Roman
Catholic brother James's position as heir apparent raised the prospect of a
Catholic king.
Throughout Charles's reign, religious toleration dominated the political
scene. The 1662 Act of Uniformity had imposed the use of the Book of Common
Prayer, and insisted that clergy subscribe to Anglican doctrine (some 1,000
clergy lost their livings). Anti-Catholicism was widespread; the Test Act
of 1673 excluded Roman Catholics from both Houses of Parliament.
Parliament's reaction to the Popish Plot of 1678 (an allegation by Titus
Oates that Jesuit priests were conspiring to murder the King, and involving
the Queen and the Lord Treasurer, Danby) was to impeach Danby and present a
Bill to exclude James (Charles's younger brother and a Roman Catholic
convert) from the succession. In 1680/81 Charles dissolved three
Parliaments which had all tried to introduce Exclusion Bills on the basis
that 'we are not like to have a good end'.
Charles sponsored the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 (still in
existence today) to promote scientific research. Charles also encouraged a
rebuilding programme, particularly in the last years of his reign, which
included extensive rebuilding at Windsor Castle, a huge but uncompleted new
palace at Winchester and the Greenwich Observatory. Charles was a patron of
Christopher Wren in the design and rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral,
Chelsea Hospital (a refuge for old war veterans) and other London
buildings.
Charles died in 1685, becoming a Roman Catholic on his deathbed.
JAMES II (1685-88)
Born in 1633 and named after his grandfather James I, James II grew up in
exile after the Civil War (he served in the armies of Louis XIV) and, after
his brother's restoration, commanded the Royal Navy from 1660 to 1673.
James converted to Catholicism in 1669. Despite his conversion, James II
succeeded to the throne peacefully at the age of 51. His position was a
strong one - there were standing armies of nearly 20,000 men in his
kingdoms and he had a revenue of around Ј2 million. Within days of his
succession, James announced the summoning of Parliament in May but he
sounded a warning note: 'the best way to engage me to meet you often is
always to use me well'. A rebellion led by Charles's illegitimate son, the
Duke of Monmouth, was easily crushed after the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685,
and savage punishments were imposed by the infamous Lord Chief Justice,
Judge Jeffreys, at the 'Bloody Assizes'.
James's reaction to the Monmouth rebellion was to plan the increase of
the standing army and the appointment of loyal and experienced Roman
Catholic officers. This, together with James's attempts to give civic
equality to Roman Catholic and Protestant dissenters, led to conflict with
Parliament, as it was seen as James showing favouritism towards Roman
Catholics. Fear of Catholicism was widespread (in 1685, Louis XIV revoked
the Edict of Nantes which gave protection to French Protestants), and the
possibility of a standing army led by Roman Catholic officers produced
protest in Parliament. As a result, James prorogued Parliament in 1685 and
ruled without it.