History 240

The English Revolution

Objectives

• Why did English politics degenerate to the point where the King was at war with his own Parliament?

• If he was a bad king, why did so many continue to support him?

• Why did the English republic fail to last?

• What were the longer-term consequences of the English Civil War and Interregnum.

Degeneration of English Politics

• Serious religious divisions.

• Breakdown of financial and political system in face of inflation and rising costs of war.

• The Problems of one King with multiple kingdoms.

Serious Religious Divisions.

• Religious turmoil 1533-58.

• By the end of the century, Catholics and Puritans increase attacks on Elizabethan Church.

• Catholics executed; Puritans hounded out to Holland and America.

• Catholics discredited and decreasing in number under James I (1603-1625).

• Puritans continue anti-Catholic hysteria and extend it to moderate Protestants.

The Church under Charles I (1600-1649)

• Increasing division between Puritans and moderate Anglicans.

• Charles married a French Catholic, Henrietta Maria – opposed by Puritans.

• Puritans alienate Anglicans: Anglicans support the King, against the attacks of Puritans.

• Fear that religion would again become a life-or-death issue.

The Church under Charles I (1600-1649)

• Charles appoints Archbishop of Canterbury; a moderate Anglican who favoured some Catholic practices.

• Puritans: Catholic Queen and crypto-Catholic Archbishop evidence that Charles wanted to undermine the English Church and re-establish Catholicism.

Breakdown of Financial and Political System

• King expected to rely on own financial resources during peace: rents, fees, customs.

• Dramatic price inflation: 1510-1597 585%.

• Military changes make war more expensive.

• James I and Charles I wanted to compete with other European monarchs militarily and culturally.

• James I doubled Elizabeth’s annual expenditure.

• Royal income did not keep pace with expenditure.

• James I and Charles I could barely afford peace time expenditure; wartime caused financial crisis.

Parliament and Taxation

• English Parliament had power to control taxation, unlike France and Spain.

• Parliament granted increases and could not understand why it was not enough.

• Distrust between King and Parliament.

• Parliament believed Charles was wasting money.

• Collection of taxes caused public hostility.

• Charles hated Parliament and ruled without it 1629-1639.

• Charles had to resort to unpopular sources of revenue: distrait of knighthood, ship money.

Political Crisis

• MPs believe Charles was subverting Parliament and establishing a dictatorship.

• Charles thought Parliament was trying to exceed its jurisdiction.

• Parliament believed it was defending the constitution against Charles’s attempts to subvert it.

• Charles believed he was defending the constitution against Parliament’s attempts to subvert it.

The Problem of Multiple Kingdoms

• James and Charles were kings of Scotland and England, but they were administered separately.

• Scotland had a different religious settlement: more Calvinist and Presbyterian.

• Scotland had a different system of law and education.

• James and Charles were also kings of Ireland.

• Irish religious situation was complex: majority of Irish and original English nobility were Catholic. Only later English emigrants were Anglican. There were also Scottish Presbyterians.

The Problem of Multiple Kingdoms

• English pretended their king was monarch of a single state called England. They tried to force their kings to do things that as kings of Scotland, they could not do.

• Charles I of England, like Charles V HRE, could not be one religion in one kingdom and another in another.

The First Great Crisis

• 1637 Charles I and Laud tried to change Scottish Church to make it more like the English.

• This caused a great rebellion.

• Charles sent a English army to fight the Scots in 1639 but ran out of money and was defeated.

• Charles called the Short Parliament to get more money but MPs demanded that he address their grievances first, but he refused.

• In 1640, the Scots invaded England and defeated the English Army again.

The Long Parliament

• Charles needed money to pay the Scottish army.

• Parliament was distrustful of him and opposed him.

• Un-parliamentary taxation was abolished; new law requiring triennial Parliaments and king could not dissolve it without its consent.

• Parliament tried to wrest control of the Army away from Charles.

• Charles failed to arrest 5 Parliamentary leaders.

• Charles moved to Oxford and England split into two camps.

England Divided

• Charles had the support of the majority of the nobility and their dependents.

• People joined the King because they believed that parliament was undermining the King and usurping his powers.

• No matter how bad a ruler he was, opposing a king was contrary to the will of God.

• Parliament had no long-term plan.

• Parliament had the support of London, the commercial and financial interests, radical politicians and some of the nobility.

England Divided

• People fought for Parliament because they believed the King was trying to establish a dictatorship.

• Regionally, London and SE supported Parliament; N and W supported Charles.

• The key issue was religion: Puritans and Calvinists supported Parliament; Catholics and moderate Anglicans the King.

First Civil War 1642

• King was a poor military leader.

• Parliament used financial and administrative advantages of London and the navy.

• Charles’s support was in the countryside, but people would not fight outside their own county.

• Parliament created the New Model Army, better trained, organized and commanded and made independent of Parliamentary control.

• The Scottish Army supported Parliament.

Second Civil War 1647.

• Parliament won but did not know what to do next.

• Charles negotiated with Scots, Parliament and the Army but agreed to nothing.

• Parliament began to fear the New Model Army – more Puritan and radical.

• Parliament refused to pay the army.

• Charles escaped and allied with the Scots.

The Army Takes Control

• The Army under Oliver Cromwell defeated and captured Charles in 1648.

• Determined to execute him, the Army purged Parliament of all but most radical.

• Charles tried and executed in 1649.

New Constitutional Problem: How to govern without a King.

• A military dictatorship without stable leadership.

• Several Parliamentary experiments failed. The military dictatorship was worse than Charles I.

• Cromwell was one of the few that people trusted declared Lord Protector in 1651.

• How to reconcile popular consent with God’s Providence and how to elect a Parliament that would not overthrow all that he stood for.

• The regime could only survive as Cromwell.

• Stability could only be achieved with a restoration of the monarchy.

1660: The Restoration of
Charles II (1630-1685)

• General amnesty; liberty of conscience.

• Parliament made land settlement and paid the arrears to the army.

• Parliamentary system and Church of England restored as before the war.

• Powers obtained by Long Parliament retained – King cannot rule without Parliament.

Results of the Civil War, Interregnum and Restoration

• King could not rule without Parliament or visa versa.

• The King and Parliament had to devise a stable system of government finance.

• English would not endure economic, political or social costs of a standing army.

• Religious settlement had to be broad enough for diversity of Anglican faith with safeguards to prevent Catholicisation.

England compared to Europe

• England had the revolution but both experienced wars that had important religious contexts.

• Issues regarding raising of revenue to meet costs of war common to both.

• Privileged regions and groups contribute more to Crown finances and feared loss of ancient rights and liberties from advancing power of state.

• Monarchs trying to change the existing system. Not a revolutionary society and a conservative regime, but a conservative society and a revolutionary regime.

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