Section 4.19

Britain: The Puritan Revolution

Questions to Consider• What comparisons may be made between events

in England in the 17th century and developments on the Continent?

• Why did Parliament come into conflict with James I? with Charles I? How did the special nature of Parliament make its resistance effective? How did the civil war begin? How did Cromwell emerge as ruler of England?

• Describe the government of England under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. What is meant by the regime of the “major generals”?

• What policies did Cromwell follow toward Scotland? Toward Ireland? In foreign affairs? Toward the more radical elements emerging in England?

• How would you evaluate Cromwell’s role in English history?

Terms to Know

• Puritan• Presbyterian • Anglican• James VI of Scotland• True Law of Free

Monarchy• Tunnage and poundage• Archbishop Laud• Prerogative courts• Ship money case• Long Parliament

• Solemn League and Covenant

• Roundheads• Pride’s Purge• The Rump• Levelers• Diggers• Instrument of

Government

Introduction• 1648 England embroiled in a civil war

– Not at Westphalia

• Viewed as mild variation of the Wars of Religion

• Causes of English Revolution

• Religion + Political power = POOPOO KAAKAA

– Extreme Protestant Calvinists (Puritans) v. moderate Protestant (Anglicans)

– Monarchy v. Parliament

• Wars relatively mild

– Wars between England and Ireland are savage

In-coming!!!!

England in the Seventeenth Century• Age of expansion

– Pop. 4-5 mil in 1600– Religious

discontent led to migration

• Puritan migration to New England and the Caribbean– 40, 000 total

• Scots settle in Ireland

• Catholics in Maryland

• Anglicans in Virginia

• Laissez faire policy in pre 1650 migration

• After 1650 adopts policy of state directed colonization

• take NY from Dutch, Pa, Carolinas, Jamaica taken from Spain

England in the Seventeenth Century

English culture blossoms

• Shakespeare/Milton• Rugged in form

deep in content• English could not

yield to French standards

• Sir Christopher Wren

England in the Seventeenth Century Continued

• Economic Activity– 1660 outdistanced by the

Dutch• had a larger and more

productive population • didn’t depend exclusively on

seafaring – Coal for industry is available– Sheep and woolens were main

export• Putting out system used

– 1600 East India Company– Wealth was still tied to the land

Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings

• New Monarchs clashed with medieval representative institutions

• 1588 the monarchy is powerful

• 1688 the Parliament is powerful

• In most places that popular institutions (estates general) won out anarchy followed

• Uniqueness of England’s “workable” solution ushered in the modern institutions of liberalism and representative institutions

Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings Continued

• 1603 Elizabeth I died with no heir• James the IV of Scotland

– son of Mary Stuart– became James I of England

uniting Scotland and England under one crown (Protestant)

• Absolutist as a father taking care of family

• Called “the wisest fool in Christendom”

• Wrote book called The True Law of Free Monarchy– Free meant free to rule as he

pleased– Adopted the theory of the Divine

right of kings

• Begins to lecture Parliament on the royal rights– Said he should not

have to ask for money• Wars with Spain left big

debt and James wasn’t thrifty

• Tunnage and poundage=– right of king to collect fixed

income on imports/exports

Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings Continued

Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings Continued

• Puritan Parliament refused to accommodate– Disliked doctrine of

Anglican Church• Being forcefully

pushed by Laud– Discontent with

prerogative courts like the Star Chamber

– Puritans were property owners and wanted protection William Laud,

Archbishop of Canterbury

• Parliament • single representative body for all of England

– unlike Dutch, Spain, France, Germany or Poland with local estates

– landed interests controlled both houses: nobles and gentry

– HOC was mixed with merchant interests– Secularized as no Abbots remained in

either house– the strong make up of Parliament forced

Kings to submit to its will– came to a deadlock in 1629 as Charles I

attempted to ignore Par

Background to the Civil War: Parliament and the Stuart Kings Continued

Ship money dispute• Traditionally coastal

towns provided ships in time of war

• Mid 1600 they paid taxes instead

• Charles I needed money

– Extends medieval policy of ship money to all towns in England not just coastal cities

– An absolutist view of power

• Parliament (most lived inland) resist new tax without its consent– 1637 Scotland rebels – Scots rioted against Anglicizing their country

• Short Parliament– In 1640 Charles called Parliament for $$– it refuses his demands

• Charles I dissolved the Parliament, called for new elections and the same members are returned

• Long Parliament– same body of members sat for 20 years– are known as the Long Parliament –

• landowners with merchant support

Ship money dispute

Ship money dispute Continued• Long Parliament (1640-1660)

–Does not assist the King against the Scots but uses it to get their demands through

–Demanded royal advisers be removed and put to death

–Abolished the Star Chamber

–Abolished bishops (Calvinist view against clergy)

• Solemn League and Covenant –made

Presbyterianism established religion of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Ship money dispute Continued

The Emergence of Cromwell• Roundhead (Puritans)

defeated the royalists– Close haircuts of the

Puritans• Oliver Cromwell organized

a military force to advance the Puritan effort

• More effective military (called the Ironsides) religiously motivated

– Army is of more “popular”

• made up than Parliament and demand broader religious policies

• Cromwell called for the execution of Charles I for treason

• Parliament resists– Cromwell purges the Parliament

to a “Rump” with the army• had 500 members in 1640 and

sunk to 150 in 1649– Cromwell reduced it to 50-

60– called this operation Pride’s

Purge (after Puritan general in charge of intimidating Parliament)

• 1649 King is condemned of treason and executed “regicide” in 1649

• British Isles declared a republican commonwealth

The Emergence of Cromwell

Cromwell: Foreign and Domestic Policy• Cromwell subdues Ireland and Scotland by force

– Scots not pleased with Stuart execution (he was a Scot)

– Ireland:• Protestants were massacre in 1641 in

Ulster• Garrisons of Wexford and Drogheda are

massacred by Cromwell– Priests, as well as “women and children

dispatched in cold blood”– Protestants now take over aristocracy of

entire island (not just Ulster) (mostly absentee landlords)

– Redistributed land to adventurers that ruled in absence

• Cromwell was more successful abroad– Ireland, Navigation Act of 1651, maritime

attack on the Dutch, preying on the Spanish empire

Religious and Social Radicalism

• In domestic affairs Cromwell had to continually become more strident

• Levellers (liberal and popular) ask for universal male suffrage, a constitution, and equal representation– led by John Lilburne (civilian)

• George Fox founded the Society of Friends or Quakers– insisted that believers can have revelations of

spiritual truth and rejected hierarchies• Diggers rejected the idea of property

Protectorate• As a regicide (King killer) he cannot

turn to the royalist (conservative and elite)– 1653 Cromwell bans Parliament

and becomes “Lord Protector”• Provides a constitution

“Instrument of Government”• In reality: military dictatorship

– Closed ale houses, prohibited cock fighting

– 1658 Cromwell dies and his son is unable to maintain the Protectorate

Legacy of Revolution• Reactionary

• 1660 the crown in restored “Restoration” with Charles II– Religious intolerance

was equated thereafter with military dictatorship

– Excess democracy or “levelling” is considered abhorrent and popular interests are abandoned