109-662: Richard Ligon (1585?–1662), an English author, lost his fortune as a royalist during the English Civil War (1642-1651), and during this turbulent time in England he found himself, as he notes in his narrative, a "stranger in my own country.” On 14 June 1647, he left for Barbados to gain his fortune in the New World, like many of his fellow countrymen. Ligon purchased half of a sugar plantation in Barbados. After two years residence on
218-546: A Roman Catholic French princess, Henrietta Maria . Parliament refused to assign him the traditional right to collect customs duties for his entire reign, deciding instead to grant it only on a provisional basis and negotiate with him. Charles, meanwhile, decided to send an expeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots , whom French royal troops held besieged in La Rochelle . Such military support for Protestants on
327-553: A Commonwealth of its own in what is known as Fendall's Rebellion but with the fall of the republic in England he was left without support and was replaced by Philip Calvert upon the Restoration. Virginia was the most loyal of King Charles II's dominions. It had, according to the eighteenth-century historian Robert Beverley Jr. , been "the last of all the King's Dominions that submitted to
436-563: A Dutch fleet and army led to his accession to the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England, James' daughter. In April 1688, James had re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence and ordered all Anglican clergymen to read it to their congregations. When seven bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of
545-473: A charge of treason. The members had learned that he was coming and escaped. Charles not only failed to arrest them but turned more people against him. In the summer of 1642, these national troubles helped to polarise opinion, ending indecision about which side to support or what action to take. Opposition to Charles also arose from many local grievances. For example, imposed drainage schemes in The Fens disrupted
654-507: A company in serious debt, while blockbusters like Thomas Shadwell 's Psyche or Dryden's King Arthur would put it comfortably in the black for a long time. The Glorious Revolution ended the Restoration. The Glorious Revolution which overthrew King James II of England was propelled by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange). William's successful invasion of England with
763-494: A conquest of Oliver Cromwell 's and Charles II's claim to the island was therefore questionable. However, Charles II chose not to restore Jamaica to Spain and in 1661 it became a British colony and the planters would claim that they held rights as Englishmen by the King's assumption of the dominion of Jamaica. The first governor was Lord Windsor . He was replaced in 1664 by Thomas Modyford who had been ousted from Barbados. New England , with its Puritan settlement, had supported
872-447: A court case, attainder did not require a legal burden of proof to be met, but it did require the king's approval. Charles, however, guaranteed Strafford that he would not sign the attainder, without which the bill could not be passed. Furthermore, the Lords opposed the severity of a death sentence on Strafford. Yet increased tensions and a plot in the army to support Strafford began to sway
981-832: A favourite setting was the bed-chamber. Indeed, sexually explicit language was encouraged by the king personally and by the rakish style of his court. Historian George Norman Clark argues: The best-known fact about the Restoration drama is that it is immoral. The dramatists did not criticize the accepted morality about gambling, drink, love, and pleasure generally, or try, like the dramatists of our own time, to work out their own view of character and conduct. What they did was, according to their respective inclinations, to mock at all restraints. Some were gross, others delicately improper....The dramatists did not merely say anything they liked: they also intended to glory in it and to shock those who did not like it. The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and
1090-639: A former governor of Connecticut, and one of whose sons had been a captain in Monck 's army, went to England at the Restoration and in 1662 obtained a royal charter for Connecticut with New Haven annexed to it. Maryland had resisted the republic until finally occupied by New England Puritans/Parliamentary forces after the Battle of the Severn in 1655. In 1660 the Governor Josias Fendall tried to turn Maryland into
1199-531: A haven for refugees fleeing the English republic , had held for Charles II under Lord Willoughby until defeated by George Ayscue . When news reached Barbados of the King's restoration, Thomas Modyford declared Barbados for the King in July 1660. The planters, however, were not eager for the return of the former governor Lord Willoughby, fearing disputes over titles, but the King ordered he be restored. Jamaica had been
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#17328589971111308-490: A knighthood by Charles II. Edmund Dunch was created Baron Burnell of East Wittenham in April 1658, but this barony was not regranted. The male line failed in 1719 with the death of his grandson, also Edmund Dunch , so no one can lay claim to the title. The one hereditary viscountcy Cromwell created for certain, (making Charles Howard Viscount Howard of Morpeth and Baron Gilsland) continues to this day. In April 1661, Howard
1417-566: A maritime one and were being thwarted by the company, which relied on revenue from tobacco cultivation. Bermuda was the first colony to recognise Charles II as King in 1649. It controlled its own "army" (of militia) and deposed the Company appointed Governor, electing a replacement. Its Independent Puritans were forced to emigrate, settling the Bahamas under prominent Bermudian settler, sometime Governor of Bermuda, and Parliamentary loyalist William Sayle as
1526-493: A more linguistic approach to Ligon's texts. Author Thomas W. Krise reviews Keith A. Sandiford 's analysis of words like "sweet" and "negotiation" in Ligon and says that such an analysis calls attention to various systems of contradiction present in our current understanding of Old World Caribbean culture. English Civil War Parliamentarian victory 1643 1644 1645 1646 England The English Civil War
1635-476: A practical means of compelling them. From the thirteenth century, monarchs ordered the election of representatives to sit in the House of Commons , with most voters being the owners of property, although in some potwalloper boroughs every male householder could vote. When assembled along with the House of Lords , these elected representatives formed a Parliament. So the concept of Parliaments allowed representatives of
1744-573: A recognisable genre. In addition, women were allowed to perform on the commercial stage as professional actresses for the first time. In Scotland, the bishops returned as the Episcopacy was reinstated. To celebrate the occasion and cement their diplomatic relations, the Dutch Republic presented Charles with the Dutch Gift , a fine collection of old master paintings, classical sculptures, furniture, and
1853-550: A resurgence of Protestant power, struck first , and all Ireland soon descended into chaos. Rumours circulated that the King supported the Irish, and Puritan members of the Commons soon started murmuring that this exemplified the fate that Charles had in store for them all. On 4 January 1642, Charles, followed by 400 soldiers, entered the House of Commons and attempted to arrest five members on
1962-558: A single kingdom. Many English Parliamentarians were suspicious of such a move, fearing that such a new kingdom might destroy old English traditions that had bound the English monarchy. Because James had described kings as "little gods on Earth", chosen by God to rule in accordance with the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings , and Charles shared his father's position, the suspicions of the Parliamentarians had some justification. At
2071-403: A substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional female playwright, Aphra Behn . The Restoration spectacular , or elaborately staged machine play , hit
2180-430: A tactic learned while fighting in the Dutch army, where cavalry would charge at full speed into the opponent's infantry, firing their pistols just before impact. However, with Oliver Cromwell and the introduction of the more disciplined New Model Army , a group of disciplined pike men would stand its ground, which could have a devastating effect. The Royalist cavalry had a tendency to chase down individual targets after
2289-524: A yacht. Restoration literature includes the roughly homogenous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of King Charles II. It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both Paradise Lost and the John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester 's Sodom , the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of The Pilgrim's Progress . It saw Locke 's Treatises of Government ,
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#17328589971112398-523: Is a court, the highest in the land, a bill of attainder is a legislative act declaring a person guilty of treason or felony, in contrast to the regular judicial process of trial and conviction. In January 1661, the corpses of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were exhumed and hanged in chains at Tyburn . In 1661 John Okey , one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I, was brought back from Holland along with Miles Corbet , friend and lawyer to Cromwell, and John Barkstead , former constable of
2507-843: Is also used to describe the reign of Charles II (1660–1685), and sometimes that of his younger brother James II (1685–1688). After Richard Cromwell , Lord Protector from 1658 to 1659, ceded power to the Rump Parliament , Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert then dominated government for a year. On 20 October 1659, George Monck , the governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland to oppose Fleetwood and Lambert. Lambert's army began to desert him, and he returned to London almost alone whilst Monck marched to London unopposed. The Presbyterian members, excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648, were recalled, and on 24 December
2616-424: Is subordinate to the visual. It was spectacle and scenery that drew in the crowds, as shown by many comments in the diary of the theatre-lover Samuel Pepys . The expense of mounting ever more elaborate scenic productions drove the two competing theatre companies into a dangerous spiral of huge expenditure and correspondingly huge losses or profits. A fiasco such as John Dryden 's Albion and Albanius would leave
2725-630: The Convention Parliament , which met for the first time on 25 April. On 8 May, it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. Historian Tim Harris argues that "Constitutionally, it was as if the last nineteen years had never happened." Charles returned from exile, leaving the Hague on 23 May and landing at Dover on 25 May. He entered London on 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday. To celebrate His Majesty's Return to his Parliament, 29 May
2834-648: The Council of State during the Interregnum even though he refused to take the oath which expressed approbation (approval) of the King's execution. At the Restoration, after much debate in Parliament, he was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act. In 1662 he was tried for high treason, found guilty and beheaded on Tower Hill on 14 June 1662. The Instrument of Government , The Protectorate 's written constitutions, gave to
2943-584: The Earl of Lindsey , was to die fighting for the King at the Battle of Edgehill . In early January 1642, a few days after failing to capture five members of the House of Commons, Charles feared for the safety of his family and retinue and left the London area for the north country. Further frequent negotiations by letter between the King and the Long Parliament, through to early summer, proved fruitless. On 1 June 1642
3052-768: The Eleutheran Adventurers . Although eventually reaching a compromise with the Commonwealth, the Bermudians dispute with the company continued and was finally taken before the restored Crown, which was keen for an opportunity to re-assert its authority over the wealthy businessmen who controlled the Somers Isles Company. The islanders' protest to the Crown initially concerned the mis-treatment of Perient Trott and his heirs (including Nicholas Trott ), but expanded to include
3161-624: The English Lords and Commons approved a list of proposals known as the Nineteen Propositions . In these demands, the Parliament sought a larger share of power in the governance of the kingdom. Before the end of the month the King rejected the Propositions. As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other: for example, the garrison of Portsmouth commanded by Sir George Goring declared for
3270-592: The Lord Protector the King's power to grant titles of honour. Over 30 new knighthoods were granted under the Protectorate. These knighthoods passed into oblivion upon the Restoration of Charles II, but many were regranted by the restored King. Of the eleven Protectorate baronetcies , two had been previously granted by Charles I during the Civil War, but under Commonwealth legislation they were not recognised under
3379-568: The Magnum Concilium (the House of Lords , but without the Commons , so not a Parliament), Charles finally bowed to pressure and summoned another English Parliament in November 1640. The new Parliament proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor. It immediately began to discuss grievances against him and his government, with Pym and Hampden (of ship money fame) in the lead. They took
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3488-539: The Province of Carolina was formed as a reward given to some supporters of the Restoration. The province was named after the King's father, Charles I . The town of Charleston was established in 1669 by a party of settlers from Bermuda (some being Bermudians aboard Bermudian vessels, others having passed through Bermuda from as far as England) under the same William Sayle who had led the Eleutheran Adventurers to
3597-565: The Thirty Years' War which began in 1618 and concluded in 1648. The war was of unprecedented scale for the English. During the campaign seasons, 120,000 to 150,000 soldiers would be in the field, a higher proportion of the population than were fighting in Germany in the Thirty Years' War . The main battle tactic came to be known as pike and shot infantry. The two sides would line up opposite one another, with infantry brigades of musketeers in
3706-466: The Tonnage and Poundage Act 1640 . On 3 May, Parliament decreed The Protestation , attacking the 'wicked counsels' of Charles's government, whereby those who signed the petition undertook to defend 'the true reformed religion', Parliament, and the king's person, honour and estate. Throughout May, the House of Commons launched several bills attacking bishops and Episcopalianism in general, each time defeated in
3815-610: The Tower of London . They were all imprisoned in the Tower. From there they were taken to Tyburn and hanged, drawn and quartered on 19 April 1662. A further 19 regicides were imprisoned for life. John Lambert was not in London for the trial of Charles I. At the Restoration, he was found guilty of high treason and remained in custody in Guernsey for the rest of his life. Henry Vane the Younger served on
3924-476: The "Eleven Years' Tyranny". During this period, Charles's policies were determined by his lack of money. First and foremost, to avoid Parliament, the King needed to avoid war. Charles made peace with France and Spain, effectively ending England's involvement in the Thirty Years' War . However, that in itself was far from enough to balance the Crown's finances. Unable to raise revenue without Parliament and unwilling to convene it, Charles resorted to other means. One
4033-429: The "Great Rebellion". Some historians, notably Marxists such as Christopher Hill (1912–2003), favoured the term " English Revolution ". Each side had a geographical stronghold, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. The Royalist areas included the countryside, the shires, the cathedral city of Oxford, and the less economically developed areas of northern and western England. Parliament's strengths spanned
4142-542: The 1648 Second English Civil War resulted in the execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England . In 1650, Charles II was crowned King of Scotland, in return for agreeing to create a Presbyterian church in both England and Scotland. The subsequent Anglo-Scottish War ended with Parliamentarian victory at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into
4251-416: The Bahamas. In 1670, Sayle became the first Colonial Governor of the Province of Carolina . The Restoration and Charles' coronation mark a reversal of the stringent Puritan morality, "as though the pendulum [of England's morality] swung from repression to licence more or less overnight". Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship, Puritanism lost its momentum, and bawdy comedy became
4360-406: The Bermudians, who had their own House of Assembly (and many of whom were becoming landowners as they were sold the land they had previously farmed as tenants as the profitability of the tobacco farmed exclusively for the company fell), placed the Bermudians on the side of the Crown despite the large number of Puritans in the colony. Bermudians were attempting to shift their economy from tobacco to
4469-486: The Church more ceremonial, replacing the wooden communion tables with stone altars. Puritans accused Laud of reintroducing Catholicism, and when they complained he had them arrested. In 1637, John Bastwick , Henry Burton , and William Prynne had their ears cut off for writing pamphlets attacking Laud's views – a rare penalty for gentlemen , and one that aroused anger. Moreover, the Church authorities revived statutes from
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4578-705: The Church. In the spring of 1639, King Charles I accompanied his forces to the Scottish border to end the rebellion known as the Bishops' War , but after an inconclusive campaign, he accepted the offered Scottish truce: the Pacification of Berwick . This truce proved temporary, and a second war followed in mid-1640. A Scots army defeated Charles's forces in the north, then captured Newcastle . Charles eventually agreed not to interfere in Scotland's religion. Charles needed to suppress
4687-556: The Commonwealth and the Protectorate . Acceptance of the Restoration was reluctant in some quarters as it highlighted the failure of puritan reform. Rhode Island declared in October 1660 and Massachusetts lastly in August 1661. The Colony of New Haven provided refuge for Regicides such as Edward Whalley , William Goffe and John Dixwell and would be subsequently merged into Connecticut in 1662, perhaps in punishment. John Winthrop ,
4796-624: The Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state until the Stuart Restoration in 1660. The term English Civil War appears most often in the singular, but historians often divide the conflict into two or three separate wars. These were not restricted to England alone, as Wales (having been annexed into the Kingdom of England ) was affected by the same political instabilities. The conflicts also involved wars with Scotland and Ireland and civil wars within them. Some historians have favoured
4905-656: The Continent potentially alleviated concerns about the King's marriage to a Catholic. However, Charles's insistence on giving command of the English force to his unpopular royal favourite George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham , undermined that support. Unfortunately for Charles and Buckingham, the relief expedition proved a fiasco (1627), and Parliament, already hostile to Buckingham for his monopoly on royal patronage , opened impeachment proceedings against him. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament. This saved Buckingham but confirmed
5014-583: The Elder , a member of the King's Privy Council, who refused to confirm it in Parliament out of loyalty to Charles. On 10 April 1641, Pym's case collapsed, but Pym made a direct appeal to the Younger Vane to produce a copy of the notes from the King's Privy Council, discovered by the Younger Vane and secretly turned over to Pym, to the great anguish of the Elder Vane. These notes contained evidence that Strafford had told
5123-729: The English Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in the middle of 1637. This was violently resisted. A riot broke out in Edinburgh, which may have been started in St Giles' Cathedral , according to legend, by Jenny Geddes . In February 1638, the Scots formulated their objections to royal policy in the National Covenant . This document took the form of a "loyal protest", rejecting all innovations not first tested by free Parliaments and General Assemblies of
5232-462: The Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions. In 1639, Charles had recalled Wentworth to England and in 1640 made him Earl of Strafford, attempting to have him achieve similar results in Scotland. This time he proved less successful and the English forces fled the field at their second encounter with the Scots in 1640. Almost the whole of Northern England
5341-487: The Island of Barbados and was published in London in 1657 and again in 1673. Ligon's portrait of life in Barbados has made it into a number of literary journals and historical texts in an attempt by many scholars to derive exactly what life in the islands was like and exactly how Europeans, particularly the English, perceived slaves and their role in the sugar trade . One review in the journal Early American Literature offers
5450-628: The King in 1638. The fines imposed on people who refused to pay ship money and standing out against its illegality aroused widespread indignation. During his "Personal Rule", Charles aroused most antagonism through his religious measures. He believed in High Anglicanism , a sacramental version of the Church of England , theologically based upon Arminianism , a creed shared with his main political adviser, Archbishop William Laud . In 1633, Charles appointed Laud Archbishop of Canterbury and started making
5559-548: The King's ministers. Finally, the Parliament passed a law forbidding the King to dissolve it without its consent, even if the three years were up. These laws equated to a tremendous increase in Parliamentary power. Ever since, this Parliament has been known as the Long Parliament . However, Parliament did attempt to avert conflict by requiring all adults to sign The Protestation , an oath of allegiance to Charles. Early in
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#17328589971115668-525: The King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel. On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. By September it became clear that William would invade England. When William arrived on 5 November 1688, James lost his nerve, declined to attack the invading Dutch and tried to flee to France. He was captured in Kent. Later, he
5777-433: The King, but when Charles tried to acquire arms from Kingston upon Hull , the weaponry depository used in the previous Scottish campaigns, Sir John Hotham , the military governor appointed by Parliament in January, refused to let Charles enter the town, and when Charles returned with more men later, Hotham drove them off . Charles issued a warrant for Hotham's arrest as a traitor but was powerless to enforce it. Throughout
5886-453: The King, "Sir, you have done your duty, and your subjects have failed in theirs; and therefore you are absolved from the rules of government, and may supply yourself by extraordinary ways; you have an army in Ireland, with which you may reduce the kingdom." Pym immediately launched a Bill of Attainder stating Strafford's guilt and demanding that he be put to death. Unlike a guilty verdict in
5995-399: The King. The Anglican Church was restored as the established church . The Somers Isles, alias Bermuda (originally named Virgineola ), was originally part of Virginia, and was administered by the Somers Isles Company , a spin-off of the Virginia Company , until 1684. The already existing contest between the mostly Parliamentarian Adventurers (shareholders) of the company in England and
6104-523: The London public stage in the late 17th-century Restoration period, enthralling audiences with action, music, dance, moveable scenery, baroque illusionistic painting , gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and fireworks. These shows have always had a bad reputation as a vulgar and commercial threat to the witty, "legitimate" Restoration drama; however, they drew Londoners in unprecedented numbers and left them dazzled and delighted. Basically home-grown and with roots in
6213-416: The Long Parliament, the house overwhelmingly accused Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford , of high treason and other crimes and misdemeanors. Henry Vane the Younger supplied evidence of Strafford's claimed improper use of the army in Ireland, alleging that he had encouraged the King to use his Ireland-raised forces to threaten England into compliance. This evidence was obtained from Vane's father, Henry Vane
6322-557: The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and became the predominant political figure of the Restoration period. Charles was proclaimed King again on 14 May 1660. He was not crowned, having been previously crowned at Scone in 1651. The Restoration "presented an occasion of universal celebration and rejoicing throughout Scotland". Charles II summoned his parliament on 1 January 1661, which began to undo all that been forced on his father Charles I of Scotland . The Rescissory Act 1661 made all legislation back to 1633 'void and null'. Barbados , as
6431-413: The Lords. Charles and his Parliament hoped that the execution of Strafford and the Protestation would end the drift towards war, but in fact, they encouraged it. Charles and his supporters continued to resent Parliament's demands, and Parliamentarians continued to suspect Charles of wanting to impose episcopalianism and unfettered royal rule by military force. Within months, the Irish Catholics, fearing
6540-502: The Parliament after only a few weeks; hence its name, "the Short Parliament ". Without Parliament's support, Charles attacked Scotland again, breaking the truce at Berwick, and suffered comprehensive defeat. The Scots went on to invade England, occupying Northumberland and Durham . Meanwhile, another of Charles's chief advisers, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Viscount Wentworth , had risen to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632, and brought in much-needed revenue for Charles by persuading
6649-403: The Protectorate (hence the Lord Protector's regranting of them). When that legislation passed into oblivion these two baronets were entitled to use the baronetcies granted by Charles I, and Charles II regranted four more. Only one now continues: Richard Thomas Willy , 14th baronet, is the direct successor of Griffith Williams. Of the remaining Protectorate baronets one, William Ellis , was granted
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#17328589971116758-404: The Rhine returned to the service of England, became a member of the privy council , and was provided with an annuity. George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich , returned to be the Captain of the King's guard and received a pension. Marmaduke Langdale returned and was made " Baron Langdale ". William Cavendish , Marquess of Newcastle, returned and was able to regain the greater part of his estates. He
6867-423: The Usurpation". Virginia had provided sanctuary for Cavaliers fleeing the English republic . In 1650, Virginia was one of the Royalist colonies that became the subject of Parliament's An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego . William Berkeley , who had previously been governor up until 1652, was elected governor in 1660 by the House of Burgesses and he promptly declared for
6976-412: The ability and authority to collect and remit the most meaningful forms of taxation then available at the local level. So, if the king wanted to ensure smooth revenue collection, he needed the gentry's cooperation. For all of the Crown's legal authority, its resources were limited by any modern standard to the extent that if the gentry refused to collect the king's taxes on a national scale, the Crown lacked
7085-402: The army restored the Long Parliament . Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. On 3 March 1660, Lambert was sent to the Tower of London , from which he escaped a month later. He tried to rekindle the civil war in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the " Good Old Cause " to rally on
7194-470: The battlefield of Edgehill, but he was recaptured by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby , a participant in the regicide of Charles I who hoped to win a pardon by handing Lambert over to the new regime. Lambert was incarcerated and died in custody in 1684; Ingoldsby was pardoned. The restoration was not what George Monck, as an apparent engineer of the Restoration, had intended – if indeed he knew what he intended, for in Clarendon's sardonic words; "the whole machine
7303-446: The centre. These carried matchlock muskets, an inaccurate weapon which nevertheless could be lethal at a range of up to 300 yards. Musketeers would assemble three rows deep, the first kneeling, second crouching, and third standing. At times, troops divided into two groups, allowing one to reload while the other fired. Among the musketeers were pike men, carrying pikes of 12 feet (4 m) to 18 feet (5.5 m) long, whose main purpose
7412-418: The centuries de facto powers of enough significance that monarchs could not simply ignore them indefinitely. For a monarch, Parliament's most indispensable power was its ability to raise tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crown's disposal. By the 17th century, Parliament's tax-raising powers had come to be derived from the fact that the gentry was the only stratum of society with
7521-552: The company's wider mismanagement of the colony. This led to a lengthy court case in which the Crown championed Bermudians against the company, and resulted in the company's Royal Charter being revoked in 1684. From that point onwards the Crown assumed responsibility for appointing the Colony's governors (it first re-appointed the last company governor). Freed of the company's restraints, the emerging local merchant class came to dominate and shape Bermuda's progress, as Bermudians abandoned agriculture en masse and turned to seafaring. In 1663
7630-402: The conflicts in the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland had similarities, each had their own specific issues and objectives. The First English Civil War was fought primarily over the correct balance of power between Parliament and Charles I . It ended in June 1646 with Royalist defeat and the king in custody. However, victory exposed Parliamentarian divisions over the nature of
7739-469: The death warrant in 1649 were living. The regicides were hunted down; some escaped but most were found and put on trial. Three escaped to the American colonies. New Haven, Connecticut , secretly harboured Edward Whalley, William Goffe and John Dixwell, and after American independence named streets after them to honour them as forefathers of the American Revolution. In the ensuing trials, twelve were condemned to death. The Fifth Monarchist Thomas Harrison ,
7848-410: The early 17th-century court masque , though never ashamed of borrowing ideas and stage technology from French opera , the spectaculars are sometimes called "English opera". However, the variety of them is so untidy that most theatre historians despair of defining them as a genre at all. Only a handful of works of this period are usually accorded the term "opera", as the musical dimension of most of them
7957-708: The first personal union of the Scottish and English kingdoms . As King of Scots, James had become accustomed to Scotland's weak parliamentary tradition since assuming control of the Scottish government in 1583, so that upon assuming power south of the border, the new King of England was affronted by the constraints the English Parliament attempted to place on him in exchange for money. Consequently, James's personal extravagance, which resulted in him being perennially short of money, meant that he had to resort to extra-parliamentary sources of income. Moreover, increasing inflation during this period meant that even though Parliament
8066-510: The first person found guilty of regicide, who had been the seventeenth of the 59 commissioners to sign the death warrant, was the first regicide to be hanged, drawn and quartered because he was considered by the new government still to represent a real threat to the re-established order. In October 1660, at Charing Cross or Tyburn , London, ten were publicly hanged, drawn and quartered: Thomas Harrison, John Jones , Adrian Scrope , John Carew , Thomas Scot , and Gregory Clement , who had signed
8175-481: The founding of the Royal Society , the experiments and holy meditations of Robert Boyle , the hysterical attacks on theatres from Jeremy Collier , and the pioneering of literary criticism from John Dryden and John Dennis . The period witnessed news become a commodity, the essay develop into a periodical art form, and the beginnings of textual criticism . The return of the king and his court from exile led to
8284-459: The impression that Charles wanted to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny of his ministers. Having dissolved Parliament and unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. (The elected members included Oliver Cromwell , John Hampden , and Edward Coke .) The new Parliament drew up a Petition of Right , which Charles accepted as a concession to obtain his subsidy. The Petition made reference to Magna Carta , but did not grant him
8393-659: The industrial centres, ports, and economically advanced regions of southern and eastern England, including the remaining cathedral cities (except York, Chester, Worcester). Lacey Baldwin Smith says, "the words populous, rich, and rebellious seemed to go hand in hand". Many officers and veteran soldiers had fought in European wars, notably the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish and the Dutch, which began in 1568, as well as earlier phases of
8502-436: The initial charge, leaving their forces scattered and tired, whereas Cromwell's cavalry was slower but better disciplined. Trained to operate as a single unit, it went on to win many decisive victories. The English Civil War broke out in 1642, less than 40 years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I . Elizabeth had been succeeded by her first cousin twice-removed , King James VI of Scotland , as James I of England, creating
8611-438: The island he was attacked by a fever, and returned to England in 1650. He was soon afterward put into prison by his creditors. There are conflicting reports as to whether his narrative was conceived of in prison as a way to pay off his creditors and gain his freedom, or before his imprisonment at the urging of Brian Duppa , Bishop of Salisbury . His work, a folio with maps and illustrations, is entitled A True and Exact History of
8720-448: The issue. On 21 April, the Commons passed the Bill (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 250 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced. Charles, still incensed over the Commons' handling of Buckingham, refused his assent. Strafford himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked him to reconsider. Charles, fearing for the safety of his family, signed on 10 May. Strafford
8829-602: The king failed to issue a proper summons, the members could assemble on their own. This act also forbade ship money without Parliament's consent, fines in distraint of knighthood, and forced loans. Monopolies were cut back sharply, the courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by the Habeas Corpus Act 1640 , and the Triennial Act respectively. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by
8938-459: The king's death warrant; the preacher Hugh Peters ; Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtell , who commanded the guards at the king's trial and execution; and John Cooke , the solicitor who directed the prosecution. The 10 judges who were on the panel but did not sign the death warrant were also convicted. Oliver Cromwell , Henry Ireton , Judge Thomas Pride , and Judge John Bradshaw were posthumously attainted for high treason. Because Parliament
9047-476: The livelihood of thousands after the King awarded a number of drainage contracts. Many saw the King as indifferent to public welfare, and this played a role in bringing much of eastern England into the Parliamentarian camp. This sentiment brought with it such people as the Earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell , each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the leading drainage contractors,
9156-425: The opportunity presented by the King's troubles to force various reforming measures – including many with strong "anti- Papist " themes – upon him. The members passed a law stating that a new Parliament would convene at least once every three years – without the King's summons if need be. Other laws passed making it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent and later gave Parliament control over
9265-489: The policy of coastal counties and inland ports such as London paying ship money in times of need, but it had not been applied to inland counties before. Authorities had ignored it for centuries, and many saw it as yet another extra-Parliamentary, illegal tax, which prompted some prominent men to refuse to pay it. Charles issued a writ against John Hampden for his failure to pay, and although five judges including Sir George Croke supported Hampden, seven judges found in favour of
9374-555: The political settlement. The vast majority went to war in 1642 to assert Parliament's right to participate in government, not abolish the monarchy, which meant Charles' refusal to make concessions led to a stalemate. Concern over the political influence of radicals within the New Model Army like Oliver Cromwell led to an alliance between moderate Parliamentarians and Royalists, supported by the Covenanter Scots . Royalist defeat in
9483-471: The property-owning class to meet, primarily, at least from the point of view of the monarch, to sanction whatever taxes the monarch wished to collect. In the process, the representatives could debate and enact statutes , or acts . However, Parliament lacked the power to force its will upon the monarch; its only leverage was the threat of withholding the financial means required to implement his plans. Many concerns were raised over Charles's marriage in 1625 to
9592-438: The rebellion in Scotland but had insufficient funds to do so. He needed to seek money from a newly elected English Parliament in 1640. Its majority faction, led by John Pym , used this appeal for money as a chance to discuss grievances against the Crown and oppose the idea of an English invasion of Scotland. Charles took exception to this lèse-majesté (offense against the ruler) and, after negotiations went nowhere, dissolved
9701-647: The replacement of the Puritan severity of the Cromwellian style with a taste for magnificence and opulence and to the introduction of Dutch and French artistic influences. These are evident in furniture in the use of floral marquetry , walnut instead of oak, twisted turned supports and legs, exotic veneers , cane seats and backs on chairs, sumptuous tapestry and velvet upholstery and ornate carved and gilded scrolling bases for cabinets. Similar shifts appear in prose style. Comedy, especially bawdy comedy, flourished, and
9810-450: The right of tonnage and poundage , which Charles had been collecting without Parliamentary authorisation since 1625. Several more active members of the opposition were imprisoned, which caused outrage; one, John Eliot , subsequently died in prison and came to be seen as a martyr for the rights of Parliament. Charles avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, a period known as the " personal rule of Charles I ", or by its critics as
9919-590: The summer, tensions rose and there was brawling in several places, the first death from the conflict taking place in Manchester . Stuart Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in England , Scotland , and Ireland . It replaced the Commonwealth of England , established in January 1649 after the execution of Charles I , with his son Charles II . The term
10028-505: The term The British Civil Wars . From the Restoration to the 19th century, the common phrase for the civil wars was "the rebellion" or "the great rebellion". The wars spanning all four countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . In the early 19th century, Sir Walter Scott referred to it as "The Great Civil War". The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica called the series of conflicts
10137-507: The throne, and that the throne was vacant. To fill this vacancy, James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William, Prince of Orange, who would be king. The English Parliament passed the Bill of Rights of 1689 that denounced James for abusing his power. The abuses charged to James included the suspension of the Test Acts after having sworn as king to uphold
10246-417: The time of Elizabeth I about church attendance and fined Puritans for not attending Anglican services. The end of Charles's independent governance came when he attempted to apply the same religious policies in Scotland. The Church of Scotland , reluctantly episcopal in structure, had independent traditions. Charles wanted one uniform Church throughout Britain and introduced a new, High Anglican version of
10355-419: The time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, it functioned as a temporary advisory committee and was summoned only if and when the monarch saw fit. Once summoned, a Parliament's continued existence was at the King's pleasure since it was subject to dissolution by him at any time. Yet in spite of this limited role, Parliament had acquired over
10464-603: Was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms , the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War and the Second English Civil War . The Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 is sometimes referred to as the Third English Civil War. While
10573-571: Was beheaded two days later. In the meantime, both Parliament and the King agreed to an independent investigation into the king's involvement in Strafford's plot. The Long Parliament then passed the Triennial Act 1640 , also known as the Dissolution Act, in May 1641, to which royal assent was readily granted. The Triennial Act required Parliament to be summoned at least once in three years. When
10682-519: Was created Earl of Carlisle , Viscount Howard of Morpeth, and Baron Dacre of Gillesland. The present Earl is a direct descendant of this Cromwellian creation and Restoration recreation. On 6 January 1661, about 50 Fifth Monarchists , headed by a wine-cooper named Thomas Venner , tried to gain possession of London in the name of "King Jesus". Most were either killed or taken prisoner; on 19 and 21 January 1661, Venner and 10 others were hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason . The Church of England
10791-463: Was dissolved by Charles II in January 1661, and he summoned his first parliament in Ireland in May 1661. In 1662, 29 May was made a public holiday known to this day as Oak Apple Day. Coote, Broghill and Maurice Eustace were initially the main political figures in the Restoration. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle was given the position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland but he did not assume office. In 1662 James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde returned as
10900-425: Was granting the King the same nominal value of subsidy, the income was actually worth less. This extravagance was tempered by James's peaceful disposition, so that by the succession of his son Charles I in 1625 the two kingdoms had both experienced relative peace, internally and in their relations with each other. Charles followed his father's dream in hoping to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into
11009-472: Was infinitely above his strength ... and it is glory enough to his memory that he was instrumental in bringing those things to pass which he had neither wisdom to foresee, nor courage to attempt, nor understanding to contrive". On 4 April 1660, Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda , in which he made several promises in relation to the reclamation of the crown of England. While he did this, Monck organised
11118-504: Was invested in 1666 with the Order of the Garter (which had been bestowed upon him in 1650), and was advanced to a dukedom on 16 March 1665. The Indemnity and Oblivion Act , which became law on 29 August 1660, pardoned all past treason against the crown, but specifically excluded those involved in the trial and execution of Charles I . Thirty-one of the 59 commissioners (judges) who had signed
11227-503: Was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day . He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. Some contemporaries described the Restoration as "a divinely ordained miracle". The sudden and unexpected deliverance from political chaos was interpreted as a restoration of the natural and divine order. The Cavalier Parliament convened for the first time on 8 May 1661, and it would endure for over 17 years, finally being dissolved on 24 January 1679. Like its predecessor, it
11336-567: Was occupied and Charles forced to pay £850 per day to keep the Scots from advancing. Had he not done so they would have pillaged and burnt the cities and towns of Northern England. All this put Charles in a desperate financial state. As King of Scots, he had to find money to pay the Scottish army in England; as King of England, he had to find money to pay and equip an English army to defend England. His means of raising English revenue without an English Parliament fell critically short of achieving this. Against this backdrop, and according to advice from
11445-470: Was overwhelmingly Royalist . It is also known as the Pensionary Parliament for the many pensions it granted to adherents of the King. The leading political figure at the beginning of the Restoration was Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon . It was the "skill and wisdom of Clarendon" which had "made the Restoration unconditional". Many Royalist exiles returned and were rewarded. Prince Rupert of
11554-515: Was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, William, Prince of Orange, let him escape on 23 December. James was received in France by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV , who offered him a palace and a pension. William convened a Convention Parliament to decide how to handle the situation. While the Parliament refused to depose James, they declared that James, having fled to France had effectively abdicated
11663-675: Was restored as the national Church in England, backed by the Clarendon Code and the Act of Uniformity 1662 . People reportedly "pranced around May poles as a way of taunting the Presbyterians and Independents" and "burned copies of the Solemn League and Covenant ". "The commonwealth parliamentary union was, after 1660, treated as null and void". As in England the republic was deemed constitutionally never to have occurred. The Convention Parliament
11772-423: Was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. Positioned on each side of the infantry were cavalry, with a right wing led by the lieutenant-general and left by the commissary general . Its main aim was to rout the opponents' cavalry, then turn and overpower their infantry. The Royalist cavaliers' skill and speed on horseback led to many early victories. Prince Rupert , commanding the king's cavalry, used
11881-537: Was to revive conventions, often outdated. For example, a failure to attend and receive knighthood at Charles's coronation became a finable offence with the fine paid to the Crown. The King also tried to raise revenue through ship money , demanding in 1634–1636 that the inland English counties pay a tax for the Royal Navy to counter the threat of privateers and pirates in the English Channel. Established law supported
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