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English Civil War Overview

The document provides background information on 17th century English society and politics. It notes that the population grew significantly in this period, stratifying society into upper, middle, and lower classes. Religion played a large role, with Protestants dominant but Puritans and Catholics also present. The divine right of kings was asserted by early Stuart monarchs like James I and Charles I, but their abuses of power led to conflict and the English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians. Oliver Cromwell emerged victorious and established the Commonwealth before his son Richard's inability to rule led to the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, though with constraints on royal power established after the Glorious Revolution.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
165 views4 pages

English Civil War Overview

The document provides background information on 17th century English society and politics. It notes that the population grew significantly in this period, stratifying society into upper, middle, and lower classes. Religion played a large role, with Protestants dominant but Puritans and Catholics also present. The divine right of kings was asserted by early Stuart monarchs like James I and Charles I, but their abuses of power led to conflict and the English Civil War between Royalists and Parliamentarians. Oliver Cromwell emerged victorious and established the Commonwealth before his son Richard's inability to rule led to the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, though with constraints on royal power established after the Glorious Revolution.

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Notes

January 14, 2015

3:54 PM

Population + Geography
- 17th century population explosion in England
- Increase in stratification in England (21)
Upper class: the Kings, his advisors, the nobles and the high church
Middle Class: Merchants, manufactures, landowners, professionals, and military officers
Skilled workers used guilds to try and protect themselves from being exploited.
Lower Class: ordinary workers
Not protected, 10 pennies a day for men and only a few for women.
No upward mobility
- Agricultural nation
- Pg 22 pic, what is shown about the difference in socio economic class?
- Food was often not fresh and consisted of mainly meat and bread with vegetables being very
well cooked and rarely eaten.
- 24 - 25, numbers for peoples costs and salaries during the time.
Religion
- Mostly protestant with some Roman Catholics in the country
- Puritans began to grow in number during this time and during periods of religious tolerance
they could meet.
Many left for north America in search of religious freedom others ran for parliament to
try to enact changes
- People believed women were at fault for the Original sin
Who knows what that is?
Women were less able to resist temptation
Many social "misfits" were persecuted as being witches because they did not fit in.
Often innocent of any crime
Either intelligent women or women who didnt marry
Traditional countryside magic
Used pins to poke people because it was said witches did not feel pain in certain areas.
They also tried to drown them and said if they were a witch Satan wouldnt allow
them to drown
Matthew Hopkins
Drowned, burned, hanged, or pressed people to death if her decided they were a
witch
Early Stuarts
- Preferred to rule as absolute monarchs
- James I Introduced the divine right of kings
Their power came from god and the king was gods representative on earth
Since his decisions came from god he could not be questioned by normal people
Quote pg 29
- In the 1200s King John was taking land from the church and selling it back to his bishops for a
profit
This sparked a civil war between the barons and King John that ended in Magna Carta
- It was the first formal document stating that a King had to follow the laws of the land and it
guaranteed the rights of individuals against the wishes of the King. This meant people couldn't
be arrested, imprisoned of have their possessions taken away except by the judgement of his
equals and/or the law of the land. This laid the way for trial by jury which means people are
tried by their peers and guaranteed the civil rights of the individual.
- The Magna Carta established the principle that the people of England, at this stage
represented by the Barons, could limit the power of a King, if he was doing things that were
not good for the country
- The democracy was not as we know it today as it was very hard to be eligible to vote and
therefore was run by the elite.
English + French Revolution Page 1

therefore was run by the elite.


James was very powerful and when he died he left the throne to his son Charles I
Charles often needed money to continue his extravagant lifestyle
Brought back outdated taxes to earn more money without the help of parliament
Sold noble titles to anyone who was willing to pay
Used the court of star chamber to convict, imprison and fine his enemies.
Page 32 shows his abuse of power
The Presbyterians began to rise up in Scotland against Charles because he was trying to
change their religious allegiance.
- He called a short parliament in order to get money for an army to quell the rebellion but the
parliament did not agree with him so he dissolved them.
- The Grand Remonstrance was enacted during the next calling of parliament known as the long
parliament. It was intended to take away many of the kings powers but barely passed because
of people still loyal to Charles I.
- Charles decided to arrest the people against him in parliament and led 500 soldiers to the
house of commons to do so.
- The radicals escaped and began to build a parliament to fight the king.
- Charles retreated to Notting ham when the Queen Henrietta Maria began to help him by
selling crown jewels for money to raise an army.
Civil War
- Charles had a much more experienced army led by Prince Rupert whereas the Parliament had
the navy and a militia made of farmers and workers.
- The Parliament joined forces with the Scots and Oliver Cromwell's modern army residing there
They defeated the royalists in two important battles, Marston Moor and Naseby.
- Charles ended up having to flee to Scotland where he was considered a prisoner and was
handed over to Parliament
Rump Parliament
- The Presbyterians were willing to keep the king in power under a limited role while the
puritans wanted to have him eliminated from power completely
- Charles tried to play the sides against each other but he ended up starting rebellions in his
favour which caused the puritans to kick all Presbyterians out of the parliament and try the
king for treason in their limited parliament.
Trial of the King
- In this time treason was defined as trying to overthrow the king so charging the king with
treason was very strange for many people
- He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death
- Page 38 - arguing for or against Charles
Triumph of Parliament
- The Rump Parliament wanted to make the country a republic with no monarch but many
people believed that Charles II had a claim to the throne. The Rump which was 60 of a possible
203 people ordered Cromwell to find and destroy lingering royalist supporters.
- He defeated the Scots quickly in two battles and began a brutal campaign against the Irish.
The city of Drogheda resisted and Cromwell massacred its entire garrison of troops.
- All Catholic land owners were forcibly removed from their position and resettled in southern
Ireland rather than the North.
- The north of Ireland is still dealing with issues created by Cromwell (43)
The Lord Protector
- Cromwell was frustrated with the incompetence of the Rump Parliament and their inability to
pay the soldiers and refused to hold an election unless they could be guaranteed their seat.
- He marched his army an drove them out, being proclaimed Lord Protector of England by his
army officers and took control of the country as a military dictator.
- His officers controlled areas of England any they outlawed many pagan rituals such as
Christmas, and forbade dancing, gambling, and the theatre. (blue Laws
- He was very unpopular and saw himself as a failure because he had replaced one dictator with
another (himself)
- His son was unable to hold up the title of his father and the republican system in England
failed.
The Restoration
-

English + French Revolution Page 2

The Restoration
- General Monk ordered parliament to reconvene and to dissolve itself, starting an election to
elect new representatives.
- The New parliament restored the House of Commons and in 1660 they restored King Charles ii
as the constitutional monarch, whose power was dictated by parliament.
- The Tories - royalists and Whigs opposed the catholic monarchy.
- Charles wanted to reclaim power and got more Tories into parliament through blackmail and
bribery
Overturned the blue laws
- The regicides who killed his father were severely punished.
Hanged drawn and quartered
Hung until just before death, entrails removed, cut into quarters and placed
around the country as a warning
Dug up Cromwell and hung him as an example
- Charles tried to make more freedom for Catholics and to stop him the parliament passed the
test act which made Catholics second class citizens who could not hold political posts. His own
brother had to step down as the high admiral.
- He died in 1685 and his Catholic brother James succeeded him
The Glorious Revolution
- James believed in the divine right of kings and gave high positions to Catholics in direct
defiance of the Test Act
- Revolts began and James enacted the Bloody assizes where over 1000 people were tried and
many were shipped away from England around 800
- Parliament invited James Daughter Mary II and her Husband William of Orange to become the
new monarchs of England because they were protestant
Many James supporters fled
- James also eventually left abdicating his throne and giving up power to William of Orange.
- This was the glorious revolution because parliament had picked the monarch and the divine
right of kings was dead.
- They agreed to the bill of Rights (47)
- Exiled in France until 1701, he also made an attempt to take power back using a French army
but was not successful.
-

In 1673, James Stuart (1633-1701), Duke of York, having lost his first wife
Anne Hyde in 1671, married the Italian Catholic princess Mary Beatrice of
Modena after several months of indecision and tortuous negotiations. This
marriage, coming on top of several other incidents, confirmed decisively to
many of the Dukes countrymen their long-held fear that the heir to the
throne was both a practicing Catholic and wedded to the international
Catholicizing movement aimed at overthrowing Protestantism.
Mary Beatrice bore several children over the following several years but
none survived past early infancy. By the time the Duke of York succeeded
to the throne as James II in February 1685 his contemporaries no longer
believed that he would be able to have a male heir. They could be sure that
his Catholicizing measures would be only temporary, as at his death the
crown would pass to his eldest surviving daughter by his first wife, the
Protestant Mary, who was married to the Calvinist William of Orange of
the United Provinces.

English + French Revolution Page 3

This complacency was disrupted on 10 June 1688 when Mary of Modena


upset all expectation and gave birth to a living and healthy boy, James
Francis Edward, who would undoubtedly be raised a Catholic and would
be next in line to the throne. The birth of this royal baby was largely
greeted with fear, dread and outright denial. Jamess enemies later
developed an elaborate theory that a live newborn from another mother
had been slipped into Mary of Modenas bed in a warming pan to replace
her own stillborn child and to be presented as the male heir to the throne.
The birth of the Catholic male heir galvanized Jamess enemies, such as the
Immortal Seven of Whig hagiography, who shortly after the birth
addressed their letter to William of Orange asking him to invade to ensure
the summoning of a free parliament. William of Orange used the widespread doubts surrounding the birth as one of the justifications for his
invasion, claiming that he intended to come to England in order to ensure
that a proper investigation was made into the circumstances of the infants
birth. On 22 October James II responded by summoning a special meeting
of the privy council where the detailed testimony of those present at the
birth, attesting that it was indeed Mary Beatrices child, was heard and
formally registered in Chancery.

English + French Revolution Page 4

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