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Guy Fawkes

Chester ( Stuart )

Cromwell

	HOUSE OF STUART 1603 - 1714 - Commonwealth ( declared 1649 ) Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector 1653 -1658 Richard Cromwell 1658 - 1659
TIME LINE 1603 - 1685
TIME LINE 1685 - 1689
TIME LINE 1689 - 1714

When Elizabeth died in 1603, the English crown passed to the son of the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley, James VI. of Scotland and I of England, (1603-1658) The union of England and Scotland under one ruler promised, well for the peace of Britain, but it was in the reign of James I that the rift between King and Parliament first appeared. His accession to the crown of England in addition to that of Scotland did however, not satisfy either of the contending ecclesiastical parties - the Puritans or the Catholics; and his absurd insistence on his divine right made his reign a continuous struggle between the prerogative of the crown and the freedom of the people. His extravagance kept him in constant disputes with the parliament, who would not grant him the sums he demanded, and compelled him to resort to monopolies, loans, benevolences, and other illegal methods. A Catholic scheme to murder James I. of England and his Parliament at the state opening on 5th November 1605, was to be followed by a national Catholic uprising and seizure of power.

During the reign of James I. interest in Foreign affairs lay in the king's policy with regard to the opening stages of the terrible Thirty Years War in Germany, a war which broke out in 1618. In Home affairs came the beginning of the rift between King and Parliament, and the revival by the latter of the formidable weapon of impeachment (1621). The king's chief adviser in the early years of his reign was the wise Earl of Salisbury (d. 1612 ), and at the end of his life the volatile Duke of Buckingham .In Irish affairs the reign was important because of the Plantation of Ulster and in Imperial History for the first successful settlement on the coast of North America, and the first " factory " in India. Among other points of interest in the reign may be mentioned the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, and the death of Shakespeare in 1616.

His son Charles I. (1625-1649), succeeded him with the same exalted ideas of royal prerogative, and his marriage with a Catholic, his arbitrary rule, and illegal methods of raising money, provoked bitter hostility.The king's first adviser was Buckingham (d. 1628). At first, in Foreign affairs some activity was shown, but in the later stages of the Thirty Years War England played no part .It is, however, in the struggle with Parliament that the main importance of the reign lies. In the first three years of the reign came three Parliaments, in the third of which the famous Petition of Right was drawn up .

Then followed eleven years without a Parliament ( 1629 -40 ), a period under the guidance of Laud and Strafford when things went from bad to worse, the latter being the efficient if somewhat harsh ruler of Ireland . Meanwhile in Scotland dissatisfaction with the religious policy of the Stuarts finally came to a head with the signing of the National Covenant in 1637, and - the two Bishops Wars followed in 1639 and 1640. To meet the financial burdens the Long Parliament was called in 1640 ; it secured the execution of Strafford and abolished the arbitrary powers of the king. In Ireland, before the Civil War broke out in England, a rebellion had occurred in 1641, and by 1642 the king and his friends were at such odds with Parliament that civil war was bound to result, between the king's party and that of the parliament, joined by the Scots.

The issues at stake in tile Civil wars are so complex that it is impossible to expose them in a few words. Generally speaking the struggle lay between the exaggerated conception of kingship - the "Divine Right" claimed by the Stuarts, and the solid common sense of the middle classes, who even m Elizabeth's day had shown unmistakably that they would not tolerate oppression. But whereas the Tudors had deferred to Parliament, while using it as their instrument, the Stuart kings, except Charles II., disregarded its rights, privileges, and - worse still - its prejudices.

In the desultory fighting which followed, between the Cavaliers on one side, and the Roundheads, or Parliamentary forces, on the other, the latter triumphed.

In 1649, the whole western world was shocked by the news that Parliament had arraigned, condemned, and finally executed King Charles I. On the death of the king, a commonwealth was formed, which was virtually controlled by the Parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell (d. 1658), who became Lord Protector in 1654. Mutinies in the army among Fifth-monarchists and Levellers were subdued by Cromwell and Fairfax, and Cromwell in a series of masterly movements subjugated Ireland and gained the important battles of Dunbar and Worcester. At sea Blake had destroyed the Royalist fleet under Rupert, and was engaged in an honourable struggle with the Dutch under Van Tromp. But within the governing body matters had come to a deadlock. A dissolution was necessary, yet parliament shrank from dissolving itself, and in the meantime the reform of the law, a settlement with regard to the church, and other important matters remained untouched.

In April, 1653, Cromwell cut the knot by forcibly ejecting the members and putting the keys of the house in his pocket From this time he was practically head of the government, which was vested in a council of thirteen - A parliament - the little or Barebones Parliament - was summoned, and in the December of the same year Cromwell was installed lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. With more than the power of a king, he succeeded in dominating the confusion at home and made the country feared throughout the whole of Europe.

The Commonwealth ( 1649 - 60 ) was a period of continuous and successful warfare, first of all in Ireland, then in Scotland and in England. There followed war in Europe, first with England's new colonial and commercial rival, Holland (1652 ), and then with her old foe, Spain ( 1656 ), a war which led to the conquest of Jamaica and Dunkirk. The Government for the first four years was in the control of the " Rump " - a small remnant of members of the Long Parliament. Subsequently Cromwell was the real ruler, and in 1654 became Protector; but he never succeeded, despite various experiments, in organizing a Government based on popular support, and, on his death in 1658, a period of confusion followed which resulted in the restoration of Charles II Cromwell died in 1658, and the brief and feeble protectorate of his son Richard followed.

The Commonwealth only survived Cromwell's death by two years, there was now, wide-spread feeling the country would be better under the old form of government, and it was decided to offer the throne to the son of Charles I, then in exile in France. Re-marking that he had no wish to set out on his travels again, Charles II. (1660-1685) embarked upon the difficult enterprise of harmonizing warring elements in Church and State, and of dealing with a critical situation abroad.

Superficially, Charles was a light-hearted and somewhat profligate ruler, the despair of his sober-minded councillors, who when his signature was needed for some important document, would be found playing tennis, or talking with Tompion the clock-maker or Nell Gwynn, the orange-girl. But behind his levity Charles hid a very shrewd brain. He gave the country what it needed, time to recover from the ravages and bitterness of civil war.

For the first seven years of the reign Clarendon was the king's chief adviser; and during his ministry came the settlement of the kingdom after the Commonwealth, the first of the two Dutch wars, the Great Plague (1665) and the Fire of London (1666). The promises of religious freedom made by him before the Restoration in the Declaration of Breda. were broken by the Test and Corporation Acts (1673), and by the Act of Uniformity, which drove two thousand clergymen from the church and created the great dissenting movement of modern times. The Conventicle (1664) and Five-mile Acts (1665), and the ' Drunken Parliament ' restored Episcopacy in Scotland, at one time civil war seemed again imminent. After Clarendon's fall came the ministry known as the " Cabal " (1667 - 73), and then that of Danby (1673 - 8). The years from ( 1678 - 81 ) were years of crisis, during which occurred the attempt to exclude the Duke of York, the king's brother, from coming to the throne; but the king triumphed, and during the last years of his life ( 1681-5 ).

Hostility to Holland, led to two wars in 1665 and 1672, but between these wars England was for a short time in alliance with her . In the later part of the reign the great French king, Louis XIV, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, paid Charles II large sums of money, and made the policy of England subservient to that of France .

The reign was important in our Constitutional History, especially for the further control of Parliament in finance the abolition of the censorship of the press (1679) and the - affirmation of the Habeas Corpus principle are the most praiseworthy incidents of the reign.

The reign of Charles II is important in our Imperial History for the acquisition of Bombay and (for a time) of Tangier, and of the middle colonies in North America ; and in our Military History for the organization of a Standing Army . In Science the reign saw the foundation of the Royal Society, in Art the buildings of Sir Christopher Wren, and in Literature the greatest poems of John Milton. In our Religious History for the separation between the Nonconformists and the Anglican Church in England , and the persecution of the Presbyterians in Scotland ;

As Charles II. left no legitimate issue, his brother the Duke of York succeeded him as James II. (1685 - 1688) An invasion by a illegitimate son of Charles the Duke of Monmouth, who claimed the throne, was suppressed, and the king's arbitrary rule supported by the wholesale butcheries of such instruments as Kirke and Jeffreys. He took complete advantage of the popular reaction frown the narrowness and intolerance of Puritanism, but he alienated sympathy by an ill-judged attempt to impose Roman Catholicism and his attempts to force the church and the universities to submission provoked a storm of opposition. Seven prelates were brought to trial for seditious libel, but were acquitted amidst general rejoicings. The whole nation was prepared to welcome any deliverance and in 1688 he was forced to make way for his brother-in-law, William of Orange. This revolt vindicated the right of Parliament to decide upon the succession to the throne.

In 1688 William of Orange, (the husband of James's daughter Mary), landed in Torbay and James fled to France. William refused to be the mere King-Consort of his wife Queen Mary, and he was crowned as William III (1689 - 1702). He still concentrated on his native Holland, but controlled a difficult situation with great success, thanks partly to the great personal popularity of Queen Mary, who was sweet and charming. Constitutionally, the reign of William III is of considerable importance; annexed to this settlement was a Declaration or Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701) circumscribing the royal prerogative by depriving him of the right to exercise dispensing power, or to exact money, or maintain an army without the assent of parliament, completing the work begun in Magna Carta.This placed henceforward the right of the British sovereign to the throne upon a purely statutory basis.

In the " War of the English Succession " against Louis XIV ( 1689 - 97 ), there was fighting in Scotland, Ireland, in the Netherlands, and at sea. A toleration act passed in 1689, released dissent from many penalties. An armed opposition to William lasted for a. short time in Scotland, but ceased with the fall of Viscount Dundee, the leader of James's adherents; The coinage was reformed in Scotland as soon as the fighting was over, Presbyterianism was made the established religion, and schools were started in every parish, and though the struggle was prolonged in Ireland, it was brought to a close before the end of 1691, after the conquest by William III, came the severe Penal Laws against the Roman Catholics.

The following year saw the origination of the national debt, the exchequer having been drained by the heavy military expenditure. A bill for triennial parliaments was passed in 1694, the year in which Queen Mary died. For a moment after her death William's popularity was in danger, but his successes at Namur and elsewhere, and the obvious exhaustion of France, once more confirmed his powers. The treaty of Ryswick followed in 1697, the death of James II. in exile in 1701 removed an important source of danger.William's reign also witnessed the beginnings of some measure of toleration in religion and of liberty with regard to the Press.

The closing years of William's reign saw the attempt to settle the Spanish Succession problem through the Partition Treaties with France; but the death of the King of Spain and the ambitions. of Louis XIV led to war in 1702, just before William's death