The century of the revolutions

The era of Stuarts is that of«the century of the revolutions». In one 17th century generally obscured in Europe, England did
not know miseries of the Germanic Empire, nor the destiny in teeth of saw of France. One finishes on the contrary on an
apogee. But the Englishmen then acquire the reputation of the most sanguinary people more stirring up and of the Old
Continent.

Jacques I and Charles I

The first both Stuarts, Jacques I, from 1603 to 1625, Charles I, his son and successor, who perishes on the scaffold into
1649, linked, in their person, the three kingdoms of Ireland, of Scotland and England. They were eager of absolutism and
persuaded sovereigns which they owed, paternally, to guide their subjects in the policy as in the achievement of their religious
duties. They failed to collaborate with Parliaments whose docility became increasingly dubious, the point to persuade
Charles Ier to more convene some between 1629 and 1640 («the eleven years tyranny»). At the time of the sessions, the
haughty assertion of the royal prerogative (as in 1610), the members of Parliament answer by an obvious unwillingness to vote
taxes, going into 1625 until denying in Charles Ier the possibility of freely raising customs duties its life lasting, and by the
assertion of rights: thus in 1628, the petition of the Right, in six items due especially to the feather of John Pym, asserts the
habeas corpus and, for the deputies and Lords, the privilege to authorize raised and housing of people of war and to vote the
tax taxes. Since 1616, due to the lawyer Edward Coke, the theory of«the Norman yoke»makes freedoms a reconquest of
Saxon rights that no sovereign should deteriorate and that should protect courts and Parlement. Implied in this conflict of
authority, which has its prolongations in the local administration, a whole social elite, gentry and middle-class, often finds itself
against the king, whose economic and social policy is far from gaining the approval of the owners (paternalism against
enclosures, weakness of the colonial ambitions, distribution-sale of monopolies, bonds, offices without justification). Certain
conflicts are highly symbolic systems: thus resistance to the illegal tax when, in 1635, the ship-money , tax intended to equip the
fleet with war, are wide arbitrarily of some maritime ports and areas with all the kingdom; John Hampden, former deputy,
gentleman, lets himself trail in justice into 1637 rather than to pay.

The religious evolution does not support either the sovereigns. Those refused one and the other to support the puritans:
Jacques Ier pushed back into 1603 «the petition of the thousand»(pastors), it persecutes the sects«dissenting», of which the
number increases baptists, the independent ones, and of which the most threatened the choice between the exile in Holland or
the emigration has towards America, following the example travellers of Mayflower  in 1620; Charles Ier follows the example of
his father and, in years 1630, advised by the Laud archbishop, multiplies the continuations, translating the dissidents for
rebellion in front of the spangled Room, causing in their opposition to the sorrows of imprisonment, but also of exhibition to the
pilori and essorillement. The assertion more and more stubborn person of the spiritual authority of the bishops even results in
wanting to extend the system Anglican to Scotland, which finds there the pretext of a revolt into 1638. In the cities and ports,
sensitive to the ideas from Holland, in a gentry sometimes recruited in the world commercial or concerned of its economic
future and of a good control of the village companies, the separatist ideas, the right to autonomy of the congregations walked
on; the puritan writings which insist on the holiness of the individuals touched by the grace and saved by their faith reinforce the
spirit of resistance. Roman Catholicism is rolled, reduced to represent only from 2 to 5 p. 100 of the population towards 1630;
it does not continue any less to make fear, the more so as occasional conspiracies confirm the threat: thus conspiracy of the
Powders of 1605, where, under the behaviour of Guy Fawkes, of the catholics wanted to make jump mixed Westminster,
Parlement and king; condemned to all kinds of discriminations, the catholics are permanent emissary goats: Charles Ier, husband
of the catholic Henriette-Marie de France, restored into 1635 the diplomatic relations with Rome, its Laud adviser supports in
the Church Anglican a slack current arminien and the return to Roman rites. From where fears and suspicions which gather
against the throne numbers Protestants of all edges, still irritated in addition by the excessive financial pressures of the clergy
(told and revenues).

Economic stagnation gradually settled as from years 1610, dependent on a more rigorous climate, with the loss of markets, the
competition of producers of fabrics foreign, Silesian in particular, when, on the continent, the Thirty Year old war (1618)
bursts. The kings one reproaches for slowing down individualism in the campaigns, for multiplying sterilizing monopolies, for not
actively pushing the fight on sea against the hackers, for taking only sporadic actions against the Spaniards whereas the
Dutchmen launch out boldly in the colonial adventure, to take too many taxation and to cause embarrassments with the
tradesmen by their loans compulsory of the cities.

The foreign policy does not make it possible to Jacques nor in Charles to regild their blazon. Parsimonious, concerned not not
to ask too much at Parliaments, they are often peaceful. Their war counters Spain, after 1625, turns short, the forwarding of the
Small rock to the help of the huguenots, under the management of the Buckingham favourite, ends in a fiasco, England is on the
margin of the history which is done in Europe.

The sovereigns less and less could count on the sharp forces of their nation, when the military capacity of large aristocrats
weakened: those preserve or reconstitute their fortune to the detriment of their old feudal ambitions, but also of the forces
armed likely to help the king. Dissatisfaction is not general towards 1640, but it is widespread in the groups of the middle-class
and the gentry, vigorous where the socio-economic transfers cause the most anxiety and destabilize the old communities.

The Great Rebellion (1640-1660)

Coming out of these tensions, the Great Rebellion is born immediately from the need for Charles Ier for answering the revolt of
Scotland by the call to a supposed Parliament to vote subsidies necessary to him. In 1640,«the Short Parliament», joined
together on April 13, is dissolved as of May 5; November 3, one is obliged to join together a new Parliament to which its
longevity makes give by the history the nickname«Length». With the passing of years, the conflict packs new ideologies and
movements. Until January 1642, the confrontation is peaceful. The Parliament obtains the execution of Strafford, the arrest of
Laud, two of the principal advisers of the king, the suppression of the spangled Room and the High Commission, the regional
consultings, the ship-money. But, while presenting to Charles, the 1er December 1641, the Great Remonstrance, exposed
objections and requirement of a control on the executive, it makes the rupture inevitable: following 5 January, Charles tries to
make stop five deputies, of which Pym and Hampden; they flee in the City, which revolts and constrained the king to give up his
capital and to take refuge in Oxford.

From 1642 to 1645, the conflict turns to the armed confrontation, but is marked by the hesitation of the parliamentary armies
and a splitting in fact of the country between the rich South, and its ports and fleets, and a North and an acquired Center of
more or less good liking to the royalist camp. In 1645, inspired by the effectiveness of the regiment of the iron Coasts of
Cromwell to the battle of Marston Moor (July 2 1644), the Parliament organizes an army of the New Model, of Swedish type,
recruited among determined Protestants, controlled by selected officers and promoted for their merits, animated by pastors
with the armies, true political police chiefs, equipped with a many cavalry; under the command of Fairfax, this army gains the
decisive victory of Naseby (June 14 1645), and Charles Ier, delivered by the Scot, is the prisoner of the Parliament in April
1646.

From 1646 to 1649, the revolution is radicalized. More revolutionary ideologies develop, in particular in London and in the
army (where exist elected consultings):«the levellers», under the management of John Lilburne, think of a true democracy,
without convincing, during decisive debates of Putney, in November 1647, the Fairfax Generals, Cromwell and Ireton to
entrust the government to«the rabble»and to thus risk attacks with the property. The religious combat are also extremely sharp:
having adopted the system presbytérien into 1646, following Covenant  passed with the Scot into 1643 and of the conferences
of an assembly of Westminster, the Parliament does not succeed in imposing its idea of a new type of religious monopoly, in
particular in front of resistances of «the independent ones», of which the poet Milton and Oliver Cromwell itself. The political
solution takes shape badly: the king cannot benefit from the possibility of negotiating which the doubts of the moderate majority
of the Parliament confer to him, it flees of the island of Wight into 1648, revival the war, is captured again. The army, become
the principal force in the State, purifies the Parliament, reducing the assembly to«a tail»(Rump Parliament ), requires and obtains
the judgement of Charles Ier. The dignity of the sovereign, his firmness, his execution on January 30 1649 make a martyr of it.
The dissolution of the House of Lords and the decision not to proclaim king the son of late involve the end of the mode and the
passage to the republic during eleven years of«interregnum». The Republic, or «the Commonwealth and free State», join
together the three kingdoms following hard forwardings military against the Scot and especially the Irishmen, victims of true
massacres and dispossessed of many grounds given to British colonists («plantations»). The system does not cease seeking to
be defined. After the government of Rump, one attends into 1653 the vain attempt to join together«a Parliament of the saints»,
composed of determined, but especially talkative puritans. In December, Cromwell is resigned to take itself the capacity with
the bond of Lord-guard, whom it will constantly refuse to swap against that of king, but who it lets evolve to heredity with the
profit of his Richard son. The capacity of the army makes impossible very compromised in the form of a recourse at
Parliaments to ensure a harmonious operation of the legislature: those which are joined together are promptly dissolved. In
1658, the death of Oliver removes with the mode its only element of stability and effectiveness. Richard, quickly discouraged,
abdicates in April 1659, and military anarchy is established. Conflict of the Generals, the winner, in 1660, is Monck: it points
out Rump, makes him pronounce the dissolution of the Long Parliament of which it was the emanation, makes convene the old
Parliament in its forms, Lords included, and, having obtained of the applicant the declaration of Breda, makes recognize, May 1
1660, the rights of Charles II and the return to monarchy.

The Republic lasted long enough to mark the history of the country. Torn between «riders», reduced to the defensive,
and«round heads»with the capacity, she wanted to be «puritan»: an oppressive moral command is established, accentuated by
Cromwell, which shares the vision of England «new Israel»; the theatres, the cabarets, the houses of prostitution are closed, the
dances and certain distractions (bear and dog, cockfights) prohibited, Sundays reserved strictly for the divine worship.
Unquestionable netting: the largest tolerance is granted to all the not-Anglicans and to not-catholics; even the Jews are réadmis
into 1655; the sects proliferate, of the diggers , or diggers, to which Gerrard Winstanley preaches an agrarian and Christian
Communism, with the Quakers of George Fox while passing by most insane; at the point to oblige the State to be made the
judge of the recruitment of the parochial clergies and, into 1657, to encourage a nonobligatory national Church again. Partly
middle-class«revolution», it grants a full freedom of firm, puts an end to feudality by creating the true right of ownership , puts
the State at the service of the commercial interests (Act of navigation, 1651; colonial efforts and acquisition of Jamaica, rich in
sugar; ground sale of Church and land charge to creditors and soldiers in Ireland). Final anarchy comprises the durable lesson
of the refusal to give an unspecified political power to the army and distrust towards a great permanent military force.

Restoration

With Charles II from 1660 to 1685, then with his/her brother Jacques II of York, the Restoration breaks the yoke of the
former moral command and restores quickly the monopoly Anglican in England. Discriminations strike the
nonconformists«again», in addition victims of a directed legislation, into 1673 and 1678, against the catholics: the laws of the
Test prohibit any public function, elective, member of Parliament with that which would not have communié in the national
Church. Just as the law of 1661 on the corporations (municipal) the performance of a municipal duty to the not-Anglicans had
prohibited before. Charles II, careful, tries to do good housework with a Parliament which is, a time, more royalist than the king
(riding Parliament of 1661), but more and more frequently runs up against him: the conflict known as of exclusion sees a new
party, the whigs , to try to make exclude the Jacques catholic from York of the succession and, coming after the vote from the
habeas corpus into 1679, this fight convinces the king to more join together some between 1681 and 1685. The foreign policy
of Charles attracts other enemies to him, for he is personally the customer of Louis XIV, and he always hesitates to take party
against France frankly, in particular at the time of the wars of Holland; he resold in France, as of 1662, Dunkirk, acquired by
Cromwell into 1658.

But the reign of Charles is also the time of a great «commercial revolution», of a maritime dash which enriches London
considerably, of valorous efforts to rebuild the capital after the large fire of 1666 according to plans' of the architect
Christopher Wren, of an exceptional literary flowering with the rebirth of the theatre where works of John Dryden shine; many
rich person are satisfied whose mentality appears well in the newspaper of Samuel Pepys; the aristocracy found its role; at the
Parliament, a strong party tory acts against the whigs into 1680-1681 and supports the royal prerogative. Charles, who never
revealed his secret conversion with Catholicism, dies peacefully. His/her Jacques brother easily destroys the rebellion of the
applicant protesting Monmouth, tests a time to get along with the Parliament, but makes too many errors. He dissatisfied the
notable buildings by depriving a great number of them of the functions of Justice of the Peace, he endeavours to obtain a
permanent army open to the catholics, multiplies the unjustified monopolies again, has awkwardness, when whole Protestant
England saw the drama close to France, where one revokes the edict of Nantes, to want to support the catholics: two
Declarations of indulgence, in 1687 and 1688, want to return their civic rights to them; resistance is strong; bishops, stopped on
the command of the king, are discharged by a jury. Tories and whigs, Anglicans and puritans make common cause. When is
announced, in June 1688, the birth of a crown prince immediately baptized in the Roman faith, the revolution is profiled.

The Glorious Revolution

«The Glorious Revolution»is born from a conspiracy of aristocrats and bishops, of their call to a foreign prince, Guillaume d'
Orange, son-in-law of Jacques, who unloads his troops with Torbay, in Devon, November 7 1688, and of the prompt
desertion from the majority of the discounted supports of the king. This one, closure, flee in France, leaving the free field to
Guillaume: one convenes (illegally) a Parliament, which compares the departure of Jacques to an abdication, adopts a
Declaration of the rights which becomes the base of the separation of the powers executive and legislature, proclaims Guillaume
(III) and Marie (II) king and Queen of England to equality of capacities (February 23) and solves the religious problem by the
Act of tolerance, conferring to the Protestants only the freedom of worship... all while maintaining the laws of the Test and the
law on the corporations. Short and not very bloody, the revolution is all the more popular in the English memory which it had an
ideologist of engineering as a John Locke, who defines into 1690 the theories of the contract, of popular sovereignty, of the
natural rights of the men. Only Ireland, where «the jacobites»find a ground favorable, is in margin: the war prevails there into
1690-1691 and Guillaume must gain there the decisive victories of Londonderry and Boyne before imposing the treaty of
Limerick, all events still commemorated today in a way opposed by the catholic and Protestant communities of the island of
Érin. The revolution is also glorious because it opens one period of more than twenty years of expansion and international size.

The Stuarts last

The time of Stuarts is still, indeed, that of Marie (dead into 1694), of Guillaume, who survives to him until 1702, of Anne, until
1714. Under their reign, English freedoms consolidate (law of 1693 for the obligatory convocation of a new Parliament every
three years at least; Act of establishment of 1701 requiring a sovereign protesting on the throne), the union with Scotland is
carried out by the Act of 1707. Whigs and tories dispute the capacity in turn, but the fights proceed more between the family
clans which enters of the organized parties. The shade of Jacques II and his successors planes, making suspect on several
occasions the tories of sympathies jacobites. But, in the the time of the wars, they are sometimes the interests commercial,
favorable to the maritime expansion, sometimes the complaints of the owners of the ground, victims of the effort tax and more
pacifist, which dominate. The attachment of the tories to the royal prerogative is worth favours and a capacity to them that the
whigs, however in favour of freedoms and tolerance, are seen denying because also of their personal ambitions and their greed.
Great victories over Louis XIV and Philippe V of Spain, in particular those of Marlborough under the queen Anne, colonial
conquests and acquisitions (whose Gibraltar) and, in 1713, the victorious treaty of Utrecht, which gives to England immense
advantages in Spanish America, are worth a considerable popularity with monarchy.

The time of the Stuarts last was the continuation also economic rise started under the Restoration, the moment of the banking
development with creation, into 1694, of the Bank of England, the time of the large individual or collective commercial
companies (Company of the South Seas, 1711). The financial interests can thus accept the continuous political domination of
the land aristocracy. The poverty remains large, which would have affected, according to calculations' of Gregory King for
1688, half of the five million Englishman; individual charity is falling, the public assistance in charge, in spite of or because of the
appearance of the first asylums of the poor. The general atmosphere remains optimistic, also marked by a vigorous intellectual
movement; Henry Purcell, died into 1695, was most brilliant of the type-setters. Beside Locke, other great world engineering is
the scientist Isaac Newton, recipient partly of astronomical search undertaken in particular by Edmund Halley, and sometimes
within the framework of the observatory of Greenwich founded into 1676. The whole on bottom of appeasing of the religious
conflicts, of decline of the nonconformism, given up by the social elites, of the decisive retreat of the presbytériens, the relative
rise of the baptists and Quakers, the growth of the unitarian ones, who, by rejecting the dogma of the Trinity, affirm themselves
of their time, which is that of rationalism.

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