The Restoration Under Charles II Generally, the English people had a great celebration when Charles II returned to the throne in May of 1660.1 Many believed that restoring the monarchy was the only way to secure constitutional rights. In fact, there was an expectation that bringing back the king would return life to the way it was before 1642 and the rule of Cromwell. Charles II was responsible for improving the government for the people. However, despite some achievements, the king was not very successful in creating a stronger and more effective monarchy. He was dependent on his advisors and other parts of the government from the very beginning of his reign. There were constant conflicts between the king and Parliament over religious issues. When Charles II finally did gain some independence, he still did not accomplish much to improve the monarchy. Overall, the government was very inconsistent during the 1660s and 1670s, and the people became disillusioned with the monarchy. The king did not hold all of the responsibility for what happened to the government, though. The people should have taken charge and worked for a change in the system. The rule of Charles II helped show the English citizens that they could not rely on the government so much, but they needed to take more of the power into their own hands and become more autonomous. Edward Hyde Clarendon From the very beginning, Charles was determined to establish himself as a constitutional leader. Also, his advisors wanted to make sure that the new monarchy followed the law, so the people could begin to trust the government again.2 The most influential of these advisors was Edward Hyde Clarendon. For the most part, Charles foll... ... middle of paper ... ...688 (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979), 8-10. 3. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 12. 4. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 21. 5. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 13. 6. J. R. Jones, ed., Liberty Secured? Britain Before and After 1688 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 138-140. 7. Jones, Liberty Secured, 130. 8. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 15. 9. J. R. Jones, Charles II: Royal Politician (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987), 60-62. 10. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 10. 11. Jones, Royal Politician, 74-75. 12. Jones, Royal Politician, 79. 13. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 15. 14. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 19-20. 15. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 10-11. 16. Jones, Royal Politician, 162-163. 17. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 21. 18. Jones, Royal Politician, 187. 19. Jones, Restored Monarchy, 23. 20. Harris, 37.
training when he came to power in 1485, had managed in the time he was
Charles had only two ways to do this, first was to decrease the amount of expenditure, secondly was to generate more income. Charles set his sights on the current war with France and Spain and signed a peace accord with them; this increased profit margins as war with one nation was a heavy burden on finance let alone two. Charles also exploited existing methods of generating income, especially those available to him through royal prerogative; he reinstated a law from 1278 that required all those with an income of £40 or over every annum to present themselves at the King's coronation and join the King's royal army as a night, although this in itself did not generate any money, instead Charles imposed a fine on anyone who didn't attend his coronation in 1626. Charles was shrewd and intelligent and managed to identify a number of different areas which could be exploited legally to generate more income for him such as the introduction of ship money tax; this was a peacetime tax whi... ... middle of paper ... ...
To start, the death of Charles I led to scientific discoveries in England, which helped build the economy and establish the superpower status of England. During his reign, Charles I constantly oppressed ideas that went against the Church of England due to his religious ideals and belief that he could impose religious conformity across all of his lands. Between 1650 and 1659, after Charles’ beheading, both the supporters of Cromwell and the defeated monarchists turned to science and technology for its potential economic and social benefits. The commonwealth made it a priority to pay off their debts from the civil war in any way...
There were several events that contributed to the Revolution of 1688. King Charles I attempted to create an absolute monarchy in 1630’s by dismissing the sitting Parliament. His actions resulted in the English Civil War, where Charles was easily overpowered by Parliament and was consequently captured by Cromwell and executed for treason. After the removal of Charles I, England entered a period of a “republic” where it was ruled by Oliver Cromwell, also known as the Lord Protector. Parliament offered Cromwell the position of king, but he refused in order to distance England from another monarchy. Soon after Oliver’s death, the Commonwealth attempted to name Cromwell’s son, Richard as his predecessor, but the people refused arguing that a theocracy would not be an improvement from the monarchial times. Charles II, the son of Charles was brought back from exile and appointed king in 1660.
Through the 15th and 18th century, Royal Absolutism was the dominant political structure in western society, and personified France and King Louis XIV.
He did not want to consult parliament but would rather rule alone, only consulting a small group of people who became much hated. King Charles I passed the usual court system and used the infamous “court of the star chamber” to enforce his will. King Charles believed that he was above the parliament as he was a absolute king, “[The King] is above the law…absolute parliament…or else…he is not a absolute king” (Source A). King Charles I also cared nothing for the limits of his royal privilege, “with articles of impeachment against five commoners and one peer. He demanded that they be immediately imprisoned on a charge of high treason. The Lords…appointed a committee to consider its legality. In the meantime, Charles had sent a sergeant to the Commons to arrest the five members of the Lower House even before the Lords had agreed to it. The commons too, refused the order, returning the answer that an attempt to arrest any of its members was a breach or privilege” (Source
In late 1600’s, England was in turmoil from events as King Phillip’s War to the Bacon Rebellion. All this chaos caused disorder all throughout England but it reached its height in the 1680’s when King James's policies of religious tolerance was met with an increasing opposition. People were troubled by the king's religion and devotion to Catholicism and his close ties with France and how he was trying to impose Catholicism on everyone, preventing them from worshiping anything else. This made the Protestant unhappy. It was seen that the crisis came to its peak with the birth of the king's son, James Francis Edward Stuart in 1688. In 1688, the struggle for domination of English government between Parliament and the crown reached its peak in the Glorious Revolution. This bloodless revolution occurred in which the English people decided that it’s enough that they tolerated King James and his extreme religious tolerance
King Charles the Second, to gratify some nobles about him, made two great grants out of that country. These grants were not of the uncultivated wood land only, but also of plantations, which for many years had been seated and improved, under the encouragement of several charters granted by his royal ancestors to that colony. Those grants were distinguished by the names of the Northern and Southern grants of Virginia, and the same men were concerned in both. They were kept dormant some years after they were made, and in the year 1674 begun to be put in execution. As soon as ever the country came to know this, they remonstrated against them; and the assembly drew up an humble address to his majesty, complaining of the said grants, as derogatory
Throughout Charles I’s Personal Rule, otherwise known as the ‘Eleven Year Tyranny’, he suffered many problems which all contributed to the failure of his Personal Rule. There are different approaches about the failure of Personal Rule and when it actually ended, especially because by April 1640 Short Parliament was in session. However, because it only lasted 3 weeks, historians tend to use November 1640 as the correct end of the Personal Rule when Long Parliament was called. There was much debate about whether the Personal Rule could have continued as it was, instead people generally believed that it would crumble when the King lost his supporters.
Political and religious turmoil during Henry VIII’s reign (r. 1509-1547) resulted in Henry VIII assuming the roles as head of both the state and the Church of England through the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the dissolution of monarchies, and the ‘Act of Supremacy’. Fundamental changes to the English constitution and the establishment of precedent features regarding Parliamentarian inclusion came as a result of opposition during his time on the throne. King Henry VIII’s reign is arguably the largest reason as to why England was so successful during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign from 1558-1603. This paper will chronicle the events of large scale that developed his historic reign and the perpetual changes to the English
bill of rights), that established general rules for England and “stipulated that the king should levy no taxes without the consent of those he taxed, that no free man should be punished until he had been judged guilty by a jury of his peers, that no one should be arrested or imprisoned without a warrant, and that no unqualified person should hold public office.” (Pg. 226). So this limited the power of King John of England greatly. A big difference that set England apart from Spain and France is that they did not have something like the Magna Carta, also they transitioned, religiously speaking, from Christianity to Catholicism all the way to Protestantism, which neither Spain nor France had as many transitions.This was the start of the evolution of England of giving more power to the people, rather than the King and later on the Church. Eventually, new monarchs came to power in England due to the Glorious Revolution in 1688-89, and England now became a mixed monarchy that was “governed by the ‘king in Parliament’ according to the rule of law. After 1688, no English monarch ever again attempted to govern without Parliament, which has met annually ever since, while strengthening its control over taxation and expenditure.” (Pg. 412). France did in fact, have a parliament system like England’s but it was not as successful and used as properly, during their evolution to the seventeenth century. So we saw England start out with absolute Monarchs and eventually through the Magna Carta and Glorious Revolution, evolve into power for the commercial
They both wanted more power than the other. If Charles had not held such a great belief in ‘the divine right of kings’, he might have been able to avoid a lot of the tensions which built up to and resulted in the civil war. Charles’ personality played a part and showed his opponents that he was arrogant and had little understanding or sympathy for the fears and aspirations of his people. Ultimately, Charles lacked many of the personal qualities needed to be a successful monarch. Finally, he was not good at developing good relationships with and support amongst the politicians and noblemen he needed to rule the country
The challenges to the power of the Monarch was by the reign of James I (1603-25) the monarch was faced with an increasing effective Parliament, culminating in the temporary abolition of the monarchy in (1625). Consequently, the monarchy’s powers were eroded by both revolution and by legal challenges, which included the case of Proclamations (1611) , the monarchy could not change the law by proclamation. The law of the land, which required that the law be made by Parliament, limited the prerogative. In the case of Prohibitions Del Roy (1607) the Monarch had no right to act as a judge, and in the case of the Ship Money Case (1637), although th...
What was it like to be looked upon as the most noble group of people in a nation as important and vast as England? The most powerful positions of the royal family were the king and queen of course, depending on who had the crown at that time. When one became the king he would inherit all of the riches and powers that come along with being the king. If he were to marry a woman then she would become part of the royal family, but not really be a ruler with the king. If one were not part of the royal family they would never live the glamorous life they lived. The king and queen could show their power through public executions, making new laws, and their ability to do whatever they wanted to. The royal family changed the course of history by bringing about new religions, theories, the English Reformation, the changing of boundaries, taking part in the Enlightenment, and countless other things.
Prior to the restoration, Charles I was beheaded in January 1649. This lead to an Interregnum period between 1649-1668; Governed as a virtual dictator by Oliver Cromwell. Richard Cromwell was then put in charge after the death of his father from 1658-1660 which put England at an austere period in which theatres were closed due to no monarch ruling. By the end of the 1660's the Son of Charles I; Charles II was restored to the t...