From the Puritan Age to the Augustan Age

From the Puritan Age to the Augustan Age

Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth 1649-1669

Personal rule 1628

The Civil War 1642-1649

1625The continuation of the struggle between Crown and Parliament

1640 The breaking down of personal rule

1649 The execution of Charles I

The continuation of the struggle between Crown and Parliament

• In 1625 James was succeeded by his son, Charles.

• The king chose William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Personal rule

• Needing to raise money for a war with France, Charles I was obliged to summon Parliament again in 1628.

• Parliament agreed to grant money on the condition that he accepted the Petition of Rights.

• Discord between king and Parliament grew increasingly- bitter and in 1629 Charles dissolved the assembly and ruled as a despot for 11 years.

The breaking down of personal rule

• Charles summoned Parliament in 1640 to raise taxes for a war with Scotland.

• This 'Short Parliament' lasted for only one month but just six months later Charles was forced to summon Parliament again (the Long Parliament).

• The Parliamentarians passed an Act to the effect that they could not be dissolved without their own consent.

• The angry king's attempt to arrest four Parliamentarians failed.

The Civil War

• Anglican members of the old aristocracy and the country landlords sided with the king's cause: they were called Royalists or Cavaliers.

• The Parliamentarians, also known as Roundheads, were mainly Puritan and were supported by the middle class, and by the towns and cities.

• The Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, formed an army defeated the king's army.

The execution of Charles I

• Charles was imprisoned.

• Finally Cromwell succeeded in having the judges sign a death-warrant, and on 29 January 1649 the king was beheaded, the only English monarch ever to be executed.

Oliver Cromwell and the commonwealth

• Oliver Cromwell, helped to organise the army when the Civil War broke out in 1642.

• After the execution of the king, England was proclainted a Commonwealth.

• Until 1653 it was under the rule of the House of Commons. This body was known as the 'Rump Parliament'. The Parliament formally abolished the Monarchy and the House of Lords.

The protectorate-The end of the puritan rule1653

The Glorious Revolution1689

Plague and fire 1665-1666

1650 Royalist reaction-The battle of Dunbar

1673 What was restored during the Restoration?

1660 The return of the Stuarts

Royalist reaction

• The execution of the king provoked a Royalist reaction in Ireland and Scotland.

• Cromwell's troops reacted and massacred Protestant and Catholic Royalists.

• In 1650 a Scottish royalist rebellion was brutally crushed at the Battle of Dunbar in Scotland.

The protectorate

• In 1653 the army appointed Oliver Cromwell 'Lord Protector of the Realm' with power to rule over England, Ireland and Scotland, although he rejected an invitation to become king.

• When another Royalist rising broke out in March 1655, Cromwell resorted to military rule and ran the country as a military dictatorship until 1657.

• Cromwell was succeeded by his son Richard. Richard abdicated eight months later. After Richard, the Republic slowly fell apart.

• The Presbyterians, now favoured the restoration of the Stuarts, on condition that the king should not rule without Parliament.

The return of the Stuarts

• The restoration of Charles II, son of the executed king, was welcomed as it marked the end of an oppressive, Puritan era.

• One of Charles II's first acts was to exact grim revenge on the man responsible for his father's execution. Cromwell's dead body was then subjected to a posthumous execution.

Plague and Fire

• Charles II's reign saw London suffer two terrible events in short succession. In 1665 the Great Plague killed more than 100,000 Londoners.

• The second was the Great Fire of London of 1666, which destroyed two thirds of the City of London.

What was restored during the restoration?

• The first Parliament of the reign, known as the Cavalier Parliament, was determined to restore both king and Parliament.

• The Church of England was also re-established and under the Test Act of 1673 any man in public office had to take communion in the Protestant Church and recognise the king as the Head of the Church of England.

The glorious revolution

• Two political parties dominated British politics: anti-Catholic Whigs, and the Tories.

• When Charles II died in 1685, his brother, became king as James II.

• James' Catholic wife gave him a male heir, the nation was alarmed that the successor to the throne would be another Catholic.

• William of Orange, Protestant husband of James' daughter Mary Stuart.

• William and Mary were welcomed by the English and duly crowned king and queen of England in what is known as the Glorious Revolution. William and Mary were offered the throne on condition that they signed the Bill of Rights.

• With the support of King Louis XIV, in 1689 James II brought an army to Ireland, hoping to fight his way back to power. James' army was defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The second Jacobite rising 1745

George I and the House of Hanover1714

1702 Queen Anne

1715-1727 The first Jacobite rising

Queen Anne

• William died childless in 1702 and Mary's sister Anne carne to the throne. Within months of her accession the War of Spanish Succession broke out.

• England won a series of military victories.

• With the Treaty of Utrecht the foundations of a great colonial empire were laid.

• During Anne's reign England and Scotland were united into the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

George I and the House of Hanover

• When Queen Anne died in 1714 the Whig politicians promptly enacted the Act of Settlement by having the Elector of Hanover proclaimed king George I.

• George I chose to deal with one minister who acted as a link between the Cabinet (the council of ministers) and the king. This gave him great power and authority.

• The first Prime Minister in the modern sense was Sir Robert Walpole.

The first Jacobite rising - George II

• The major opposition to the Hanoverians came from the Jacobites. The first and unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion occurred in 1715.

• Under George II's reign, Britain fought a series of wars on foreign soil all for colonies and trade.

• 'The War of Jenkin's Ear' (1739).

• In the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48).

• The Seven Years' War (1756-63).

• The Seven Years' War was overseen by the brilliant Whig statesman, William Pitt the Elder (1708-78), the first to realise the importance of the colonies and the true founder of the British Empire.

The second Jacobite rising

• The second, and last, Jacobite rising came about in 1745 during the reign of George II. The failure of this rising marked the final blow to the Jacobites' hopes.