BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

bore him three sons and four daughters: Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret,

Charles, Robert, Mary and Sophia. He was named successor to the English

throne by his cousin, Elizabeth I and ascended that throne in 1603. James

died of a stroke in 1625 after ruling Scotland for 58 years and England for

22 years.

James was profoundly affected by his years as a boy in Scottish court.

Murder and intrigue had plagued the Scottish throne throughout the reigns

of his mother and grandfather (James V) and had no less bearing during

James's rule. His father had been butchered mere months after James' birth

by enemies of Mary and Mary, because of her indiscretions and Catholic

faith, was forced to abdicate the throne. Thus, James developed a guarded

manner. He was thrilled to take the English crown and leave the strictures

and poverty of the Scottish court.

James' twenty-nine years of Scottish kingship did little to prepare him

for the English monarchy: England and Scotland, rivals for superiority on

the island since the first emigration of the Anglo-Saxon races, virtually

hated each other. This inherent mistrust, combined with Catholic-Protestant

and Episcopal-Puritan tensions, severely limited James' prospects of a

truly successful reign. His personality also caused problems: he was witty

and well-read, fiercely believed in the divine right of kingship and his

own importance, but found great difficulty in gaining acceptance from an

English society that found his rough-hewn manners and natural paranoia

quite unbecoming. James saw little use for Parliament. His extravagant

spending habits and nonchalant ignoring of the nobility's grievances kept

king and Parliament constantly at odds. He came to the thrown at the zenith

of monarchical power, but never truly grasped the depth and scope of that

power.

Religious dissension was the basis of an event that confirmed and fueled

James' paranoia: the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes and

four other Catholic dissenters were caught attempting to blow up the House

of Lords on a day in which the king was to open the session. The

conspirators were executed, but a fresh wave of anti-Catholic sentiments

washed across England. James also disliked the Puritans who became

excessive in their demands on the king, resulting in the first wave of

English immigrants to North America. James, however, did manage to

commission an Authorized Version of the Bible, printed in English in 1611.

The relationship between king and Parliament steadily eroded. Extravagant

spending (particularly on James' favorites), inflation and bungled foreign

policies discredited James in the eyes of Parliament. Parliament flatly

refused to disburse funds to a king who ignored their concerns and were

annoyed by rewards lavished on favorites and great amounts spent on

decoration. James awarded over 200 peerages (landed titles) as,

essentially, bribes designed to win loyalty, the most controversial of

which was his creation of George Villiers (his closest advisor and

homosexual partner) as Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was highly

influential in foreign policy, which failed miserably. James tried to

kindle Spanish relations by seeking a marriage between his son Charles and

the Spanish Infanta (who was less than receptive to the clumsy overtures of

Charles and Buckingham), and by executing Sir Walter Raleigh at the behest

of Spain.

James was not wholly unsuccessful as king, but his Scottish background

failed to translate well into a changing English society. He is described,

albeit humorously, in 1066 and All That, as such: "James I slobbered at the

mouth and had favourites; he was thus a bad king"; Sir Anthony Weldon made

a more somber observation: "He was very crafty and cunning in petty things,

as the circumventing any great man, the change of a Favourite, &c. inasmuch

as a very wise man was wont to say, he believed him the very wisest fool in

Christendom."

CHARLES I (1625-49)

Charles I was born in Fife on 19 November 1600, the second son of James

VI of Scotland (from 1603 also James I of England) and Anne of Denmark. He

became heir to the throne on the death of his brother, Prince Henry, in

1612. He succeeded, as the second Stuart King of England, in 1625.

Controversy and disputes dogged Charles throughout his reign. They

eventually led to civil wars, first with the Scots from 1637 and later in

England (1642-46 and 1648). The Civil Wars deeply divided people at the

time, and historians still disagree about the real causes of the conflict,

but it is clear that Charles was not a successful ruler.

Charles was reserved (he had a residual stammer), self-righteous and had

a high concept of royal authority, believing in the divine right of kings.

He was a good linguist and a sensitive man of refined tastes. He spent a

lot on the arts, inviting the artists Van Dyck and Rubens to work in

England, and buying a great collection of paintings by Raphael and Titian

(this collection was later dispersed under Cromwell). His expenditure on

his court and his picture collection greatly increased the crown's debts.

Indeed, crippling lack of money was a key problem for both the early Stuart

monarchs.

Charles was also deeply religious. He favoured the high Anglican form of

worship, with much ritual, while many of his subjects, particularly in

Scotland, wanted plainer forms. Charles found himself ever more in

disagreement on religious and financial matters with many leading citizens.

Having broken an engagement to the Spanish infanta, he had married a Roman

Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, and this only made matters worse.

Although Charles had promised Parliament in 1624 that there would be no

advantages for recusants (people refusing to attend Church of England

services), were he to marry a Roman Catholic bride, the French insisted on

a commitment to remove all disabilities upon Roman Catholic subjects.

Charles's lack of scruple was shown by the fact that this commitment was

secretly added to the marriage treaty, despite his promise to Parliament.

Charles had inherited disagreements with Parliament from his father, but

his own actions (particularly engaging in ill-fated wars with France and

Spain at the same time) eventually brought about a crisis in 1628-29. Two

expeditions to France failed - one of which had been led by Buckingham, a

royal favourite of both James I and Charles I, who had gained political

influence and military power. Such was the general dislike of Buckingham,

that he was impeached by Parliament in 1628, although he was murdered by a

fanatic before he could lead the second expedition to France. The political

controversy over Buckingham demonstrated that, although the monarch's right

to choose his own Ministers was accepted as an essential part of the royal

prerogative, Ministers had to be acceptable to Parliament or there would be

repeated confrontations. The King's chief opponent in Parliament until 1629

was Sir John Eliot, who was finally imprisoned in the Tower of London until

his death in 1632.

Tensions between the King and Parliament centred around finances, made

worse by the costs of war abroad, and by religious suspicions at home

(Charles's marriage was seen as ominous, at a time when plots against

Elizabeth I and the Gunpowder Plot in James I's reign were still fresh in

the collective memory, and when the Protestant cause was going badly in the

war in Europe). In the first four years of his rule, Charles was faced with

the alternative of either obtaining parliamentary funding and having his

policies questioned by argumentative Parliaments who linked the issue of

supply to remedying their grievances, or conducting a war without subsidies

from Parliament. Charles dismissed his fourth Parliament in March 1629 and

decided to make do without either its advice or the taxes which it alone

could grant legally.

Although opponents later called this period 'the Eleven Years' Tyranny',

Charles's decision to rule without Parliament was technically within the

King's royal prerogative, and the absence of a Parliament was less of a

grievance to many people than the efforts to raise revenue by non-

parliamentary means. Charles's leading advisers, including William Laud,

Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, were efficient but

disliked. For much of the 1630s, the King gained most of the income he

needed from such measures as impositions, exploitation of forest laws,

forced loans, wardship and, above all, ship money (extended in 1635 from

ports to the whole country). These measures made him very unpopular,

alienating many who were the natural supporters of the Crown.

Scotland (which Charles had left at the age of 3, returning only for his

coronation in 1633) proved the catalyst for rebellion. Charles's attempt to

impose a High Church liturgy and prayer book in Scotland had prompted a

riot in 1637 in Edinburgh which escalated into general unrest. Charles had

to recall Parliament; however, the Short Parliament of April 1640 queried

Charles's request for funds for war against the Scots and was dissolved

within weeks. The Scots occupied Newcastle and, under the treaty of Ripon,

stayed in occupation of Northumberland and Durham and they were to be paid

a subsidy until their grievances were redressed.

Charles was finally forced to call another Parliament in November 1640.

This one, which came to be known as The Long Parliament, started with the

imprisonment of Laud and Strafford (the latter was executed within six

months, after a Bill of Attainder which did not allow for a defence), and

the abolition of the King's Council (Star Chamber), and moved on to declare

ship money and other fines illegal. The King agreed that Parliament could

not be dissolved without its own consent, and the Triennial Act of 1641

meant that no more than three years could elapse between Parliaments.

The Irish uprising of October 1641 raised tensions between the King and

Parliament over the command of the Army. Parliament issued a Grand

Remonstrance repeating their grievances, impeached 12 bishops and attempted

to impeach the Queen. Charles responded by entering the Commons in a failed

attempt to arrest five Members of Parliament, who had fled before his

arrival. Parliament reacted by passing a Militia Bill allowing troops to be

raised only under officers approved by Parliament. Finally, on 22 August

1642 at Nottingham, Charles raised the Royal Standard calling for loyal

subjects to support him (Oxford was to be the King's capital during the

war). The Civil War, what Sir William Waller (a Parliamentary general and

moderate) called 'this war without an enemy', had begun.

The Battle of Edgehill in October 1642 showed that early on the fighting

was even. Broadly speaking, Charles retained the north, west and south-west

of the country, and Parliament had London, East Anglia and the south-east,

although there were pockets of resistance everywhere, ranging from solitary

garrisons to whole cities. However, the Navy sided with Parliament (which

made continental aid difficult), and Charles lacked the resources to hire

substantial mercenary help.

Parliament had entered an armed alliance with the predominant Scottish

Presbyterian group under the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, and from

1644 onwards Parliament's armies gained the upper hand - particularly with

the improved training and discipline of the New Model Army. The Self-

Denying Ordinance was passed to exclude Members of Parliament from holding

army commands, thereby getting rid of vacillating or incompetent earlier

Parliamentary generals. Under strong generals like Sir Thomas Fairfax and

Oliver Cromwell, Parliament won victories at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby

(1645). The capture of the King's secret correspondence after Naseby showed

the extent to which he had been seeking help from Ireland and from the

Continent, which alienated many moderate supporters.

In May 1646, Charles placed himself in the hands of the Scottish Army

(who handed him to the English Parliament after nine months in return for

arrears of payment - the Scots had failed to win Charles's support for

establishing Presbyterianism in England). Charles did not see his action as

surrender, but as an opportunity to regain lost ground by playing one group

off against another; he saw the monarchy as the source of stability and

told parliamentary commanders 'you cannot be without me: you will fall to

ruin if I do not sustain you'. In Scotland and Ireland, factions were

arguing, whilst in England there were signs of division in Parliament

between the Presbyterians and the Independents, with alienation from the

Army (where radical doctrines such as that of the Levellers were

threatening commanders' authority). Charles's negotiations continued from

his captivity at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight (to which he had

'escaped' from Hampton Court in November 1647) and led to the Engagement

with the Scots, under which the Scots would provide an army for Charles in

exchange for the imposition of the Covenant on England. This led to the

second Civil War of 1648, which ended with Cromwell's victory at Preston in

August.

The Army, concluding that permanent peace was impossible whilst Charles

lived, decided that the King must be put on trial and executed. In

December, Parliament was purged, leaving a small rump totally dependent on

the Army, and the Rump Parliament established a High Court of Justice in

the first week of January 1649. On 20 January, Charles was charged with

high treason 'against the realm of England'. Charles refused to plead,

saying that he did not recognise the legality of the High Court (it had

been established by a Commons purged of dissent, and without the House of

Lords - nor had the Commons ever acted as a judicature).

The King was sentenced to death on 27 January. Three days later, Charles

was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall,

London. The King asked for warm clothing before his execution: 'the season

is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine

proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.' On the scaffold, he

repeated his case: 'I must tell you that the liberty and freedom [of the

people] consists in having of Government, those laws by which their life

and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in

Government, Sir, that is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a

sovereign are clean different things. If I would have given way to an

arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the Power of the

Sword, I needed not to have come here, and therefore I tell you ... that I

am the martyr of the people.' His final words were 'I go from a corruptible

to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.'

The King was buried on 9 February at Windsor, rather than Westminster

Abbey, to avoid public disorder. To avoid the automatic succession of

Charles I's son Charles, an Act was passed on 30 January forbidding the

proclaiming of another monarch. On 7 February 1649, the office of King was

formally abolished.

The Civil Wars were essentially confrontations between the monarchy and

Parliament over the definitions of the powers of the monarchy and

Parliament's authority. These constitutional disagreements were made worse

by religious animosities and financial disputes. Both sides claimed that

they stood for the rule of law, yet civil war was by definition a matter of

force. Charles I, in his unwavering belief that he stood for constitutional

and social stability, and the right of the people to enjoy the benefits of

that stability, fatally weakened his position by failing to negotiate a

compromise with Parliament and paid the price. To many, Charles was seen as

a martyr for his people and, to this day, wreaths of remembrance are laid

by his supporters on the anniversary of his death at his statue, which

faces down Whitehall to the site of his execution.

THE COMMONWEALTH INTERREGNUM (1649-1660)

Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649),

Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles

I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in

Scotland.

From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known

as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments

followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a

workable constitution without a monarchy.

Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a

troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the

issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious

toleration. In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of

Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer

of the throne. Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one

stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major

generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son

Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited

Charles I's son, Charles, to become King.

OLIVER CROMWELL (1649-1658)

Oliver Cromwell, born in Huntingdon in 1599, was a strict Puritan with a

Cambridge education when he went to London to represent his family in

Parliament. Clothed conservatively, he possessed a Puritan fervor and a

commanding voice, he quickly made a name for himself by serving in both the

Short Parliament (April 1640) and the Long Parliament (August 1640 through

April 1660). Charles I, pushing his finances to bankruptcy and trying to

force a new prayer book on Scotland, was badly beaten by the Scots, who

demanded Ј850 per day from the English until the two sides reached

agreement. Charles had no choice but to summon Parliament.

The Long Parliament, taking an aggressive stance, steadfastly refused to

authorize any funding until Charles was brought to heel. The Triennial Act

of 1641 assured the summoning of Parliament at least every three years, a

formidable challenge to royal prerogative. The Tudor institutions of fiscal

feudalism (manipulating antiquated feudal fealty laws to extract money),

the Court of the Star Chamber and the Court of High Commission were

declared illegal by Act of Parliament later in 1641. A new era of

leadership from the House of Commons (backed by middle class merchants,

tradesmen and Puritans) had commenced. Parliament resented the insincerity

with which Charles settled with both them and the Scots, and despised his

links with Catholicism.

1642 was a banner year for Parliament. They stripped Charles of the last

vestiges of prerogative by abolishing episcopacy, placed the army and navy

directly under parliamentary supervision and declared this bill become law

even if the king refused his signature. Charles entered the House of

Commons (the first king to do so), intent on arresting John Pym, the leader

of Parliament and four others, but the five conspirators had already fled,

making the king appear inept. Charles traveled north to recruit an army and

raised his standard against the forces of Parliaments (Roundheads) at

Nottingham on August 22, 1642. England was again embroiled in civil war.

Cromwell added sixty horses to the Roundhead cause when war broke out. In

the 1642 Battle at Edge Hill, the Roundheads were defeated by the superior

Royalist (Cavalier) cavalry, prompting Cromwell to build a trained cavalry.

Cromwell proved most capable as a military leader. By the Battle of Marston

Moor in 1644, Cromwell's New Model Army had routed Cavalier forces and

Cromwell earned the nickname "Ironsides" in the process. Fighting lasted

until July 1645 at the final Cavalier defeat at Naseby. Within a year,

Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament. By

1646, England was ruled solely by Parliament, although the king was not

executed until 1649.

English society splintered into many factions: Levellers (intent on

eradicating economic castes), Puritans, Episcopalians, remnants of the

Cavaliers and other religious and political radicals argued over the fate

of the realm. The sole source of authority rest with the army, who moved

quickly to end the debates. In November 1648, the Long Parliament was

reduced to a "Rump" Parliament by the forced removal of 110 members of

Parliament by Cromwell's army, with another 160 members refusing to take

their seats in opposition to the action. The remainder, barely enough for a

quorum, embarked on an expedition of constitutional change. The Rump

dismantled the machinery of government, most of that, remained loyal to the

king, abolishing not only the monarchy, but also the Privy Council, Courts

of Exchequer and Admiralty and even the House of Lords. England was ruled

by an executive Council of State and the Rump Parliament, with various

subcommittees dealing with day-to-day affairs. Of great importance was the

administration in the shires and parishes: the machinery administering such

governments was left intact; ingrained habits of ruling and obeying

harkened back to monarchy.

With the death of the ancient constitution and Parliament in control,

attention was turned to crushing rebellions in the realm, as well as in

Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell forced submission from the nobility, muzzled

the press and defeated Leveller rebels in Burford. Annihilating the more

radical elements of revolution resulted in political conservatism, which

eventually led to the restoration of the monarchy. Cromwell's army

slaughtered over forty percent of the indigenous Irishmen, who clung

unyieldingly to Catholicism and loyalist sentiments; the remaining Irishmen

were forcibly transported to County Connaught with the Act of Settlement in

1653. Scottish Presbyterians fought for a Stuart restoration, in the person

of Charles II, but were handily defeated, ending the last remnants of civil

war. The army then turned its attention to internal matters.

The Rump devolved into a petty, self-perpetuating and unbending

oligarchy, which lost credibility in the eyes of the army. Cromwell ended

the Rump Parliament with great indignity on April 21, 1653, ordering the

house cleared at the point of a sword. The army called for a new Parliament

of Puritan saints, who proved as inept as the Rump. By 1655, Cromwell

dissolved his new Parliament, choosing to rule alone (much like Charles I

had done in 1629). The cost of keeping a standard army of 35,000 proved

financially incompatible with Cromwell's monetarily strapped government.

Two wars with the Dutch concerning trade abroad added to Cromwell's

financial burdens.

The military's solution was to form yet another version of Parliament. A

House of Peers was created, packed with Cromwell's supporters and with true

veto power, but the Commons proved most antagonistic towards Cromwell. The

monarchy was restored in all but name; Cromwell went from the title of Lord

General of the Army to that of Lord Protector of the Realm (the title of

king was suggested, but wisely rejected by Cromwell when a furor arose in

the military ranks). The Lord Protector died on September 3, 1658, naming

his son Richard as successor. With Cromwell's death, the Commonwealth

floundered and the monarchy was restored only two years later.

The failure of Cromwell and the Commonwealth was founded upon Cromwell

being caught between opposing forces. His attempts to placate the army, the

nobility, Puritans and Parliament resulted in the alienation of each group.

Leaving the political machinery of the parishes and shires untouched under

the new constitution was the height of inconsistency; Cromwell, the army

and Parliament were unable to make a clear separation from the ancient

constitution and traditional customs of loyalty and obedience to monarchy.

Lacey Baldwin Smith cast an astute judgment concerning the aims of the

Commonwealth: "When Commons was purged out of existence by a military force

of its own creation, the country learned a profound, if bitter, Lesson:

Parliament could no more exist without the crown than the crown without

Parliament. The ancient constitution had never been King and Parliament but

King in Parliament; when one element of that mystical union was destroyed,

the other ultimately perished."

Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector of England (1599-1658)

There is definitely an association between John Knox and Oliver Cromwell.

Knox, in his book The Reformation of Scotland, outlined the whole process

without which the British model of government under Oliver Cromwell never

would not have been possible. Yet Knox was more consistently covenantal in

his thinking. He recognized that civil government is based on a covenant

between the magistrate (or the representative or king) and the populace.

His view was that when the magistrate defects from the covenant, it is the

duty of the people to overthrow him.

Cromwell was not a learned scholar, as was Knox, nevertheless God

elevated him to a greater leadership role. Oliver Cromwell was born into a

common family of English country Puritans having none of the advantages of

upbringing that would prepare him to be leader of a nation. Yet he had a

God-given ability to earn the loyalty and respect of men of genius who

served him throughout his lifetime. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's

Progress served under his command in the English Civil War, and John

Milton, who penned Paradise Lost, served as his personal secretary.

Cromwell's early years were ordinary, but after a conversion experience

at age 27, he was seized by a sense of divine destiny. He became suddenly

zealous for God. He was a country squire, a bronze-faced, callous-handed

man of property. He worked on his farm, prayed and fasted often and

occasionally exhorted the local congregation during church meetings. A

quiet, simple, serious-minded man, he spoke little. But when he broke his

silence, it was with great authority as he commanded obedience without

question or dispute. As a justice of the peace, he attracted attention to

himself by collaring loafers at a tavern and forcing them to join in

singing a hymn. This exploit together with quieting a disturbance among

some student factions at the neighboring town of Cambridge earned him the

respect of the Puritan locals and they sent him to Parliament as their

representative. There he attracted attention with his blunt, forcible

speech as a member of the Independent Party which was made up of Puritans.

The English people were bent upon the establishment of a democratic

parliamentary system of civil government and the elimination of the "Divine

Right of Kings." King Charles I, the tyrant who had long persecuted the

English Puritans by having their ears cut off and their noses slit for

defying his attempts to force episcopacy on their churches, finally clashed

with Parliament over a long ordeal with new and revolutionary ideas. The

Puritans, or "Roundheads" as they were called, finally led a civil war

against the King and his Cavaliers.

When he discerned the weaknesses of the Roundhead army, Cromwell made

himself captain of the cavalry. Cromwell had never been trained in war, but

from the very beginning he showed consummate genius as a general. Cromwell

understood that successful revolutions were always fought by farmers so he

gathered a thousand hand-picked Puritans - farmers and herdsmen - who were

used to the open fields. His regiment was nicknamed "Ironsides" and was

never beaten once, although they fought greatly outnumbered - at times

three to one.

It was an army the likes of which hadn't been seen since ancient Israel.

They would recite the Westminster Confession and march into battle singing

the Psalms of David striking terror into the heart of the enemy. Cromwell's

tactic was to strike with the cavalry through the advancing army at the

center, go straight through the lines and then circle to either the left or

the right milling the mass into a mob, creating confusion and utterly

destroying them. Cromwell amassed a body of troops and soon became

commander-in-chief. His discipline created the only body of regular troops

on either side who preached, prayed, paid fines for profanity and

drunkenness, and charged the enemy singing hymns - the strangest

abnormality in an age when every vice imaginable characterized soldiers and

mercenaries.

In the meantime, Charles I invited an Irish Catholic army to his aid, an

action for which he was tried for high treason and beheaded shortly after

the war. After executing the national sovereign, the Parliament assumed

power. The success of the new democracy in England was short-lived.

Cromwell found that a democratic parliamentary system run by squires and

lords oppressed the common people and was almost as corrupt as the

rulership of the deposed evil king. As Commander-in-Chief of the army, he

was able to seize rulership and served a term as "Lord Protector."

During the fifteen years in which Cromwell ruled, he drove pirates from

the Mediterranean Sea, set English captives free, and subdued any threat

from France, Spain and Italy. Cromwell made Great Britain a respected and

feared power the world over. Cromwell maintained a large degree of

tolerance for rival denominations. He stood for a national church without

bishops. The ministers might be Presbyterian, Independent or Baptist.

Dissenters were allowed to meet in gathered churches and even Roman

Catholics and Quakers were tolerated. He worked for reform of morals and

the improvement of education. He strove constantly to make England a

genuinely Christian nation and she enjoyed a brief "Golden Age" in her

history.

When Charles I was beheaded, the understanding was that he had broken

covenant with the people. The view of Cromwell and the Puritans was that

when the magistrate breaks covenant, then he may legitimately be deposed.

The Puritan understanding of the covenantal nature of government was the

foundation for American colonial government. This was true of Massachusetts

and Connecticut and to a lesser extent in the Southern colonies. When the

Mayflower Compact was written, the Pilgrims had a covenantal idea of the

nature of civil government. This was a foundation for later colonies

established throughout the 1600s. These covenants were influenced by what

Knox had done in Scotland and what the Puritans had done in England.

RICHARD CROMWELL (1658-1659)

The eldest surviving son of Oliver Cromwell, Richard was Lord Protector

of England from September 1658 to May 1659, but failed in his efforts to

lead the Commonwealth.

Richard served in the Parliaments of 1654 and 1656 and some government

posts, but showed little of his father's ability. Constitutional changes in

1657 allowed Cromwell to choose his successor. He began to prepare Richard,

appointing him to the council of state and the House of Lords.

He was proclaimed Lord Protector immediately after his father's death, on

3rd September 1658. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth had been held together

by his father and Richard was no Oliver. It was an unstable mixture of

zealous reform and a yearning for stability, Parliamentary authority and

military power.

Richard soon faced serious problems. The army were disillusioned with a

government that had grown increasingly ceremonious. They grew more restless

when Richard appointed himself commander in chief. A new Parliament was

elected in 1659 but a vacuum of power prompted the army council to seize

power. In April 1659 it forced Richard to dissolve Parliament.

The officers now recalled the Rump Parliament, dissolved by Oliver

Cromwell in 1653. It dismissed Richard as Lord Protector; he officially

abdicated in May. Yet the Rump was incapable of governing without financial

and military support and the army itself remained bitterly divided. George

Monck, one of the army's most capable officers, marched south from Scotland

to protect Parliament but, on arriving in London, realised that only the

restoration of Charles II could put an end to the political chaos that now

gripped the state.

Richard, having amassed large debts during his time in office, left for

Paris in 1660 to escape his creditors, living under the name of John

Clarke. After living in Geneva, he returned to England in around 1680,

where he lived quietly until his death.

CHARLES II (1660-85)

Although those who had signed Charles I's death warrant were punished

(nine regicides were put to death, and Cromwell's body was exhumed from

Westminster Abbey and buried in a common pit), Charles pursued a policy of

political tolerance and power-sharing. In April 1660, fresh elections had

been held and a Convention met with the House of Lords. Parliament invited

Charles to return, and he arrived at Dover on 25 May.

Despite the bitterness left from the Civil Wars and Charles I's

execution, there were few detailed negotiations over the conditions of

Charles II's restoration to the throne. Under the Declaration of Breda of

May 1660, Charles had promised pardons, arrears of Army pay, confirmation

of land purchases during the Interregnum and 'liberty of tender

consciences' in religious matters, but several issues remained unresolved.

However, the Militia Act of 1661 vested control of the armed forces in the

Crown, and Parliament agreed to an annual revenue of Ј1,200,000 (a

persistent deficit of Ј400,000-500,000 remained, leading to difficulties

for Charles in his foreign policy). The bishops were restored to their

seats in the House of Lords, and the Triennial Act of 1641 was repealed -

there was no mechanism for enforcing the King's obligation to call

Parliament at least once every three years. Under the 1660 Act of Indemnity

and Oblivion, only the lands of the Crown and the Church were automatically

resumed; the lands of Royalists and other dissenters which had been

confiscated and/or sold on were left for private negotiation or litigation.

The early years of Charles's reign saw an appalling plague which hit the

country in 1665 with 70,000 dying in London alone, and the Great Fire of

London in 1666 which destroyed St Paul's amongst other buildings. Another

misfortune included the second Dutch war of 1665 (born of English and Dutch

commercial and colonial rivalry). Although the Dutch settlement of New

Amsterdam was overrun and renamed New York before the war started, by 1666

France and Denmark had allied with the Dutch. The war was dogged by poor

administration culminating in a Dutch attack on the Thames in 1667; a peace

was negotiated later in the year.

In 1667, Charles dismissed his Lord Chancellor, Clarendon - an adviser

from Charles's days of exile (Clarendon's daughter Anne was the first wife

of Charles's brother James and was mother of Queens Mary and Anne). As a

scapegoat for the difficult religious settlement and the Dutch war,

Clarendon had failed to build a 'Court interest' in the Commons. He was

succeeded by a series of ministerial combinations, the first of which was

that of Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale (whose

initials formed the nickname Cabal). Such combinations (except for Danby's

dominance of Parliament from 1673 to 1679) were largely kept in balance by

Charles for the rest of his reign.

Charles's foreign policy was a wavering balance of alliances with France

and the Dutch in turn. In 1670, Charles signed the secret treaty of Dover

under which Charles would declare himself a Catholic and England would side

with France against the Dutch - in return Charles would receive subsidies

from the King of France (thus enabling Charles some limited room for

manoeuvre with Parliament, but leaving the possibility of public disclosure

of the treaty by Louis). Practical considerations prevented such a public

conversion, but Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence, using his

prerogative powers to suspend the penal laws against Catholics and

Nonconformists. In the face of an Anglican Parliament's opposition, Charles

was eventually forced to withdraw the Declaration in 1673.

In 1677 Charles married his niece Mary to William of Orange partly to

restore the balance after his brother's second marriage to the Catholic

Mary of Modena and to re-establish his own Protestant credentials. This

assumed a greater importance as it became clear that Charles's marriage to

Catherine of Braganza would produce no legitimate heirs (although Charles

had a number of mistresses and illegitimate children), and his Roman

Catholic brother James's position as heir apparent raised the prospect of a

Catholic king.

Throughout Charles's reign, religious toleration dominated the political

scene. The 1662 Act of Uniformity had imposed the use of the Book of Common

Prayer, and insisted that clergy subscribe to Anglican doctrine (some 1,000

clergy lost their livings). Anti-Catholicism was widespread; the Test Act

of 1673 excluded Roman Catholics from both Houses of Parliament.

Parliament's reaction to the Popish Plot of 1678 (an allegation by Titus

Oates that Jesuit priests were conspiring to murder the King, and involving

the Queen and the Lord Treasurer, Danby) was to impeach Danby and present a

Bill to exclude James (Charles's younger brother and a Roman Catholic

convert) from the succession. In 1680/81 Charles dissolved three

Parliaments which had all tried to introduce Exclusion Bills on the basis

that 'we are not like to have a good end'.

Charles sponsored the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 (still in

existence today) to promote scientific research. Charles also encouraged a

rebuilding programme, particularly in the last years of his reign, which

included extensive rebuilding at Windsor Castle, a huge but uncompleted new

palace at Winchester and the Greenwich Observatory. Charles was a patron of

Christopher Wren in the design and rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral,

Chelsea Hospital (a refuge for old war veterans) and other London

buildings.

Charles died in 1685, becoming a Roman Catholic on his deathbed.

JAMES II (1685-88)

Born in 1633 and named after his grandfather James I, James II grew up in

exile after the Civil War (he served in the armies of Louis XIV) and, after

his brother's restoration, commanded the Royal Navy from 1660 to 1673.

James converted to Catholicism in 1669. Despite his conversion, James II

succeeded to the throne peacefully at the age of 51. His position was a

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