Revolution, Regicide, Restoration

The Seventeenth Century in England:

Review: King James I (r. 1603-1625)

• Endorsed doctrine of “divine right of kings” (royal absolutism)• Excessive spending on celebration, feasts, splendor of court• Gunpowder treason and plot (Nov. 5, 1605): attempted assassination of king, Prince Henry, members of Parliament• Had several favorites (George Villiers, etc.)• Several children by wife, Anne of Denmark• Eldest son, Henry, a militant Protestant, would have succeeded James but died of typhoid fever in 1612• Throne passed to son, Charles, on James’s death.

Charles I (r. 1625-1649)Latin: Carolus, hence the “Caroline Era”

Political tensions:

•Acted like an absolutist ruler… only called sessions of Parliament together to vote on and enact new taxes.

•1620s: House of Commons (lower house) developing sense of its own independence and purpose; chafes at idea that Charles can dismiss the House at his whim.

•Charles attempts to rule without summoning Parliament at all between 1629-1638.

Charles I (r. 1625-1649)Latin: Carolus, hence the “Caroline Era”

Religious tensions:

•Catholic wife Queen Henrietta Maria protected Catholics in the court

•Charles leans toward Catholic ritual, splendor

•1633: appoints William Laud as archbishop of Canterbury, alienating the already angry Puritans.

• CULTURE WAR between Puritans and “high church” (i.e. semi-Catholic) officials and court, exemplified by reissue of Book of Sports.

• Uprisings in Scotland and northern England force Charles to call “Long Parliament” in 1640.

The Long Parliament (1640-1649) and

English Civil Wars1640: Charles calls “Long Parliament” to raise funds to fight uprisings

Parliament has another idea… it wants to secure its own rights and duties in face of Charles’s absolutist tendencies.• Begins abolishing extralegal taxes and courts• Reins in bishops’ powers• Arrests king’s ministers, including Archbishop Laud.

•1641: Charles tries to arrest members of Parliament for treason; Londoners rise up against him.•1642: Parliament votes to raise an army. •1642-1648: two English Civil Wars (“Cavaliers” vs. “Roundheads”)•1649: Charles executed; “Rump Parliament” votes to establish new government: Commonwealth of England

England as Protectorate (1653-1660)

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord

Protector of England

1653: Oliver Cromwell (political and military leader) sworn in as Lord Protector for life under England’s first written Constitution.

-attempts to “heal and settle” the nation after revolution

1658: Cromwell dies, son Richard accedes to Lord Protector; is inept ruler and resigns in 1659.

1660: Parliament recalls exiled prince Charles

-May 1660: Restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II.

King Charles II, ca. 1660-1665

Cultural change – 1640 - 1660

• Collapse of government in 1640s meant no more press censorship (previously a Crown responsibility)

-Flood of treatises on all questions and affairs of church and state.

• Parliament abolished public plays and sports.-Theatrical entrepreneurs had to refer to plays as “operas” in order to stage them.

• Though not kind to Catholics, Cromwell exhibited religious toleration toward other groups and sects; readmitted Jews to England.

Emerging concepts: religious toleration, separation of church and state, freedom from press censorship, popular sovereignty

**During Restoration, freedom of journalistic commentary and political debate that flourished from the 1640s remained open.

The Cavalier poets

Cavalier poetic tradition begins with Jonson, continues with Thomas Herrick, Lovelace, Carew, Suckling.

Cavaliers celebrate the courtly ideal of the “good life”: food, wine, verse, hospitality, loyalty to the social order, sensuality; are fascinated with display and artifice.

Love lyrics display a “carpe diem” theme.

Ben Jonson by Abraham van Blyenberch

Many of the Cavalier poets called themselves the “Sons of Ben” or the

“Tribe of Ben”… followers, students of Jonson