THE 17TH CENTURY
Characterized by:
- Political and religious Conflict under Stuarts
- The English Civil War (1642-1649)
- Restoration of the monarchy (1660)
- The Glorious Revolution (1688)
STUART MONARCHY (part 1)
- JAMES I (1603-1625)
• Queen Elizabeth I dies without an heir, so she chooses James I of England and
VI of Scotland→ ironic because he was the son of Mary I
• Elizabeth chooses him because in that way it will be 1 king to reign England
and Scotland and because in spite of having a catholic mother, he was raised
as a protestant
• When Mary is in prison, she is forced to abdicate in his soon James. When he is
only 1 year old, he is appointed king, but he is so young that Mary’s half-
brother becomes regent until James is old enough→ James was the 1st king of
the Stuart dynasty, a new house
• With him takes place the Union of the Crowns (1603), for the 1st time, both
kingdoms, England and Scotland, are united but are two separated states
• Text: Works of James I (1616)
o The king is God on Earth and the monarch is King by the grace of God
o The king is like a father to his family—authoritarian, does not tolerate
disputes, no one can oppose what he says
o The Divine Right of Kings→ used to justify monarchical absolutism
(opposite to Magna Carta)—actions of the King cannot be opposed by
earthly authority (by Parliament)
o The King has 2 obligations→ being a man and a little God
• In 1605, a group of Catholics (the Gunpowder Plot) rose up against the king
and they set up this plot when they knew that the king would be in the
parliament, and the point was to blow up the parliament (with the king inside).
Guy Fawkes, the evening before the plan, was discovered keeping barrels of
gunpowder in the basement of the parliament, so he and his colleagues were
arrested. After the trial, they are declared guilty
The objective of the plot was coming back to the Catholicism and be governed
by a king under the Pope’s power (roman Catholicism)→ Nowadays, Fawkes is
well-known and the 5th of November is commemorated in his honour+ the plot
has become a symbol of conflicts between Catholics and Protestants
- CHARLES I (1625-1649)
• Son of James I
• His beliefs were the same as his father’s → divine monarchy—absolutist,
tyrannical
• Raised taxes→ he wanted to take part of “the 30 years war” (1618-1648). A
war in Central Europe between Catholics and Protestants.
o He needed the money to participate, send his soldiers and fight in
favour of Protestantism although the parliament did not agree.
o England took place in this war for 5 years (1625-1630).
o This was unpopular among people and they reacted with document
“the Petition of Right” (1628)→ a petition sent by the English
Parliament to the King (Charles I) in response to the abuse of power
that breaches the conditions of the Magna Carta (1215)
* Rises taxes without parliament approval
* Is violating the Habeas Corpus law
• Puritanism gains popularity in England and does not like the luxurious life of
the King and the court because it was not moral. They were anticatholics and
they developed a suspicious feeling against the king, who seemed to have
sympathy for Catholicism
• The country began to split in 2. The supporters of the king (Cavaliers) and the
supporters of the power of parliament (Roundheads) which were offended by
the attitudes of the monarch
o Cavaliers (aristocratic and royalist) defended Charles I, they concurred
with absolutism monarch and the divine right of kings. They were
Anglicans
o Roundheads (puritan and parliamentarian) supported the power of
the parliament and receives that name due to the hair cat they
carried. They supported the Magna Carta and believed in the rule of
law
• These circumstances lead to a Civil War (1642-1649)
o Consisted in a series of conflicts over how the country should be
governed.
o It started when the king enters parliament and imprisons some
members of it→ loses the little support that parliament had in him.
o The war is won by the Roundheads and the King is executed
(beheaded) in 1649. He becomes the 1st European monarch to die
after a trial, accused of treason and crimes against his people
• Charles I is executed and the monarchy abolished. England becomes a
Republic
REPUBLIC OF ENGLAND (1649-1660) = the Commonwealth
- For the 1st and only time, England became a republic after the death of Charles I
- The republic was called “the Commonwealth” and was ruled by Oliver Cromwell, the
leader of the Parliamentary Army, who called himself “Lord Protector” and ruled in
Britain and Ireland as a whole
- The republic is a military dictatorship in which Cromwell dissolved Parliament again in
1653 and starts behaving as the previous monarchs
- Cromwell imposes taxes without parliament approval and purges dissenters
- He was a protestant, a puritan, so he was against Catholics, Anglicans and pleasure,
therefore he persecuted and killed them and he closed theatres, bars, parties and
banned some sports
- When he died (1658), his son, Richard Cromwell, was named successor. He became
the new “Lord Protector”, but, unlike his father, he lacks authority.
- 1660 is the year in which Monarchy is restored with Charles II (Charles I’s son)
STUART MONARCHY (part 2)
- CHARLES II (1660-1685)
• He was the son of Charles I
• With him the Stuart Monarchy was restored again. He had his father’s
attitudes:
o He opposes and dissolves parliament
o He raises taxes without permission
o Although being Anglican→ gets closer to Catholicism, giving them
certain power—not popular among people
• During his reign
o The Great Fire of London (1666) takes place
* It is a fire that starts by accident in a bakery and spreads
rapidly.
* The fire lasts 4 days and ends up destroying the medieval city
of London, being the most important lost St Paul’s Cathedral
→ The positive point of view of the fire is that in 1665 a plague was taking
place, “The Great Plague of London”. The fire destroyed the rats and
everything that contained the plague that had killed nearly a quarter (1/4)
of London’s population
• He died with no heir, so James, his brother, became king (James II of England
and VII of Scotland). Again, Monarchy vs Parliament because he was catholic,
he believed he was God on Earth. The Parliament was Anglican, so they were
not happy with the king being catholic
- JAMES II (1685-1688)
• He is a pro catholic and absolute monarch→ Indeed, he converted to roman
Catholicism, but that did not prevent him from becoming king.
• His brother advises him to continue with Anglicanism and that his children
(Mary and Anne) were raised as Protestants. However, he tried to give full
rights to Catholics and he attempted to promote them to his government→
not approved by the people, but he was an absolute monarch and they could
do nothing against him
• 2 things happened → the parliament’s intervention.
o Bishops complained about Catholics gaining rights, so they were
persecuted
o The future of the monarchy was uncertain. The king had 2 daughters
and a son with another woman. However, the male was raised as a
Catholic
➔ As a consequence, the parliament search for another heir, and chooses
James’ protestant daughter, Mary
• Mary was married with a protestant Dutchman, William of Orange. This
decision was supported by English and Dutch, a way of unifying protestant’s
strength against Catholic Spain and France→ This is known as “the Glorious
Revolution” (1688).
o Called “Glorious” because it was bloodless
o As a result, James II was deposed (forced to leave the throne) and
Mary II and William III of Orange were chosen by the Parliament as
king and queen (1689-1702)
o the parliament writes “the English Bill of Rights” a document which:
* affirms rights of the Parliament
* limits the monarch’s power→ ends “the Divine Right of Kings”
* stipulates religious toleration for protestants dissenters, but
not Catholicism. (However, dissenters would not enjoy the
same rights)
• With the glorious revolution James II is deposed from the English throne.
• He flees to Ireland which was a Catholic country
• He builds an army of catholic men (Jacobite)→ to fight against William III and
his army to take his throne back.
o The most famous confrontation between the 2 of them takes place in
the Battle of the Boyne (1690) in which James II is defeated by William
• Some repression is being carried out by England on Ireland, so new laws are
passed:
o In Ireland, Catholics are forbidden to vote and own land
• In ulster a lot of anticatholics Scottish settle down and live there for
generations. The descendants of this people are known as Orangemen, in
honour of William of Orange. With a march, the “Orange walk”, they
remember and sing anticatholic songs. It is the perfect excuse for violence
• Act of Settlement (1702) was a law passed by the Parliament in order to settle
the succession to Protestants only (this explains how Anne ended up being the
last Stuart monarch)
THE 18TH CENTURY (ENLIGHTMENT)
In this century, the most important aspect of humans was the reason, which dominates the
nature and society
- ANNE (1702-1714)
• The last monarch of the Stuart Dynasty
• Sister of Mary II
• Act of Union (1707) → an agreement in which the Scottish parliament was
dissolved. Some of its members joins the English and Welsh parliament in
London. The 2 kingdom (England+ Scotland) becomes just 1, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain—Despite this, Scotland maintains its own system of
law (retained roman laws)
• The 1st monarch of the UK of GB (England, Wales, Scotland) and monarch of
Ireland
• At this time, Parliament started to be mor organized and 2 main parties/
groups were formed:
o Whigs (parliamentarian)
* support hard work
* the government should be a parliamentarian monarchy
o Tories (royalist)
* importance to the Anglican church
* little sympathy towards Catholics
• Anne died without an heir (18 births none alive)→ as a solution: the throne
passes to the Hanover House (Germany)
HOUSE OF HANOVER (part 1)
- GEORGE I (1714-1727)
• The 1st Hanoverian monarch → Anne’s 2nd cousin and a protestant
• He is German as well as the house. He was not really interested in reigning the
country so he gives more freedom to the parliament
• He could not talk English
• He was used to stay more time in his house of Germany rather than in
England. He had neither knowledge nor interest in governing the country
o The king appoints a prime minister to rule the kingdom instead of
himself→ This 1st prime minister starts as a mediator between the
monarch and the parliament but then, he gets more power
• the annual budget is introduced
o Members of parliament are in charge of the nation’s finances
o must be approved by the parliament
o measure taken in order not to manipulate taxes as many kings did
before
- GEORGE II (1727-1760)—during his reign
• People from Highland Scotland
o unhappy with the Hanover dynasty in the throne (they were not from
the kingdom—Germans, foreigners)
o supported Charles Edward “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, James II grandson,
a Stuart—a catholic which they considered the right heir (main reason
of not being elected as king due to the Act of settlement)
• in the Battle of Culloden (1746)
o The Jacobite (support “Bonnie Prince Charlie” + James II) vs the
government army of England and lowland Scots
o English army win—caused:
* Charles escaped to the Isle of Skye
* the kilt was banned
* the Celtic way of life destroyed
- GEORGE III (1760-1820)—during his reign
• the successor of George II, who defeated the Scottish army
• during his last years he becomes crazy and George IV is his regent
• American War of Independence (1775-1783) + the declaration of
independence of 13 colonies (1776)
• 1783→ Britain loses the southern half of North America colonies—less
opportunities to trade
• 1788→ the UK sends the 1st settlers to Australia
o Soldiers
o Convicts→ sent there as an option instead of execution
• 1800→ Act of Union (2nd Acts of Union)
o Union of the UK and the Kingdom of Ireland→ the UK of GB and
Ireland
• 1805→ Battle of Trafalgar
o A naval conflict between the British Royal Navy and the combined
fleets of the French and Spanish Navies
o Admiral Horatio Nelson becomes a hero when he defeats Napoleon
fleet before he manages to invade England
CULTURAL CHANGES IN THE 18th CENTURY
The 18th cent is mainly marked by cultural changes.
• It is remarkable the colonization→ Britain gradually acquired an empire in the
Americas, along the west African coast and in India.
o This greatly trade was one of the factors (along many technical
innovations in manufacture and transport) which led Britain to the
Industrial Revolution
* loss of the American colonies 1776 (Declaration of
Independence of the USA)
o As a consequence of this, there is an increase of population in cities
and towns so there is also an increase of the demand for goods and
food—new machines are created to help in the process
• industrial cities (N. England + lowland Scotland+ south Wales)→ the industrial
heartland—coal (power to the machine) + iron (material to build a machine)
• In London there were business and trading centre—people moved to cities
due to the demand of working
• Advances in Agriculture
Industrial Revolution (begins in the 2nd half of the 18th cent)
- Period in which industry was transformed from hand-work at home to machine-work
at factories due to the increase in population and the consequent increase in demand
of products
- The textile industry was affected because of the demand of clothes due to the increase
of population:
• In the beginning, there was a domestic system. Clothes were created in
villages, but it was a slow and inefficient process
• Later, came the manufacturing which brought a mass production due to the
fast supply proportioned by machines, but they were too big, so big factories
had to be created. These factories were only owned by bourgeoise and placed
by rivers to get power from the water. However, there was a problem: the
draughts. Due to this, another source of power was needed in order to solve
this problem
• This solution was the steam engine (by James Watt) (1780s). for it, it was
needed coal as source of energy and iron and steel for the machinery. Due to
this, the demand of the iron increased and therefore, the development of the
Iron Industry
- The change from rural and agrarian to industrial and urban life created serious
psychological problems for a formerly rural society based on the family
- Some changes in the Government→ Reform Bill 1832 (changes in the electoral
system—there were more representation of larger cities emerging from the Industrial
Revolution)
Agricultural Revolution
- The 1st revolution: it took pace because of the need for more food as the population
increases (increase of demand of product and food)
- There were developed new ways of working the land:
• Crop rotation: a technique which consist in dividing the field into 4 parts and
working 3 of them. After harvest, the parcel which was unoccupied was then
worked and one of the others was freed→ better—more products+
o More agrarian products are gained
o Farm animals can survive all the year (more milk, meat)→ better
food+ quality
➔ Main crops
o Wheat (trigo) + barley (cebada)
o Turnips (nabos)→ feed people and animals
o Clover (trébol) + grass
- Invention of new machines:
• Seed drill (by Jethro Tull): machine which allows seeds to be planted instead of
thrown away
o allows to use better the fields—organizing the space
o seeds better preserved+ better quality—more food
- Another remarkable factor:
• Selective breeding of cattle: a technology which consist of gathering animals
with similar characteristics so that they reproduce. The purpose is that next
animals have better characteristics
o The number of farms grows
o Better quality and size of animals→ more food
- Enclosure Acts (were so important)
• The abolition of the open field system of agriculture → Common lands were
divided and privatized and owned by big Londoners (they came to be called as
Compact farms)
o farmers lost their lands + jobs→ working for the landlords or migrate
the cities? —moving to cities
o Cities→ enormous growth—powered the industrialization
➔ Rich vs poor
➔ Immigration to cities + town
Transport Revolution
- Caused by the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions because they led to a big
increase in the movement of goods and people
• The existing transport system was unable to support this increase, so new
ways were invented
• A lot of money was invested in improving transport links
o Canals—transport by water
o Better roads—from firm foundations and with pavements
o railways
• Still travel was slow and expensive—solution: steam power
o Sailing ships replaced by steam ships→ travel by sea faster
o Locomotive, a steam-driven wagon (by George Stephenson)→ fast,
efficient and easy to fuel
• Improvement in transport infrastructure helped→ growth and spread of
Industrial Revolution—thanks to this:
o Raw materials—transported cheaply and quickly to the factories
o Transport finished goods to markets more quickly→ this led to a
decrease in the prices—more people available to buy
o Increased the demand of materials
• Demand of materials increased
o Iron + steel (construct transport)
o Coal (energy source for railroads)
Consequences—the social effect of the Industrial Revolution
- In social terms, there were poor working conditions (No insurance, 15h working/ day,
very low wages, Children exploitation, Dangerous machines, Sunday free day)
- Regarding to living conditions, there were living many people in just one place, so they
lived overcrowded (rapid increase in the size of the cities)
• Some factory owners built houses for their workers—near the factories
o Many families lived in a single room
o Not access to clear water
o Toilets outdoors and shared→ little sanitation—diseases
- The sanitation system improves with the Public Health Act (1848)
