The Stuarts
The Stuarts
The Stuarts
English Department
I. James I (1603-1625).
He was the son of Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland. The English people accepted him
to be king because Elizabeth I died childless and he was the direct descendant of the
Tudors. He ruled England, Scotland and Wales. He was unwise and wanted to keep the
balance between religion, trade and foreign affairs through his royal power alone.
In 1604, he established peaceful relations with Spain the catholic. On November 5Th
1605, the extreme Catholics were disappointed by his moderate views and wanted to
blow up parliament and the king. Guy Fawkes was caught with gunpowder and matches
in his hands and he was murdered. This day is still celebrated in all villages in Britain.
From this event, the extreme Catholics were harshly treated in the country.
James’s style was very rude and people felt themselves pressed down. The Stuarts were
not concerned if people agreed with their style. The thought they had a divine right:
God made him king and he did what he wanted in the land. Instead of using the House
of Commons, James I and his son Charles I worked their favoured ministers. He relied
on the Duke of Buckingham and began to sell titles of nobility for money. Under his
rule, parliament was weak and the king changed the form of the Star Chamber and used
it as a weapon against his enemies. Parliament did not accept James’s attempt. They
had a lesson from the Magna Charta against the king John. The Stuarts dynasty resisted
on the grounds that people were afraid of James’s tyrant policy and of paying heavy
taxes.
In the field of religion, four events happened in Britain under his rule. After the 17th
century, religion is no longer a political issue.
The king James gathered all the Anglicans and wanted to keep out the extreme Protestants in
Scotland at the same time he did not accept the extreme Catholics. He wanted the Anglican
bishops to rule the country. No Anglican could ask him in Hampton Court Conference for
toleration but those in power did not accept the non conformists. In his speech the king said,
‘ If you don’t accept the bishop you don’t accept me.’
James the first ordered a translation of the bible in 1611 which has become a classic of
English literature. Since 1611, every writer was influenced by it such as Spencer,
Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy used the language of the bible in their writings.
In this period the extreme Protestants felt that the king was against them. Some of them
decided to leave Britain for fear to be executed. They sailed to New England (America).
The policy of the king rejected those who were not Anglicans.
Charles I (1625-1649).
Like his father, the king Charles believed in the Divine Right. He rule his country as it
pleased him. In about 20 years he increased the number of the barons from 100 to 150
to strengthen his power against his parliament. In 1628, parliament tried to stop him
abusing his royal power by selling titles without his people’s agreement. As a punitive
reaction he dismissed it for 11 years and ruled without it. Charles I had a strong
character and relied on the Duke of Buckingham in the management of the country.
He appointed catholic Ministers since his wife was the daughter of the catholic French
king. Charles appointed William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury. Like his father his
rule was despotic and the question at that time: ‘Was the king above the law or the
law above the king?’
At the religious scale, Under James I and Charles I Catholicism became more powerful
and popular. The Anglican Archbishop William Laud was very close to Catholicism.
He and the king were interested in religion and decided to unite England, Wales and
Scotland under one church. In England there was not too much opposition as those
puritans (Pilgrim Fathers) had already sailed to America and parliament had been
abolished. So people lacked a means to contest the king’s power. When the kings’
ministers gathered a catholic army in Ireland, people in Scotland were afraid and could
not react. Yet, the situation in Scotland was different as the Scottish parliament had
never been a powerful body unlike the Presbyterian Church which was very strong and
the king was not its head. It became a critic of the king’s policy. It became a gathering
space for all people without any distinction between nobles, middleclass and workmen.
The church was independent from the king and the Scottish parliament was loyal to
him. This division triggered civil war in England as parliament was independent from
the king Charles I. The Scottish army moved down to England and invaded it but the
king could not raise an army as he could not rise taxes to finance war as he had no
parliament. When he was invaded by the Scotland, he was obliged to call parliament in
England but the latter demanded him to correct certain abuses. In 1640, the British
parliament allied with the Scottish Church against the king and parliament demanded
that:
The king was willing to allow the first four conditions but he refused their control of
the army and the appointment of judges by parliament. The British parliament did not
accept this decision. As a reaction, the king tried to arrest some MPS but failed and fled
to the north that supported him. That conflict culminated by a civil war that divided
England for 5 or 6 years. The south and the east supported parliament and were called
the Round Heads and the north supported the king and were known as the Cavaliers.
In many battles common people were not concerned; they were just spectators. I9n the
course of war the Scottish Army captured the king and delivered him to the English
Army. He escaped and then he was captured again and was executed. The death of the
king resulted in changing the regime, for the first time in the British history, to a military
rule from 1649 to 1660 known as the Commonwealth.
Before this period, many of the puritans have left the country; it was a real loss as they
were hard working men. Many people owned a property. In 1649 only 10% of the
population had been politically active. The Commonwealth ruled Britain for 11 years.
It was ruled by General Olivier Cromwell who was the lord and protector of Britain.
He divided the kingdom into 11 provinces each one ruled by a General. During these
years, the situation was reversed and the rule was not civilian. Since Cromwell was
puritan, he imposed a stricter morality. He closed pubs, theaters, he forbid gambling
and any meeting for enjoyment. It was a revenge on the Anglicans. Cromwell ruled
over all Britain as any Monarch has never been but became unpopular for two reasons:
1. Material reason: to maintain such an army, it cost him a lot of money. The English
people had to pay heavy taxes for this rule which became more and more expensive and
hurting.
The king Charles I left two sons; the elder was crowned in 1653 during Cromwell’s
rule. People tried to persuade Cromwell to be king as it was preferable to an army rather
than protector, but he died in 1658 and there was no one strong enough to substitute
him. To salvage this crisis, General Monk decided with other Generals to bring back
Charles the second from Scotland to be king on England in 1660.
Under the Commonwealth rule, Britain knew a great advantage in education. England
followed the same pattern of Scotland; a lot of money was spent in the building of
schools to make education available for everybody.
As far as democracy was concerned, the British people were influenced by John Calvin
in France. The puritans and the Presbyterians were equal in the sight of God and had
the same right. Before, only 10% of the population had rights because they had land
properties. The puritans felt that all men are equal and believed in freedom of political
opinion and the idea of right and value was planted and survived for a long time up to
now.
The puritans’ life was based on work ethic. They believed in hard work. In their belief,
men work for God and not for people through filling human existence by working. This
puritan concept was the cause of the success of the American colonies. They did
everything and worked for themselves and for God to whom they were honorable. This
change transformed the British people for 2 or 3 centuries.