14 Republican and Restoration Britain

Republican Britain . Catholicism, the Crown and the new

constitutional monarchy . Scotland and Ireland . Foreign relations

Republican Britain
Severa l MPs had co mmanded the Parliamentarian
army. Of these , th e stro ngest was an East An glian
gen tle man farmer named O liver Cromwell. He had
creat ed a new "m odel " army, the first regular force
from which th e British army of toda y dev eloped .
Instead of country people or gentry, Cromwell
invit ed into h is arin y educated men who wanted to
fight for their beliefs.
C romwell and h is adv isers had cap tured the king in
1645, but they did not know what to do wit h him .
This was an entirely new situat ion in English
history . C ha rles him self continued to encourage
rebell ion against Parl iament even after he had
surrende red and had been imprisoned. He was able
to en courage th e Sco ts to rebel again st th e
Parliamentarian army. After the Scots were
defeated some Puri tan officers of the
Parliam entarian army demanded th e king's death
for treason.
The Parliamentarian leaders now had a prob lem.
T he y co uld either bring C harles back to the thro ne
It is said th£u O/it/er Cromwell. «!ith Puritan humi/i()', told his /Xlinter,
and allow h im to rule, or remove him and c reate a Samuel Cooper, 10 include the warts Oil his face. BtH as well as humilit)'
new political syste m. By th is tim e most peop le in Cromwell also had a soldiL>r's belief in aUlhorify. As a resulr he was
Impo{lItlar us Lord Protector. He failed 10 pcrsw:u1e the English tha t
bot h Houses of Parliament and probably in the republican .l:0vemmenr was better flum monarchy, mainly because people had
co untry wanted th e king back . T he y feared the less freedom under hi!> authoritarian rule than they Md under Charles 1.
Parl iamentarian s and th ey feared the dan gerou s
th e army, and the remaining fifty-three judged him
beh aviour of the army. But some army commande rs
and found him guilty of making "war against his
were determined to get rid of the kin g. These men
kingdom and the Parliamen t". O n 3 1 Janu ary 1649
were Puritan s who believed they could build God's
King C ha rles was execut ed . It was a cold day and
kin gdom in England .
he wore two shirts so th at the crowd who came to
Two-thirds of th e MPs did not want to put the kin g watch would not see him sh iver an d think him
on trial. They were removed from Parliament by fright en ed.
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 14 Republican and Restoration Britain

King C ha rles died bravely. As his head was cut Two hundred years later, such demand s were
from his body the large crowd groaned. Perhaps the thought of as basic citizens' rights. But in th e
execution was C harles's own greatest victory, middle of the seventeenth century th ey had little
because most peop le now realised th at th ey did not popular support. Levellers in the army rebelled, but
want Parliamentary rule , and were sorry th at th eir rebellion was defeat ed.
Charles was not st ill kin g.
From 1653 Britain was govern ed by Cromwell
From 1649- 1660 Brita in was a republi c , but the alon e. He became "Lord Prot ector", with far
republic was not a success. Cromwe ll and his grearer powers th an King C harles had had. His
friends created a gove rn ment far more severe than efforts to govern the co untry through the army were
Charles's had been. They had got rid of th e extremely unp opular, and th e idea of using th e
monarch y, and they now got rid of th e House of army to maintain law and order in the kin gdom has
Lords and the A nglican C h urch. remained unp opul ar ever since. C romwell's
govern ment was unpopular for other reasons. For
The Scots were shocked by C ha rles's execution.
example, people were forbidden to celeb rate
They in vited his son, whom they recognised as
Christmas and Easte r, or to play games on a
King C ha rles 11 , to join th em and fight against
Sunday.
the English Parliamentary army. But th ey were
defeated, and young C ha rles him self was lucky to When Cromwell died in 1658, the Protector at e, as
escape to Fran ce. Sco rland was brought under his republ ican admin istration was called, co llapsed.
English republican rule. Cromwell had hoped th at his son , rather than
Parliament , would take over when he died . But
Cromwell took an army to Ireland to puni sh the
Rich ard C romwell was not a good leader and th e
Irish for the kill ing of Protestants in 1641, and for
army commande rs soon started to quarre l among
the con t inued Royalist rebellion there. He captu red
the mselves . O ne of these decide d to act. In 1660
two town s, Drogheda and Wexford. His soldiers
he march ed to London, arranged for free electi on s
killed the in habitants of both , about 6,000 people
and in vited Charles 11 to return to h is kin gdom .
in all. These killi ngs were probably no worse than
The republi c was over.
the killing s of Protestants in 1641 , but they
remain ed powerful symbols of English cruelty to th e When C ha rles 11 returned to Englan d as the
Irish. publicl y accepted kin g, th e laws and A cts of
C romwell's gove rn ment were auto mat ically
The army remain ed th e most powerful force in th e
cance lled.
land. Disagreements bet ween the army and
Parliament result ed in Parliament's dissolution in C ha rles managed his return with skill. A ltho ugh
1653 . It was the behaviour of the army and the Parliament was once more as weak as it had been in
dissolut ion of Parl iam en t that destroyed C romwell's th e time of [ ames I and Charles I, the new kin g was
hopes. Man y in th e army held what were tho ught careful to make peace with his father's enemies.
to be stra nge beliefs. A group called "Levellers" O n ly th ose who had been respon sible for his
wanted a new equality among all men . They fath er's exec utio n were pun ished. Man y
wanted Parli am ent to meet every two years, and for Parliamen tarians were give n position s of autho rity
most men over the age of twen ty-one to have the or respon sibility in the new mon arch y. But
right to elect MPs to it. They also wanted complet e Parli ament itself remain ed gene rally weak. C ha rles
rel igious freedom, wh ich would have allowed th e sha red his fat he r's bel ief in divine right. A nd he
many new Puritan groups to follow th eir religion in greatl y admired th e magnificent , all-powe rful,
the way they wished. absolute ruler of Fran ce , Louis XIV.

93
An Illustrated H istory of Britain

meet freely. But Parliament was stro ng ly A nglican,

and would not allow this . Before the C ivil Wa r,
Puritans looked to Parliament for prorection against
. the kin g. Now th ey hoped tha t the king would
protect them against Parliame nt.
C ha rles himself was attracted to the Catho lic
C hu rch. Parliament knew thi s and was always
afraid that C ha rles would become a Catho lic. For
th is reason Parliament passed the Test Act in 1673,
wh ich prevented any Catho lic from holding public
office. Fear of C harles's inte rest in th e Catho lic
C hurch and of the mon arch y beco ming too
powerful also resulted in the fi rst polit ical part ies in
Britain.

O ne of these parties was a group of MPs who

became known as "Wh igs", a rude nam e for cattle
drivers. T he W h igs were afraid of an absolute
mon arch y, and of th e Catho lic faith with whic h
th ey connec ted it. T hey also wanted to have no
regular or "stan ding" army. In spite of th eir fear of a
Catho lic kin g, th e W h igs believed stro ngly in
allowing religious freedom . Because C ha rles and his
wife had no ch ildren, the W higs feared tha t the
Crown would go to C ha rles's Catho lic brothe r,
[ arnes. They wanted to preve nt th is, but they were
un decided ove r who they did want as kin g.
T he W higs were opposed by anothe r group ,
n icknamed "Tories", an Irish name for thi eves. It is
difficult to give a simple definition of eac h party,
Charles Il, who' 'never said a foolish thing, nor everdida wise one, " was a
because they were loosely formed groups. Gene rally
welcome change from CromweUian rule. Charles Il believed as strongly as speaking, however, the Tories uphe ld the aut hori ty
his father and grandfather in the divine right of kings, but Iuu:I. the good sense of th e Crown and th e C hurc h, and were na tural
to atlOid an open break with Parliament. His reign was carefree and relaxed,
as this portrait suggests. quite different from the mood suggested in Van inheri tors of the "Roya list" position. The W h igs
Dyck's portrait of his father (page 86). were not against th e C rown, but th ey believed that
its authority deperided upon the consent of
Parliament. As na tura l inheritors of the
"Parliamentarian " values of twenty years earlier,
th ey felt to lerant towards the new Protestant sects
which the Anglica n C hurch so disliked. T hese two
part ies, the W h igs and the T ories, beca me th e basis
Catholicism, the Crown and the of Britain 's two-party parliamentary system of
new constitutional monarchy gove rnment.

C ha rles hoped to make peace be twee n th e differen t T he struggle ove r Catho licism and the Crown
religious groups. He wanted to allow Puritan s and beca me a crisis whe n news was heard of a Catho lic
Catho lics who disliked the Anglican C h urch to plot to murder C ha rles and put his brothe r [ames
94
 14 Republi can and Restoration Britain

on th e th ron e. In fact the plan did not exist. The They invited William of Orange to in vade Brita in.
story had been spread as a clever trick to frigh ten It was a dan gerous thing for Willi am to do, but he
people and to make sure th at [ arnes and rh e was already at war with France and he needed th e
Cat ho lics did not co me to power. The trick help of Britain' s wealth and armed forces. At th is
worked. Parli ament passed an Acr forbidding any important moment [ arnes's determination failed
Cat ho lic to be a mem ber of eithe r the Commons or him. It seems he act ually had some kin d of mental
the Lords. It was not successful, however , in breakdown.
preventing lames from inheriting the cro wn.
Willi am entered London, but the crow n was offered
Cha rles would not allow any interference with his
only to Mary. William said he would leave Brita in
brothe r's div ine right to be king. Swam might give
unl ess he also became kin g. Parliament had no
in on matters of policy but never on matters of
I
choice bur to offer the crown to bot h W illiam and
princ iple.
Marv,
[arnes 1I beca me king afte r his brother's death in
However, while Will iam had obta ined th e crow n,
1685. T he T ori es and Ang licans were delighted ,
Parliament had also won an important point. After
but not for lon g. l ame s had already sho wn his
he had fl ed from England , Parliament had decid ed
dislike of Protestants whil e he had been C harles's
th at [ arues 1I had lost his right to th e crown . It
governor in Sco tla nd. His soldiers had killed man y
gave as its reason th at he had tried to undermine
Presbyteri an men, women and children . T his
"the const itution of the kingdom by breaking the
period is st ill remembered in some parts of Scotla nd
original contract between King and Peop le. " T h is
as th e "killing t imes".
idea of a contract between ruler and ruled was not
James th en tried to remove the laws whic h stopped entirely new. Since the restoration of C harles 1I in
Catholics from taking positio ns in gove rn ment and 1660 th ere had bee n a number of theor ies about the
Parliamen t. He also tr ied to bring bac k the nature of government. In the 1680s two of th e
Catholic C hurch , and allow it to ex ist beside the more important theorists, A lgernon Sid ney and
Anglican C hurch. [ arn es almost certainly believed Joh n Locke , had argued that government was based
sincerely that this wou ld result in many return ing to upon the consent of the peopl e, and th at the
the C atho lic C hurch. But Parliament was very powers of the king must be strictly limi ted. The
angry, particularl y th e Tories and Anglican s who logical conclusion of such ideas was th at th e
had supported him against th e Whigs. "consent of the peop le" was represented by
Parliament, and as a result Parliamen t, not th e
[arnes tried to get rid of the T ory gentry who most
king, sho uld be the ove rall power in the sta te. In
strongly oppose d h im. He removed three-quart ers of
1688 th ese theories were fulfi lled.
all jPs and replaced the m with men of lower social
class. He tried to bring together the Catholics and Like th e C ivil W ar of 1642, th e G lorious
the Puritan s, now usually ca lled "Nonconformists" Revolution, as th e political results of the events of
because they would not agree with or "conform" to 1688 were called , was co mplete ly unpl anned and
the Anglican C hu rch. unprepared for. It was hardl y a revol ution , more a
coup cl'ewt by th e ruling class. But the fact that
In spite of thei r anger, Tories, Whigs and Parliament made William kin g, no t by inheritan ce
Anglican s did nothing because th ey could look but by their cho ice , was revolution ary. Parliament
forward to th e succession of [ arnes's daughter, was now beyond question more powerful than the
Mary. Marv was Prote stant and married to the king, and would remain so. Its power over the
Protestant ruler of Holland, W illiam of Orange . mon arch was written into the Bill of Rights in
But thi s hope was destro yed with the new s in June 1689. The king was now un able to raise taxes o r
1688 th at l ames's son had been born. The Tories keep an army without the agreement of Parli ament,
and Anglican s now joined the Whigs in looking for
or to act against any MP for what he said or did in
a Protestant rescue. Parliament.
A n Illustrated H istory of Britain

In 1701 Parli ament finally passed rhe A cr of Sco tland was still a separate kin gdom , altho ugh it
Settle ment, to make sure on ly a Prot estant could shared a kin g with England (James 11 had been
in he rit the crown . It stated tha t if Mary had no l ames VII of Sco tland). T he English wanted
ch ildren th e crown would pass to her sister Anne. If Sco tla nd and England to be united. But the English
she also died without ch ildren , it would go to a Ac t of Settleme nt was not law in Sco tla nd. While
grandda ughter of l ames I, who had married th e Sco tla nd remaine d legally free to choose its own
Ge rman elector of Han over, and her ch ildren . The kin g th ere was a danger that this might be used to
Act of Settlement was importa nt, and ha s remained put a St uarr back on the throne. Sco tla nd might
in force ever since, altho ugh the Stuarts tried three ren ew its A uld A lliance with France, which was
t imes to regain the crown. Even today , if a son or now England's most dange rous Europea n ene my.
daughter of the mo na rch beco mes a Catho lic, he or
Onthe o the r hand , Sco tland needed to remove the
she cannot inherit the thron e.
limits on trade with England from which it suffered
econo mically. The Eng lish Parliament offered to
remo ve th ese limits if the Scots agreed to union
with England. The Scots kn ew th at if they did not
agree the re was a real dan ger tha t an English army
Scotland and Ireland would once again march int o Sco tla nd. In 1707 the
Ne ithe r Sco tland,nor Irelan d accepted the English union of Sco tla nd and England was com pleted by
removal of lames peacefully. In Sco tland supporters Ac t of Parliament. From tha t momen t both
of the St uarrs rebe lled, but altho ugh they coun tries no lon ger had separate parliame nts, and a
successfully defeated a govern me nt army, th eir new parliament of G reat Britain, the new nam e of
rebellion ended afte r the death of their leader. Most the sta te, met for th e first tim e. Sco tla nd, however,
of the rebels were H igh landers, ma ny of them still kept its own separate legal and judicial system, and
Catho lic. its own separate C hurch.

"No surrender", the motto ofthe

Londonderry Protestants under
siege in 1690 by the Catholic
Irish, has remained the mono of
the Ulster Protestants to this day.
This Protestant hmne displays the
crossed flags of the Union of
Great Britain and Northern
Irelandandof Ulster.

96
 14 Republican and Restoration Britain

In Ireland the Catho licism of [ ames H had raised By the treat y of Utrecht in 1713 France acce pted
the hopes of th ose who had lost their land s to th e limits on its expansion, as well as a political
Protestant set tle rs. When he lost his throne in settlement for Europe. It accepted Queen Anne
England , James naturally thought th at Ireland instead of [ ames Il' s son as th e tru e monarch of
would make a stro ng base from which to take back Britain . In th e war Britain had also won th e rock of
his throne. In 1689 he land ed in Ireland, with G ibraltar, and co uld now control the entrance to
French suppo rt . th e Medit erranean .
In Dublin a Catho lic parliament immedi atel y The ca pture of foreign land was important for
passed an A ct taking away all th e property of Europe's econo mic development. At thi s stage
Protestan ts in Ireland. But it was not so easy to Btit ain had a smaller empire abroad th an eithe r
carry thi s out. Thirty thousand Protestants locked Spain or Holland . But it had grea ter variety. O n
themselves in the city of Lond onderry (or "Derrv" th e east coast of America , Britain co nt rolled abo ut
as th e Catho lics co ntinued to call it) . [arnes twelve co lon ies. Of far greate r int erest were th e
encircled the city but th e defenders refused to new possession s in the West Indies, where sugar
surrender. After fifteen weeks, English sh ips arrived was grown . Sugar became a craze from which
bringing fresh supp lies and the struggle for Britain has not yet recov ered .
Londonderry was over. The bat tlecry of the
The growing sugar econom y of the We st Indies
Protestants of Londonderry "No Su rrender!" ha s
increased the demand for slaves. By 1645, for
remained to th is day the cry of U lster
examp le, the re were 40,000 white settlers and
Protestanti sm .
6,000 negro slaves in Barbad os. By 1685 th e
Ki ng Wi lliam landed in Ireland in 1690, and balance had cha nged , with only 20 ,000 wh ite
defeated [ arnes's army at the River Boyne. [ arnes settlers but 46,000 slaves. T he sugar importers used
left Ireland for France a few days later, and never the ir great influen ce to make sure that the
returned to any of his kingdoms . W ith th e bat tle of government did not stop slavery.
the Boyne the Protestant victory was complete . During th is t ime Britain also established its first
trad ing settlements in India, on both the west and
east coasts. The East India Company did no t
interfere in Indian politics. Its interest was on ly in
Foreign relations trade . A hundred years later, however, compet ition
During th e seven teenth century Britain' s main with France resulted in direct efforts to control
enemies were Spain , Holland and France. War with Indian polit ics, either by alliance or by the
Holland resulted from co mpe tit ion in trade. Aft er co nquest of Indian princely sta tes.
three wars in th e middle of th e century, when
Britain had ac h ieved th e trade posit ion it wanted,
peace was agreed , and Holland and Britain co-
operated aga inst Fran ce.
At th e end of the cen tury Britain went to war
against Fran ce. This was partly because Willi am of
Orange brough t Britain into the Dut ch struggle
with th e Fren ch . Bur Brita in also wanted to limit
French power , which had been growing under Louis
XIV. Under the duke of Marlborough, the Briti sh
army won several important victories over the
French at Blenheim (on th e Danube), Ram illies,
Oudena rde and Malplaquet (in the Nethe rlands) .
97