Civil War and JohnMilton

ENGLISH CIVIL WAR (1642-1647):
Reasons for the Civil War:

In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without heirs, ending the Tudor dynasty.
Mary Stuart’s son, James I, became King of England, starting the Stuart dynasty.
While Elizabeth worked with Parliament, James I believed in absolute monarchy by Divine Right, causing conflicts with
Parliament over issues of authority, money, and religion.
Problems between the King and Parliament:

Authority: James I believed in divine right and absolutism, but Parliament felt the king should be limited by them.
Money: James I had to ask Parliament for funds to finance his government and lifestyle.
Religion: Puritans in Parliament opposed James I arranging the marriage of his son, Charles, to a Catholic princess.
The Civil War:

Charles I succeeded his father, James I, in 1625. He married the Catholic daughter of the King of France, was a patron of the
arts, and created a magnificent art collection.
Like his father, Charles believed in the divine right of kings.
At the beginning of his reign, he summoned the parliament because he needed money for the war with Spain.
When they refused to raise taxes, he dismissed them and ruled for eleven years without them.
The House of Commons was strongly Protestant, reluctant to raise money and suspicious of the Catholic influence around
the king.
Charles's quarrels with Parliament led to the Petition of Rights in 1628, which stated that the king could not imprison anyone
without a trial or impose taxes without the consent of the Commons.
The petition became the foundation of all later declarations of civil rights, but Charles dismissed it because he thought that he
was intended by God to rule.
Parliament eventually rebelled against Charles I, leading to the Civil War between the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the
Parliament supporters (Roundheads).
The Roundheads were led by Oliver Cromwell. He was a gentleman farmer and military leader, he became Commander-in-
chief in 1649 and was named Lord Protector in 1653.
With him the roundheads won the war and executed Charles I - the first public execution of a king.
After the Civil War:

A Commonwealth was established with Cromwell as leader, though he became a military dictator, imposing strict religious
rules that banned theaters, sports, and entertainment. People grew tired of this rule and wanted a king again.
The Restoration (1660):

In 1660, Charles II, son of Charles I, was restored to the throne, marking the period known as the Restoration.
Charles II brought back theaters, sporting events, and dancing and got along with Parliament, learning from his father’s and
grandfather’s mistakes.
He passed the Habeas Corpus Law, guaranteeing trials after arrests and forbidding indefinite imprisonment.
The Glorious Revolution:

After Charles II’s death, his Catholic brother James II became king, leading to fears of a Catholic monarchy.
In 1688, Parliament invited William of Orange to invade. James II fled, and the power was transferred peacefully—this event
became known as the Glorious Revolution. William and Mary took the throne, agreeing to govern under Parliament’s control,
and the Bill of Rights was passed, affirming Parliament's authority.
Queen Anne’s Reign (1702-1714):
Anne was a popular queen, and her reign saw the Act of Union in 1707, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
The House of Hanover:

Upon Anne's death, the throne passed to George I of Hanover in 1714, starting the Hanoverian dynasty.
JOHN MILTON
LIFE (1608 - 1674)
John Milton was born into a Puritan family. He studied at Christ’s College Cambridge from 1625 to 1632. By 1639 Milton
had been drawn into the religious and political controversies leading up to the Civil War. Over the next 20 years, Milton would
win fame as a political propagandist and outspoken defender of republicanism and political freedom. In 1649 he was
appointed Secretary of Foreign Tongues to the Council of State, a post in which he had to translate all official foreign
correspondence.
By 1651, Milton had become virtually blind and the last fifteen years of his life were marked by public disgrace and private
misfortunes. When the king was restored to the throne, Milton’s works were burned in public and he himself went into hiding.
He was imprisoned and only released after payment of a heavy fine, which left him impoverished.
These are the years of Milton’s greatest poetic achievements. He devoted himself entirely to poetry and produced Paradise
Lost, Regained and the long verse drama Samson Agonistes. He died in 1674.
ACHIEVEMENT
Milton was a versatile poet and excellent in a variety of forms, from verse tragedy to lyrical poetry. As a lyric poet, Milton made
a particularly significant contribution to the development of sonnet.
Milton’s sonnet celebrate moral heroes like the Puritan General Fairfax, or protest against religious persecution,
PARADISE LOST
PLOT
Milton’s Paradise Lost was considered extremely ambitious because Milton wanted to write an epic poem in English to
match the classical epics of Homer and Virgil.
The central event is the Fall of Man, the Biblical story in which Satan in the guise of a serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat the
fruit of knowledge, for which they will be banished from Paradise. Satan does this out of envy for God’s love of man and to
revenge his defeat after his rebellion against God.
THE SETTING
 Heaven, Hell, the firmament (Chaos) and Earth;
 Milton’s Solar System: Ptolemaic design (also called the geocentric design) rather than the Copernican design
(also called the heliocentric design).
MAIN CHARACTERS
• God the Father, God the Son;
• Satan, the powerful, proud angel who led an unsuccessful rebellion against God;
• Adam and Eve, the first human beings. Adam is a rational character whose main weakness is his infatuation with Eve;
• Rebellious angels, leaders in Satan’s army.
THEMES
• Obedience and rebellion: Paradise Lost tells the story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, and describes how and why it
happened. It is also the story of Satan’s rebellion.
• Fate and free will: Satan is determined to be free even though the price of this freedom is banishment to Hell.
STYLE
• Elevated, perfectly suited to the epic genre and to the theme;
• use of blank verse;
• extensive use of enjambments;
• use of polysyllabic Latinisms, inversions;
• antithesis of light / darkness to depict Heaven and Hell.
EPIC CONVENTIONS
• The opening of the poem: a precise statement of the theme;
• God, Satan, Man and the fallen heroes: echo the warriors and the heroes created by Homer;
• the epic hero: a more philosophical central character.
SATAN IN MILTON AND DANTE

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ENGLISH CIVIL WAR (1642-1647):

Reasons for the Civil War:

Problems between the King and Parliament:

The Civil War:

After the Civil War:

The Restoration (1660):

The Glorious Revolution:

The House of Hanover:

SATAN IN MILTON AND DANTE

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