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James I
Believed in divine right, wanted to control House of Commons, struggled between power of King vs. Power of Parliament. Began the Glorious Revolution. -
House of Commons
The House of Commons was in charge of guarding the country's money, the Parliament of England. The House of Commons wanted sovereignty. -
Charles I
Charles I, the son of James I, was an intelligent, but deceitful man. He dissolved Parliament in 1629 due to a dispute over right to collect customs duties on wine and wool. From 1629 - 1640, he ruled without Parliament, financing his government through extraoridnary stopgap levies. Charles I was beheaded on January 30, 1649, and the kingship was abolished. -
Long Parliament
What the Parliament was called from 1640 to 1660 because it sat for so long. It proceeded to enact legislation that limited the power of the monarch and made arbitrary government. -
English Civil War
The war tested whether sovereignty in England was to reside in the kingor in Parliament. The civil war did not resolve that problem, but it ended in 1649 with the exectution of King Charles. -
Oliver Cromwell
After the civil war, the army that won the war took over control of the country. As head of the army, Oliver Cromwell became head of the country. Cromwell, called the "Protectorate," constituted military dictatorship. He divided England into twelve military districts headed by major generals. Cromwell was tolerant to all Christian religions besides Roman Catholic. To boost the economy, Cromwell used mercantalism and passed the Navigation Act. -
Restoration of English Monarchy
The Restoration of 1660 re-established the monarchy in Charles II, eldest son of Charles I. Both houses of the Parliament were restored. -
Charles II
Charles II was a basic man, who was indifferent about about the issues of England, he was not interested in doctrinal issues. Charles II intended to get along with Parliament. Harmony was achieved between Charles II and Parliament by the establishment of the Cabal, which was a council of five men who were both members of Parliament and Charles II's major advisers. Charles II was in an agreement with Louis XIV to re-Catholicize England and he himself converted. He relaxed laws against Catholics. -
James II and Louis XIV
James succeeded his brother, Charles II, to the throne. Violating the Test Act, James appointed Roman Catholic to positions in the army, universities, and local government. When these actions were tested in the courts the judges whom James had appointed decided for the king, the king was suspending the law at will and appeared to be reviving the absolutism of his father and grandfather. In December 188, James, with his family, fled to France and became pensioners of Louis XIV. -
William and Mary (English Bill of Rights)
Early in 1689, William and Mary were crowned king and queen of England. William and mary accepted the throne from the Parliament and in so doing explicitly recognized the supremacy of the Parliament. The basic principles of the Bill of Rights were formulated in direct respone to Stuart absolutism. Law was to be made in the Parliament, once made, it could not be suspended by the Crown. The Crown could no longer get judicial decisions it wanted by threats or removals. -
Enclosure
Advocates of improvement argued that innovating agriculturalists needed to enclose and consolidate their scattered holdings into compact, fenced-in-fields in order to farm more effectively. In doing so, innovators also needed to enclose their individual shares of the natural pasture, the common. According to proponents of this idea, known as enclosure, a revolution in village life and organization was the neccessary price of technical progress.
