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Period: Sep 26, 1450 to
1. Witch Hunts
During this time period, Puritans were extremely afraid of “the personification of the devil”, aka witches. They were constantly on the lookout for anybody who didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the general population, and mostly women. It was said that women were less resistant to the ‘temptation’, and were therefore more likely a witch. -
Period: Sep 26, 1450 to
3. Witch Hunts
Some popular methods were tying thumbs to their feet and drowning them, burning and hanging. It was believed that witches would save themselves and innocents would die. Needless to say, they never found a witch. -
Period: Sep 26, 1450 to
2. Witch Hunts
The puritans hunted down any women who were deemed “odd”, whether that be because they lived alone, or perhaps only with a pet, or maybe they were educated in the medical field and made herbal medicines or “potions” for a living. The way it was determined if a person was a witch or not was by holding “witch trials”, where the people in question would be publicly tortured or executed in some way or another. -
Sep 26, 1536
1. Henry VIII Creates the Church of England
Henry VIII was obsessed with getting a male heir to the throne. He had many wives, but not one gave him a male heir he would accept. Since, at the time, divorce was not allowed according to the church in charge, Henry ended up beheading many of his wives just so that he could remarry either a more promising, or a more interesting woman. -
Sep 26, 1536
2. Henry VIII Creates the church of England
After 2 wives were put to death, he decided that beheading so many women was too much of a hassle, and wanted to be able to just divorce them instead, and so, he changed the religion. This went under much debate, but in the end, Henry won, and the religion changed slightly, as to allow him to divorce his many wives, instead of brutally murdering them. -
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4. Oliver Cromwell
Cromwell was so successful that he was offered the crown by parliament, but humbly declined the offer because he believed himself a failure. He had overthrown a dictator and become one himself. He died in 1658 as a result of a urinary tract infection, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. -
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2. Oliver Cromwell
Cromwell and his family began to lose money, and so moved off to another part of England, where they lived as farmers for 5 years. Then Cromwell’s uncle died, heirless, leaving his inheritance to Oliver. Now being in a higher position in society, Cromwell was elected to parliament twice. The first time, he did fairly well, but the second time round, Cromwell managed to distinguish himself among the battles of the first civil war, and was moved up the ranks to Colonel, then, lieutenant general. -
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1. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, England in 1599, and got a basic education at the Huntingdon grammar school. He then moved on to go to university, but his time there was cut short by his father’s untimely death. Cromwell was later elected to parliament, but shortly after he fell into a “depression”, and supposedly had some sort of awakening, leading to his strict Puritan beliefs. -
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3. Oliver Cromwell
After the second civil war, Cromwell as well as 58 others took action against the tyrant King Charles I and signed the orders for his execution. After the king was killed, a Council of State was put into place, and leaders were needed. Since he had so well distinguished himself in the second civil war, Cromwell was assigned to lead Ireland, and later Scotland. Oliver led his armies into battle at Worcester, and the resulting victory united England, Scotland, Ireland, and into the Commonwealth. -
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2. Charles I
This meant he would raise taxes, collect “ship money”, and even go as far as to sell royal property as well as noble titles, all for money, instead of getting help from parliament. His two friends would collect and spend the people’s money, whilst under the protection of the king. Finally, Charles was forced to call back parliament to fund an impending war, and in exchange for their help, he was made to behead his two friends. -
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3. Charles I
He also received a “grand remonstrance”, indirectly calling him out on all he had done wrong, and saying that parliament needed veto power. He saw that the majority of parliament was with this statement, but only by a little bit, and so, Charles gathered an army to march into parliament to find the “radicals” and dispose of them, making sure that most of parliament was on his side. -
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5. Charles I
The New Model army won by a long shot to Charles’s army, and he fled to Scotland. Little did he know that the Scots were allied with parliament, and they handed him right back to be executed. He was publicly executed in 1649 in Whitehall, London. -
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1. Charles I
Charles I was born in Fife, Scotland in 1600, and ascended the throne in 1625. Charles dissolved parliament 3 times in his first 4 years ruling, and finally, dismissed parliament altogether, meaning that he would not be able to get funds from parliament, and would have to raise them by his own means. This angered the general public for several reasons. -
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4. Charles I
The bold revolutionaries, however, had somehow gotten word of his coming beforehand, and had fled, which was seen as open opposition to the king. Charles was infuriated, and formed an army of all trained horsemen called the royalists. The parliament formed and army of their own, one of mostly inexperienced, but determined people, named the New Model army. -
1. Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
When James I became king, the Catholics, at first, believed that he would be fair to them, even though he himself was not a Catholic. In contrary to their belief, he soon banned all Catholic priests from England, which angered the Catholics greatly. One man, by the name of Guy Fawkes decided to take action. His plan was to kill the king, and make his daughter, who was a Catholic, queen instead. Fawkes as well as other brave revolutionaries bound together and created the Gunpowder Plot. -
2. Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
They rented a room under the House of Parliament, and rolled in 36 barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was left in the basement to blow up the explosives, but just as the deed was about to be done, a group of guards caught him red handed. Guy was arrested and sent to the tower of London to be tortured until he gave up the truth. After a few days of continual torture and suffering, he gave up the names of his fellow revolutionaries, and was sentenced to death. -
1. Petition of Rights
The petition of right was a petition sent to King Charles I by the English parliament, protesting his overuse of the “divine right of kings” and doing whatever he wanted. Parliament argues that he was taxing people without approval from parliament, he was imprisoning people without a reason, he was quartering soldiers on subjects and he was using martial law in times of peace. -
2. Petition of Right
If Charles wanted to continue to receive money from parliament to fund his extravagant spending, he would need to accept their conditions. Charles I accepted the conditions, but later blatantly ignored them. -
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1. Charles II
After Oliver Cromwell’s death, his son was put in charge of the nation, but was found incapable of ruling. Instead, the country decided that Charles II was the rightful ruler, and crowned him. Charles II promptly went to work on reversing all of Cromwell and his associates work over the few years they ruled. -
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2. Charles II
He cancelled the Blue Laws, killed regicides, and went as far as digging up Cromwell and his fellows, giving them a trial and publically beheading them, despite their being already dead, and hanging his head outside of Westminster Abbey. -
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1. The Long Parliment
The long parliament was a parliament called upon by Charles I for funds during England’s conflict with the Scots. Before the long parliament, there was the Short parliament, which only lasted a month, and then was unfairly dismissed when money was no longer needed from them by Charles I. Within the first 9 months of the long parliament’s existence, they had increased parliament’s power by more than ever. -
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2. The Long Parliament
They brought down the kings advisors, got rid of the conciliar government and made a law that stated that parliament could not be dismissed without its members’ consent. The long parliament was unofficially dismissed twice in its life, once in 1653, when its members were forcibly ejected and several times towards the end of the year in 1660. None of the dissolutions occurred with “royal ascent”, and so, legally, none were valid. -
1. The Battle at Marston Moor
The battle at Marston moor was thought to be the biggest battle ever fought inside England’s territory. The battle took place in the city of York, where the royalist armies were surrounded by the parliament’s army, the new model army and the Scottish army. Eventually, word reached Prince Rupert, who was the commander of another branch of the royalist army. He decided to come and aid his fellow royalists along with his army, but the new model army got word beforehand and retreated. -
2. Battle at Marston Moor
On the second of July, the two enemies gathered and battled. The battle started around 7pm and lasted two hours. The royalists lost a total of around 5500 men, being both killed and taken hostage. The parliamentary army lost about 300 men total, which meant another decisive victory for the parliament. -
The Battle at Naseby
The battle at Naseby was a part of the first civil war in which parliament’s “New model Army” and King Charles I’s “Royalists” fought. King Charles’ army was made up of all experienced horsemen and the New Model army was mainly inexperienced men. The battle was fought near the town of Naseby in Northamptonshire. Although parliaments army was inexperienced and untrained, they won by a long shot. -
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1. The Rump Parliment
The rump parliament was what the long parliament’s remaining members were called after the prides purge. The prides purge was a purge of the parliaments less daring individuals by Oliver Cromwell’s army. 40 of the long parliament’s members that were suspected to be in alignment with the king were imprisoned, and one hundred and sixty of the parliaments members were “convinced” to leave their seats in parliament by Cromwell’s army -
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2. The Rump Parliament
. Only the most persistent and resolute of members got to stay in parliament. The rump parliament continued to quarrel with Cromwell and his army who, on several occasions tried to expel the rump parliament, but doing so was decreed illegal on the protector’s death. Eventually, the rump parliament dissolved itself, and to put it in Cromwell’s own words, “not a dog barked”. The rump parliament was neither loved nor hated by the people, and therefore, didn’t really seem very important to them. -
Massacre at Drogheda
The city of Drogheda was a powerful town at the time, perhaps even rivaling the power of Cromwell’s army. Once Cromwell saw this, he at once decided to lay siege upon the city, to restore his unrivaled power, and in doing so, the people’s faith in him. Cromwell’s army marched to Drogheda and surrounded the city’s troops, waiting patiently until they heeded, and then the parliamentary army proceeded to assert their power by killing all who got in their path, including women and children. -
Blue Laws
The blue laws were a set of laws made by Oliver Cromwell prohibiting certain activities such as dancing, gambling, sports and theatre. It also prohibited people from celebrating religious holidays such as Christmas. These laws were based off of his strict puritan beliefs, and thought that everybody should devote their entire life to God and the worship of Him, instead of wasting it on other extravagants. -
Test Act
The Test act was a set of laws that made the church of England supreme. It also kept Catholics from holding political power, either in the monarchy or in parliament, among other things such as certain social restrictions. The test act served as a reminder that parliament had authority over the king, because he was doing nasty and reckless things without much reason or consulting parliament first. The kings own brother was kicked out of his position in power because of the test act. -
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1. The Glorious Revolution
The glorious revolution also called the Revolution of 1688 or the Bloodless revolution was the time during the transition from England being ruled by King James II and being rules by William of Orange. The people and the parliament were angry with James II for several reasons and did not want him as king anymore, but since he was king they could not touch him. -
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2. The Glorious Revolution
They called upon his nephew and son-in-law, Prince William to come and take over the country. As James’s support began to decrease, William slowly began to advance, gathering support on his way. When finally, James II’s own daughter and best general joined William’s side, he fled to France, and gave up his crown. William was then asked to become the ruler and was presented with a bill of rights and an opportunity to rule England side by side with parliament, both of which he accepted. -
1. The Bill of Rights
The bill of rights is a statement created by parliament that was presented to William and Mary who were the royal family at the time. The declaration invited William and Mary to rule the country equally between them and parliament. -
2. Bill of Rights
The Bill sets out the regulations for the monarch’s power and the parliament’s rights including but not limited to the freedom of speech inside parliament, the requirement to have regular meetings with parliament and to have free elections. The bill also condemned the use of “cruel and unusual punishments” as well as the right for protestants to have arms for their defence.
