James I: Divine Right and Gunpowder Plot

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James I (1603-1625)

• Queen Elizabeth died childless in 1603, succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England, the first Stuart king.
• James I united England, Scotland, and Ireland.
• Believing in the Divine Right of Kings, James I considered himself above the law and parliament.
• James I reinforced the Anglican Church, which lead to the Gunpowder Plot (1605) and the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers (1620).

Struggle with Parliament

• James I's claim to 'Divine Right' implied Parliament only had powers he chose to grant.
• He denied Parliament's right to interfere in foreign affairs and raised taxes without its consent.
• Parliament was anxious to check the Crown, leading to the Civil War in the next reign.

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot (1605)

• In 1605, Catholics, angered by James' inaction to improve their situation, plotted to murder the king.
• Led by Guy Fawkes, they placed gunpowder in the cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament.
• The plot was detected, and Guy Fawkes and his men were arrested, tried, and executed.
• The Gunpowder Plot caused the nation to hate and fear Catholicism for centuries.

Puritan Commonwealth and the New World (1620)

• In 1620, a group of Puritans escaping religious persecution sailed from Plymouth on the Mayflower.
• They landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, and founded a rigid, Puritan Commonwealth.
• Virginia had been founded by Sir Walter Raleigh under Queen Elizabeth.
• London merchants took up Raleigh's project, establishing a permanent settlement for tobacco production.
• The 17th century brought social and political unrest, the monarchy was overthrown and then restored.
• The Glorious Revolution of 1688 introduced constitutional limits on the king's power.
• Britain's colonial power grew and the nation expanded to an empire by the end of the century.

Charles I (1625-1649)

• In 1625, James I was succeeded by his son, Charles I.
• Charles I, believing in the Divine Rights of Kings, conflicted with Parliament by raising taxes without consent and demanding religious conformity to the Church of England.
• King Charles I chose William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury, imposing the Anglican 'High' Church liturgy, seen as close to Catholicism by Puritans.
• Laud's persecution of Puritans caused thousands to emigrate to America, creating a 'New England'.

Personal Rule (1628)

• Needing money for war with France, Charles I summoned Parliament again.
• Parliament granted money if he accepted the Petition of Rights: no tax without Parliament's approval, and no arbitrary imprisonment.
• Discord grew, and in 1629 Charles dissolved the assembly, ruling as a despot for 11 years.

Breakdown of Personal Rule (1640)

• Charles summoned Parliament in 1640 to raise taxes for war with Scottish Presbyterians.
• The 'Short Parliament' lasted one month, but Charles summoned Parliament again six months later as the 'Long Parliament'.
• The Long Parliament refused funds and reduced the king's power, passing an Act that it could not be dissolved without their consent.
• Archbishop Laud was imprisoned and executed
• The king tried to arrest four Parliamentarians, failed, and fled north.

The Civil War (1642-1649)

• Anglican aristocracy and the King side were the Royalists or Cavaliers.
• Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, were Puritan, supported by the middle class, towns, and cities.
• The Parliamentarians, led by Oliver Cromwell, formed the 'New Model Army' (Ironsides) and defeated the king's army at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645).

Oliver Cromwell (1649-1669)

• Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), a Puritan, helped organize the army at the start of the Civil War in 1642.
• He served as deputy commander of the 'New Model Army', whose Roundheads decimated the Royalist troops.
• After the king's execution, England was proclaimed a Commonwealth (a Republic).
• Until 1653, it was under the rule of the House of Commons, known as the Rump Parliament.
• Parliament abolished the Monarchy and the House of Lords.

Execution of Charles I (1649)

• Charles rejected the parliamentary court's authority and refused to defend himself against charges of treason.
• Cromwell had the judges sign a death warrant, and on January 29, 1649, the king was beheaded.
• Charles I was the only English monarch ever to be executed.

Royalist Reaction - The Battle of Dunbar (1650)

• The king's execution provoked a Royalist reaction in Ireland and Scotland.
• Cromwell's troops massacred combined Protestant and Catholic Royalists forces at Drogheda, Ireland (September 1649).
• In 1650, a Scottish rebellion was crushed at the Battle of Dunbar, Scotland (September 1650), and then at Worcester the following year.

The Protectorate (1563)

• The Rump Parliament had not agreed to call a new Parliament.
• In April 1653 Cromwell closed it down.
• The army appointed Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector' with power to rule England, Ireland, and Scotland, although he rejected becoming king.
• Military rule ran the country as a dictatorship until 1657.
• Puritans wanted a godly society, theaters were immoral and closed, prayer illegal on Sunday, death sentences and prison for adultery, incest, fornication.

End of Puritan Rule

• Cromwell's was succeeded by his Son Richard, Richard was an inept leader and abdicated eight months later.
• After Richard Cromwell's resignation, the Republic slowly fell apart.
• The Presbyterians favored the Stuart restoration (Charles II), on condition that the king should not rule without Parliament.

Return of the Stuarts, Charles II (1660-1714)

• Theaters re-opened bringing literature back, and the Royal Society=Society was established.
• Science popularised using popular novels.
• Charles II (son of the executed king) was welcomed as the mark of an end to an oppressive Puritan era.
• One of Charles II's first acts was revenge on man that was responsible for killing his father.
• On 30 January 1661, Cromwell's body was exhumed, tried and found guilty of regicide.

Plague and fire (1665)

• During Charles II's reign, London suffered two terrible events.
• In 1665 The Great Plague more than 100,000 Londoners died.
• Many fled the capital but theatres and other forms of public entertainment closed down.
• In 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed two-thirds of the City of London.
• Christopher Wren helped rebuild the new City, and St Paul's Cathedral still stands to this day (1675).

Restoration (1673)

• The Cavalier Parliament consisted almost entirely of Royalists.
• Was determined to restore king and Parliament to stop the king from maintaining automatic government.
• Catholicism Dissenters were excluded from public offices and the Church of England re-established.

The Glorious Revolution (1689-1702)

• British politics dominated by 2 political parties: the radical, anti-Catholic Whigs and the Tories were favourable to the Stuarts.
• When Charles II died in 1685 with no heir, James, Duke of York, became James II.
• James II appointed Catholics, his heir alarmed the nation,
• William of Orange, Protestant husband of James' daughter Mary Stuart, raised an army in Holland and landed in England/
• William and Mary were welcomed and crowned king and queen in what is known as the Glorious (Bloodless) Revolution.
• The Bill of Rights (1689) limited the king's power and established a parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy DA MONARCHIA ASSOLUTA A PARLAMENTARE E RE NO ESERCITO PERSONALE MA DELLO STATO.
• During William's reign the Toleration Act (1689) gave Dissenters PURITANI freedom of worship, and only Protestants could heor to the throne after the Act of Settlement (1701).
• In 1689 James. II brought a French army to Ireland but James' army was defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
• William brought the whole of Ireland a predominantly Catholic country, under Protestant control

Queen Anne (1702-1714)

• William died in 1702 and Mary sister Anne became queen.
• The War of Spanish Succession broke out, prevent Louis XIV from of Spanish monarch,
• England allied with Holland and Prussia against France, Spain Portugal, won a war which strenghtened their position when the war ended.
• With the Treaty of Utrecht retained Gibraltar and Minorca, and gained the Hudsons Bay and the right to trade with SA colonies.
• During Anne's reign England united Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain (1707).
• The Act Union reinforced England's control over Scotland and prevented a Stuart return.
• The Act of Settlement crown would pass to the Protestant rulers of the German Principality of Hanover.

George (1714-1760)

• When Anne died in 1714, The Whig politicians quickly made George I as king.
• George I who cannot speak English dealt with a one minister (The Cabinet) which gave him great authority.
• Prime Minister was Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). WHIGS=LEGGI LIBERALI X L'ECONOMIA, MENO TASSE=1700 ILLUMINISMO=NO PRIVILEGI.

1st Jacobite rising (1715)

• Major opposition Hanoverians came from restoration James II's son James, and then grandchild Charles the throne.
• First unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion occurred in1715.

Georgie II and war abroad (1727-1760)

• Under George I's reign, Britain fought wars all for trade and colonies,
• War of Jakins ear British merchant to trade with the spanish colonies.
• War of Austrian Succession (1740-48) hostilities between Eng and France in India ,America.
• The Seven Years' War (1756-63) British expantion influence in India and Canda.
• Overseen by William Pitt the Elder (1708-78) the colonies the Britain Empire.

2nd Jacobite rising (1745)

• Came about 1745 during the reign of George11, The last. Failrising at Scotland the Battle of Culloden (1746)
• Jacobited hopes.