English Revolutions in the 17th Century: An Overview

In the 17th century, England experienced a series of revolutions and political changes that shaped the country’s later institutions. When the Stuart monarchs James I and Charles I tried to expand royal power over their subjects, social and political forces pushed back. A Puritan soldier, Oliver Cromwell, overthrew Charles I during the English Civil War and then built an authoritarian regime that resembled the rule it had replaced. When Cromwell died, his son could not control the state, and King Charles II restored the monarchy. Because Charles II had no legitimate children, his Catholic brother James II succeeded him, angering many Protestants. By the end of the century, during the Glorious Revolution, upper- and middle-class politicians offered the English crown to the Protestant rulers of the Netherlands. William of Orange and Mary II became co-monarchs of England in a settlement that placed Parliament above the monarchy.

Background

During the 16th century, English monarchs steadily asserted royal power. After winning the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), the Tudor dynasty rose to the throne and implemented absolutism in the country. These monarchs consulted Parliament when exercising authority, but consultation usually preserved the appearance of consent rather than limiting the crown. King Henry VIII, for instance, forced the Church of England to sever ties with the Catholic Church because he wanted to annul his first marriage and Pope Clement VII refused. He was succeeded by Queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, who attempted to reverse this religious split and aroused the wrath of English Protestants. The English Reformation was confirmed by Elizabeth I, who also invested in increasing England’s naval power.

In 1603, the country faced a succession problem because Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”, had no heir. When she died, her closest relative, James I, ascended the throne, ending the Tudor dynasty and beginning the Stuart dynasty.

James I wanted broader royal power than the Tudors had exercised and treated consultation with Parliament as a courtesy. He introduced a series of authoritarian measures: raising taxes on his own, interfering in trade, engaging in a religious war against the Irish, suppressing Catholics and Puritans domestically, and dissolving both legislative chambers. His actions caused immediate dismay among politicians and the wider population. There were three main conflicts within England at that time:

• Political conflict: King James I wanted to centralize power, while the Parliament wanted to decentralize power.

• Social conflict: The traditional nobility favored the King, while the bourgeoisie and the gentry did not.

• Religious conflict: Under royal influence, the Church of England was increasingly adopting Protestant ideas, but it kept certain Catholic rituals. This placed the King at odds with both Puritans, who desired a non-Catholic church, and Catholics, who decried Protestant influences within it.

For some, life in England during the reign of James I was unbearable, and they emigrated to North America; these migrants became part of the first English settlement movement in the Thirteen Colonies. Others joined violent opposition to the King, including the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. This conspiracy of Catholic nobles, led by Robert Catesby, sought to blow up the House of Lords while the monarch was present and then install his nine-year-old daughter as the new head of state. The authorities later learned of the plan, and its main plotters, including Guy Fawkes, were executed.

English Civil War (1642-1649)

In 1625, James I died and was replaced by his son, Charles I. He was an even stronger advocate of absolutism than his father, and he soon adopted policies that were widely despised:

• He continued to persecute the Puritans, who kept migrating to America.
• He increased taxes in order to finance private wars.
• He intimidated members of Parliament and acted with total disregard for their authority.
• He treated Scotland with indifference, because the Puritan Scots were radicals, and viewed the King’s Church unfavorably.

The standoff between the King and Parliament led to the Petition of Right (1628), in which parliamentarians reaffirmed that the monarch could not violate certain rights. He was forbidden to levy taxes without legislative consent, detain people without cause, or billet soldiers in private homes without the owner’s authorization.

Charles I continued to pursue policies that pitted him against his subjects. Scottish Puritans resisted his religious policy and organized open opposition to royal authority. In response, the king asked Parliament for support against them. Even though he lacked parliamentary approval, Charles I tried to impose his will in Scotland by force. The failure of that campaign forced him back into negotiations. When those negotiations also failed, Charles I entered Parliament with armed men and tried to arrest its leaders, turning the crisis into the immediate trigger of the English Civil War (1642-1649). The war was fought by two sides:

• Royalists: They supported the King and the Anglican Church, and their forces usually rode horses. Because of this and because of their attire, they were pejoratively named “Cavaliers” by their opponents.
• Parliamentarians: They supported Parliament and usually favored a constitutional monarchy in England, which brought them Puritan support. Because they wore their hair cropped close to the head, they became derisively known as the “Roundheads”.

A minority wing of the Parliamentarians, called the Independent Puritans, rejected keeping Charles I in power even under a constitution and upheld freedom of religion for all faiths. They were led by Oliver Cromwell, a politician and soldier who had had an undistinguished career until then. The tide turned in their favor because they controlled England’s first centrally funded professional military force: the New Model Army. Cromwell’s troops had adequate equipment and operated wherever they were needed, which helped them win the conflict.

After the military victory, the Independent Puritans turned to building a new government on the ruins of the monarchy. Under the authority of Colonel Thomas Pride, they conducted a purge in Parliament, expelling politicians who rejected bringing Charles I to justice. Those who survived the purge formed the Rump Parliament, which fully supported the provisional government. Cromwell oversaw the King’s conviction for high treason and ordered his execution by beheading. Once opposition had been silenced, Cromwell instituted the Commonwealth of England as an oligarchic republic.

Commonwealth of England (1649-1660)

The Commonwealth of England began as an oligarchic republic controlled by a handful of elites. This changed in 1653, a few years after Oliver Cromwell rose to power. Cromwell mobilized the Army and disbanded Barebone’s Parliament, the successor to the Rump Parliament and an attempt to stabilize the English political establishment. After being appointed Lord Protector, Cromwell became a dictator in practice because his office was held for life and made hereditary.

Cromwell’s government acted violently against all opponents:

• It was ruthless against Catholics and Anglicans. However, it refrained from designating Puritanism as the official state religion — much to the chagrin of Puritans. Instead, Protestant faiths would be allowed freedom of religion.
• It waged wars against Ireland and Scotland: The Irish Catholics refused to recognize the new regime, but English troops brutally reconquered the country. Soon after, the Scots rebelled because they loathed Cromwell’s interference in their affairs, including in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. They proclaimed Charles II, the son of the late Charles I, as King, but English troops succeeded in crushing this rebellion as well.
• It vigorously repressed the activities of both Diggers and Levellers: The former were defenders of land reform and called themselves “true levellers”, while the latter espoused reforms that would bring about political equality.

England also prospered under Cromwell’s authority despite the government’s authoritarian tendencies. Some of the highlights of the period were:

• Greater trade freedom.

• Advances in education: Cromwell inaugurated new schools, colleges, and academies in which science and technology took precedence. This contrasted with the earlier religious control of educational institutions.

• Navigation Acts: The government mandated that English products had to be transported only by English ships or by the ships of the buyers. In practical terms, these laws meant that English merchants would generally be paid both for the products they sold and for the freight costs.

• Maritime expansion: Because of the capital inflow brought about by the Navigation Acts, England was able to foster shipbuilding and expand its navy.

• Military victories against the Netherlands and Spain: Shipping companies from these countries resented the Navigation Acts, and trade disputes culminated in armed confrontations. The English won both the Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654) and the First Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660). Within the context of the latter, the English annexed Jamaica, then a Spanish colony.

In 1658, Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes and left behind his son, Richard Cromwell, in charge of the country. However, Richard was respected by neither the political establishment nor the military leadership. Given his lack of authority, he was unable to mediate strained relations between Parliament and the Army. In April 1659, he bowed to military pressure and dissolved Parliament, but members of Parliament soon regrouped. Afterwards, he acknowledged his inability to govern England and resigned in exchange for a pension.

After Richard’s ousting, Charles II used the power vacuum to issue the Declaration of Breda, pardoning crimes committed from the English Civil War up to that moment. Many politicians and military officers rallied behind the declaration to prevent chaos and lawlessness. Charles II was proclaimed the legitimate King of England from the death of his father, erasing the memory of Cromwell “as if the last nineteen years had never happened”, in the words of historian Tim Harris.

Stuart Restoration (1660-1688)

Charles II was restored to the throne under the promise that he would forgo despotic tendencies. Soon after his restoration, the King took actions intended to reassert his power. He ordered the exhumation of Oliver Cromwell’s body so it could be subjected to a posthumous execution for high treason. Other bodies were also exhumed and desecrated. He also imprisoned many people who had tried to kill him in the past. These measures cast a shadow over his reign.

The King’s biggest disagreement with Parliament concerned religious tolerance. Charles II favored it, while parliamentarians enacted the Clarendon Code to curb dissent from the Anglican Church. Charles II accepted their position for a time. In 1672, he attempted to introduce religious freedom by decree, but Parliament blocked him.

The English Parliament generally supported Charles II, but part of it had reservations about his Catholic brother, James II, who was next in line for succession. The lawmakers were split into two factions:

• Tories: Mostly Conservative Catholics, who were favored by the King.
• Whigs: Mostly Puritans who supported the Exclusion Bills, seeking to remove James II from the line of succession, and who feared that, by favoring Catholics, the King would soon find himself subservient to the Pope.

Charles II vehemently opposed preventing his brother from inheriting the Crown, and the succession dispute made his rule increasingly authoritarian. He oversaw the prosecution of many rivals and the seizure of their properties. He also intervened in the judiciary by replacing judges and sheriffs at will and packing juries with supporters to secure the convictions he wanted. The King died without legitimate descendants, and James II acceded to the throne.

Glorious Revolution (1688)

From 1685 onward, James II held the English Crown and mostly maintained his late brother’s policies: absolutism and the favoring of Catholics. At first, the new monarch enjoyed widespread support in England, Scotland, and Ireland. This support can be partly explained by the supposed political stability ensured by royal power and by the fact that his presumptive heir was Mary II, wife of William of Orange, the Dutch monarch; both were Protestant.

James II’s son with his Catholic second wife displaced Mary II in the line of succession and raised the prospect of a Catholic dynasty in England. Many Protestants deemed that outcome unacceptable and ultimately rose in revolt.

The Glorious Revolution is so called because it was relatively bloodless. While the Dutch fought a war against the French, William of Orange concluded that he needed active English support rather than neutrality. James II was unwilling to go that far, and the Dutch monarch began to distrust him. His concern was the possibility of facing an Anglo-French alliance, even though he was assured that such an arrangement would not prosper. To forestall a potential English military initiative and protect English Protestants, the Dutch mounted an invasion of England in November 1688.

The invasion changed the balance of forces in England because James II suddenly needed support from groups he had alienated during his reign. Puritans and parliamentarians would demand significant concessions before helping the King remain in power. William advanced into London while James II went into exile. A group of upper- and middle-class politicians then offered the English Crown to William and Mary, who accepted and became co-monarchs of England.

Beyond the change on the throne, the Glorious Revolution’s main achievement was placing Parliament above the monarch. To that effect, Parliament soon approved several laws:

• Under the budget law, Treasury budget authorizations were limited to one-year periods in order to prevent the government from operating without parliamentary oversight.
• According to the Toleration Act, freedom of religion was guaranteed for all citizens except Catholics and Unitarians.
• According to the Bill of Rights of 16 December, 1689, all citizens had a series of inalienable rights and monarchs had limited power.

Conclusion

The English Revolutions of the 17th century began with the struggle against the authoritarian practices of the Tudor dynasty, and ended with the ascension of William of Orange and Mary II to the English throne, with limited power. Over the course of the century, political divisions within the country were largely influenced by religious divisions — with Anglicans, Catholics and Protestants each promoting their own interests. Thanks to the Glorious Revolution, in particular, there emerged a clear alternative to the theory of the divine rights of kings — because William and Mary derived their legitimacy from parliamentary support. This development would later influence the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and many other social movements across the world.