Stuart period

Further information: Early modern Britain

Stuart period
1603–1714
King Charles I and the soldiers of the English Civil War as illustrated in An Island Story: A Child's History of England (1906)
Including	Jacobean era Caroline era Interregnum Restoration
Monarch(s)	James I Charles I Charles II James II Mary II William III Anne
Leader(s)	Oliver Cromwell Richard Cromwell
Chronology Elizabethan era Georgian era

The Stuart period of British history lasted from 1603 to 1714 during the dynasty of the House of Stuart. The period ended with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I from the German House of Hanover.

The period was plagued by internal and religious strife, and a large-scale civil war which resulted in the execution of King Charles I in 1649. The Interregnum, largely under the control of Oliver Cromwell, is included here for continuity, even though the Stuarts were in exile. The Cromwell regime collapsed and Charles II had very wide support for his taking the throne in 1660. His brother James II was overthrown in 1689 in the Glorious Revolution. He was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William III. Mary's sister Anne was the last of the line. For the next half century James II and his son James Francis Edward Stuart and grandson Charles Edward Stuart claimed they were the true Stuart kings, but they were in exile and attempts to return with French help were defeated.

Political history

James VI and I: 1603–1625

Main articles: Jacobean era and James VI and I

Rule of the upper-classes

England was ruled at the national level by royalty and nobility, and at the local level by the lesser nobility and the gentry. Together they comprise about 2% of the families, owned most of the good farmland, and controlled local government affairs. The aristocracy was growing steadily in numbers, wealth, and power. From 1540 to 1640, the number of peers (dukes, earls, marquises, viscounts, and barons) grew from 60 families to 160. They inherited their titles through primogeniture, had a favoured position in legal matters, enjoyed the highest positions in society, and held seats in the House of Lords. In 1611, the king looking for new revenue sources created the hereditary rank of baronet, with a status below that of the nobility, and no seat in Lords, and a price tag of about £1100. The vast land holdings seized from the monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s were sold mostly to local gentry, greatly expanding the wealth of that class of gentlemen. The gentry tripled to 15,000 from 5000 in the century after 1540. Many families died out, and others moved up, so that three-fourths of the peers in 1714 had been created by Stuart kings since 1603. Historians engaged in a lively debate --dubbed the "Storm over the gentry"--about the theory that the rising gentry class increasingly took power away from the static nobility, and generally reject it. Both the gentry and the nobility were gaining power, and the Civil War was not a battle between them.

Three kingdoms

See also: Wars of the Three Kingdoms

James VI, king of Scotland, also became king of the entirely separate kingdom of England when Queen Elizabeth died. He also became king of Ireland, but the English were jus reestablishing lost control there. The English re-conquest was completed after victory in the Nine Years' War, 1594–1603. James' appointees in Dublin as Lord Deputy of Ireland established real control over Ireland for the first time, bringing a centralised government to the entire island, and successfully disarmed the native lordships. The great majority remained Catholic, but James promoted heavy Protestant migration from Scotland into the Ulster region. The new arrivals were known as Scots-Irish or Scotch-Irish, and in turn many migrated to the new American colonies in the Stuart period.

Charles I: 1625–1649

Main articles: Caroline era and Charles I of England

King James was failing in physical and mental strength, and decision-making was increasingly in the hands of Charles and especially George Villiers (1592–1628), (he was Earl of Buckingham from 1617 and Duke from 1623). Buckingham showed a very high degree of energy and application, as well as a huge appetite for rewards and riches. By 1624 he was effectively the ruler of England. In 1625 Charles became the king of a land deeply involved in a European war and rent by escalating escalating religious controversies. Buckingham and Charles developed a foreign policy based on an alliance with France against Spain. Major foreign adventures against Cadiz Spain in 1625 and in support of French Huguenots in 1627 were total disasters. Widespread rumor shaped public opinion that blamed Buckingham, rather than the king, for the ills that beset England. When Parliament twice opened impeachment proceedings, the king simply prorogued (closed) the Parliament. Buckingham was assassinated by a dissatisfied Army officer in 1628. The assassin was executed but he nevertheless became a heroic martyr across the three kingdoms. Like his father, King Charles believed in the divine right of kings to rule, and one was unable to work successfully with Parliament. By 1628 he and Buckingham had transformed the political landscape. In 1629 the king dissolved parliament and began a period of eleven years of personal rule.

Personal rule: 1629–1640

Further information: Charles I of England § Personal rule

English government was quite small, for the king had no standing army, and no bureaucracy stationed around the country. Laws were enforced primarily by local officials controlled by the local elites. Military operations were typically handled by hired mercenaries. The greatest challenge King Charles faced in ruling without a parliament was raising money. The crown was in debt nearly £1.2 million; financiers in the City refused new loans. Charles saved money by Signing peace treaties with France in 1629 and Spain in 1630, and avoiding involvement in the 30 Years War. He cut the usual budget but it was not nearly enough. Then he discovered a series of ingenious methods to raise money without permission of Parliament. They been rarely used, but were nevertheless legal. He sold monopolies, despite their unpopularity. He find the landowners for supposedly encroaching on the royal forests. Compulsory knighthood had been established in the Middle Ages when men of certain wealth were ordered to become knights in the king's service, or else pay a fine. When knighthood lost its military status, the payments continued, but they had been abandoned by 1560. James reinstated the fine, and hired new officials to search local records to find wealthy man who did not have knighthood status. They were forced to pay, including Oliver Cromwell among thousands of other country gentlemen across rural England. £173,000 was raised, in addition to raising bitter anger among the gentry. The king finally crossed the line of legality when he began to levy "ship money", intended for naval defenses, upon interior towns. Protests now escalated to include urban elites. All the new measures generated long-term outrage, but they did balance the short-term budget, which averaged £600,000, without the need to call Parliament into session.

Long Parliament of 1640

Main article: Long Parliament

Revolts broke out in Scotland in response to the king's imposition of the English Prayer Book, which threatened to undermine the religion of the people. The Scots drove English forces out and forced the king to subsidize the insurgents who were now occupying part of northern England. A major revolt among Catholics in Ireland killed thousands of Scots Irish—there was no doubt it had to be suppressed and new taxes would be needed to pay the costs of military action. A new Parliament had to be called. The Long Parliament elected in 1640 proved just as difficult for Charles as had the Short Parliament. It assembled on 3 November 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach and remove the king's leading counsellors for high treason. Strafford was taken into custody on 10 November; Archbishop Laud was impeached on 18 December; John Finch, now Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, was impeached the following day, and he fled to Holland. To prevent the king from dissolving it at will, Parliament passed the Triennial Act, which required Parliament to be summoned at least once every three years, and permitted the Lord Keeper and 12 peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so. The Act was coupled with a subsidy bill, and so to secure the latter, Charles grudgingly granted royal assent in February 1641.

Civil War and Interregnum: 1642–1660

Main articles: English Civil War, Commonwealth of England, and Interregnum (1649–1660)

The First English Civil War of 1642–1645 ended in victory for the Parliamentarians. The Second English Civil War was fought in 1648–1649; Charles lost and was executed in January 1649.

The monarchy was temporarily displaced by the Commonwealth of England from 1649 to 1660. Oliver Cromwell ruled directly from 1653 to 1658.

After Cromwell's death in 1658 his the Commonwealth fell apart. The Convention Parliament welcomed Charles II, son of Charles I, to return from exile and become king.

Restoration and Charles II: 1660–1685

Main article: English Restoration

Widespread dissatisfaction with the lack of the king led to the Restoration in 1660, with strong support for inviting Charles II to take the throne.

William and Mary: 1688–1702

Main articles: William III of England and Mary II of England

During the joint rule of William and Mary, William made the decisions when he was in Britain; Mary was in charge when he was out of the country. William encouraged the passage major laws that protected personal liberties.of the Toleration Act 1689, which guaranteed religious toleration to Protestant nonconformists. It did not, however, extend toleration as far as he wished, still restricting the religious liberty of Roman Catholics, non-trinitarians, and those of non-Christian faiths. In December 1689, one of the fundamental constitutional documents in English history, the Bill of Rights, was passed. The Act restated and confirmed many provisions of the earlier Declaration of Right, and established restrictions on the royal prerogative. It provided that the Sovereign could not suspend laws passed by Parliament, levy taxes without parliamentary consent, infringe the right to petition, raise a standing army during peacetime without parliamentary consent, deny the right to bear arms to Protestant subjects, unduly interfere with parliamentary elections, punish members of either House of Parliament for anything said during debates, require excessive bail or inflict cruel and unusual punishments. William was opposed to the imposition of such constraints, but he chose not to engage in a conflict with Parliament and agreed to abide by the statute.

Glorious Revolution of 1688

Main article: Glorious Revolution

The British have always regarded the overthrow of King James II in 1688 as a decisive break in history, especially as it made the Parliament of England supreme over the King and guaranteed a bill of legal rights to everyone. Steven Pincus argues that this revolution was the first modern revolution; it was violent, popular, and divisive. He rejects older theories to the effect that it was an aristocratic coup or a Dutch invasion. Instead, Pincus argues it was a widely supported and decisive rejection of James II. The people could not tolerate James any longer. He was too close to the French throne; he was too Roman Catholic; and they distrusted his absolutist modernisation of the state. What they got instead was the vision of William of Orange, shared by most leading Englishmen, that emphasized consent of all the elites, religious toleration of all Protestant sects, free debate in Parliament and aggressive promotion of commerce. Pincus sees a dramatic transformation that reshaped religion, political economy, foreign policy and even the nature of the English state.

Social history

Population

The total population of England grew steadily in the 17th century, from 1600 to about 1660, then declined slightly and stagnated between 1649 and 1714. The population was about 4.2 million and 1603, 5.2 million in 1649, 5.1 million in 1660, 4.9 million in 1688, and 5.3 million in 1714.

Education

Historians have looked at local documents to see how many men and women used their signature and how many used X’s. Literacy rates were very low before 1500, but grew steadily in the next three centuries, with men twice as likely to be literate as comparable women. In 1500, literacy rates for women were 1%; by 1560 they had reached 5%; by 1640 about 10%; by 1710 about 25% (versus 50% for men). Two forces were at work: Protestant religion called for the ability to read the Bible, and changing social and economic conditions. For example towns grew rapidly, providing jobs in retailing in which literacy was a distinct advantage. There was no free schooling for ordinary children, but in the towns and cities small local private schools were opened for the benefit of the boys of the middle classes, and a few were opened for girls. The rich and of the nobility relied on private tutors. Private schools were starting to open for young men of the upper classes, and universities operated in Scotland and England. Oxford and Cambridge, however, provided some education for prospective Anglican ministers, but otherwise had academic standards well below Scotland.

Popular culture and high culture

The Puritans were out of power, the theaters reopened, and Britain began to enjoy itself again. The Royal Society was formed in 1660; it sponsored and legitimized a renaissance of major discoveries, led most notably by Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke.

Foreign policy

Stuart England was primarily consumed with internal affairs. King James I (reigned 1603–25) was sincerely devoted to peace, not just for his three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, but for Europe as a whole. He disliked Puritans and Jesuits alike, because of their eagerness for warfare. He called himself "Rex Pacificus" ("King of peace.") Europe was deeply polarized, and on the verge of the massive Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), with the smaller established Protestant states facing the aggression of the larger Catholic empires. On assuming the throne, James made peace with Catholic Spain, and made it his policy to marry his son to the Spanish Infanta (princess) in the "Spanish Match". The marriage of James' daughter Princess Elizabeth to Frederick V, Elector Palatine on 14 February 1613 was more than the social event of the era; the couple's union had important political and military implications. Across Europe, the German princes were banding together in the Union of German Protestant Princes, headquartered in Heidelberg, the capital of the Palatine. King James calculated that his daughter's marriage would give him diplomatic leverage among the Protestants. He thus planned to have a foot in both camps and be able to broker peaceful settlements. In his naïveté, he did not realize that both sides were playing him as a tool for their own goal of achieving the destruction of the other side. Spain's ambassador Count Gondomar knew how to manipulate the king. The Catholics in Spain, as well as the Emperor Ferdinand II, the Vienna-based leader of the Habsburgs and head of the Holy Roman Empire, were both heavily influenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. They had the goal of expelling Protestantism from their domains.

Lord Buckingham in the 1620s wanted an alliance with Spain. Buckingham took Charles with him to Spain to woo the Infanta in 1623. However, Spain's terms were that James must drop Britain’s anti-Catholic intolerance or no marriage. Buckingham and Charles were humiliated and Buckingham became the leader of the widespread British demand for a war against Spain. Meanwhile, the Protestant princes looked to Britain, since it was the strongest of all the Protestant countries, to give military support for their cause. James' son-in-law and daughter became king and queen of Bohemia, which outraged Vienna. The Thirty Years’ War began, as the Habsburg Emperor ousted the new king and queen of Bohemia, and massacred their followers. Catholic Bavaria then invaded the Electoral Palatinate, and James's son-in-law begged for James's military intervention. James finally realized that his policies had backfired and refused these pleas. He successfully kept Britain out of the European-wide war that proved so heavily devastating for three decades. James's backup plan was to marry his son Charles to a French Catholic princess, who would bring a handsome dowry. Parliament and the British people were strongly opposed to any Catholic marriage, were demanding immediate war with Spain, and strongly favored the Protestant cause in Europe. James had alienated both elite and popular opinion in Britain, and Parliament was cutting back its financing. Historians credit James for pulling back from a major war at the last minute, and keeping Britain in peace.

Frederick's election as King of Bohemia in 1619 deepened the Thirty Years' War--a conflagration that destroyed millions of lives in central Europe, but only barely touched Britain. The intense hatred and rivalry of Catholic versus Protestant princes was the main cause, King James' determination to avoid involvement in the continental conflict, even during the "war fever" of 1623, was one of the most significant, and most positive, aspects of his reign.

During 1600–1650 the kings made repeated efforts to colonize Guiana in South America. They all failed and the lands (Suriname) were ceded to the Dutch in 1667.

Anglo-Dutch Wars

The Anglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping. Religion was not a factor, since both sides were Protestant. The British in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54) had the naval advantage with larger numbers of more powerful "ships of the line" which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The British also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67) Dutch naval victories followed. This second war cost London ten times more than it had planned on, and the king sued for peace in 1667 with the Treaty of Breda. It ended the fights over "mercantilism" (that is, the use of force to protect and expand national trade, industry, and shipping.) Meanwhile, the French were building up fleets that threatened both the Netherlands and Great Britain. In the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–74), the British counted on a new alliance with France but the outnumbered Dutch outsailed both of them, and King Charles II ran short of money and political support. The Dutch gained domination of sea trading routes until 1713. The British gained the thriving colony of New Netherland, which was renamed as the Province of New York.

Timeline

The Stuart period began in 1603 with the death of Queen Elizabeth I and the accession of King James I. It ended in 1714 (after 111 years) with the death of Queen Anne and the accession of King George I, the first king of the House of Hanover.

Jacobean era (1603–1625)

Caroline era (1625–1642)

English Civil War (1642–1651)

Interregnum (1649–1660)

Restoration (1660–1688)

Glorious Revolution (1688)

│

1603

│

1613

│

1623

│

1633

│

1643

│

1653

│

1663

│

1673

│

1683

│

1693

│

1703

│

1713

Monarchs

The House of Stuart produced six monarchs who ruled during this period.

• 
  James I
  (1603–1625)
• 
  Charles I
  (1625–1649)
• 
  Charles II
  (1660–1685)
• 
  James II
  (1685–1688)
• 
  Mary II
  (1689–1694)
• 
  William III
  (1689–1702)
• 
  Anne
  (1702–1714)

Historical gallery

• 
  Battle of Marston Moor
• 
  St. James's Day Battle
• 
  Battle of Vigo Bay

Further reading

• Bucholz, Robert, and Newton Key. Early modern England 1485–1714: A narrative history (2009); textbook.
• Burke, Peter "Popular culture in seventeenth-century London." The London Journal 3.2 (1977): 143–162. online
• Campbell, Mildred. English yeoman under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts (1942), rich coverage of rural life
• Clark, George Norman. The Later Stuarts, 1660–1714 (Oxford History of England) (1956), standard scholarly survey
• Coward, Barry, and Peter Gaunt. The Stuart Age: England, 1603–1714 (5th ed 2017) new introduction
• Coward, Barry, ed. A Companion to Stuart Britain (2009) excerpt and text search; 24 advanced essays by scholars
• Davies, Godfrey. The Early Stuarts, 1603–1660 (Oxford History of England) (2nd ed. 1959)
• Fritze, Ronald H. and William B. Robison, eds. Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, 1603–1689 (1996), 630pp; 300 short essays by experts emphasis on politics, religion, and historiography excerpt
• Kenyon, J.P. Stuart England (Penguin, 1985), survey
• Kishlansky, Mark A. A Monarchy Transformed: Britain, 1603–1714 (Penguin History of Britain) (1997), standard scholarly survey; excerpt and text search
• Kishlansky, Mark A. and John Morrill. "Charles I (1600–1649)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004; online edn, Oct 2008) accessed 22 Aug 2017 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5143
• Lipson, Ephraim. The economic history of England: vol 2: The Age of Mercantilism (7th ed. 1964)
• Miller, John. The Stuarts (2004)
• Miller, John. The restoration and the England of Charles II (2014).
• Morrill, John. Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction (2005) excerpt and text search; 100pp
• Morrill, John, ed. The Oxford illustrated history of Tudor & Stuart Britain (1996) online
• Murray, Catriona. Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity (Routledge, 2017).
• Notestein, Wallace. English people on the eve of colonization, 1603–1630 (1954). scholarly study of occupations and roles
• Ogg, David. England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vol 1934).
• Ogg, David. England in the Reigns of James II and William III (1955).
• Pincus, Steve. 1688: The First Modern Revolution (2011)
• Pincus, Steven C. A. England's Glorious Revolution 1688–1689: A Brief History with Documents (2005)
• Roberts, Clayton and F. David Roberts. A History of England, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1714 (2nd ed. 2013), textbook.
• Sharp, David. The Coming of the Civil War 1603–49 (2000), textbook
• Sharp, David. England in Crisis 1640–60 (2000), textbook
• Sharp, David. Oliver Cromwell (2003); textbook
• Sharpe, Kevin. The personal rule of Charles I (Yale UP, 1992).
• Sharpe, Kevin, and Peter Lake, eds. Culture and politics in early Stuart England (1993)
• Traill, H. D. and J.S. Mann, eds. Social England; a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day (1903) short essays by experts; illustrated' 946pp. online
• Woolrych, Austin. Britain in Revolution: 1625–1660 (2004).
• Wroughton, John. ed. The Routledge Companion to the Stuart Age, 1603–1714 (2006) excerpt and text search

Historiography

• Baxter, Steven B. "The Later Stuart's: 1660–1714," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp 141 – 166
• Braddick, Michael J., ed. The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution (Oxford UP, 2015).
• Burgess, Glenn. "On revisionism: an analysis of early Stuart historiography in the 1970s and 1980s." Historical Journal (1990) 33#3 pp: 609–627.
• Elton, G.R. Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online
• Richardson, R. C. The Debate on the English Revolution Revisited (1977)
• Underdown, David. "New Ways and Old and Early Stuart History," in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp 99–140
• Zagora, Perez. "English History, 1558–1640: A Bibliographical Survey," in Elizabeth Chapin Furber, ed. Changing views on British history: essays on historical writing since 1939 (Harvard University Press, 1966), pp 119–40

Primary sources

• Blitzer, Charles, ed. The Commonwealth Of England: Documents Of The English Civil Wars, The Commonwealth And Protectorate, 1641–1660 (2012).
• Browning, A. ed. English Historical Documents 1660–1714 (1953)
• Coward, Barry, and Peter Gaunt, eds. English Historical Documents, 1603–1660 (2011)
• Key, Newton, and Robert O. Bucholz, eds. Sources and debates in English history, 1485–1714 (2009).
• Kenyon, J.P. ed. The Stuart Constitution, 1603–1688: Documents and Commentary (1986).
• Lindley, Keith, ed. The English Civil War and Revolution: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2013). 201pp
• Stater, Victor, ed. The Political History of Tudor and Stuart England: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2002) online
• Williams, E.N., ed., The Eighteenth-century Constitution 1688-1815 (1960).