# UK Constitution and Government/House of Stuart and the Commonwealth


### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html}

```{=html}
<table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%">
```
```{=html}
<tr>
```
```{=html}
<td align=left>
```
```{=html}
<table width="100%" align=left>
```
```{=html}
<tr>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!House of Tudor{width="" height="40"}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td nowrap>
```
`<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!House of Hanover{width=""
height="40"}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!List of Topics{width=""
height="40"}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td width="99%">
```
 

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
```{=html}
<td>
```
!House of Hanover{width=""
height="40"}

```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
</tr>
```
```{=html}
</table>
```
```{=html}
</td>
```
```{=html}
</tr>
```
```{=html}
</table>
```
 

`<big>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}The House of Stuart and the Commonwealth
(1603-1714)`</big>`{=html}`</big>`{=html}

Previous
Chapter \|
Next
Chapter

------------------------------------------------------------------------


## James I

!James I of England With the
death of Elizabeth in 1603, the Crowns of England and Scotland united
under James I. In 1567, when he was just a year old, James\' mother Mary
was forced to abdicate, and James became King James VI. Despite his
mother\'s Catholicism, James was brought up as a Protestant.

One of James\' first acts as King was to conclude English involvement in
the Eighty Years\' War, also called the Dutch Revolt. Elizabeth had
supported the Protestant Dutch rebels, providing one cause for Philip
II\'s attack. In 1604, James signed the Treaty of London, thereby making
peace with Spain.

James had significant difficulty with the English Parliamentary
structure. As King of Scots, he had not been accustomed to criticism
from the Parliament. James firmly believed in the *Divine Right of
Kings*---the right of Kings to rule that supposedly came from God---so
he did not easily react to critics in Parliament. Under English law,
however, it was impossible for the King to levy taxes without
Parliament\'s consent, so he had to tolerate Parliament for some time.

King James died in 1625 and was succeeded by his son Charles.

## Charles I

King Charles ruled at a time when Europe was moving toward domination by
absolute monarchs. The French ruler, Louis XIV, epitomised this
absolutism. Charles, sharing his father\'s belief in the Divine Right of
Kings, also moved toward absolutist policies.

Charles conflicted with Parliament over the issue of the Huguenots,
French Protestants. Louis XIV had begun a persecution of the Huguenots;
Charles sent an expedition to La Rochelle to provide aid to the
Protestant residents. The effort, however, was disastrous, prompting
Parliament to further criticise him. In 1628, the House of Commons
issued the Petition of Right, which demanded that Charles cease his use
of arbitrary power. Charles had persecuted individuals using the Court
of the Star Chamber, a secret court that could impose any penalty, even
torture, except for death. Charles had also imprisoned individuals
without a trial and denied them the right to the writ of *habeas
corpus*. The Petition of Right, however, was not successful; in 1629,
Charles dissolved Parliament. He ruled alone for the next eleven years,
which is sometimes referred to as the *eleven years of tyranny* or
*personal rule*. Since Parliamentary approval was required to impose
taxes, Charles had grave difficulty in keeping the government
functional. Charles imposed several taxes himself; these were widely
seen as unlawful.

During these eleven years, Charles began instituting religious reforms
in Scotland, moving it towards the English model. He attempted to impose
the Anglican Prayer Book on Scottish churches, leading to riots and
violence. In 1638, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
abolished the office of bishop and established Presbyterianism (an
ecclesiastic system without clerical officers such as bishops and
archbishops). Charles sent his armies to Scotland, but was quickly
forced to end the conflict, known as the First Bishops\' War, because of
a lack of funding. Charles granted Scotland certain parliamentary and
ecclesiastic freedoms in 1639.

In 1640, Charles finally called a Parliament to authorise additional
taxation. Since the Parliament was dissolved within weeks of its
summoning, it was known as the *Short Parliament*. Charles then sent a
new military expedition to Scotland to fight the Second Bishops\' War.
Again, the Royal forces were defeated. Charles then summoned Parliament
again, this Parliament becoming known as the *Long Parliament*, in order
to raise funds for making reparations to the Scots.

Tension between Charles and Parliament increased dramatically. Charles
agreed to abolish the hated Star Chamber, but he refused to give up
control of the army. In 1641, Charles entered the House of Commons with
armed guards in order to arrest his Parliamentary enemies. They had
already fled, however, and Parliament took the breach of their premises
very seriously. (Since Charles, no English monarch has sought to set
foot in the House of Commons.)

The unsafe monarch moved the Royal court to Oxford. Royal forces
controlled north and west England, while Parliament controlled south and
east England. A Civil War broke out, but was indecisive until 1644, when
Parliamentary forces clearly gained the upper hand. In 1646, Charles was
forced to escape to Scotland, but the Scottish army delivered him to
Parliament in 1647. Charles was then imprisoned. Charles negotiated with
the Scottish army, declaring that if it restored him to power, he would
implement the Scottish Presbyterian ecclesiastic model in England. In
1648, the Scots invaded England, but were defeated.

The House of Commons began to pass laws without the consent of either
the Sovereign or the House of Lords, but many MPs still wished to come
to terms with the king. Members of the army, however, felt that Charles
had gone too far by siding with the Scots against England and were
determined to have him brought to trial. In December 1648 an army
regiment, Colonel Pride\'s, used force to bar entry into the House of
Commons, only allowing MPs who would support the army to remain. These
MPs, the *Rump Parliament*, established a commission of 135 to try
Charles for treason. Charles, an ardent believer in the Divine Right of
Kings, refused to accept the jurisdiction of any court over him.
Therefore, he was by default considered guilty of high treason and was
executed on January 30, 1649.

## Oliver and Richard Cromwell

At first, Oliver Cromwell ruled along with the republican Parliament,
the state being known as the *Commonwealth of England*. After Charles\'
execution, however, Parliament became disunited. In 1653, he suspended
Parliament, and as Charles had done earlier, began several years of rule
as a dictator. Later, Parliament was recalled, and in 1657 offered to
make Cromwell the King. Since he faced opposition from his own senior
military officers, Cromwell declined. Instead, he was made a *Lord
Protector*, even being installed on the former King\'s throne. He was a
King in all but name.

Cromwell died in 1658 and was succeeded by his son Richard, an extremely
poor politician. Richard Cromwell was not interested in his position and
abdicated quickly. The Protectorate was ended and the Commonwealth
restored. Anarchy was the result. Quickly, Parliament chose to
reestablish the monarchy by inviting Charles I\'s son to take the throne
as Charles II.

## Charles II

During the rule of Oliver Cromwell, Charles II remained King in
Scotland. After an unsuccessful challenge to Cromwell\'s rule, Charles
escaped to Europe. In 1660, when England was in anarchy, Charles issued
the Declaration of Breda, outlining his conditions for returning to the
Throne. The Long Parliament, which had been convened in 1640, finally
dissolved itself. A new Parliament, called the *Convention Parliament*,
was elected; it was far more favourable to the Royalty than the Long
Parliament. In May 1660, the Convention Parliament that Charles had been
the lawful King of England since the death of his father in 1649.
Charles soon arrived in London and was restored to actual power. Charles
granted a general pardon to most of Cromwell\'s supporters. Those who
had directly participated in his father\'s execution, however, were
either executed or imprisoned for life. Cromwell himself suffered a
posthumous execution: his body was exhumed, hung, drawn and quartered,
his head cut off and displayed from a pole and the remainder of his body
thrown into a common pit. The posthumous execution took place on the
anniversary of Charles I\'s death.

Charles also dissolved the Convention Parliament. The next Parliament,
called the *Cavalier Parliament* was soon elected. The Cavalier
Parliament lasted for seventeen years without an election before being
dissolved. During its long tenure, the Cavalier Parliament enacted
several important laws, including many that suppressed religious
dissent. The Act of Uniformity required the use of the Church of
England\'s *Book of Common Prayer* in all Church services. The
Conventicle Act prohibited religious assemblies of more than five
members except under the Church of England. The Five Mile Act banned
non-members of the Church of England from living in towns with a Royal
Charter, instead forcing them into the country. In 1672, Charles
mitigated these laws with the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, which
provided for religious toleration. Parliament, however, suspected him of
Catholicism and forced him to withdraw the Declaration. In 1673,
Parliament passed the Test Act, which required civil servants to swear
an oath against Catholicism.

Parliament\'s suspicions did turn out to be accurate. As Charles II lay
dying in 1685, he converted to Catholicism. Charles did not have a
single legitimate child, though he did have, while living in Europe,
several illegitimate ones (over 300 by some estimates). He was
succeeded, therefore, by his younger brother James, an open Catholic.

## James II

James II (James VII in Scotland) was an extremely controversial monarch
due to his Catholicism. Soon after he took power, a Protestant
illegitimate son of Charles II, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth,
proclaimed himself King. James II defeated him within a few days and had
him executed.

James made himself highly unpopular by appointing Catholic officials,
especially in Ireland. Later, he established a standing army in
peacetime, alarming many Protestants. Rebellion, however, did not occur
because people trusted James\' daughter Mary, a Protestant. In 1688,
however, James produced a son, who was brought up Catholic. Since
Mary\'s place in the line of succession was lowered, and a Catholic
Dynasty in England seemed ineveitable, the \"Immortal Seven\"---the Duke
of Devonshire, the Earl of Danby, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Viscount
Lumley, the Bishop of London, Edward Russell and Henry
Sidney---conspired to replace James and his son with Mary and her Dutch
husband William of Orange. In 1688, William and Mary invaded England and
James fled the country. The revolution was hailed as the *Glorious
Revolution* or the *Bloodless Revolution*. Though the latter term was
inaccurate, the revolution was not as violent as the War of the Roses or
the English Civil War.

## William and Mary

Parliament wished then to make Mary the sole Queen. She, however,
refused and demanded that she be made co-Sovereign with her husband. In
1689, the Parliament of England declared in the English Bill of Rights,
one of the most significant constitutional documents in British history,
that James\' flight constituted an abdication of the throne and that the
throne should go jointly to William (William III) and Mary (Mary II).
The Bill of Rights also required that the Sovereign cannot deny certain
rights, such as freedom of speech in Parliament, freedom from taxation
without Parliament\'s consent and freedom from cruel and unusual
punishment. In Scotland, the Estates General passed a similar Act,
called the Claim of Right, which also made William and Mary joint
rulers. In Ireland, power had to be won in battle. In 1690, the English
won the Battle of the Boyne, thereby establishing William and Mary\'s
rule over the entire British Isles.

For the early part of the reign, Mary administered the Government while
William controlled the military. Unpopularly, William appointed people
from his native Holland as officers in the English army and Royal Navy.
Furthermore, he used English military resources to protect the
Netherlands. In 1694, after the death of Queen Mary from smallpox,
William continued to rule as the sole Sovereign.

Since William and Mary did not have children, William\'s heir was Anne,
who had seventeen pregnancies, most of which ended in stillbirth. In
1700, Anne\'s last surviving child, William, died at the age of eleven.
Parliament was faced with a succession crisis, because after Anne, many
in the line of succession were Catholic. Therefore, in 1701, the Act of
Settlement was passed, allowing Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of
Hanover (a German state), and her Protestant heirs, to succeed if Anne
had no further children. Sophia\'s claim stemmed from her
great-grandfather, James I. Several lines that were more senior to
Sophia\'s were bypassed under the act. Some of these had questionable
legitimacy, while others were Catholic. The Act of Settlement also
banned non-Protestants and those who married Catholics from the throne.

In 1702, William died, and his sister-in-law Anne became Queen.

## Anne

Even following the passage of the Act of Settlement, Protestant
succession to the throne was insecure in Scotland. In 1703, the Scottish
Parliament, the Estates, passed a bill that required that, if Anne died
without children, the Estates could appoint any Protestant descendant of
Scottish monarchs as the King. The individual appointed could not be the
same person who would, under the Act of Settlement, succeed to the
English crown unless several economic conditions were met. The Queen\'s
Commissioner refused Royal Assent on her behalf. The Scottish Estates
then threatened to withdraw Scottish troops from the Queen\'s armies,
which were then engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession in Europe
and Queen Anne\'s War in North America. The Estates also threatened to
refuse to levy taxes, so Anne relented and agreed to grant Royal Assent
to the bill, which became the Act of Security.

The English Parliament feared the separation of the Crowns which had
been united since the death of Elizabeth I. They therefore attempted to
coerce Scotland, passing the Alien Act in 1705. The Alien Act provided
for cutting off trade between England and Scotland. Scotland was already
suffering from the failure of the Darién Scheme, a disastrous and
expensive attempt to establish Scottish colonies in America. Scotland
quickly began to negotiate union with England. In 1707, the Act of Union
was passed, despite mass protest in Scotland, by Parliament and the
Scottish Estates. The Act combined England and Scotland into one Kingdom
of Great Britain, terminated the Parliament and Estates, and replaced
them with one Parliament of Great Britain. Scotland was entitled to
elect a certain number of members of the House of Commons. Furthermore,
it was permitted to send sixteen of its peers to sit along with all
English peers in the House of Lords. The Act guaranteed Scotland the
right to retain its distinct legal system. The Church of Scotland was
also guaranteed independence from political interference. Ireland
remained a separate country, though still governed by the British
Sovereign.

Anne is often remembered as the last British monarch to deny Royal
Assent to a bill, which she did in 1707 to a militia bill. Due to her
poor health, made worse by her failed pregnancies, her government was
run through her ministers. She died in 1714, to be succeeded by George,
Elector of Hanover, whose mother Sophia had died a few weeks earlier.

