 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
The monarch is the centre of the political universe – and much depends on the personality of the king: • James I (1566-1625) is an immensely cunning political manoeuvrer, who likes to play the intellectual. He writes treatises about witchcraft and the evils of tobacco, but his intellect is unfocused. Although he's a great survivor, he relies too much on favourites, earning him the nickname 'the wisest fool in Christendom' from the Spanish ambassador Count Gondomar. His court is full of jovial squalor, with broad Scots jokes and drunken romps. • Charles I (1600-49) is a severe and serious type, who hates larking around. He is shy and repressed, and the gaiety of his court owes much to his French wife Henrietta Maria. Charles stammers but is knowledgeable about the arts. A firm believer in the divine right of kings, he also shows autocratic tendencies that cause an unbridgeable gap between him and his subjects. Ultimately he causes the Civil War that swallows the monarchy he's trying to preserve. • Charles II (1630-85) learns how to survive the perils of politics while in exile after his father's execution in 1649. He is married to Catherine of Braganza, but the couple have no children. Unlike his father, Charles is a witty, fun-loving womaniser and has about 14 children by his various mistresses – Nell Gwyn is his most notable lover. Although nominally Protestant – he converts to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed – he insists on his Catholic brother James's right to inherit the throne. • James II (1633-1701) is a proud and haughty man, who believes very strongly that the king has a divine right to do anything he likes. He spends much of his youth in high office, and fights the Dutch as lord high admiral, but his Catholicism arouses much opposition. When he becomes king, he tries to promote Catholics to high positions and abdicates when threatened by William and Mary (see below). He dies of syphilis while in exile. • The Dutch ruler William of Orange marries Mary, daughter of James II, in 1677. Eleven years later, the couple accept an invitation by Protestant nobles to rule England and become the joint monarchs, William III and Mary II (1650-1702; 1662-94). William is of slight build and not very popular, but Mary is much liked. Both are very strict about religion. She dies of smallpox at the age of 32, and he has a fatal riding accident. • Mary's sister Anne (1665–1714) succeeds to the throne in 1702. Anne is kind but obstinate and very dull and, for much of her reign, is under the thumb of her confidante Sarah Churchill, wife of the Duke of Marlborough. Married to the asthmatic Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708), Anne has at least six stillbirths or miscarriages and gives birth to a further 12 children. Only one son survives beyond the age of one and he dies of smallpox when he's 11. Anne's death at the age of 49 in 1714 marks the end of the Stuart dynasty. Royal favourites and chief ministers • George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628) attracts James I by his good looks, and then becomes a favourite of his son Charles I. He is a key player in formulating foreign policy, but the failures of his military expeditions to Cadiz and La Rochelle lead to his impeachment. Eventually, Buckingham is assassinated in 1628. • Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (1593-1641), is Charles I's chief minister and a moustachioed tyrant. His dictatorial manner generally inspires dislike, but as a practical administrator, he does very well in the north of England and even better in Ireland. In common with the king and Archbishop Laud (see below), he believes in unquestioned authority as the foundation of good government. He is executed in 1641. • William Laud, the archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645), persecutes the Puritans and creates huge social conflicts. A man of great learning and a profound believer in ritual and hierarchy, Laud is irritable, opinionated and prone to shouting during discussions. Under his influence, there is a revived interest in Church decoration, which offends Puritans. He lends his name to a new hybrid architectural style – Laudian Gothic. He is executed in 1645. Parliamentary politicos In the disruption caused by the English Civil Wars, men who are not high born get the chance to influence events. For example, Thomas Pride, the soldier who purges Parliament in 1648 and then signs Charles I's death warrant, is a former brewer. • John Pym (1584-1643) is a member of the Parliamentary opposition to Charles I. He soon realises that poor royal finances are driving Charles to use autocratic methods, and he leads Parliament against Strafford and Laud (see above), fearing that their policies will restore Catholicism. He is one of the 'five members' who Charles attempts to arrest in 1642. • Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), a
simple gentleman from Huntingdonshire, is a religious man with a strong
personality. He studies law in London and opposes the king in Parliament.
In the Long Parliament, he convinces
Parliament to assume control of the army. His military success in the
Civil Wars leads to him becoming Lord
Protector. Cromwell tries at first to rule in partnership with Parliament
but, when he realises they cannot agree, he uses the army to enforce what
he thinks is right. Before dying of cancer, he nominates his son Richard
to succeed him.
• Henry Ireton (1611-51), a lawyer, persecutes political radicals such as the Levellers. He fights at Edgehill and in the first battle of Newbury, where he is wounded. He then becomes one of Cromwell's most trusted lieutenants. An excellent man of business, he marries Cromwell's daughter Bridget in 1646. During the Putney Debates he ardently defends the rights of property against radical proposals. He dies of fever. • Sir Thomas Fairfax (1612-71) is a professional soldier who, although knighted by Charles I in 1641, joined the Parliamentarians the following year. He shared in the Marston Moor victory in 1644 and, as lord general of the New Model Army, was the commander at Naseby. Increasingly unhappy at the militancy of the army, he took no part in the king's trial, and resigned his command rather than invade Scotland in 1650. He played a part in the restoration of Charles II. • John Lilburne (1615-57) is born into a minor gentry family from Durham. In 1638, he is brought before the Star Chamber and imprisoned for distributing pamphlets critical of the bishops. After being lieutenant-colonel in Cromwell's cavalry, he leaves the army in 1645. Combative and tenacious, he leads the Leveller movement from 1647 onwards. He dies a Quaker. • George Monck (1608-70) is a rather taciturn professional soldier, who rises to the point where he is able to secure the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. As a result, he receives a dukedom, becoming the duke of Albemarle. He fights at sea in the Second Dutch War, and is lord of the Treasury from 1667. With the Restoration of Charles II (see above) in 1660, other cavaliers get their reward. • Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon (1609-74) writes the royalist History of the Great Rebellion and helps restore the monarchy, becoming earl and lord chancellor in 1660. In the same year, he marries his eight-month pregnant daughter Anne to James, Duke of York, the future king. The queens Mary II (see above) – who marries William of Orange – and Anne are his grandchildren. • James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649-85), is charming and charismatic. The eldest and most favoured of Charles II's illegitimate children, he becomes a serious player in the political arena because of his Protestantism. As captain-general of the army, he defeats the Scottish rebels in 1679. Accused of being implicated in the Whig Rye House Plot against Charles II, he flees to Holland, and is finally executed in 1685 after a disastrous invasion aimed at toppling James II. • Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby (1632-1712), is a wily political manager and fixer. As Charles II's lord treasurer, he tries to restore the royal finances. He negotiates the marriage of Charles's niece Mary to William of Orange (see above). After spending five years in the Tower for conducting secret negotiations with Louis XIV of France, he makes a comeback after the Glorious Revolution. • Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-83), is Charles II's committed and hard-working chancellor. He ruthlessly exploits the Popish Plot to try and prevent James II becoming king and to generate anti-Catholic feeling. His Deism and love of parliamentary government lead him into conflict with Charles, who increasingly has pro-French and pro-Catholic sympathies. Hounded in his last months on a charge of treason, Shaftesbury dies in Holland. • Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax (1661-1715), sets up the National Debt. Of aristocratic background, he rises to the top by using political manipulation. Chancellor of the Exchequer and later first lord of the Treasury, he is forced to resign after accusations of corruption. However, his economic policies solve the old problem of raising money for war. • John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), owes much of his status to his formidable wife Sarah (1660-1744), friend of the future Queen Anne since childhood and an increasing influence over her. On Anne's accession to the throne, she makes Churchill, a Whig, both a duke and a commander of all the allied forces fighting the War of the Spanish Succession. He emerges triumphant, and the queen grants him the money to build the palace in Oxfordshire he names after one of his greatest victories, Blenheim. His position is weakened when Anne banishes Sarah from court in 1710, and he is forced to live on the Continent from 1712 to 1714 before being reinstated by George I. • Abigail Masham (née Hill; died 1734) uses her cousin Sarah Churchill's influence to worm her way into Queen Anne's household. A subtle intriguer and strong Tory, she gradually turns the queen against the Marlboroughs and, in 1710, supersedes Sarah as Anne's confidante and the power behind the throne. • Sidney, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1645-1712), is an exceptional courtier and politician. He remains loyal to James II right up to the latter's flight into exile but, within a few months, is reinstated as head of the treasury by William III. Although the king gets rid of him (along with other moderate Tory ministers) in 1696, he is reinstated by Anne in 1702, who makes him an earl four years later. His able management of state finances enables his father-in-law the Duke of Marlborough to carry out his campaigns without increasing the public debt by more than £1 million annually. To stop himself from being overthrown, Godolphin tries to turn the queen to against Robert Harley (see below), but the influence of Mrs Masham, the queen's new favourite, is such that it is Godolphin himself who, in 1710, is forced to go. • Originally a Whig (see DIY politics) and associated with Marlborough and Godolphin, Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, prospers as a moderate Tory when the High Tories are ejected from the government in 1704 and becomes secretary of state. He is forced to resign when one of his clerks is revealed as a French spy. In 1710, with the backing of the queen's favourite Mrs Masham (to whom he is related), he becomes chancellor of the Exchequer, and he survives an assassination attempt the following year. He is dismissed shortly before the queen's death in 1714 for alleged treasonable acts (he corresponded with James II in exile and is suspected of supporting a Jacobite restoration). Imprisoned in the Tower for two years, he is eventually acquitted. |
|
