Time traveller's guide to Stuart England
Further afield
London is the centre of government and its royal palaces comprise the
residence of the king. Because of court patronage and its large population,
arts activities are concentrated here.
Some sights are a must – a sedan chair or hackney carriage (four-wheeled
coach) can be used for transport. You may need to sniff rosemary or jasmine
to cover the putrid smells of the capital's streets.
• St Paul's cathedral Before the Great
Fire of 1666, this is an ancient Gothic building whose interior is
used as a market, so mind the slime underfoot. Note the Italianate portico
recently built in classical style. After 1666, you could visit the building
site as Christopher Wren's new cathedral is erected (not finished until
1707).
• Inigo Jones's Banqueting House in Whitehall
is the first major royal public building constructed since the reign of
Henry VIII. It is outside here that Charles
I is executed in January 1649.
• Inigo Jones's new piazza at Covent Garden is an elegant
area for a stroll.
• The newly created Hyde Park is a good place for celebrity
spotting.
• Finsbury Fields is the poor person's Hyde Park. Good for
open-air games although the area has been spoiled by brickworks. Many
people flee here during the Great Fire of 1666.
• When shopping for luxury goods, try the New Exchange, which
opens in 1608 next to Somerset House in the Strand.
• Tyburn (now Marble Arch) is the place for public executions,
which attract huge crowds. Other cruel pastimes include bear-baiting and
cock-fighting.
• The red-light district is on the
south bank of the Thames in Southwark, where many of the open-air
theatres are also situated.
England
Despite the importance of the metropolis, you can travel – by cart,
boat or horse – to other parts of the British Isles. Travel by road
is dirty, tiring, slow and dangerous.
A hired horse can cover about 30 miles in a day. Coaches are available,
but uncommon until the 1650s.
Wagons are much slower. The journey from London to Oxford takes two days,
and London to Edinburgh takes a week.
The poet John Taylor publishes the Carriers' Cosmography, which
lists the departure times of carts and carriages that cover England, Wales
and Scotland.
Never travel alone or by foot. The roads are full of beggars, travellers
and discharged soldiers, any of whom may turn nasty or be tempted by an
unarmed stranger. There is no police force, and the local constable may
be able to do little more than sympathise.
It is certainly worth visiting Oxford and Cambridge, where
England's two universities are sited. Look out for the budding scientists
and theologians of the age.
In 1650, the first coffee house opens in Oxford, as a Puritan substitute
for alehouses. These gradually spread all over the land, with Bristol
(see below) being particularly noted for them. They are open to
any man who wants to meet others, drink warm coffee or read quietly. Although
in 1675 they are suppressed by royal proclamation, the ban only lasts
10 days. Please respect their conventions, and don't bring any alcohol.
Bristol, with 30,000 inhabitants, is arguably the second city
of the kingdom. It's big on imports of sugar and tobacco. And showy: it's
not uncommon for rich merchants spend a third of their estates on their
own funerals.
Other important towns include York, which with its fine Minster
and dozens of churches is rich and attractive. The booming wool trade
means it is full of comfortable inns.
Newcastle, whose barges ship most of England's coal, is also populous.
It boasts houses that are equal in height and decoration to those of London.
For a healthier break, visit Tunbridge Wells, whose spa has many
health-giving properties and is much more trendy than Bath.
Sailors should head for the south coast ports of Southampton or
Plymouth. You can take a ship from East Anglia to Iceland for
cod fishing. Or hunt whales with Scottish adventurers.
The Scilly Islands shelter pirates, and Barbary corsairs raid
the coasts, taking English citizens and selling them in North African
slave markets.
Already there is a north-south divide – the diarist Samuel Pepys
never travels further north than Edinburgh and John Evelyn gets no further
than York. Most northerners never see their king.
Experts reckon that, as well as English, there are 10 languages spoken,
including the Celtic tongues, Welsh and Cornish. In Scotland and Ireland,
there are some dialects that are hard to understand.
Scotland
Scotland has been joined to England by James I,
but remains distinct, with its own legal system and Church, despite James's
union of the two crowns. The Scots are
fiercely independent, and Scotland retains its own parliament and makes
its own decisions. Edinburgh has a fine cathedral.
Scotland's Highlands are populated by cattle-herding clans whose
feuds can be ferocious. The country is much poorer than England, and even
gentlemen's houses have flitches of bacon hanging in the rafters of the
best room, being smoked. Women wear heavy plaids.
Ireland
Ireland was conquered by Henry VIII but remains mainly Roman Catholic
and its English rulers are not always obeyed. Settlements, called 'plantations',
of migrants from Scotland and England spread from Ulster into the south
of Ireland, pushing the native population off the best land. The Ulster
Plantation embraces the six counties of Ulster. English cattle are
introduced to Waterford and Wicklow. Dublin is the
cultural centre.
Farming is mainly for subsistence, the population is poor, and wealth
consists mainly of herds of cattle that are driven from one pasture to
another. Rents are paid in kind, and there is little money in circulation.
Large tracts of woodland are being cut down. Pirates threaten the country's
coasts.
Europe
In Europe, the turbulent century begins in 1600 with, typically, the
burning at the stake of the sceptical philosopher Giordano Bruno by the
Inquisition in Rome, where St Peter's is being built. Meanwhile,
in Spain, Philip III organises an new army to quell the Protestant
rebellion in the Netherlands, while in France, Henry IV
tries to reconcile the warring Catholics and Protestants.
It's hard to travel freely in Europe because of military conflicts, such
as the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), which lays waste to much of central
Europe, or the Dutch Wars in the latter part of the century, which make
sea travel hazardous.
After 1683, when the Turks capture Vienna, it becomes impossible
to travel there. The blocking of southern Europe by Islam means that English
and Dutch merchants have to go further afield to trade (see 'The wider
world' below).
Popular ports for English merchants include Antwerp and Amsterdam,
Calais, Lisbon, Leghorn (Livorno), Cadiz,
Hamburg, Archangel and – for the more daring –
Constantinople with 500,000 inhabitants (1600), bigger than any
European city.
By 1700, France under Louis XIV, the Sun King, has eclipsed the power
of Spain and Portugal, and the influence of its culture on the rest of
Europe has replaced that of Italy. In Russia, Peter the Great rules
with a firm hand, expanding eastwards. Prussia becomes a kingdom.
But, because of war, much of Europe is less prosperous now than in 1600.
The wider world
Many people still believe that the Earth is flat – and that sea
monsters wait to swallow up travellers who venture too near its horizons.
Some popular travel books describe primitive peoples whose heads stick
out of their stomachs.
However, by about 1610, maps show that Europeans know the coastlines
of most of the world quite well – even if they are ignorant of the
peoples who live in the inland areas of African and Asia.
No map shows Australia, which hasn't been discovered by Europeans.
New Zealand also remains unknown until Abel Tasman travels to it
in 1642.
You may be able to go explore the world in a merchant ship. But although
navigation is well developed, voyages are long and dangerous. If winds
fail, ships drift; in storms, many sink. In good weather, a ship can sail
1,500 kilometres (930 miles) a week. It takes six weeks to bring sugar
from the West Indies and four months to get nutmeg from the Dutch
East Indies (Indonesia).
The Atlantic crossing can be made from Bristol, Plymouth or Southampton.
The list of islands in the West Indies occupied by the British
is constantly growing. In the early part of the century, British merchants
frown on the idea of slavery, but as trade with the Caribbean grows, slaves
are imported from Africa to work on sugar and tobacco plantations. From
1620, black slaves are also regularly exported to North America. In 1643,
Barbados has 6,000 slaves; by 1660, it has more than 50,000. In
1655, England occupies Jamaica; the Dutch have already settled
in South Africa. In 1672, the Royal African Company gets exclusive
rights to ship slaves – it builds forts on the West African coast,
and between 1680 and 1686, an average of 5,000 slaves a year are transported
to the Caribbean.
The beginnings of the British empire lie in North America. The
colony of Virginia, which began during the reign of Elizabeth I,
attracts many migrants. In 1607, Jamestown (named after James I)
is set up by 104 colonists, half of whom die from disease within a year.
Here, the Algonquin princess Pocahontas befriends Captain John Smith.
In 1622, native Americans massacre Virginian colonists.
Further north, in 1667, New Amsterdam – governed in its early 17th-century
Dutch heyday by Peter Stuyvesant – is renamed New York as
England takes it from the Dutch. In 1670, the Hudson Bay Company is set
up to trade in furs with native Americans in Canada.
In Africa, the people of Angola, Congo, Dahomey
and the Gold Coast go in fear of slave traders. No Europeans venture
into the interior of this continent – and the great civilisations
of Ashanti, Mali, Benin and Zimbabwe remain
mysterious to the English, who mainly know the slave ports of the west
coast.
Empires
The world in the 17th century is a place of huge empires, most of which
are at the height of their powers, although they are cut off from one
another. Motivated by greed, religion and a 'can do' mentality, the English,
Dutch and French lead the way in exploring the wider world. At this time,
the English are more concerned with setting up trading ports than grabbing
large amounts of land.
Nearest to home is the Russian empire, ruled by Michael, the first
Romanov tsar, in the early part of the century, and by Peter the Great
from 1682. By 1700, the Russian colonisation of Siberia reaches the Pacific
Ocean. Few Englishmen are permitted to travel in Russia.
The Ottoman empire – which stretches from large areas of
North Africa, across the Middle East and up into Europe – is a testament
to the success of Turkish Muslim rulers, whose magnificent capital is
Istanbul (Constantinople). But increasingly the Islamic world is split
between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims, and between the Ottoman Turks and the
Safavid Persians. This empire tolerates Christians, but travel is difficult.
Some traders get as far as the Indian empire, ruled by the Muslim
Moguls, who gradually control the whole subcontinent, although they are
at their strongest in the north-east. The ruler Jahangir creates an efficient
tax-gathering system and tolerates Hindus and Buddhists. His successor,
Shah Jahan, builds the Islamic Taj Mahal at Agra (1632-54), a tomb for
his favourite wife. Christians are tolerated, but by the 1670s, Aurungzebe's
increasing religious intolerance provokes a Hindu revolt led by Shivaji.
The first contact between England and India is in 1603. In 1639, the
British set up Fort St George at Madras, their first settlement in India.
Further stations follow at Bombay – acquired from the Portuguese
as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, Charles II's queen –
and Calcutta. The trade in coffee and tea changes national habits back
home.
More isolated is Imperial China. By 1600, this gigantic empire
has a population of about 160 million. Its Ming dynasty is overthrown
by the Manchu or Ch'ing dynasty in 1644. Ruled by the emperor K'ang-hsi,
who welcomes Jesuits but not the English, the country boasts legendary
cities such as Beijing. The Manchu wear pigtails and are suspicious of
foreigners; the highly conservative Confucian ruling class does not welcome
innovation.
Other places also discourage Europeans: Japan – ruled by
the Tokugawa shoguns – excludes Brits, and one traveller, John Davis,
is killed there. By 1641, only the Dutch can land at a single trading
post in Nagasaki – they are allowed just one ship a year.
In South America, the Spanish and Portuguese colonists are gradually
losing their grip on their massive empires, and their ships become prey
to British and Dutch pirates.
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