Time traveller's guide to Stuart England
Movers and shakers
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.
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.
Restoration bigwigs
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.
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