HY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 45: Civil Society, Mixed Government, Exclusion Crisis
30 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
I.Alternatives to Absolutism
A. Limited monarchy: the case of England
1. Parliament as longest surviving representative institution
B. The reign of Charles II (r. 1660-1685)
1. General observations
a. Initially welcomed by most English men and women
b. Declared limited toleration for Protestant dissenters
c. Promised to observe Magna Carta and the Petition of Right
d. Admired all things French
2. 1670s: open admiration of the kingship of Louis XIV
. New party labels
i. Tories—Charles's supporters
ii. Whigs—Charles's opponents
iii. Both parties feared a return to the Civil War of 1640 as well as
royal absolutism
3. Religion
. Charles was sympathetic to Roman Catholicism
a. Suspended civil penalties against Catholics and Dissenters
. Ignored Parliament
i. Led to a series of Whig electoral victories (1679-1681)
b. The Exclusion Crisis: Whigs attempted to keep Charles's brother,
James, from obtaining the throne
c. Charles governed without relying on Parliament for money
d. Executed several Whigs
C. King James II (r. 1685-1688)
1. A zealous Catholic convert
2. Alienated his Tory supporters
3. June 1688: ordered the clergy to read his decree of religious toleration
. The trial of the bishops
4. Crisis of succession and the birth of the "warming-pan baby"
5. Whigs and Tories invited Mary Stuart and her husband, William of Orange, to invade
England and preserve Protestantism
D. The Glorious Revolution of 1688
1. A bloodless coup
2. James fled the country, William and Mary claimed the throne
3. The Bill of Rights (1689)
. Passed by Parliament
a. Reaffirmed trial by jury, habeas corpus, and the right to petition Parliament
4. Act of Toleration (1689)
. Granted dissenters the right to worship freely, but they could not hold political office
5. The Act of Succession (1701)
. Ordained that every future English monarch must be a member of the Church of
England
6. Act of Union (1707) between England and Scotland
7. Why "glorious"?
. No bloodshed
a. Established England as a mixed monarchy governed by "the King in
Parliament"
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