A brief history of 17th century England

At the beginning of the 17th century England was a constitutional monarchy. That is, the king (or queen) did not have absolute power, but shared some with a parliament, whose members were elected by merchants and land-owning nobles.

Elizabeth I, one of the greatest monarch of England,   died, unmarried and childless, in 1603, and her closest relative, King James I of England, was crowned.

His name has become synonymous with the famous printing of the Bible that bears his name, the “King James Bible” of 1611 AD.

His son, Charles I, was crowned in 1625 Charles described himself as "little Gods on Earth", chosen by God to rule in accordance with the doctrine of the "Divine Right of Kings“ and that made the Parliamentarians uneasy

One of the first events to raise concerns over Charles's reign was his marriage to a French Roman Catholic princess, Henrietta-Marie de Bourbon, in 1625,

directly after ascending to the throne. 

• Then, he aroused most antagonism through his religious measures: he believed in High Anglicanism, a sacramental version of the Church of England. In 1633, Charles started making the Church more ceremonial, and introduced rituals suspiciously similar to those of the Catholic church.  Puritans accused the king of reintroducing Catholicism; when they complained, he had them arrested, and some prominent gentlemen  had their ears cut off —a rare penalty for gentlemen, and one that aroused anger.

Although the parliament did not have much power in the English society, it was in charge of the collection of the tax revenue – a very important task. The only way the Parliament had to force their will upon the king was by withholding the

financial means required to execute his plans.

Charles set his sights on taking part in the conflicts which Europe was undergoing in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). To finance the war, money was needed, and the Crown could raise taxes only through Parliamentary consent.

The parliament approved funds to send an expeditionary force to France to help the French Huguenots (members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France), but Charles insisted on having an unpopular royal favorite ( the Duke of Buckingham) to command of the English force;

• Unable to raise revenue through Parliament, Charles resorted to raising taxes and fines payable to the Crown – for example, by demanding that the inland English counties pay a tax for the Royal Navy. Established law supported this policy, but authorities had ignored it for centuries, and many regarded it as yet another

extra-Parliamentary (and therefore illegal) tax.

• Charles had to face more troubles on the religious front. The Church of Scotland, reluctantly Episcopal in structure, had independent traditions, but since Charles wanted one, uniform Church throughout Britain, in 1637 he tried and introduced a new, High Anglican, version of the English Book of Common Prayer to Scotland. This was violently resisted; a riot broke out in Edinburgh   and, in February of 1638, the Scots formulated their objections to royal policy in the National Covenant.  In spring of 1639, King Charles I accompanied his forces to the Scottish border, to end the rebellion (known as the Bishops' War)

• Charles went to war without the financial support of the Parliament and suffered a huge defeat. The Scots then seized the opportunity and invaded England, but another of Charles' chief advisors, had risen to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632 and brought in much-needed revenue for Charles by persuading the Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions.

• With fresh money and new advisors, Charles tried again to defeat the Scots, but he did not have success. In 1640 he suffered yes another defeat and the entirety of Northern England was occupied. Charles was forced to pay the Scot’s war expenses to prevent them from raping, pillaging and burning the cities in Northern England. After that he had no choice but to compromise with the Parliament

Opposition to Charles also mounted because of many local grievances. For example, the imposition of drainage-schemes in The Fens (a naturally marshy region in eastern England) negatively affected the livelihood of thousands of people

• In early January 1642, Charles attempted to arrest five members of the House of Commons on a charge of treason. This attempt failed. When the troops marched into Parliament, the Speaker proclaimed himself a servant of Parliament, rather than of the King, and refused to give up the names of the 5 members.

• A few days later, fearing for his own personal safety and for that of his family and retinue, Charles left the London area.  As the year progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies either for the parliament, (parliamentarians) or for the King (Royalist).

•  King Charles I, was executed  on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Although the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II King of Great Britain and Ireland right after the exectution of Charles I, the English Parliament instead passed a statute that made any such proclamation unlawful. England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto  a republic, led by Oliver Cromwell.

• Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles II, son of Charles I, spent the next nine years in exile A political crisis that followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, (his 30th birthday), he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents were dated as if Charles had succeeded his father as king in 1649.

• Although the monarchy was restored, it was still only with the consent of Parliament, that kept for itself much more power than In the past. Therefore, the civil wars effectively set England and Scotland on course to adopt an effectively parliamentary monarchy form of government. 

In 1665, Charles II was faced with a great health crisis: the Great Plague of London.

• The English outbreak is thought to have spread from the Netherlands, where the bubonic plague had occurred intermittently since 1599, probably brought by the Dutch trading ships. The contagion was spread by the rats. By July 1665, the plague was in the city of London itself. King Charles II of England, his family and his court left the city for countryside. Businesses were closed when most wealthy merchants and professionals fled. Several public health efforts were attempted. Physicians were hired by city officials, and burial details were carefully organized. But panic spread through the city, and in the fear of contagion, people were hastily buried in overcrowded pits. The City Corporation ordered a cull of dogs and cats — a poor decision, since those animals, mostly the cats, kept the population of rats (the real culprits) in check.

• The English outbreak is thought to have spread from the Netherlands, where the bubonic plague had occurred intermittently since 1599, probably brought by the Dutch trading ships. The rats spread the contagion. By July 1665, the plague was in the city of London itself. The king and his family left the city for countryside. Businesses were closed when most wealthy merchants and professionals fled. Several public health efforts were attempted. Physicians were hired by city officials, and burial details were carefully organized. But panic spread through the city, and in the fear of contagion, people were hastily buried in overcrowded pits. The City Corporation ordered a cull of dogs and cats — a poor decision, since those animals, mostly the cats, kept the population of rats (the real culprits) in check.

• The death toll at one point reached a peak of 7,000. Adding to London's woes, but marking the end of the plague, was what later became known as the Great Fire of London, which started on 2 September 1666. The fire consumed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral. Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the fire-fighting effort. The public blamed Roman Catholic conspirators for the fire, adding to the ever-present religious tensions

• The death toll at one point reached a peak of 7,000. Adding to London's woes, but marking the end of the plague, was what later became known as the Great Fire of London, which started on 2 September 1666. The fire consumed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral. Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the fire-fighting effort. The public blamed Roman Catholic conspirators for the fire, adding to the ever-present religious tensions

• All these events greatly influenced the life of one of the most famous scientist of all time. Isaac Newton