Britain after the Seven Years War

•The British Reform movement

•The elegant landed classes

•Georgian England

Our objectives

• You will identify the ways the Scottish Clans were punished for their support of Stuart claims to the British throne.

• You will understand the reasons for the beginning of Parliamentary reform…

• Know the impact of criticism on British Reform and the American Revolution

• Gain visual exposure to the art, architecture, and other identifiers of the British landed classes…

While the enlightened

despots ruled in Russia, France and Austria, England

remained a constitutional

monarchy.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688

had ensured a Protestant King or

Queen, and the Jacobite threats of

the Stuarts subsided.

In Scotland, the highland chiefs lost their power. They could not:

•Keep vast estates under the clan leadership

•Keep independent Clan regiments

•Wear a kilt•Play the bagpipes.

A Reform movement begins in England…

…it will continue into the middle 1800’s. Overtime, great changes

in democracy and voting (suffrage) will take place…

In 1760, a young George

III took the throne. He

would be king throughout the

American Revolution and

even until 1821.

In these years he would change from a young, obstinate king to a

mad monarch who would be locked up at Windsor Castle.

If you would like to know more about

King George, rent the movie “Madness of King George”—a

write a page response to the film for extra

credit.

Like all British kings, if he wanted anything he had to work through

Parliament.

In order to control Parliament, the King had some choices:

•Bribery•Buying up votes•Grant pensions and favors•Make promises and deals

Yes, we could say that there was a certain amount of corruption in the

government of England.

The system had inherent abuses--

Sometimes elections weren’t held very often…

Or the boroughs that sent a Member of Parliament did

not reflect the population…

Some boroughs had a growing population…but they had only one MP…others had too many

MPs…Bramber

Duke of Rutland

2 35 20

Callington Lord Clinton 2 225 42

DunwichLord

Huntingfield

2 44 32

East Looe John Buller 2 167 38

GattonSir Mark

Wood2 23 7

Old SarumEarl of

Caledon2 3 11

Newtown

Sir Fitzwilliam Barrington

2 14 23

Plympton Earle

Earl of Mount Edgcumbe

2 182 40

 

Some boroughs have more sheep than people—yet they

also had one MP.

And some boroughs were under water…and there was an MP

assigned to there too!

Boroughs that did not properly represent the population in them were called Rotten Boroughs: Their MP’s still went to London and drew a fat salary.

The county of Yorkshire, which contains near a million souls, sends two county members; and so does the county of Rutland which contains not a hundredth part of that number. The town of Old Sarum, which contains not three houses, sends two members; and the town of Manchester, which contains upwards of sixty thousand souls, is not admitted to send any. Is there any principle in these things?

--Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

A movement began that Parliament should properly

represent the public. NOT the king.

Frequent elections were desirable to prevent corruption…

Members should mathematically represent a portion of the

population.

In the English parliament, the King was denounced for his abuse of

power.

Pamphlets and political cartoons also criticized the monarchy.

This was all witnessed by the British Colonials in North

America…so what were the consequences?

Right, as colonists, we’ll criticize too, and we have lots

of complaints about unfair taxes, on tea, on sugar…

Therefore, the “seeds” of the American Revolution were planted

in England, among the English people who criticized their own

government.

The government responded to this criticism by severe policies in Scotland, Ireland and India.

In Ireland, the Irish supported the American colonials in the

revolution, and in America, almost 1/3 of the colonial troops were

Scots-Irish.

They remembered the terrible oppression

under Cromwell,

William III, and their English

landlords.

The British did not want to face a revolt in Ireland as they had in America, so they granted some

concessions to the Irish.

In India, the British government sought stricter regulation of the

British in India by sending a Governor General.

The British government, badly shaken by the American revolt,

moved toward more centralization and control over its satellites.

The landed classes of England.

Life in London was exciting…

London had expanded outside of its medieval borders, and beautiful

parks and squares were laid out with stately buildings.

There were coffee houses where politics and poetry were

discussed.

This free and easy criticism of the government was markedly

different than the atmosphere in France.

Addison and Steele published newspapers– There were many

political cartoons.

Unregulated Gin was

plentiful—people became

addicted and crime soared.

All sorts of debauched characters

inhabited the teeming streets

of London.

The painter, William Hogarth painted cynical scenes of London

Life.

Our objectives to this slide show were:

• You identified the ways the Scottish Clans were punished for their support of Stuart claims to the British throne.

• Understand the reasons for the beginning of Parliamentary reform…

• Know the impact of criticism on British Reform and the American Revolution

• Gain visual exposure to the art, architecture, and other identifiers of the British landed classes…