Deep Are the Roots A Concise History of Britain (стр. 5 из 8)

I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too".

The Spanish attempted invasion began in July, 1588. The heavy galleons of Philip's great Armada were rather awkward against the quick English ships.

The "Invisible Armada" was defeated by the English ships and the storm in the English Channel. Scattered by the winds, many of its ships were sunk or wrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. It was a glorious moment for England, and Elizabeth was the heroine of the hour. But that was not the end of the war with Spain. Peace was made only after the death of Elizabeth.

James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart, didn't support Spain as he had been given to understand that his right to the English throne would be honoured.

Ireland was another battlefield of Spain in the struggle against England and Elizabeth. It was only subdued by the time other death. The best lands were captured by English landowners.

England had economic problems: inflation and unemployement. Enclosures of farm lands and wars, it produced armies of beggars and thieves, and they roamed about the country in miseryandcrime.

The government passed the Elizabeth an Poor Law in 1601. It aimed at putting an end to beggars of all kinds, the poor were put into workhouses.

In the 16th century the economic growth was getting faster, though still limited by feudal relations. Trade and Industry were growing. The Royal Exchange was founded in 1571, East India Company – in 1600.

Education was further developing. Many Grammar schools were founded in the 16th century. New foundations like Harrow and Rugby admitted clever boys as well as rich ones, andcould rightly be called "public schools".

Elizabeth gave her name to the historical period, her reign (1558-1603) was described as "the Golden Age of Elizabeth", the most colourful and splendid in English history. She was the embodiment of everything English, and the English had found themselves as a nation.

The power of Spain was challenged on the seas and finally broken by the defeat of the Armada. Elizabeth saw the foundation of the British Empire and the flowering of the Renaissance in England. The works of Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare were the foundation of the English literary and dramatic heritage. Spenser's the Shepheards Calendar (1579) was a landmark in the history of English poetry, his masterpiece was TheFaerie Queene (1589, 1596) which mirrored in allegories the age of his glorious sovereign the Queen, and her kingdom in Fairy-land.

In the last decade of Elizabeth's reign Shakespeare wrote about 20 plays, from Henry VI to Hamlet.

The English Renaissance has reached the greatest height in the field of theatrical Art. The Shakespeare's (drama) plays, his humanism and deeply popular realism were on the one hand produced on the basis of outstanding theatrical achievements of the period; on the other hand Shakespeare's drama made the English theatre an important contribution, achievement of the world culture treasury.

The 16th century was the century of the further consolidation of bourgeois relations. During the Elizabethan age the ideals of Renaissance embraced a broad spectrum of the population, including the merchants and citizens.

The philosophical ideas of the period were to serve the further evolution and even the revolutionary changes that came later.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) ("Novum Organum"), was the founder of English materialism and applicator of pragmatic sciences.

Literature, Art and Drama were playing an important role. In 1576 – the first theatre appeared. Public theatres were attended by aristocrats and Elizabeth I.

The 16th century was the age of transition from the medieval twilight to a more progressive age.

Questions:

1. Who were the first and last monarchs of theTudor Dynasty?

2. What title was Henry VIII awarded with by the Pope?

3. What was the peculiarity of the Reformation in England?

4. What were the traits of continuity in the foreign policy of the Tudors?

5. Why was the reign of Elizabeth I called "the Golden Age"?

6. What threat was posed by Mary Queen of Scots to the rule of Elizabeth?

THE STUARTS AND THE STUGGLE OF THE PARLIAMENT AGAINST THE CROWN

THE STUART KINGS AND THEIR CONFLICTS WITH THE PARLIAMENT. THE CIVIL WAR AND THE NEW MODEL ARMY. RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES IN THE COUNTRY. OLIVER CROMWELL AND THE COMMONWEALTH.

THE RESTORATION OF MONARCHY. THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. TWO PROTESTANT MONARCHS

Key words, terms and concepts:

1. Gunpowder Plot–Guy Fawkes (1605)

2. Puritans

3. Independents

4. Levellers

5. Diggers

6. New Model Army – Oliver Cromwell

7. High treason

8. The Rump

9. The Lord Protector (1653 -1658)

10. The Commonwealth – The Interregnum

The ideology of the rising classes in England at the beginning of the 17th century was Puritanism, it was a form of democratic religion similar to the Calvinist views: denying the supremacy of a man over religious faith, demanding a direct contact with God without any mediators, without anyone between Man and God, thus denying Church as an unnecessary institution. It was a challenge to the Church of England and the Monarch as its head, to the absolute Monarchy altogether.

The Puritan ideology was also a challenge to the cultural achievements of Renaissance – the religious doctrines rejected theatre, entertainment, pleasure, they preached and practised austerity, asceticism, adoption of puritan values against idleness. There were different varieties of puritan ideology and groups of people – the extremists, like independents (1581), insisting on complete independence of their communities, and moderates, who believed in cooperation with monarchy.

The new forces, the developing bourgeoisie began to actively oppose the absolute monarchy, particularly using the Parliament. In 1601 the Parliament made the first declaration of protest, disapproving of the Queen's sell out and distribution of licences.

Those first seeds of discord were to grow up strong and dangerous during the reign of the Stuarts; James I and Charles I.

James VI King of Scots – born in 1566, crowned King of Scots in 1567, became James I (1603-1625) of England.

On the death of Queen Elisabeth I in 1603 he became the senior representative of the Tudor dynasty, being the great-grandson of Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry VII.

the cellar, and concealed a nice fat charge of gunpowder in the coal bin. Unfortunately for the leader, one of the conspirators warned a certain Lord by letter to stay away from a meeting at the House on the day set for the explosion. This led to the discovery of the plot and Guy Fawkes was tortured and hanged. On this day it is customary in England to dress up like Americans do on Halloween, and to carry an effigy of Fawkes through the streets and then to bum it.

"Remember, Remember,

the 5th of November,

The Gunpowder Treason

andPlot." – goes a well-known rhyme.

The King was noted for persecuting witches and writing books, principally about the devine rights of Kings.

James was closely connected with the international catholic reactionary powers.

The first Stewarts had faced the alternative: either to give up absolute power and cooperate with new gentlemen and bourgeoisie or to support reactionary noblemen.

They preferred to struggle against the puritans, representatives of new revolutionary ideology.

JamesI, and later his son Charles I were extravagant and wasteful.

Charles I Stuart (1625-1649) was in a constant conflict with Parliament.

The Parliament, when convened, refused to give the King financial support, and Charles I ruled for 11 years without Parliament (1629-1640). That Period of Personal Government, during which the King did not receive the usual financial aid and had to raise money as best as he could: pawned Crown Jewels, gave out honours, etc.; came to an end when he became involved in a war with Scotland for which he couldn't pay.

The King (Charles I) was forced to convene a meeting of the Great Council and later to call a Parliament.

And he had to concede to this Parliament almost all that it ashed, so badly he was in need of money. Later his attempts to go back on his word and revoke his concessions and his refusal to hand over to Parliament control of the Army brought about the Civil War which his policy and that of his father had made inevitable.

The battles of the Civil War, fought as three military campaigns took place not in London, but in the counties. The King's standard was first raised at Nottingham in 1642 and, when he could not get to London, Oxford became his temporary capital, with 70 peers and 170 Members of Parliament close at hand. Oxford fell in 1646, by which time Charles had already surrendered; he passed into the hands of the victorious New Model Army (22,000 strong after 1645), which went on to take possession of London and install their commander Sir Thomas Fairfax as Governor of the Tower. His second-in-command was Oliver Cromwell, a farmer in the past and a great military leader who had organized the New Model Army. Charles I was captured by the Scots who handed him over to the Parliamentarians. He escaped and made agreements with the Scots who were later defeated by the Parliamentarian Army (1648). The English Army demanded the death of the King.

Charles I was brought to trial for High Treason, his supporters were not allowed to be present. He was sentenced to death, "and in a hushed silence on a cold January morning the King of England met his death with a courage and dignity that commanded respect." He was beheaded in Whitehall on the 30 of January 1649.

The House of Lords was abolished, some famous Royalists were captured and beheaded.

A Council of State was created to govern the country, which consisted of forty one members. The House of Commons reshuffled its members, and expelled those who had opposed the King's death.

But the troubles were not easy to stop. There was mutiny in the Army, a rebellion in Ireland, the Scots declared the son of the executed King – their King (1651) Charles II.

Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed the Irish, checked the Scots, and established his authority in the Army and in the country. Admiral Blake defeated the Dutch and made England again the mistress of the seas.

In 1653 Oliver Cromwell together with the New Model officers expelled the Rump (the Remnants of the Parliament) and established a military dictatorship. On December 16th in Westminster Oliver Cromwell publicly accepted the title of Lord Protector of a United Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland and the colonies.

He didn't dare to take up the title of King, as there was opposition to that in the Army.

All in all, in four years of struggle, around 100,000 Englishmen were killed. Feelings ran high and extraordinary radical opinions were expressed both during and after the Civil War. There was a confrontation of political and religious views within the ranks of the revolutionary forces. Presbyterians had become conservative and royalist. Independents, who were represented in the New Model Army, were split.

The more extreme republicans in the New Model Army, the Levellers, as they were called, had a Manifest of their own, called the Agreement of the People, and they rallied together to defend the right of common people, they demanded the abolition of titles, and legal, political, etc.; equality in everything but property (John Lilbern).

The Diggers, a far smaller and still more radical group, opposed the private ownership of Property altogether and struggled "to set the land free" they insisted, that "the poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man".

The language of radicalism which burst out between 1640 and 1645 alarmed conservatives of all kinds.

Oliver Cromwell himself was a reluctant republican anxious to preserve "the ranks and orders of men – whereby England hath been known for hundreds of years: a nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman."

However, it was the Nobility and Gentry who eventually profited from the Civil War and the Interregnum between 1649, the year of Charles's execution and 1660, the year of the Restoration of Monarchy. The Diggers failed in their ventures and the Levellers were supressed in 1649 after they rebelled against Cromwell and other army leaders. The Commonwealth, with Cromwell as Lord Protector, the period when England was a republic, is also described as Interregnum.

From 1655 England was divided not only into parishes, where the justices of the peace remained, but into districts, each with a soldier, Major-General exercising authority in the name of "godliness and virtue".

The Army was maintained by taxes imposed on the Royalists. From December 1653 until his death in September 1658, Oliver Cromwell ruled England and Scotland, he imposed temporarily a single government on England and Scotland.

In the country and in the towns the new regime closed alehouses and theatres, banned race-meetings as well as cock-fights, severely punished those people found guilty of immorality or swearing and suppressed such superstitious practices like dancing round the May Pole or celebrating Christmas.

Oliver Cromwell was a unique blend of country gentleman and professional soldier, of religious radical and social conservative. He was at once the source of stability and the ultimate source of instability. With his death the republic collapsed as his son and successor Richard lacked his qualities and was deposed 6 months after the beginning of his rule.

The generals began to fight for power, general G. Monk's influence brought about the dissolution of the Long Parliament and the new convention Parliament voted to recall Charles II and restore the Monarchy in Britain.

Charles II landed in England in May 1660 and was enthusiastically greeted and welcomed by the people. He declared a "liberty of conscience" and demanded the punishment of his father's murderers.Hewas crowned in 1661, his ministers were mainly old Royalists who had served him during his exile.

The Puritan Republic had been a joyless country, and the Restoration of Monarchy brought back the gaity of life: theatres were reopened, new dramatists wrote cynical plays to entertain the corrupt court. It was also the restoration of Parliament, House of Lords, Anglican church and Cavalier gentry (noblemen) with their old privileges and intolerance.