I

1. The Glorious Revolution

n 1688, the bourgeoisie managed to bring the royal power, the armed forces and taxation under the control of Parliament. The arrangement is known as the Revolution of1688, or the Glorious Revolution. King James II who succeeded to the throne after the death of his brother, Charles II, introduced pro-Catholic reforms and, finally, converted to Catholicism himself. All that which provoked Protestant hostility in the country. James II’s opponents sparked off the Glorious Revolution by inviting a Protestant – William, the Prince of Orange, to take the English crown. William of Orange arrived with an invasion force. In fact, William II, as he came to be known, was one of the legal heirs to the throne: he was the grandson of Charles I, and his wife Mary was James II’s daughter and Charles I’s granddaughter. King James II had to flee to France in 1689. Parliament declared that James II had abdicated and William and Mary accepted the throne. The attempts to restore James II to the throne failed in 1690.

William III proved to be an able diplomat but a reserved and unpopular monarch. In 1689, William and Mary accepted the Bill of Rights curbing royal power and granting the rights of parliament. It also restricted succession to the throne only to Protestants. The Bill of Rights laid the basis for constitutional monarchy. William and Mary ruled jointly until Mary’s death in 1694. Her husband died after a fall from his horse in 1702. The most important result of the Glorious Revolution is the transition from absolute to parliamentary monarchy. In 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, Act of the Union created a single Parliament for England and Scotland.

2. Political and economic development of the country

The 18^th century was a sound-thinking and rational age. Life was ruled by common sense. It was the proper guide to thought and conduct in commerce and industry. This period saw a remarkable rise in the fields of philosophy, natural sciences and political economy. Adam Smith (1723 – 1790), the Scottish economist, wrote his Wealth of Nations in 1776. His ideas dominated the whole of industrial Europe and America until the revival of opposing theories of state control and protection. Adam Smith was one of the founders of political economy which evolved, as a science, in the 18^th century. Smith’s ideas were further developed by David Ricardo.

During the reign of George I, government power was increased because the new king spoke only German and relied on the decisions of his ministers. The most influential minister, who remained the greatest political leader of Britain for twenty years, was Robert Walpole. He is considered to have been Britain’s first Prime Minister. Moreover, it was R. Walpole who fathered the idea of using banknotes. As Britain was waging a series of costly wars with France, the government had to borrow money from different sources. In 1694, a group of financiers agreed to establish a bank if the government pledged to borrow from it alone. The new bank, called the Bank of England, had authority to raise money by printing ‘bank-notes’. But the idea was not entirely new. For hundreds of years, ever since the 12^th century, money dealers had been giving people so-called ‘promissory notes’ signed by themselves. The cheques that are used today developed from those promissory notes. Walpole also promoted a parliamentary act, which obliged companies to bear responsibility to the public for the money, which they borrowed by the sales of shares.

In politics, Walpole was determined to keep the Crown under a firm parliamentary control. He realized that with the new German monarchy that was more possible than ever before. Walpole stressed the idea that government ministers should work together in a small group called the Cabinet. He insisted that all Cabinet ministers should bear collective responsibility for their decisions. If any minister disagreed with a Cabinet decision, he was expected to resign. The rule is still observed today. Walpole opposed wars, and increased taxes on objects of luxury including tea, coffee and chocolate.

R. Walpole’s most influential enemy was William Pitt who stressed the importance of developing trade and strengthening Britain’s position overseas even by armed force. His policies lead to a number of wars with France. In the war of 1756, Pitt declared that the target was French trade which was to be taken over by Britain. In Canada, the British army took Quebec, which gave Britain control over fish, fur and timber trades. The French army was also defeated in India and a lot of Britons went to India to make their fortunes. Britain became the most powerful country in the world. British pride was expressed in a national song written in 1742, Rule, Britannia.