12. Henry VII and his reign. The Reformation.

Тhe future King Henry VIII was born on 28 June, 1491, at Greenwich. As a young man Henry was a predictable prince of his age: lusty, ambitious and a religious conformist, whose pamphlet Assertio Septem Sacromentorum (De­fence of the Seven Sacraments) earned him the title of Defender of the Faith, bestowed by Pope Leo X6. The younger son of Henry VI, he be­came heir to the throne only on the death of Arthur, his elder brother, in 1502. He ascended the throne on 21 April, 1509, and crowned at Westminster Abbey on 24 June, 1509. His au­thority was King of England and Ireland. He came to the throne on the crest of a wave of popularity, for this handsome, beardless youth of seventeen embodied a new age and seemed the antithesis of his father. He was tall and well proportioned, had a fair complexion and au­burn hair. He was athletic, riding well, accu­rate in his marksmanship in the butts and de­termined to shine in jousts. He understood Latin easily, spoke French fluently, he had a profound interest in theological questions and in the problems of scholarship, possessed a flair for music-making of all kinds.

Henry VIII followed the advice his father had given him on his deathbed. He married the widow of his elder brother, Catherine of Aragon. Henry had inherited a full Treasury and was open-handed; there were many ban­quets, masques, dances and tournaments.

He wished, in fact, to revive the Hundred Years' War. He entered into an alliance with King Ferdinand of Spain. Whereas his father had avoided war to save money, Henry and his allies were eager for confrontation. In 1513, Henry led a victorious campaign against the French; in retaliation the Scots declared war on England. Henry's forces repelled the Scots at the Battle of Flodden Field where the King of Scotland James IV was killed.

For the next decade, Henry VIII attempted to act as a mediator between France and Spain, playing the countries against each other in hope of gaining power in Europe. Despite his earlier military victory, Henry's subsequent diplomatic efforts and military campaigns were fruitless. In 1520, he met with Francis I of France9 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. This event of en­tertainment and personal diplomacy failed to prevent another round of fighting among the European powers. Henry's wars emptied his treasury, and his efforts to raise taxes led to rioting (бунты) among the subjects.

Henry's first minister was Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey's supremacy over the Church left it weaker and less able to face the attack, which would soon be mounted against it. Wolsey did not give the Church either re­form or uniformity and his personal extrav­agance and worldliness were a vivid exam­ple of the corruption rife in the Church. Wolsey's immense energy and talent were mainly consumed by foreign affairs. He cherished the ambition of becoming pope and bent English foreign policy to his unre­alistic end. Wolsey failed to find a solution to the su­preme crisis of the reign, when in 1525 the king decided to divorce his queen. The queen was 40 and she had only one child, Princess Mary, born in 1516. Henry considered it essential to have a son to succeed him, fearing that a female succession would bring the return of civil war. After the divorce Henry hoped to marry Anne Boleyn.

The king argued that his marriage to Cath­erine was unlawful, as the Bible forbade the marriage of a man to his brother's widow. Henry sent Wolsey to Rome to present the English case before the papacy, and when this failed Wolsey was forced from power. Wolsey was stripped of all his offices of state and allowed to keep only one of his many former ecclesiastical offices. In 1529, Henry had Wolsey charged with treason, and if he had not died on his way to London, Wolsey would almost certainly have been executed. He was replaced by Sir Thomas More. Henry's diplomatic efforts to secure a di­vorce failed, and he turned to a policy of force against the Church, which ended in a complete break with Rome. The enormous task of carrying out the Reformation in Eng­land was accomplished by Thomas Cromwell, who had become one of the most powerful of the king's ministers. He arranged for Parlia­ment (which sat from 1529 until 1536 and is called the 'Reformation Parliament') to pass statutes which swept away the power of the papacy in England and vested it in the Crown instead. The Reformation of the 16th century was a movement within Western Christendom to purge the church of medieval abuses and to restore the doctrines and practices that the reformers believed conformed with the Bible and the New Testament model of the Church. This led to a breach between the Roman Cath­olic Church and the reformers whose beliefs and practices came to be called Protestant­ism. Although England had a religious re­form movement influenced by Lutheran ideas, the English Reformation occurred as a direct result of King Henry VIII's efforts to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The formal break with the papacy was masterminded by Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister. Under Cromwell's direction Parliament passed the Act in Restraint of Appeals (to Rome; 1533), followed by the Act of Supremacy (1534) fully defining the royal headship over the church. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Tho­mas Cranmer annulled Henry's marriage to Catherine, allowing the king to marry Anne Boleyn. Although Henry himself wished to make no doctrinal changes, Cromwell and Cranmer authorized the translation of the Bible into English, and Cranmer was largely responsible for the Book of Common Prayer, adopted under Henry's successor, Edward VI.

Cromwell nationalized the monastic lands and was a moving force in the creation of the bureaucracy which was needed to manage the revenues now at the monarchy's disposal. Cromwell's actions resulted in a great strength­ening of the House of Commons, which was asked to endorse not only one of the greatest religious changes in English national life but also a new succession to the crown.

In 1532, Thomas Cranmer became the Arch­bishop of Canterbury. He was a man of great learning, who aimed at Church reform and showed complete devotion to Henry VIII. In January 1533, he married Henry and Anne Boleyn and in May he pronounced Henry's mar­riage to Catherine null. On 1 June, he crowned Anne Queen of England. But the king was bit­terly disappointed at the birth, in September 1533, of the long-awaited child, Princess Elizabeth. Henry treated mother and child coldly; it was not for another daughter that he had broken with Rome and made Anne his Queen, but the child was healthy and he hoped the son would follow. To distract himself he took im­mense personal interest in the legislation Cromwell was devising to make him supreme in his own domain and to make government more efficient there was brought about an administrative revolution to modernise the workings of the old medieval departments of state while the Reformation Parliament was still in session.

In response to Henry divorcing Catherine, the pope excommunicated the king and, by extension, the nation. Although this had little effect on the king, it displeased practicing Catholics. Following the break with Rome, Henry and Cromwell undertook a reorganisa­tion of Church and State. Henry was declared supreme head of the Church of England in 1534, and all the payments normally made to the pope now went to the Crown. In 1536, a second Act of Succession allowed Henry an unprecedented freedom: to name his own heir. Parliament altered the succession to exclude Princess Mary in favour of the children of Anne Boleyn, in hope a boy would be born. The Bible was translated into English, priests were allowed to marry, and the shrines of saints were destroyed. Henry's own religious beliefs remained Catholic, despite the grow­ing number of people at court and in the nation who had adopted Protestantism.

In 1534, Cromwell began a wholesale con­fiscation of the enormous wealth of the Cath­olic Church, estimated at three times that of the Crown. A survey of the buildings, lands, and possessions of the English religious houses was completed in 1535, and thereafter Parlia­ment began passing laws dissolving these Catholic groups, a process that had been com­pleted by 1540. 1534 saw also the abolition of the pope's right to tax the English Church. By 1559, the monasteries had ceased to exist. The Crown took possession of all the Church's property, paying small pensions to approxi­mately 10,000 monks and nuns who were de­prived of their homes. Others, who had op­posed Henry, had been executed. The monastic lands were distributed to the nobility, or impor­tant gentry. Buildings were destroyed and their treasures distributed to Henry's supporters. Thus, the monastic system, which had served a useful purpose for 1,000 years, disappeared.

Thomas Cromwell reformed the financial administration of England and established six courts, or departments, each responsible for collecting a particular sort of revenue. Cromwell chose to be Principal Secretary rather than Chancellor. He elevated the secretary­ship to new importance in government, which position was retained until the 19th century. He made the privy council the greatest of the king's councils. It became the centre of government under the Tudors and the Stuarts later developed into the modern Cabinet. Cromwell's reports laid the foundation of the machinery of government of the modern state. In 1536, a serious rebellion, known as the Pillgrimage of Grace, occurred in the northern countries. The rebellion combined economic grievances with the attachment to the institutions of the catholic Church. It represented the most serious threat to Henry's reign, although it was ultimately quelled. By 1536, Henry had been tired of Anne Boleyn. In less a month with the help of Cromwell she was accused of adultery, executed and replaced by Jane Seymour. She provided Henry with his male heir, the future Edward VI, although die died in childbirth. Henry's three next marriages occurred in rapid succession. He mar­ried Anne of Cleves but divorced her after only six months — Henry's displeasure with Cromwell over this match led to Cromwell's execution. Henry then married Catherine Howard and finally settled down with Cath­erine Parr, the wife who survived him.

As Henry aged he became bitter and an­gry. One by one he had either killed his old councillors or driven them from the royal service. In 1542, he again entered into continental war­fare, joining Emperor Charles V in his war against France. The same year the Scots invaded England and were defeated at Solway Moss where the Scottish king James V was mortally wounded. James's death freed England from the threat of invasion for the next generation.

Henry ended his reign with the reputation of a tyrant. But the power of the crown had been considerably strengthened by Henry's ecclesiastical policy, and the monastic confis­cations gave impetus to the rise of a new nobility which was to become influential in succeeding reigns. He died on 28 January, 1547, at Whitehall and was buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor.

13. Elizabeth I and her reign. The Anglo-Spanish rivalry. The Renaissance in Britain.

The reign is called “the Golden Age” of British history. Elizabeth was slender eith red hair and pale eyes, a hooked nose and long white hands. Like her father she was gifted for music and other arts. She was an outstanding orator and mastered Latin, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish. In English she wrote beautiful poetry. In manner she was blunt and given to bold gests. She did unexpected things, became extinguished for her intelligence and courage, self-confidence and political picnic of postponing but also for her vanity and thrift. She had 3,000 dresses but never gave one away, her flirtations with suitors scandalized her ministers until they realized that under her recklessness outboard her head was coll. She was preoccupied with the interests of her country used her single state as weapon. She gained love and loyalty of people who admired her little tricks almost as much as her statesmanship. She could swear at bishops, throw her slippers in the hands of diplomats, boxed the earl of Essex, chose to dance all night long to avoid to give a definite answer to Spanish king about marriage. Her nicknames: “Henry’s daughter”, “Good Queen Bess”, “Virgin Queen”, “Gloriana”. When Elizabeth became queen in November 1558 she inherited the problem of Catholic-Protestant struggle. Queen Mary started war with France and one year before her death Mary’s prosecution of protestants had done much damage to the Catholicism in England and the number of protestants was steadily increasing. Struggling protestants in Scotland, France and the Netherlands were waiting for England’s support. They believed that she would restore the protestant faith in England and would help them in their fight but England’s economy was poor. There wasn’t enough money even for a cost of government. Elizabeth ended the war with France but secretly sent money and weapons to foreign protestants. Although Elizabeth was raised a protestant her religious views were remarkable tolerant. She believed sincerely in her own faith but she also believed that Catholics and protestants were both parts of the same religion. Elizabeth looked for peaceful ways of solving of protestant-catholic problem. She signed several laws called “the religious settlement of 1559”. The main law was the renewed Act of Supremacy which Mary abolished during her reign. This act once again proclaimed that the church of England was independent of Rome. The Act of Supremacy approved a new prayer book and enforced its use. Alongside with the Bible it taught that rebellion against the Crown was a sin against God, the unit of state administration became the parish and the parish priest (the parson/vicar) became rather influential in the village life. People had to go to shurch on Sundays and they were fined if they stayed away. Elizabeth made sure that the church stayed under her control. The kind of Protestantism agreed in 1559 remained closer to the Catholic religion than other protestant groups. One of the problems Elizabeth faced was a danger from Scotland where ruled Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots), a Catholic, Elizabeth’s cousin and the closer relative (1542-1587). Mary Stuart spent her childhood in France, her mother was French. She became queen soon after her birth but didn’t reign until 1561 when her young husband Francis II (French king) died after they had lived for a year. She had to return to Scotland. Those who considered the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn to have been unlawful named her as queen of England and she participated in a number of plots aiming at this. Then she made enemies both among her nobles and protestants and her 2 unsuccessful marriages made the situation more difficult.

14. Crown and Parliament. The Civil War of 1642-1646. Republican Britain.

I))

In English history the struggle between King and Parliament went back to the 12^th century. The attempts of the Tudors were aimed at making the government of England 'a personal monarchy' of the continental type.

James I (1566-1625) inherited the kingdom at the age of 37, in 1603. He installed himself as rapidly as possible, and in the 22 years of his English reign, made only one short return to Scotland. He did want to form a united kingdom, but Parliament saw little prospect benefit in this union, and believed that the Union of the Crowns ended the old threat from the north.

James's court was large and ceremonious. The king was well-educated and intelligent, and sustained cultural tradition of the Elizabethan age. He wrote a book, 'The Gift of Kingship', in which he expressed his views on the government of the country. James's view was that a king ruled by divine right, and that to oppose his will was a sin in God's eyes as well as offence against the state. The Parliament could hardly fit into this scheme. The Parliament developed a growing range of interest, authority and self-confidence, as with the growth of wealth, the economy of England became one of the most advanced and complex in Europe. James's relations with Parliament worsened after the Gunpowder Plot, which made him suspicious and drove closer to his advisors and favorites.

The Gunpowder Plot was the Catholic conspiracy to blow up James I and his Parliament at the Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. The conspirators stored 35 barrels of gunpowder directly beneath the House of Lords. Through a letter of warning written to one of the peers, the plot was discovered. The originator was Robert Catesby, who took into his confidence his cousin Thomas Winter, and his friends Thomas Percy, John Wright and Guy Fawkes. Fawkes was arrested in the cellar under the Palace of Westminster, ready to fire a store of explosives. He was examined under torture on the rack, confessed his own guilt and revealed the names of his associated, nearly all of whom were killed during the arrest or hanged along with Fawkes on 31 January 1606. In general, the reign of James I saw the growth of political stability and economy. Ulster ended its rebellion against the crown and accepted Protestant settlers. James invited Dutch experts for the work on reclamation of swampy land. Their dykes and ditches began to turn East Anglia into arable land. Some extreme Protestants, dissatisfied with religious attitudes, after the initial move to Protestant Holland, set off for the young colonies in America, on a ship Mayflower, in 1620.

In the reign of Charles I (1625-49) the struggle between Crown and Parliament reached its climax. Charles I was the second son of James I. He was born on November 19, 1600, in Scotland. He was educated by a Scottish Presbyterian tutor, mastered Latin and Greek and showed abilities in modern languages. Charles became the Prince of Wales in 1616, after his elder brother Henry had died in 1612. On March 27, 1625 he ascended the throne and was crowned on February 2, 1626. Like his father, Charles believed in the Divine Right of Kings. He was full of desire to strengthen his power and needed money for this purpose and on wars. England was involved in a war with Spain, and later Charles declared war on France. Neither war succeeded and the financial situation was difficult. When Charles asked Parliament for money, the latter demanded impeachment of the king's main advisor, the Duke of Buckingham. Charles dissolved the body in 1626 but was forced to call it again in 1628, because it was usual for Parliament to vote the sovereign money for life in the form of customs and duties. Nevertheless, in addition Charles began to set his own taxes and duties, which Parliament considered to be illegal.

In 1628 the Parliament, discontent with the monarch's policy, compelled the King to sign the Petition of Right, which stated that the king should govern according to law, and not according to his own arbitrary whim. Soon after Buckingham was assassinated by a Puritan fanatic, and this altered Charles's policies. Charles blamed Buckingham's death on the attacks in Parliament, where there were heated debates against the king and his favorite's taxation and church policies.

Having granted the Petition of Right, Charles I soon forgot about its existence and continued with his old arbitrary practices. When Parliament protested against these actions Charles I dissolved Parliament and imprisoned its leaders. There was no Parliament in the country for the next 11 years. These were the years of his personal rule. He resorted to compulsory loans and fines, sold monopolies, imposed heavy customs, duties and fees. One of the taxes became 'ship money' - a direct payment intended to develop the royal navy.

The persecution of the Puritans in England deteriorated the whole explosive situation. The Puritan movement was a further development of the Reformation. The Puritans regarded the reformation of the church in England as incomplete; they wanted more change. They considered that church discipline should be more rigid and that all people should lead a more modest life. Many of the Puritans wished to replace the Anglican Church by a Presbyterian one on the model of the Scotch Kirk, which was modest in its service and means, and strict in its rules and teaching. Puritanism, arising as a purely religious movement, later developed into a mighty political force of the 17^th century expressing the interests

of the bourgeoisie.

The situation was aggravated in connection with the events in Scotland. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to enforce the Anglican Church system in Scotland. As a result, the Scotch rebelled.

In 1639 Charles I attacked Scotland, and badly needed money on the war. Under such circumstances Charles was forced to summon Parliament the same year. The Short Parliament, which met in April, refused to grant money until grievances were redressed, and was dissolved. Then the Scottish forces invaded northern England and pushed the Kings army back. The king called Parliament again. This Parliament came to be known as the Long Parliament for it sat for 13 years and voted its own dissolution in 1653. The Long Parliament abolished many of the illegal taxes, which had been introduced by Charles I. It brought to trial the king's chief ministers, who had helped him to reign for so long without Parliament. It also issued the Bill that provided for a meeting of Parliament at least once in three years, whether the king summoned it or no.

II))

At first Charles I carried on negotiations with Parliament, but in August 1642 he tried to arrest 6 parliamentary leaders and failed. Charles, confident that he had support among those who felt that Parliament was becoming too radical, fled from London to Nottingham and declared war on Parliament. The Civil war that followed was long and obstinate. The King was holding Oxford, the Parliament -London. Success swayed from side to side. Most people both in the country and in towns didn't want to take any side. In fact, no more than 10% of the population became involved. In Parliament itself most of the House of Lords and a few in the House of Commons supported Charles. The Royalists, known as 'Cavaliers', controlled most of the north and west. The Parliament controlled East Anglia and the southeast, including London. At first its army consisted of armed groups of London apprentices. Their short hair gave the Parliamentary soldiers their popular name of 'Roundheads'. Parliament was supported by the navy, by most of the merchants and by the population of London. It therefore controlled the most important national and international sources of wealth.

The Royalists, on the other hand, had no way of raising money. By 1645 the Royalist army was unpaid, and as a result soldiers either ran away or stole from local villages and farms. In the end they lost their courage for the fight against the Parliamentarians, and at Naseby ['neizbi] in June 1645 the Royalist army was finally defeated. In May 1646 Charles surrendered at Newark, Nottinghamshire, to the Scots, who handed him over to Parliament in January 1647. In November Charles escaped, leading another short war in 1648, was recaptured and kept at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight. Charles continued to encourage rebellion against Parliament even from there. A Scottish invasion followed, that was suppressed by Oliver Cromwell. The Parliamentarian leaders, after 4 years of hesitation, decided to execute the King. That was done on ]anuary 31,1649. The Parliamentarian army was commanded by several MPs. One of them was an East Anglia gentleman farmer named Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). He came from a wealthy and influential family, but his own income was rather modest. He has to support a large family: his old mother, wife and eight children. He made a living by farming and collecting rents, and played some role in local administration. The Civil war raised Cromwell to power. At the beginning of the war, he was a captain in charge of a small body of mounted troops; in 1643 he was promoted to colonel and given command of his own cavalry regiment. He was successful in some sieges and small battles against royalist. At the end of the year he was appointed second in command of the Eastern Association Army and received the rank of lieutenant general. He had created a mew model' army, in which, instead of country people or gentry, Cromwell invited educated men who were eager to fight for their beliefs. His cavalry set the tone for the whole army. Under their influence the infantry gradually acquired determination and purpose, which welded the whole army into a first-rate fighting machine and a formidable political instrument. Cromwell played a major role in the victory at Naseby: suppressed the rebellion in South Wales and defeated a Scottish Royalist Army at Preston. After the execution of Charles I, Cromwell led military campaigns in Ireland and Scotland, in order to establish English control over them. The culmination of his military career was the victory over another Scottish Royalist army of invasion at Worcester in September 1651. Then Cromwell was appointed lord general (commander-in-chief) of all parliamentary forces. His military success and influence over the army gave him substantial political power.

III))

Gradually, Cromwell became more and more influential in Parliament and hardened his position towards his opponents in the House of Commons. After the so-called Pride's Purge (the removal of about 100 Royalists and Presbyterians from Parliament by a detachment of soldiers led by Thomas Pride), which Cromwell himself didn't take part in; the remaining part of only 53 members formed the Rump Parliament. It renamed the government of England as the Commonwealth (1649-1653), abolishing the monarchy and the House of Lords. England was declared a republic. In July 1653 Cromwell replaced the Rump Parliament with the 15-member Barebone's Parliament, which was also dissolved in December. On 16 December 1653 Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, under the authority of a constitution entitled the Instrument of Government, which had been drawn up by a group of army officers.

So, from 1649 till 1660 Britain was a republic, the Commonwealth of England. It was not a success. Cromwell and his followers created a government far more severe than Charles' had been. The army remained the most powerful force in the country. Continuous disagreement between the army and the Parliament sustained tension and resulted in Parliament dissolution in 1653.

For almost 5 years until his death on 3 September 1658, Cromwell alone governed Britain with far greater powers than king had had. His efforts to govern the country through the army were extremely unpopular. Nevertheless, Cromwell's government, the Protectorate, was able to fulfill some of his goals: strengthened England's navy, brought Scotland and Ireland under English control, and aided the development of English colonies in Asia and North America. Other measures, i.e. setting limits to the freedom of the press and adopting rigid moral standards caused dissatisfaction in the society. For example, people were forbidden to celebrate Christmas and Easter, or to play games on Sunday.

The Commonwealth rested on the support of two groups, the merchants and the lower middle class, which still formed only a small minority of the total population. The last years of the Commonwealth were marked by a steady loss of mass support, an increasingly precarious balance of the generals and the army, only held together by the prestige of Cromwell himself. In 1657, Parliament offered Cromwell the title of king, but he refused it.

The end of the Republic coincided with a long period of famine from 1658 to 1661. When Cromwell died in 1658 the Protectorate collapsed. Cromwell had hoped that his son would take over, but Richard Cromwell was not a strong leader, and resigned the office on May 25, 1659. The army commanders soon started to quarrel among themselves, and in 1660 one army group marched to London, arranged for elections to Parliament, which served as a prelude to the Restoration of the monarchy. The Parliament invited Prince Charles, the son of Charles I, who had lived in France, to return and to rule his kingdom. The Republic was over, and the period of Restoration started

IV))

The Restoration. Prince Charles, the eldest surviving son of Charles I, was born on 29 May 1630, and ascended the throne on 30 January 1649, in exile in France by right. He began negotiations with Scotland to lead any army against Cromwell. He was crowned King of Scots in 1651, and supplied with an Ill-prepared army, which was defeated at Worcester. The next 9 years Charles spent in France.

In his Declaration of Breda (4 April, 1660), Prince Charles promised stability of property, religious toleration and pardons for all except those directly concerned with his father's execution. Charles was restored on May 29. 1660. crowned on April 23, 1661. and ruled until 1685. His ministers were chiefly the old Royalists, who had served him during his exile. He was 30 at that time, fun loving, easy-going; his subjects called him the Merry Monarch. He enjoyed horse racing, gambling, a good company, the theatre and beautiful women. Under his charter, in 1663 the Drury Lane Theatre was open, the oldest English theatre still in use.

During his 25-year reign the English went as far in the direction of amusement as the Puritans had gone in the direction of austerity. For all his gaiety, Charles was clever and intelligent, with common sense and wit, though lazy and cynical. The Restoration did not mean a return to the old order. The Puritan Revolution had limited the English monarchy, but kings still had considerable authority. In fact, King and Parliament shared power.

Charles made no claims to divine right, which his father had insisted on. He knew that he reigned by permission of the landlords and merchants and could be dismissed as easily as he had been invited to take the throne. Nevertheless, conflicts continued during the Restoration. Charles II favoured the Roman Catholic religion and wanted to strengthen royal power. Mindful of his father's fate, he moved cautiously so as not to provoke Parliament. The issues of religion and royal despotism repeatedly emerged during this reign.

In foreign policies, Charles II had to lead wars with the Dutch under the pressure of Parliament, preoccupied with naval and commercial rivalries. The war, started in 1665, was unsuccessful for the English, and in 1667 a peace was concluded which left the position much as it had been before the war. In May 1670, Charles signed a treaty with France at Dover, in order to join forces against the Dutch. In the secret clause of this treaty he promised to convert himself Catholic; the French would pay subsidies to him and in the case of victory to award him Dutch ports. To help English Catholics Charles II published a Declaration of Indulgence, which caused dissatisfaction of Parliament. Charles had to withdraw this declaration and to agree to a Test Act drawn up by Parliament, which excluded Roman Catholics from all offices.

The controversy had two important results. One was the passage in 1679 of the Habeas ['heibies] Corpus Act (Latin for 'you have the body'), a safeguard against arbitrary imprisonment. Anyone who believed himself to be unjustly imprisoned could obtain a writ [rit] (предписание судебных органов), which compelled the government to explain why the prisoner was being held. Another consequence was the beginning of modern political parties. The Whig party, which represented the middle class and the upper nobility, supported Parliament. The Tory party, representing the lesser nobility and the gentry, supported the King. Since Charles II had no legitimate heirs, the issue between Whigs and Tories was reduced to the question of who would succeed Charles on the throne. The legitimate successor was Charles' brother James, an ardent Roman Catholic and proponent of divine right. Charles resisted the attempts of Parliament to exclude James from the succession. He dissolved Parliaments in 1679 and in 1680, and in 1981 under military pressure and with the support of the Tories, crashed the Whigs opposition in the new Parliament. Charles himself was received into the Roman Catholic Church just before his death, on February 1685. When Charles died, James became king.

15. Glorious (Bloodless) Revolution of 1688

James II, intent on reasserting his own authority and that of the Roman Catholic Church, soon antagonized almost everyone. His open contempt for Parliament and his support of the Church of Rome alarmed even the Tories. His opponents were somewhat reassured by the fact that he was growing old. They were also aware that after his death the throne would pass to his two daughters by his first wife, who were Protestants. But in 1688 the king's second wife gave birth to a son, creating thus a possibility of a long line of Roman Catholic monarchs. Tories then joined with Whigs in offering the crown to James' elder daughter, Mary, who had married William III of Orange, the ruler of the Dutch and a stanch Protestant. In November of 1688, William and Mary landed in England at the head of a large army. James could offer little resistance, because his army commanders did not support him. He fled to France, and William and Mary were proclaimed the new rulers of England and Scotland. This reassertion of parliamentary authority is known as the Glorious or Bloodless Revolution of 1688. In order to safeguard the results of the Glorious Revolution, Parliament undertook important measures, passing several bills, which are jointly called the Revolution Settlement. The Bill of Right of 1689 guaranteed freedom of speech in Parliament, provided for frequent meetings of that body, and forbade the king to interfere with the elections of its members. Other clauses guaranteed the right of the people to petition the government, forbade excessive bail, and protected the nation from the illegal use of the army.

Another part of the Revolution Settlement, also passed in 1689, was the Toleration Act, which granted religious freedom to various Protestant groups, although those who were not members of the Anglican Church could not hold public office. A third bill, the Act of Settlement of 1691, provided that no Roman Catholic could be ruler of England. By making the king subordinate to Parliament, the Glorious Revolution was a victory for the principles of parliamentary government and the rule of law. it was also a means of protection against tyranny ['tir ni]. After 1688, government in England was thought of as a sort of contract between king and people, with each having recognized responsibilities and obligations.

So, the main result of the Glorious Revolution was the establishment of a constitutional monarchy - that is. a democratic nation with a royal head.

16. Industrial Revolution

Several influences came together at the same time to Britain’s industry: money, labour, a greater demand for goods, new power, and better transport.

Increased food production made it possible to feed large populations in the new towns. These populations were made up of the people who had lost their land through enclosures and were looking for work. They now needed to buy things they had never needed before. This created an opportunity to make and sell more goods than ever before. The same landless people who needed these things also became the workers who made them.

By the early eighteenth century simple machines had already been invented for basic jobs. So that “mass production” became possible for the first time. Each machine carried out one simple idea of “division of labour” among workers.

By the 1740s the main problem holding back industrial growth was fuel. But at this time the use of coal was perfected, and this made Britain the leading iron producer in Europe. Increased iron production made it possible to manunufacture new machinery for other industries.

John Wilkinson built the largest ironworks in the country. He built the world’s first iron bridge, over the River Severn, in 1779. He saw the first iron boats made. He built an iron chapel for the new Methodist religious sect.

In 1769 James Watt developed a new type of steam engine and in 1781 produced an engine with a turning motion, made of iron and steel. It was a vital development because people were now no longer dependent on natural power.

A series of remarkable textile inventions soon caused England to become a world leader in producing cotton goods. In 1764 a spinning machine was invented which could do the work of several hand spinners. In 1769 was patented Richard Arkwright’s waterframe. Samuel Crompton’s mule (1779) combined the spinning machine and the waterframe. In 1785 Cartwright invented a power loom that made weaving a speedy operation.

The cost of goods was made cheaper than ever by improved transport during the eighteenth century. New waterways were dug between towns. Roads, still used mainly by people rather than goods, were also improved during the century. York, Manchester and Exeter were three days’ travel from London in the 1720s, but by the 1780s they could be reached in little over twenty-four hours.

Soon Britain was not only exporting cloth to Europe. It was also importing raw cotton from its colonies and exporting finished cotton cloth to sell to those same colonies.

The social effects of the industrial revolution were enormous. Workers tried to join together to protect themselves against powerful employers. They wanted fair wages and reasonable conditions in which to work. In 1799 they started to break up the machinery which had put them out of work. The government supported the factory owners, and made the breaking of machinery punishable by death. The government was afraid of a revolution like the one in France.