Stuart Britain: EVENTS AND DATES

Rump votes to abolish Monarchy

February 1649

Engagement Act (declare loyalty to Commonwealth) + Treason Act

1650

Blasphemy Act - suppress Quakers

1650

Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland

1649-1650

Cromwell to the Irish clergy ‘you are part of the Antichrist’

1650

Distance grows between Army and Rump

Hale Commission - reforms not implemented due to army resistance to Rump’s conservatism

1652

Cromwell urges Rump to reform after victory at Dunbar —> retreats from moderate opinion

1650

Cromwell forcibly dissolves Rump to stop it from electing a potentially even more conservative parliament

1653

Nominated Assembly’s controversial reforms (abolishing Chancery and lay patronage) alienate moderates like Cromwell = military coup to establish Cromwell as Lord Protector

1653

The Instrument of Government —> ‘healing and settling’ + Godly rule

1653

How many ordinances enacted before First Protectorate called?

83 — Republicans attacked Cromwell for this, calling him an alternative monarch

Biddle’s Case and Nayner’s case —> MPs did not support Godly Reformation

1654 and 1656

Political Nation’s opposition to Rule of Major Generals

1. local government

2. 1655 Decimation tax

3. NMA = religious radicalism

Militia Bill —> enforce the Decimation tax by law (opposition = abandoned)

1657

Humble Petition and Advice

1657

Cromwell’s death

1658

Charles enters London and is affirmed the most ‘potent and undoubted King’

1660

Declaration of Breda —> ‘liberty to tender consciences’

1660

Act for the Safety and Preservation of his Majesty’s Person and Government

1661 - cancelled all ordinances that hadn’t received royal assent

Triennial Act rephrased ‘at least’ every three years

1662

Licensing Act = mass petitioning banned = King’s position strengthened

1662

New Militia Bill gives King power to control armed forces

1661

Earl of Clarendon resigns over Charles’ personal vendetta = Charles power over PN who did not corroborate 17 articles of treason

1667

Dependence on Parliament (Charles II)

1665: royal income = 820000
1666: royal income = 647000

1666: Great Fire of London = urgent —> 395 acres of land
Hearth Tax 1662 and War did not help finances

Charles prioritised short-term aims

Stop the Exchequer 1672

Charles’ financial aims compromised religious aims

1668 alliance with Louis for money = had to declare his Catholicism
1673 withdrew the Declaration of Indulgence and Test Acts to secure more funds

Charles’ campaign against Quakers and Millenarians AFTER parliament had limited his ‘liberty of tender consciences’

Quaker Act 1662
= George Fox declares Pacifism

Thomas Harrison arrested under ‘regicide’ when he was ACC just Millenarian
- Lambert and Henry Vane also arrested —> NOT regicide but Charles starved the jury to make them pass a judgement against them

Threat of arbitray government under Charles II

1672 Declaration of Indulgence to suspend penal laws —> 1673 Commons vote said only Parliament could suspend another KING’s laws

Earl of Danby seen as absolute

1675 Test Bill — opposition by Shaftesbury and Arlington = rejected
would have made it illegal to take up arms against the Church and the State

Popish Plot - Titus Oates and Israel Tonge

1678

Edward Coleman’s correspondence revealed (James + Pope + French) = strengthened calls for Exclusion

1678

Charles has a large group to exploit after Exclusion Bill passes for the first time

1679

207-128

Charles remodels the Privy Council

1679

Exclusion Bill is defeated due to Charles’ presence in the Lords

1680

Titus Oates arrested

1684

Licensing Act 1662 expires = less censorship for Exclusionists

1679

Abhorrence movement

1682

Roger L’Estrange - 64,000 in circulation by

1679

Oxford Parliament, where only 20 people were for the Exclusion bill

1681

Another Secret Treaty with Louis

1681 = funds for every year 115000

Uprisings against James suppressed

1685
- Earl of Argyll = appted Catholics to positions of power
- Monmouth rebellion = executed at Battle of Sedgemoor and 800 sent to West Indies as slaves in trials known as the Bloody Assizes

Northern uprising and Conventicle Act

1663 and 1664 — did not replace in 1668 but in 1669

Dutch war = Five Mile Act

1662

Godden vs Hale - removal of 6 judges

1686

James II’s shift towards absolutism

Declaration to Preachers 1686 — forbade attacks on the Catholic Church by MPs

James II appoints 90 Catholics to his army

1685
= constitutional clash with Parliament — only they could exempt Catholics from the Test Acts
heightened by Edict of Nantes being revoked 1685

Reissue of Declaration of Indulgence — fear of Catholic tyranny grew

1688

James orders Declaration of Indulgence to be read from pulpits = Case of Seven Bishops (judges are not in favour of James)

1688

Date of

Jacobite risings wanting to reinstate JAMES II = oath than William and Mary were the lawful and rightful heirs — 20 Peers 90 MPs resisted

1689

Abjuration Act = James’ son has no claim to the throne = shows hate for catholics

1702

Act of Settlement

1701

Treaty of Ryswick ends Nine Years War and Junto Whigs influence = Tories in power

1697

Convocation bill fails, Toleration Act is passed

1689

Church in Danger = popularised due to expiration of Licensing Act

1695

Battle of the Boyne

1690 - victory for William

The Treason Trial Bill and the Judges Bill - limited king’s legal power

1691

Bill of Rights - excluded Catholics from throne

1689