British Politics: the quest for political stability - conflict between king and parliament (again)

the conflicts between king and parliament 1665 - 1681

• the Restoration Settlement didn’t solve the problems that had led to war and revolution

• there was contradictions created with the piecemeal process of settling immediate issues

• Charles believed in divine right - he claimed to be returning to his 12th year of reign

• he had actually been recalled by a parliament and his income was given to him by parliament

• he had shown his desire for a tolerant church but was denied this by an act of parliament

• conflict arose, and so did suspicions that the king had a secret agenda surrounding Catholicism

Renewed Suspicions

• the king attempted to suspend the Act of Uniformity in 1662 and some provide religious toleration

• The benefits would have been felt by dissenters and Latitudinarians, but Charles’s motivations would have centred around the ease of English Catholics and the divisions in Ireland and Scotland

• By 1665 there were indications that Charles’s policies were intended to favour religious toleration.

Second Anglo-Dutch war

• Given his French Catholic Mother and his years in Catholic France it isn’t surprising that Charles’s foreign policy was pro-French

• in 1665 he embarked on the second Anglo-Dutch war which was justified by commercial rivalry but also designed to aid Louis 14th in his campaign to destroy the Protestant Dutch Republic and extend French territory

• the war was poorly managed - the leading exponent James Duke of York was Lord High Admiral and wanted the war to free the Crown of its financial dependence on parliaments

• The Dutch managed to break the chain blocking the Medway River and destroy the English ships

The Great Fire and the Great Plague

• This humiliation by the Dutch was increased by the outbreak of the Great Plague in 1665 and then the Great Fire the next year

• Rumours sparked that the Plague was the work of Catholic advisers to the king, and that the fire had been started by Papists plotting to seize power

• Charles was able to deflect some criticism by blaming Edward Hyde who was Earl of Clarendon

• He replaced Clarendon in 1667 with a group of advisers called the Cabal - which included 2 Catholics

• James announced his conversion to Catholicism in 1668 and when Charles signed a treaty in Dover with the French to continue war with the Dutch, Charles’s Catholic leanings were obvious

• There was a secret clause committing Charles to announce his own conversion to Catholicism at an appropriate time and that a French subsidy that accompanied the Treaty was designed to free the king from dependence on Parliament

Confirmed Suspicions

• The Declaration of Independence was a second attempt to establish religious toleration

• He had attempted this in 1662 but a strongly Anglican government had forced him to withdraw it

• Hostility from Purtian dissenters had declined there were problems with the Declaration

• 1 - it included Catholics which many suspected to be its main purpose

• 2 - it included a claim that the monarch’s powers included the right to suspend operation with the law. it involved the suspension of the law for a whole selection of the nation on a permanent basis and therefore challenged law itself

• as long as parliament wasn’t in session the Indulgence could be maintained but by 1673 financial problems caused Charles to recall parliament

Confirmed Suspicions 2

• In 1672 Charles found himself unable to pay his debts so he had suspended repayments to his creditors in what became known as the Stop of the Exchequer

• Obliged by the Treaty of Dover to begin the Third Anglo-Dutch war, he had to ask for parliamentary grants

• The price demanded in the Commons was the withdrawal of the Indulgence

• an attempt to provide toleration for Protestants passed the Commons in March but it was blocked by the Lords and the combined opposition of the king and bishops

• Charles couldn’t stop the passing of a Test Act which forced holders of public office to deny Catholic doctrines and led immediately to the resignation of Lord Treasurer Clifford and Charles’ brother James as Lord Admiral

Confirmed Suspicions 3

• Charles was able to recognise when he had overstepped his powers

• he accepted political reality by appointing as Treasurer Thomas Osborne Earl of Danby, whose views were Anglican

• Danby pursued a foreign policy that favoured the Dutch-sealed by a marriage in 1677 between Mary and William of Orange

• this offended a number of people - the Earl of Shaftesbury, who had a genuine desire for toleration of dissenters. An orthodox Anglican like Danby threatened this toleration as he only favoured strict conformity

• Shaftesbury’s dissolution with Charles forced him to gather like-minded allies and form an opposition, which became known as the Whigs

• as long as Danby could rely on the support of the king and dispense royal patronage, his position would remain secure

The Popish Plot

• the religious fears that Charles (and James) had caused re-emerged in the Popish Plot.

• In August 1678, the Anglican priest Titus Oates, who had been educated in a Jesuit school in France, approached the London magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, with a story of a plot organised by the Jesuits and the French to murder Charles and replaced him with his Catholic brother

• the story lacked credibility and so did Oates’ character, but soon afterwards Godfrey was found dead in a London park and the plot seemed believable

• Investigations revealed correspondence written by Edward Coleman, a former employee of the Duke of York, to Jesuit and French agents, seemingly confirming Oates’ story

• both the public and parliament accepted Oates’ story

• Oates was able to accuse whoever he chose, until one day the accusations went too far and doubts emerged

• by then, the rumours had sparked to a full-scale political crisis when the opposition in parliament attempted to pass a law excluding James from the succession

The Exclusion Crisis 1

• the Popish Plot provided a perfect opportunity to challenge Danby’s power and influence

• his methods of parliamentary management had included a level of bribery and corruption, funded by French subsidies from France

• Charles tried to save him by dissolving the Cavalier Parliament in Jan 1679

• this failed as new elections produced an anti-Danby majority

• MPs who favoured reform at the expense of the crown were known as Whigs

• they labelled their High Church enemies Tories

The Exclusion Crisis 2

• the new parliament forced Charles to appoint a new Privy Council, chosen by parliament

• the next step was to introduce a bill to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from the throne and replace him with Charles’ illegitimate, but Protestant son, the Duke of Monmouth

• It was likely that if Charles died, James would become king

• If he became king he would adopt pro-Catholic policies and may be prepared to impose them by force

• the anti-Catholic feeling was further soured with Louis XIV, who had secured absolute power in France and used it to persecute French protestants

• there was no reason to believe that James would behave differently

• as the childless Charles II and his wife grew older, this fear sharpened

The Exclusion Crisis 3

• for Charles, the attempt to exclude his brother from succession was a step too far, and he was determined to resist

• he wouldn’t tolerate a blatant attack on the hereditary divine right monarchy and he set out to defeat it

• this did show that Charles was willing to be determined in his defence of the principles of divine right - he didn’t strive for a lack of confrontation

The Stages of the Exclusion Crisis

1. In 1679, the first Exclusion bill had passed the Commons but was prevented from going to the Lords when Charles dissolved parliament

2. in 1680, a new parliament presented another bill, which was defeated in the Lords by heavy pressure from the king - including personal attendance at debates. He therefore prevented Whig triumph by using his powers of delay and by 1680 anti-Popish hysteria that had encouraged uncommitted MPs to support the Whigs was subsiding. 35 Catholics had been tried and executed or fled into exile, but Oates was running out of credible victims

3. Charles had made a secret agreement with Louis XIV in 1675. It stated that if parliament showed hostility towards France, Charles would suspend it. When he first suspended parliament in 1675, the first payment of £100,000 reached Charles, making him financially independent. He also decreed that the 1681 parliament should meet in Oxford away from the Whig stronghold of London and any possible interventions by the London mob. When the Whigs passed yet another Exclusion bill, he dissolved Parliament and ordered the arrest of Shaftesbury for treason.