ENGLAND 



ENGLAND 



retain her hold upon Calais, which 

 was retaken by the French in 

 1558, leaving her without a footing 

 on the Continent for the first time 

 since '1066. 



Elizabeth in 1558 found the 

 country in evil case indeed, but 

 with all the elements for a glorious 

 recuperation. An unfailing judge- 

 ment in the selection of counsellors 

 and instruments, a supreme confi- 

 dence in the spirit of the nation 

 with which she identified herself, a 

 complete freedom from conscien- 

 tious scruples, an intuitive percep- 

 tion of the weaknesses of her 

 enemies, a perfect mastery of stage 

 effects, united with an indomitable 

 determination to raise England to 

 the position of the first power in 

 the world, made her the most bril- 

 liantly successful of all English 

 monarchs. The national finances 

 were reorganized with a rigid 

 economy which ensured full value 

 for every penny spent. 



The question of religion was 

 taken in hand, on the principle of 

 permitting the widest possible lati- 

 tude of opinion compatible with 

 uniformity in practice, while ex- 

 plicitly requiring the subordination 

 of all authority to that of the state, 

 and rejecting any compromise 

 which implicitly attributed autho- 

 rity to the pope. The enter- 

 prise of the seamen who set at 

 naught the Spanish claims to a 

 monopoly of the New World was 

 unofficially encouraged. Nearly 

 thirty years passed before that 

 open rupture with Spain came, but 

 by that time England was ready, 

 and there came the annihilation of 

 the Spanish Armada, in the fight 

 of July 20-August 2, 1588. 



Period of General Prosperity 



A regular government, pursuing 

 a popular policy with conspicuous 

 success and with increasing stabil- 

 ity, free from every kind of un- 

 settling capricious ness, encouraged 

 energy and enterprise in every 

 direction. The regulation of trading 

 and apprenticeship, the multipli- 

 cation of chartered mercantile 

 companies, the gradual readjust- 

 ment of the rural population to the 

 agrarian upheaval of the first half 

 of the century, and the judicious 

 experiments which culminated in 

 the poor law of 1601, established a 

 general prosperity. The queen 

 ruled, but always with the express 

 assent of her people. 



Elizabeth was the last of the off- 

 spring of Henry VIII. ,She was suc- 

 ceeded therefore by the legitimate 

 heir, James VI of Scotland, the 

 great-grandson of Henry's elder 

 sister Margaret. James I (1603-25) 

 came to the throne of England with 

 a title less disputable than that of 

 any monarch since Richard II, 



except Henry VIII and Edward 

 VI. By the peculiar cunning which 

 he called kingcraft, he had already 

 acquired for the crown in Scotland 

 a control over the government 

 enjoyed by none of his ancestors 

 since Robert Bruce. James claimed 

 and sometimes tried to exercise the 

 power of overriding the law by 

 divine right ; but a wholesome fear 

 of arbitrament by battle always 

 kept him from overstepping the 

 limits of English endurance. He 

 wrought the country up to a 

 high pitch of irritation, destroying 

 utterly the basis of mutual good- 

 will between the crown and the 

 people, which had in fact been 

 the basis of the apparently despotic 

 authority of the Tudors. 



Charles's Struggle with Parliament 



Charles I (1625-49) reaped the 

 bitter fruits of his father's theories. 

 Elizabeth's parliaments loved her 

 and bore with her caprices. The 

 parliaments of the Stuarts did not 

 love them at all, and were only too 

 ready to discover grounds for 

 quarrelling with the monarch. 

 Charles gave them ground enough 

 by entrusting the direction of 

 policy to his favourite, George 

 Villiers, duke of Buckingham, by 

 standing on what he regarded as 

 his legal rights of raising revenue 

 without sanction of parliament, by 

 overriding the law in the punish- 

 ment of recalcitrants, and by 

 repressing all latitude of religious 

 doctrine and observance ; enforcing 

 his will through the arbitrary 

 powers of the courts of Star 

 Chamber and High Commission. 



Charles's parliament, on the 

 other hand, refused supplies until 

 grievances should be removed, 

 asserted the novel claim to a right 

 to the control of religious affairs, 

 and in 1628 compelled the king to 

 accept the Petition of Right, which 

 unfortunately failed of its precise 

 purpose the accurate definition 

 of the limits of the royal preroga- 

 tive. Eleven years of arbitrary 

 rule without parliament were 

 ended in 1640 by the arming of 

 Scotland an independent king- 

 dom to whose king accident had 

 also given the crown of the neigh- 

 bouring kingdom of England. Scot- 

 land found the king's rule too 

 arbitrary ; the king could not sup- 

 press his Scottish subjects without 

 the aid of English arms ; all his ex- 

 pedients had not provided him 

 with the money for an army, and 

 he was obliged to summon the 

 English parliament, and then to 

 dissolve it, and summon it anew. 



The Long Parliament, instead of 

 aiding him against the Scots, 

 attainted and beheaded Strafford, 

 impeached Laud, and proceeded 

 to force the king to accept a 



series of enactments abolishing the 

 arbitrary courts, and explicitly 

 depriving him of the disputed 

 prerogatives. A coup d'etat, the 

 attempted arrest of five members 

 on Jan. 4, 1642, failed completely; 

 the king left London, and after 

 several months of futile negotia- 

 tion, the great Civil War opened in 

 August, 1642. 



The struggle was conducted with 

 a decency and humanity which offer 

 a pleasing contrast to the horrors of 

 the Thirty Years' War, then raging 

 on the Continent. After various 

 vicissitudes, the army of the parlia- 

 ment was reorganized by Oliver 

 Cromwell and won the decisive vic- 

 tory of Naseby on June 14, 1645. 

 Charles surrendered to the Scots, 

 who had associated themselves with 

 the cause of parliament, in May, 

 1646, was by them handed over to 

 the parliament in Feb., 1647. and j 

 was carried off into the custody of j 

 the army on June 3. From his con- j 

 finement he intrigued with his own j 

 supporters and negotiated with ; 

 three separate groups the chiefs 

 of the parliament, the chiefs of the 

 army, and the Scots each of 

 whom now had different objects in 

 view. The king's attempt to re- | 

 cover his ascendancy by playing ; 

 them off against each other failed j 

 disastrously. His own attempt to 

 escape to France in November, 

 cavalier insurrections, and a Scots 

 invasion in 1648, threw the con- 

 trol into the hands of the victor- 

 ious army, and determined its 

 chiefs that the king's death was 

 the necessary condition for the 

 restoration of a stable government. 

 An arbitrary court condemned him 

 to death and he was executed on 

 Jan. 30, 1649. 



The Commonwealth 



England was now proclaimed a 

 commonwealth or republic. The 

 Scots recalled the prince who was de 

 jure Charles II, but the English 

 Commonwealth could not afford to 

 have the claimant to the throne 

 of England seated on the throne 

 of Scotland. A war with the Scots 

 followed and culminated in Crom- 

 well's crowning victory at Worces- 

 ter (Sept. 3, 1651), but Charles II 

 made liis escape from the country. 

 The remnant or rump of the parlia- 

 ment, which had constituted itself 

 the sovereign body by its own 

 authority, sought to transform it- 

 self into a permanent oligarchy, 

 with the result that it was forcibly , 

 ejected by Cromwell in April, 1653 ; \ 

 and from that time Cromwell, who ! 

 was made lord protector by the j 

 army in December, was virtually i 

 the absolute ruler of England. The 

 former champion of parliamentary 

 government found all attempts 

 to work in harmony with the 



