The Century of Revolution: Civil War and the Glorious Revolution

So far, we have watched the Tudor dynasty’s Reformation and its leap to the sea. Yet the force swelling outward had left new tinder inside the nation. How far does the king’s authority reach? How far may Parliament have its say over taxation and politics? When the Tudor dynasty drew its curtain and the kings of the new Stuart dynasty were received, this question at last collided head-on. In the seventeenth century, the island experienced dizzying swings: the conflict between king and Parliament flared into civil war, the execution of the king, a republic, and then the restoration of the monarchy. What it arrived at in the end was the Glorious Revolution, which set the shape of the nation while avoiding bloodshed. In this chapter, we trace the century-long chain of revolution neutrally, through both its light and its shadow.

The Clash of King and Parliament: From Civil War to the King’s Execution

The kings of the Stuart dynasty are said to have leaned toward the idea that the king’s power derives from God and is not bound by Parliament (the divine right of kings). Charles I (1600-1649) in particular came into sharp conflict with Parliament over taxation without its consent and over religious policy. On Parliament’s side, the sense, rooted since Magna Carta, that taxation and governance required their consent had struck deep roots. The gulf between the two could not be bridged, and at last, in 1642, the conflict developed into armed clash: civil war. This is regarded as the beginning of the upheaval called the Puritan Revolution.

In the fighting that divided into Parliamentarians and Royalists, the one who came to the fore was Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Leading a disciplined army, he is said to have defeated the Royalists and led the Parliamentarians to victory. Then, in 1649, the captured Charles I was put on trial and executed. To try a king and cut off his head was a shock without precedent in the Europe of that time, and it made those who held the king’s authority absolute tremble. In the same year, England proclaimed the establishment of a republic without a king (the Commonwealth of England).

The Failure of the Republic and the Restoration of the Monarchy

The republic, having lost its king, did not, however, bring stability. Cromwell took the position of Lord Protector and seized strong power. His rule, while valuing discipline and order, is said to have gradually taken on the coloring of military dictatorship. His relationship with Parliament soured, and it is also related that strict religious discipline pressed hard upon people’s lives.

Above all, the military action Cromwell carried out in Ireland is remembered as something brutal. The event in which many lives were lost and land confiscated is argued to have left a deep grudge for long afterward. The image of ‘a liberator who toppled the king’ and the image of ‘a merciless conqueror’: the assessment of Cromwell remains sharply divided even now because he bears both this light and this shadow.

After Cromwell’s death, the centripetal force sustaining the republic was lost, and confusion spread. Many people came to think that, in the end, a king was needed to restore order. Thus in 1660, the son of the executed king was received, and the monarchy was restored (the Restoration). At first glance, it seemed the revolution had returned to its starting point. Yet the king’s power was no longer unconditional as it had once been. The king must come to terms with Parliament: the memory of civil war and republic had engraved this upon everyone’s heart.

A Turning Without Bloodshed: The Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights

Even after the monarchy was restored, the tension between king and Parliament did not disappear. In particular, James II, who came to the throne later, is said to have heightened the anxiety of Parliament and the people through his attitude of valuing Catholicism and his rule asserting strongly the king’s prerogative. In a country where Protestants were the majority, a Catholic king was concentrating power, and people grew increasingly uneasy about where it was heading.

So the main forces of Parliament made a bold move. In 1688, they sought aid from Mary, James II’s Protestant daughter, and her husband William, the ruler of the Netherlands. When William landed in England leading an army, James II, having lost his support, was unable to resist and went into exile abroad. Because the king was changed without passing through a great battle, this event came to be called, within England, the Glorious Revolution (the Bloodless Revolution). However, it must be viewed fairly that it could be called ‘bloodless’ only within England, while in Scotland and Ireland it was accompanied by fierce fighting and sacrifice.

Parliament received William III and Mary II as joint monarchs, and the two accepted the conditions Parliament set forth and came to the throne. Then, in 1689, the Bill of Rights was established on the basis of that content. It is said to have included that taxation and the suspension of law without Parliament’s consent were not permitted, freedom of speech within Parliament, and the regular holding of Parliament. The king cannot stand above the law and Parliament: because this principle was set down in the form of a document, it is said that the foundation was laid for a constitutional monarchy in which the king governs while his power is framed by law and Parliament.

The seventeenth-century island traced violent swings, from the clash of king and Parliament to civil war, to the execution of the king and a republic, and then through the Restoration to the Glorious Revolution. At the end of it, the people arrived at one answer: rather than repeating bloodshed, king and Parliament would come to terms under the law. The ideas of ‘the rule of law’ and ‘Parliament’ that budded in Magna Carta here at last grew into a firm mechanism for moving the nation. Having brought its inner conflict to a pause and gained the stability of governance, the island would soon turn that power outward. In the next century, Britain expands into the world’s seas and continents and builds up a vast empire.