History of Britain 15581690

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History of Britain1558-1690
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Queen Elizabeth I

• Brilliant politician
• Looked men in the eye
• Trained in art of rhetoric
• Adored by subjects
• Pope against her
• Never married
• Never bore children

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1588

• Spanish Armada set to invade
• Elizabeth delivers inspiring speech to soldiers
• I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but
  the heart and stomach of a king
• England victorious

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Mary Queen of Scots

• Elizabeths Catholic cousin
• Rivals
• Son becomes James VI
• Plots against Elizabeth
• Tried and executed

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Elizabeth I-Background

• Renaissance education
• English High Renaissance referred to as
  Elizabethan period
• Greatest ruler since William the Conqueror
• Returns Book of Common Prayer
• Renews Act of Supremacy
• Institutes popular policy of religious tolerance

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Drama

• Influenced by classic Greek/Roman
• Tragedies/comedies, blank verse
• Christopher Marlowe- Tamburlaine the Great,
  Doctor Faustus
• Shakespeare- brilliant language, unparalleled
  insight into human nature, sympathy for all types
  and social classes
• Works include- Romeo, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello,
  King Lear, etc.

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Prose

• Sir Walter Raleigh- History of the World
• Thomas Nashe- Unfortunate Traveller- forerunner
  of the novel
• Francis Bacon- Novum Organum- written in Latin--
  science and philosophy
• King James Bible- commissioned/overseen by James
  I, English translation, 54 scholars, 3 years
• Powerful, beautiful language rivaling Shakespeare

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Scientific Achievements

• Copernican Theory- Earth revolves around the sun
• Magnetism- William Gilbert
• Blood Circulation- William Harvey
• Observation/Experimentation (philosophy)- Francis
  Bacon
• Classical Physics- Isaac Newton
• Royal Society of Science- 1662

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• James I- 1603-1625, wants to be known as King of
  Britain (England/Scotland unite) unlike
  Elizabeth, openly hostile toward Calvinists
  (Puritans), dismisses Puritan priests/clergy from
  Anglican Church
• Charles I- 1625-1649, James son, marries
  daughter of King of France (Catholic) alarming
  Protestant citizenry

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Conflict

• Charles I fights with Parliament over
• Starts wars with Spain/France, but Parliament
  refused to approve grant of war funds
• Charles blackmails wealthy- pay or go to prison
  poor are forced into army/navy
• 1628 Petition of Right- Parliament enumerates
  basic rights of Englishmen

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• Open defiance of Charles, forced to accept but
  king refuses to abide by it
• Parliament protests
• Charles orders them arrested
• He dissolves Parliament
• Most disgusted, especially Puritans

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• Archbishop Laud- Reactionary anti-Puritan leader.
  Insists clergy conform/observe ceremonies they
  dislike pulling Church back toward Catholicism.
  Pope offers to make Laud a bishop. Laud declines.
• Laud intensifies persecution of Puritans-
  publicly has leaders getting noses slit, cheeks
  branded, ears cut off

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Puritan Power!

• Faced torture so bravely, become heroes to
  Englishmen
• Radical Puritans wished to eliminate Anglican
  Church hierarchy, including bishops/archbishops
• Believed each congregation had right to choose
  own priest
• Democracy in religion. Disputed doctrine of
  divine right of kings.

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Roundheads vs. Cavaliers

• Puritans-(roundheads b/c extremely short hair)
  control cities
• Cavaliers-support king, skilled horsemen, control
  countryside

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End of Charles

• Royalist forces battle Parliamentary forces
• New leader Oliver Cromwell emerges
• Seeker of God (Cromwell) victorious
• Charles beheaded
• British Civil Wars ensue
• Cromwell takes over

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Literary Influences

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, without a king, life
  is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short war
  of every man against every man common power to
  keep them all in awe. Political theory-need
  strong central authority (Cromwell) social
  contract
• Instability- Civil War sweeps away old order of
  royal court-centered society (more freedom for
  political/literary expression)

A social contract implies that the people give up
some rights to a government and other authority
in order to receive or jointly preserve social
order.
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Aftermath of Charles I

• Charles I becomes martyr
• Puritan Parliament-outlaws those who gamble,
  dance, horse race, wear fancy clothes, attend
  theater
• People end up hating Cromwell and Puritans

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Anything good about Oliver Cromwell?

• Under his protectorate, Jews return/thrive in
  London allowed to worship
• In return Cromwell benefits from their
  Dutch/Spanish trade network
• Still, everyone hates Cromwell (dissolves
  Parliament, names self Lord Protector) wars with
  Spain/Holland, augments taxes
• Country safer, Catholics mistreated
• Leaves behind ideal vision for country, despite
  his ruthlessness
• 1645-1660 Interregnum or period between reigns

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Sons of Ben and School of Donne

• Ben Jonson- Most influential writer of early
  1600s-strove for classical perfection/harmony of
  Greek/Roman authors rather than highly ornamental
  style of Elizabethans
• One satirical/slanderous play landed him in jail,
  killed an actor in a duel and went to jail
• Anglican, then Catholic, then Anglican

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John Donne
Metaphysics investigates principles of reality
transcending those of any particular science.

• Pioneer/innovator of Metaphysical
  Poetry-characterized by high degree of
  intellectualism, often employs conceit
• Conceit- extended metaphor comparing two things
  which would never be associated
• Two lovers souls/compass legs
• Soldier, then Anglican minister

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Sons of Ben

• Robert Herrick
• Sir John Suckling
• Richard Lovelace
• Called Cavalier Poets since sided with King
  Charles I. Lovelace imprisoned by Puritans during
  Civil War.

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School of Donne

• George Herbert
• Andrew Marvell
• Marvell a transitional figure, tutored children
  of Puritans, assistant to John Milton, used his
  influence at court to save Milton from being
  executed for treason
• Marvells poems combine influences of Jonson and
  Donne

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Puritan Writers

• John Milton- Calvinist, influenced by Hebrew Old
  Testament, Greek/Latin authors wrote political
  pamphlets favoring Roundheads, Cromwells
  dictatorship discouraged him from hope of just
  earthly society, blind by 1652, writes Paradise
  Lost, epic which explains why God allows
  suffering on Earth

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John Bunyan

• Tinker, wandering preacher, imprisoned after
  Restoration, wrote Pilgrims Progress-most popular
  prose work of 17th Century. An allegory- work in
  which each character represents a specific human
  trait or characteristic

just as Christian came up with the cross, his
burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell
from off his back,
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Restoration

• Charles II-charismatic, randy
• Takes revenge on those who hanged his father
• 1665 Bubonic Plague strikes killing 1/6 of
  Londoners

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1666 Fire!

• 13,200 homes destroyed
• St. Pauls Cathedral and other important
  buildings ruined
• Christopher Wren- mathematician, architect
  presents re-design
• Anti-Catholic fear (Kings brother a Catholic)
• Riots/lynching

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• Parliament asks Charles to sign decree stating
  his Catholic brother could never be king
• Charles refuses
• Charles dies James II (Catholic) becomes King
• People upset, bishops protest-King locks them up
  in the Tower

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Battle of the Boyne

• Fills army with Irish Catholics
• Statesmen send for William of Orange (Protestant
  married to James daughter Mary)
• James flees
• Parliament presents Declaration of Rights
• King to ask and not demand
• Glorious Revolution