Stages, direction and prospects of the revolution 1) The labor movement raises the proletariat immediately under the leadership of the RSDLP and awakens the liberal bourgeoisie: 1895–1901/2.2) The labor movement goes into open political struggle and joins the politically awakened strata

Terminology

The term "English Civil War" is a commonly known name for the revolution, but historians often divide it into 2 or 3 different wars. Although the concept describes events that took place in England, the conflict also included the wars against Scotland and Ireland and their civil wars.

Unlike other civil wars in England, which were essentially a struggle for power, this war also affected the very way of government in Britain and Ireland, and the economic system. That's why historians call the English Civil War the English Revolution. In Marxist historiography it is customary to call it the English bourgeois revolution.

Background

On the eve of the Revolution

James I of England

William Laud

William Laud

Scottish rebellion

Laud also disappointed the Presbyterians in Scotland by trying to insist that they were obliged to use the English prayer book. Angry Scottish Presbyterians said they were prepared to fight to defend their religion. In 1639, the Scottish army marched on London. At that time, Charles was unable to gather a strong army to repel the Scots. He was forced to agree to no longer interfere in Scotland's religious affairs, and also to pay for its military expenses.

Long Parliament

Charles did not have enough money to pay the Scots and decided to turn to Parliament for help. The parliament, convened in 1640, lasted 13 years, for which it received the name “Long Parliament”. This time Parliament intended to limit the power of the monarch. Under the leadership of John Pym, a law was created that required parliament to convene every three years and deprived the king of the right to dissolve parliament. A whole series of laws were also introduced that did not allow the monarch to increase taxes on his own.

An angry Charles I decided it was time to strike back. On 4 January 1642, Charles ordered the arrest of John Pym, Arthur Haselrig, John Hampden, Denzil Olles and William Strode. All five managed to escape before the soldiers arrived. Members of Parliament decided to form their own army. After failing to arrest five members of Parliament, Charles fled London to York. Fearing that civil war was inevitable, Charles began to raise an army.

Civil War

Start of the war

Map of territories controlled by Parliamentarians (green) and Royalists (red)

A large number of royalists joined the king's army. At that time, representatives of the upper classes were trained to ride horses from childhood, which was a great advantage for the king, under whose command was a strong cavalry.

In October 1642, Charles I and his troops marched towards London. The king's nephew, Prince Rupert, was appointed commander-in-chief of the cavalry. Despite the fact that the prince was only twenty-three, he had already gained a lot of experience in the battles for the Dutch. Prince Rupert trained the cavalry in tactics that he himself had learned in Sweden. The tactics involved charging the enemy at full gallop, with the horses staying side by side until the collision.

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

In the early stages of the war, the parliamentary army had a huge disadvantage. Most soldiers had never fought or held weapons in their hands. When attacked by Prince Rupert's cavalry, they often ran away from the battlefield. One of the Parliamentary army officers, Oliver Cromwell, turned his attention to the enemy cavalry. Although he had no military training, his experience as a landowner gave him an understanding of horses. He was convinced that by creating a well-disciplined army, he could defeat the royal cavalry.

Cromwell knew that pikemen, armed with 5-meter pikes, could give a good rebuff to the “cavaliers”. He also noticed that Rupert's cavalry was poorly disciplined and, when charging, each rider attacked an individual target. Cromwell then taught his horsemen not to scatter when attacking and to stick together. His cavalry took part in the Battle of Marston Moor in Yorkshire in July 1644. As a result of the victory at Marston Moor, the entire north of England was under the control of Parliament.

New model army

At the beginning of the Civil War, Parliament relied on soldiers hired by large landowners. In February 1645, Parliament decided to form a new army consisting of professional soldiers. This 22,000-strong army became known as the New Model Army. Its commander in chief was General Thomas Fairfax, while the commander of the cavalry was Oliver Cromwell.

Soldiers of the New Model Army received proper military training and behaved very disciplined in battle. Previously, soldiers from prosperous and noble families became officers, but in the New Model Army they were promoted according to their merits on the battlefield and fighting qualities.

Battle of Nesby

The New Model Army took part in the Battle of Nesby in Northamptonshire on 14 June 1645. The army of Parliament achieved a complete victory, capturing the most experienced of their enemies and capturing the weapons and equipment of the royal army. This battle was the defeat of the royalist army. After it, Charles was no longer able to assemble a new army that would be able to repel the parliamentary army.

Results of the war

Reconstruction of the English Civil War

In January 1647, Charles fled to Scotland, where he was soon recaptured. He was imprisoned at Hampton Court, but in November 1647 he escaped and managed to raise a new army. At this time, he managed to convince the Scots to fight on his side. In August, Charles's army was defeated and he was again captured. On January 30, 1649, Charles I was executed.

England was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy. Cromwell took the title of "Lord Protector", that is, protector of parliament, and essentially became a military dictator.

About 100,000 people died during the war. Most of them died due to army fever (a type of typhus) rather than on the battlefield.

The crown was transferred on terms dictated by Parliament, i.e. a regime of limited (constitutional) monarchy with a strong parliament was established, which secured the bourgeoisie’s access to state power. Thus, the main goal of the revolution was achieved.

Among the most important results of the English Revolution is the destruction of absolutism, a blow to feudal property, which actually turned into bourgeois property. The revolution proclaimed freedom of trade and entrepreneurship. Of exceptional importance was the adoption in 1651 of the Navigation Act, according to which foreign trade transportation could only be carried out on English ships or on ships of the country that produced this product. The law disrupted the intermediary trade and shipping of England's most powerful rival, Holland. The political result of the revolution was the beginning of the formation of a legal state and civil society in England. The ideas of a republican structure, rule of people, equality of all before the law, which the revolution brought, influenced the history of other European states.

Chronology

• , November 3 - after an eleven-year break, a parliament was convened, which soon left the control of the crown and was later nicknamed the Long (eng. Long Parliament), since it was in force until 1653.
• - Parliament refused to finance the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland and passed a law making it impossible to dissolve Parliament without its consent. In August, parliament adopted the “Great Remonstrance” - a collection of articles listing the crimes of the crown. After this, state power was actually concentrated in the hands of parliament.
• - King Charles I's attempts to dissolve Parliament lead to confrontation between supporters of Parliament. Roundheads- “roundheads”) and supporters of the king (“royalists”).
  • On July 4, the Defense Committee was created, which headed the military activities of parliament.
  • On July 6, parliament decided to recruit a 10,000-strong army, appointing the Earl of Essex as commander-in-chief.
  • On August 22, the king announces the beginning of an operation to suppress the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, which effectively means a declaration of war on Parliament. Oxford became the residence of the “cavaliers”.
  • 23 October - The Battle of Edgegill is the first major battle of the Parliamentary forces of the Roundheads and the Cavaliers, the second in November at Turnham Green.
• , September 20 - First Battle of Newbury. Military alliance with the Scots.
• - Scottish intervention. Battle of Marston Moor. The Cavaliers suffered a crushing defeat in the north of England.
• , June 14 - Battle of Naseby: defeat of the “Cavaliers”.
• , June 24 - capture of Oxford: flight of the king to Scotland.

Scene from the Battle of Naseby (modern reconstruction)

• - The Scots handed over the king to the Roundheads for a substantial fee. Parliament's attempt to disband the army encountered resistance from the Levellers. Cromwell was forced to make partial concessions to the rebels. The cavaliers took advantage of the split in the army and tried to take revenge by entering into an alliance with the Scots.
• , August 17-19 - Battle of Preston: defeat of the Scots. On October 4, Cromwell's cavalry entered Edinburgh.
• , January 30 - execution of King Charles I and establishment of an independent republic (eng. Commonwealth of England). Cromwell's campaign in Ireland.
• , September 3 - Battle of Dunbar: Roundheads conquer Edinburgh.
• - Battle of Worcester: Republican commander Cromwell's army conquers Scotland.
• - dictatorship (English) Protectorate) Oliver Cromwell, who declares himself Lord Protector (in England this is the title of regent). The old parliament was dissolved on charges of corruption. The country is divided into 11 military districts led by major generals.
• - death of a dictator. Power passes to his son Richard, who, however, almost immediately renounced this title - England became an arena of rivalry among many ambitious people fighting for power. London is occupied by General Monck's units.
• - Parliament decided to restore the monarchy and invite Charles II - the son of Charles I - to the empty throne. Under him, the Anglican Church (equal to other religions under Cromwell) again became the dominant church. The end of the English revolution.
• - accession of James II, brother of the childless Charles II.
• - “Glorious Revolution”: Parliament decided to expel James II from the country, and invite the ruler of Protestant Holland, William of Orange, to the throne (he was both the grandson of Charles I and son-in-law of James). William accepted this offer and became king (his wife Mary shares with him the burden of the royal title). In 1689, his coronation took place, at which he confirmed his loyalty to two parliamentary documents adopted shortly before - “

The English Revolution of the 17th century, also known as the English Civil War (1640-1660), was the process of transition in England from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one, in which the power of the king was limited by the power of parliament, and civil liberties were also guaranteed. The revolution opened the way to the industrial revolution in England and the capitalist development of the country. Causes: contradictions between the emerging capitalist and old feudal structures; dissatisfaction with Stuart policies; contradictions between the Anglican Church and the ideology of Puritanism (complete autonomy of each religious community, denial of the centralized organization of the church, the need for the papacy, episcopate, subordination of the church to the king). The history of the English bourgeois revolution is usually divided into four stages: Constitutional stage (1640 - 1642); First Civil War (1642 - 1646); Second Civil War (1646 - 1649); Independent Republic (1649 – 1653); First stage. An attempt to carry out a revolution through parliamentary means. The final break between the king and parliament. In January 1642 there was a break between the king and parliament. The king rejected the "Great Remonstrance" of 1641, which contained a list of abuses of royal power. The “Great Remonstrance” meant: the abolition of all illegal taxes; a ban on collecting taxes without the consent of parliament; concentration of finances in the hands of parliament; abolition of courts for political and religious matters; the adoption of the "Triennial Bill" obliging the king to meet parliament every 3 years. The Long Parliament destroyed the main tools of absolutism: the extraordinary royal courts were liquidated - the “Star Chamber”, “High Commission”, all monopoly patents and privileges were destroyed, and their owners were removed from parliament, a bill was passed on the indissolution of the existing parliament without its consent. The remonstration was approved by a majority of members of parliament against the will of the king. Parliament split into supporters of the king (royalists) and opponents ("roundheads"). Charles I left for Scotland to gather an army. The civil war began. Second phase. The first civil war (1642-1646) between the revolutionary army of parliament and the army of the king. On August 22, 1642, the king, who was in Nottingham, declared war on parliament. The first civil war began between the royalists - the "Cavaliers" and the supporters of Parliament - the "Roundheads". The economically developed southeastern counties, led by London, sided with the parliament; the relatively backward counties of the north and west took the side of the king. Regular armies were created. The indecisive policy of the “moderate” majority of parliament - the Presbyterians - led to the fact that the parliamentary army was defeated in the very first battle - at Edgehill (October 23, 1642) and, moreover, made it possible for the royal army to settle in Oxford. At this critical moment, a mass peasant movement unfolded in the countryside and a plebeian movement in the cities, the echo of which in parliament and the army was the revolutionary-democratic line of independents, led by O. Cromwell. He sought to transform the army into a people's, revolutionary, capable of achieving victory. The old (mainly Presbyterian) command was dissolved. On January 11, 1645, it was decided to create a new parliamentary army - the so-called army. new sample. On June 14, 1645, under Naseby, the reorganized parliamentary army defeated the royal army. By the end of 1646, the first civil war ended in victory for Parliament. Charles I surrendered to the Scots, who then handed him over to Parliament (February 1, 1647). The new nobility (gentry) and bourgeoisie considered the revolution basically over: their main goals had been achieved. The Ordinance of February 24, 1646 abolished the knighthood and all obligations arising from it in favor of the crown; Thus, large landowners appropriated the right of bourgeois private ownership to lands that were previously only their feudal property. In industry and trade, with the abolition of monopoly rights, the principle of free competition partially prevailed; anti-fencing legislation was suspended. The entire burden of taxes for military needs has been shifted onto the shoulders of the working people. Under these conditions, the masses took the revolutionary initiative into their own hands. They not only thwarted all plans to strangle the revolution, but also made an attempt to turn it into a democratic direction. From the Party of Independents, an independent party of “levellers” emerged - the Levellers (leaders J. Lilburn and others). In an effort to suppress the revolutionary aspirations of the people, parliament in the spring of 1647 tried to dissolve part of the revolutionary army. Faced with the threat of disarmament and not trusting the independent officers - the “grandees”, the soldiers began to elect the so-called. agitators, to whom leadership in military units and in the army as a whole gradually passed. A conflict began between parliament and the army. The threat of political isolation prompted O. Cromwell, who initially advocated the subordination of the army to parliament, to lead the movement of soldiers in the army in order to stop its further drift to the left. On June 5, 1647, at a general review of the army, the so-called A “solemn pledge” not to disperse until the demands of the soldiers were met and the liberties and rights of the English people secured. The army, along with the broad peasant-plebeian masses, became the main driving force of the revolution at its bourgeois-democratic stage (1647-49). In June 1647, the army captured the king, and in August they launched a march on London, as a result of which the Presbyterian leaders were expelled from parliament. How great the gulf was between the Independents and the Levellers in understanding the goals of the revolution became obvious at the Army Council in Putney from October 28 to November 11, 1647 (the so-called Putney Conference). The Levellers’ demand for the establishment of a parliamentary republic (with a unicameral parliament) and the introduction of universal suffrage (for men), formulated in their draft of the country’s political structure, the so-called. The “grandees” opposed the “People's Agreement” with their own program - the so-called. “Items of proposals”, which proposed maintaining a bicameral parliament and a king with veto power. The conflict between the “grandees” and the Levellers led to the dissolution of the Council. The disobedience of individual regiments demanding the adoption of the Leveller program was brutally suppressed. The army found itself at the mercy of the “grandees”. At this time, the king escaped from captivity, entering into a secret conspiracy with the Scots. Third Stage. The Second Civil War, which broke out in the spring of 1648, forced the Independents to temporarily seek reconciliation with the Levellers. But the acceptance by the “grandees” of a significant part of the Levellers’ program meant that the social program of the Levellers - in particular on the question of the fate of the copyhold - represented only a more radical version of the program of the “grandees” and “... that only the intervention of the peasantry and the proletariat, the “plebeian element of the cities” , is capable of seriously moving forward the bourgeois revolution...” At the Battle of Preston (August 17–19, 1648), Cromwell inflicted a decisive defeat on the Scots and English royalists. On December 1, 1648, the king was taken into custody. The army reoccupied London and finally cleared the Long Parliament of its Presbyterian majority (Pride's Purge, 6 December 1648). On January 6, 1649, the Supreme Court was established to hear the king's case. On January 30, Charles Stuart was executed as a “traitor and tyrant.” Fourth stage. On May 19, 1649, England became a republic, the supreme power in which belonged to a unicameral parliament (the fate of the monarchy was shared by the House of Lords); in reality, the republic of 1649 turned out to be independent oligarchy. Executive power was exercised by the State Council, which consisted of “grandees” and their parliamentary associates. By selling the confiscated lands of the king, bishops and “cavaliers” for next to nothing, the republic enriched the bourgeoisie and the new nobility. At the same time, it did not satisfy a single demand of the lower classes. The Leveller leaders were thrown into prison, and the Leveller uprisings in the army in May 1649 were suppressed. The Levellers were defeated, in part, because they ignored the main issue of the revolution - the agrarian question; they opposed the “socialization of property” and the “equalization of fortunes.” The representatives of the interests of the lower classes during the period of the highest rise of the revolution were the so-called. the true Levellers were the Diggers, who demanded the abolition of copyhold and the power of landlords, the transformation of communal lands into the common property of the poor. The ideas of the Diggers were reflected in the works of their ideologist J. Winstanley and in the so-called Diggers, compiled by him. "Declarations of the Poor Oppressed People of England." The defeat of the peaceful movement of the Diggers for the collective cultivation of the communal wasteland (1650) meant the final victory of the anti-democratic course in resolving the agrarian question. Social and protective functions The independent republic's domestic policy was combined with aggressive aspirations and a policy of suppressing the liberation movement of peoples under British rule. Cromwell's military expedition to Ireland (1649-50) was aimed at suppressing the national liberation uprising of the Irish people; the degeneration of the revolutionary army in Ireland was completed; here a new landed aristocracy was created, which became a stronghold of counter-revolution in England itself. Just as mercilessly, the English republic dealt with Scotland, annexing it to England in 1652. The anti-democratic course in resolving the agrarian and national issues narrowed the social base of the republic. Its only support remained an army of mercenaries, maintained at the expense of the masses. The dispersal of the “rump” of the Long Parliament and the unsuccessful experience for the “grandees” with the Petit (Berbon) Parliament (1653), which unexpectedly for its creators took the path of social reforms (abolition of tithes, the introduction of civil marriage, etc.), paved the way for the regime military dictatorship - Cromwell's Protectorate (1653-59). The constitution of this regime endowed the protector with such broad powers that it can be considered as direct preparation for the restoration of the monarchy. Cromwell dispersed the 1st (1654-55) and 2nd (1656-58) parliaments of the protectorate, agreed in 1657 with the restoration of the House of Lords and almost assumed the English crown. Domestically, he fought both royalist conspiracies and popular movements. Continuing the expansionist policy of the republic, the protectorate declared war on Spain and organized an expedition to seize its West Indian possessions ("Jamaican Expedition", 1655-57). Soon after Cromwell's death (September 3, 1658), this regime collapsed. In 1659, a republic was formally restored in England, but its ephemeral nature was predetermined by the entire course of events. Frightened by the strengthening of the democratic movement, the bourgeoisie and the new nobility began to lean toward the “traditional monarchy.” In 1660, the restoration of the Stuarts took place and they agreed to sanction the main gains of the bourgeois revolution, which ensured economic dominance for the bourgeoisie. Coup of 1688-89 (“Glorious Revolution” is the name accepted in historiography for the coup d’etat of 1688 in England, as a result of which King James II Stuart was overthrown. The coup involved the Dutch expeditionary force under the command of the ruler of the Netherlands, William of Orange, who became the new king of England under named after William III (in joint rule with his wife Mary II Stuart, daughter of James II. The coup received wide support among various strata of English society) formalized a compromise between the bourgeoisie, which from then on had access to state power, and the landed aristocracy. RESULTS: The English Revolution gave a powerful impetus to the process of the so-called. initial accumulation of capital (“de-peasantization” of the countryside, turning peasants into wage workers, strengthening enclosures, replacing peasant holdings with large farms of the capitalist type); it provided complete freedom of action for the rising bourgeois class and paved the way for the industrial revolution of the 18th century. just as Puritanism loosened the soil for the English Enlightenment. In the political field, the revolutionary struggle of the masses in the mid-17th century. ensured the transition from the feudal monarchy of the Middle Ages to the bourgeois monarchy of modern times.

On November 3, 1640, the most famous Long Parliament in the history of England opened, which sat for more than 12 years. Its composition was dominated by representatives of the new nobility, most of them Puritan-Presbyterians. First of all, the deputies presented the king with an impressive list of their claims: violation of parliamentary privileges; distortion of religion; an attempt on the freedom of subjects. In the shortest possible time after the opening of parliament, a decisive revolution took place in the entire system of government; trade monopolies and illegal taxes were abolished. A law passed in 1641 prohibited the dissolution of parliament without its consent. Parliament turned into a political force independent of the king. The issue of completing the religious reformation occupied a large place in the activities of the Long Parliament.

Irish Rebellion (1641)

The strengthening of the Puritans, on the one hand, and the weakening of royal power, on the other, led in October 1641 to an anti-English uprising in Catholic Ireland, which was accompanied by “incredible horrors.” The news of the Irish Rebellion shook all of England.

According to English historians, “the suppressed discontent of the Irish poured out in a riot of brutal violence. Suddenly the entire indigenous population rose up against the settlers.” During the uprising, “cruelty was revealed, which in its barbarity surpassed everything that any people could know or hear about. The total massacre of the British began." “Among these atrocities, the name of Religion thundered everywhere - not to stop the murderers, but to strengthen their blows and harden hearts.” “Religious contradictions entered into a terrible alliance with national hatred,” concluded the German historian L. Ranke.

"The Great Remonstrance"

At the height of the Irish events, parliament presented Charles I with the “Great Remonstration” (“Great Protest”), containing a list of claims against the king and a program of reforms. “We see the root of all... disasters in a malicious and destructive desire to overthrow the fundamental laws and principles of government on which the religion and justice of the Kingdom of England firmly rested,” the deputies said.

In England, after the end of the second civil war, a republican system was actually established.

For a short time, the monarchy was overthrown, but then the Stuarts returned to power.

The unresolved nature of many of the problems that gave rise to the events of the mid-17th century led to a new revolution, called the “Glorious Revolution,” since this time the change in the state structure occurred without major shocks and bloodshed. Established in England a constitutional monarchy, that is, a political system in which the king’s power is limited by higher laws

He had a huge influence on the destinies of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Pre-revolutionary Britain: features of economic and social development in the 16th - early 17th centuries. The most important factors influencing the economy and the mood of British residents were the demographic boom and rising prices for consumer goods. More than 80% of the population lived in rural areas, but the rural economy was unable to accommodate the ever-growing number of people. Another consequence of population growth was galloping inflation. In the 1620s and 1630s, incomes fell sharply. This was mitigated by the fact that in England the majority of townspeople kept livestock and had vegetable gardens and orchards. In addition, employers often partially paid workers in food products. Landlords also sought to increase the efficiency of land use: driving out the holders from it, they brought individual plots into one large field, drained the soil, fertilized it, put new areas into circulation, draining swamps and swamps. Peasants, forced by landlords and economic difficulties to sell their plots, joined the army of landless workers moving around the country in search of employment. Migrations, which became a feature of everyday life, and frequent revolts of the dispossessed created a general feeling of danger and instability. The authorities and society took measures to reduce the number of poor and homeless vagrants. The city authorities licensed the right to beg; The Poor Acts, passed by the English (1571, 1598, 1601) and Scottish (1579, 1597) parliaments, ordered church parishes to collect payments from wealthy citizens to support the poor. Rising prices for agricultural products allowed landlords, enterprising residents and townspeople employed in the agricultural sector to receive high incomes. Profitable sectors of the economy were also the mining, transportation and sale of coal, the production of iron, glass, shipbuilding, and cloth making. In the 16th century the largest and fastest fortunes were made in the field of sea and ocean trade, which was monopolized by trading companies. In the first half of the 17th century. conditions for foreign trade turned out to be less favorable than before. Its total volume stopped growing due to the crisis in the cloth industry. Dutch merchants dominated the Baltic and the Spice Islands. Amsterdam has become the main trading platform in Europe. Merchants and financiers of the City more than once asked the Stuarts to change economic policy, lift restrictions on the export of money, introduce a ban on the transport of English goods on foreign ships, demand that the Republic of the United Provinces reduce duties on English cloth, and introduce fishing limits for the Dutch off British coasts. Since foreign trade was in the hands of monopolistic companies or individuals who received patents due to proximity to the court, their opponents demanded increased freedom of trade and the abolition of monopolies. Criticism of monopolies in parliament in 1621 forced the government to abolish the most odious of them and bring to justice those who abused monopoly rights. Politics After the death of Elizabeth I (1603), the crown passed to the King of Scotland, James VI Stuart, who began to rule in England and Ireland under the name James I. England, Scotland and Ireland were significantly different from each other - economically, socially, culturally and religiously. England was the most economically developed, had a centralized system of government, its entire population spoke English and professed predominantly Protestantism. Scotland was less centralized. The inhabitants of its highlands spoke Gaelic and largely remained faithful to Catholicism. There was a clan system there. The royal administration in Edinburgh found it difficult to control the clans. Residents of the economically and culturally more developed lowland Scotland spoke a dialect similar to English, professed Calvinism and were wary of the “wild” highlanders. The most complex and heterogeneous country was Ireland. Its population consisted of three culturally and ethnically distinct communities. The largest ethnic group were the Celts or "Old Irish", who spoke Gaelic and lived in clans (here called "septs"). The exchange between the “old Irish” was very often not monetary, but in kind. Another significant group of the population were the so-called Old English, descendants of the Norman conquerors who began in the 12th century. colonization of Pale (Eastern Ireland), and then established itself in other regions. Pale's main city, where the English administration was located, was Dublin. Peile used the English three-field farming system. The land belonged to the lords of the manors, who rented it out to the peasants. In the XVI - early XVII centuries. London actively promoted the resettlement of English and Scots who professed Protestantism to Ireland. They were allocated “plantations” - territories seized from the Irish. Protestant enclaves were also intended to serve as a support for the central government on the island. This is how the third group of the population was formed - the “New Englishmen”. In the political sphere, the main result of Tudor rule was the strengthening of royal power. The center of government was the Privy Council, created in 1540, which included the heads of the most important departments, headed by the Chancellor, Secretary of State and ministers of the royal court, and where the most significant domestic and foreign policy decisions were developed. To strengthen its influence on legal proceedings and introduce religious uniformity, the crown created emergency courts - the Star Chamber and the High Commission. However, the most authoritative body of government in England was parliament. Without asking his consent, the king did not have the right to impose taxes on his subjects. Due to inflation, crown revenue from other sources was reduced by 40 %, so parliamentary grants were of great importance to the treasury. In pre-revolutionary England, the Stuarts' relationship with the chambers often did not work out. Among the main domestic political problems bequeathing the Stuarts was the unfinished Reformation. Although the dogmatics of Anglicanism absorbed the ideas of Calvin, the church retained the episcopate, the hierarchical structure and the magnificent vestments of priests accepted in Catholicism, which provoked criticism from supporters of more radical Protestantism - the Puritans, who insisted on continuing the Reformation and deepening church reforms. The ideal for one part of the Puritans (Presbyterians) were the communities of early Christianity and the Calvinist churches of Geneva and Scotland, which excluded the presence of bishops, a hierarchy of spiritual positions and the subordination of the Church to royal authority. According to Presbyterians, at the parish level, the true faith was to be supported by assemblies (consistories) of spiritual pastors (presbyters) and secular elders, and at the diocesan level, the Church should be led by assemblies or synods of elected priests and elders. In England, since the 1580s, there were even more radical Protestants—Independents who rejected any officially established religious order and opposed the interference of secular authorities in spiritual affairs. The Stuarts tried not to bother the powerful Scottish magnates. Scotland had its own parliament and a special legal system, which was based on Roman law. In Scotland the position of the Presbyterian Church was very strong. Protestantism won there on the initiative of secular individuals who established the Presbyterian Church - Kirk. As a result, Presbyterian consistories played a largely decisive role in the religious and social life of lowland Scotland. The episcopate was formally preserved, but was removed from solving church issues. The Church was governed by the General Assembly of elected representatives of the consistories, among whom there were many secular persons. The English kings owned Ireland by right of conquest. After the Reformation began in England, and the Irish Celts and the “Old English” remained faithful to Catholicism, the English crown, faced with resistance and uprisings of Catholics, began to strengthen its military presence on the island. The Stuarts legally abolished the clan system in Ireland, depriving the chiefs of judicial power. All residents were declared free subjects of the king. Irish peasants had to pay only fixed rents and duties to their lords. Ireland was subject to English law and institutions similar to those of the metropolis were created. In 1607, the crown confiscated lands in six counties in the north-west of the island and began rapid colonization. The “New Englishmen” quickly grew rich and sought to dominate the system of government, causing the envy of the “Old Englishmen” and the hatred of the Irish. Conflicts between the king and parliament under Charles I The short history of the relationship between Charles I and parliament is full of conflicts. In 1628, deputies adopted the “Petition of Right,” condemning forced collections from the population and arbitrary arrests. From 1629 the king stopped convening parliament. In search of a source of replenishment of the treasury, the government in 1634 ordered the collection of “ship money” for the needs of the fleet. Many did not want to obey. The religious policy of Charles I also caused acute rejection in society. He placed at the helm of the Anglican Church Archbishop W. Laud, a follower of the Dutch theologian J. Arminius. Arminians tried to reconcile the Calvinist dogma of predestination with the Catholic doctrine of free will. Such theological innovations strengthened the suspicion that had arisen even under James I that the Stuarts were condoning Catholicism. The changes split the Anglican clergy. The religious balance that existed in the Church and society was disrupted, and the Puritans acquired the image of heroic defenders of the true faith in the eyes of the people. Laud strongly promoted doctrinal and ritual uniformity, considering the established liturgy to be better than extemporaneous preaching. Laud considered the clergy to be superior to the rest of the people. Under him, many old symbols of worship were restored. Laud had no intention of restoring Catholicism, but the Puritans accused him of doing just that. An extremely unsuccessful move by the crown was the attempt to introduce an Anglican church system in Scotland instead of the Presbyterian one. The king announced his intention to regain control over the lands transferred to secular persons during the Reformation, and to introduce a specially compiled prayer book into the church liturgy. In 1637 the Scots rebelled and abolished the episcopate altogether. Nobles, priests and commoners signed the National Covenant, demonstrating their determination to fight "for the true faith and ancient liberties." The king began a war with Scotland, very ruinous for the treasury and extremely unpopular in England. To receive subsidies, the king was forced to convene parliament. The “Short Parliament” (April 13 - May 5, 1640) was immediately dissolved for open obstinacy, and some of its members were even arrested. The Scots, meanwhile, occupied the northern counties of England. Constitutional period of the revolution (1640-1642) Beginning of the A. r. dates back to November 1640, when the sessions of the parliament, later called the “Long”, opened. It formed an opposition group led by the Presbyterian J. Pym, which set the tone for the work of the deputies. Parliament passed a number of laws that significantly limited royal power. The triennial act established the frequency of parliamentary sessions - once every 3 years, regardless of the wishes of the monarch. The Star Chamber, the High Commission, the Councils of the North and Wales were abolished, illegal taxes were abolished, and the crown's right to dissolve parliament was suspended. The king's closest advisers are the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop. Lod were arrested. In the spring of 1641 Strafford was convicted and executed. In October 1641, an uprising broke out in Ireland, information about which reached London, with rumors about hundreds of thousands of brutally murdered Protestants and the readiness of the Irish to invade England. Parliament and the king agreed that to suppress the rebellion it was necessary to raise an army and pay for it with funds from loans received as collateral for future land confiscations in Ireland. In November 1640, the House of Commons passed the Great Remonstration, demanding that the king reform the Church in the Presbyterian manner and henceforth appoint officials with the consent of Parliament. In January 1642, Charles I made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest 5 leaders of the House of Commons - Pym, Hampden, Geslrig, Gollis and Strode, after which he left the capital. In February, Parliament subjugated the county militias. On July 12, parliament ordered the recruitment of an army to begin. On August 22, the king raised the standard over Nottingham, which signaled the beginning of the civil war. It called supporters of the king “cavaliers”, supporters of parliament - “roundheads”. First Civil War (1642-1646) Having begun the fight against the king, parliament imposed monthly payments on the population and introduced extremely unpopular excise taxes on consumer goods. The first military clash, which took place at Edgehill (October 1642), did not bring victory to either side. In the winter of 1642-1643, the parties strengthened their armed forces. Soldiers for the king were recruited by influential aristocrats, who then commanded these units, and often supported them. By the beginning of 1643, Parliament had two armies - in London under the command of Essex and in the southern counties under the command of Waller. Independent detachments also arose, headed by the field commanders who recruited them. Neighboring counties united into associations to form armed forces. This is how the army of the Eastern Association appeared under the command of the Earl of Manchester, in which T. Fairfax and O. Cromwell began their military careers. In the summer campaign of 1643, the initiative belonged to the royalists, who gained the upper hand in a number of local clashes. In September 1643, the Long Parliament and the Scottish Presbyterians concluded the “Solemn League and Covenant” - an agreement under which England pledged to introduce the Presbyterian structure of the Church in exchange for military assistance to Scotland in the fight against the king. To coordinate military actions, the Committee of the Two Kingdoms was established. Scotland's entry into the war shifted the balance of power in Parliament's favor. On 07/02/1644 the combined forces of the Scottish and Parliamentary armies defeated the royalists at Marston Moor. In turn, the Royalists defeated the Essex army in Cornwall. In Scotland, the Marquis of Montrose, who fought on the side of the king, at the head of the Highlanders and the Irish who landed to help them, in the fall of 1644 - winter of 1645 inflicted a number of defeats on the Covenanters. After the second battle of Newbury (10/22/1644), in which the Earl of Manchester did not heed Cromwell’s calls and did not complete the defeat of the king’s army, a division emerged in the parliamentary camp. Manchester, Parliament, Presbyterians and Scottish Covenanters began to lean towards a compromise with the king. Back in 1643-1644, the English Presbyterians, in accordance with an agreement with the Covenanters, began church reform. They removed the episcopate from power, banned those who did not accept the Covenant from holding leadership positions in the church, and tried to convince parliament to stop interfering in church affairs. Independents, including O. Cromwell, strongly opposed the imposition of religious uniformity by the Presbyterians. They stood for broad freedom of religion and worship, extending to numerous dissenter (from the English dissent - “sectarian”, “schismatic”, “dissenter”) sects that arose in large numbers since the beginning of the revolution. In December 1644, the Independents passed through Parliament the Ordinance of Self-Denial, which prohibited combining the positions of an army officer and a parliamentarian. And soon many former commanders - Presbyterians - chose to leave the army. In January 1645, Parliament, at the proposal of the Independents, adopted an Ordinance on the creation of a professional army, which the royalists ironically called “an army of a new model.” From now on, army units were supported by taxes and were subject not to their regional lords, but to a single command. The reform put at the head of the army people who did not belong to the aristocracy but had distinguished themselves on the battlefields with the royalists. The civil war temporarily weakened the influence of local elites, who were pushed aside from civil and military administration. However, the emerging system, due to its extraordinary nature and high cost, could not exist for too long. T. Fairfax became the commander-in-chief of the new, united army, and O. Cromwell became the commander of the cavalry. On June 14, 1645, the “new model army” completely defeated the royalists at Naseby and decided the outcome of the war in favor of parliament. In August 1645, the Covenanters defeated Montrose's troops in Scotland. In 1646, Parliament passed a law abolishing the king's rights as supreme overlord over the land. The institution of knighthood, on the basis of which landlords owned land, was abolished, and possessions turned into freely alienable property. In the same year, the episcopate was abolished, and the bishops' lands went on sale. In 1646 Parliament passed the Ordinance for Presbyterian government in the English Church. Left without troops, the king surrendered to the Scots in May 1646, who at the beginning of 1647 handed it over to the British for 400 thousand pounds. Political crisis of 1647 The end of the war raised hopes for the restoration of peace and order. The harvests of 1646 and 1647 were poor. The provinces demanded that parliament cut taxes. The Presbyterians, who dominated parliament, which had a large debt in paying soldiers' salaries, decided in February 1647 to disband a significant part of the army and use newly recruited soldiers to suppress the Irish uprising. The generals and the army “lower classes” categorically disagreed with this. In the spring and summer of 1647, the army formed a General Council from soldier delegates (agitators) and senior officers (grandees) and acted as an independent political force. A cavalry detachment under the command of Cornet Joyce captured the king (June 1647), making him a prisoner of the army that entered London on 08/03/1647. Before the march on the capital, the General Council of the Army adopted the “Chapters of Proposals” - a plan for resolving the political crisis. It proposed reforming the electoral system, ending the persecution of religious dissenters and dissolving the Long Parliament. It soon became clear that in the army itself there was no unity between its “tops” and “bottoms.” Among the latter, the ideas of the radical group of Levellers (“levelers”) and their leaders J. Lilburn, R. Overton and W. Walwyn gained wide popularity. The Levellers proclaimed the people to be the source of power and demanded equal suffrage, legal reform, and fair redistribution of taxes. In October and November 1647, the grandees and representatives of the “lower classes” of the army held several meetings in Petney, near London, where they tried to develop a plan for reform of the electoral system acceptable to both sides. 11/11/1647 Charles I escaped from prison. In mid-November 1647, a mutiny broke out in one of the Leveler regiments, which was immediately suppressed. In December 1647, Charles I entered into a secret agreement with the Scots, who did not like the behavior of the English army, which was out of the control of parliament, and promised to introduce Presbyterianism in England in exchange for military assistance. Second Civil War (1648) The missed opportunity to restore peace caused a wave of discontent in the provinces, where royalist sentiments intensified. Rebellions broke out in the north, in Wales, Kent, and Essex, but by the summer of 1648 the army had suppressed almost all pockets of resistance. In July, the Scottish army led by the Duke of Hamilton invaded England, but already in August the troops of Cromwell and Lambert completely defeated Hamilton and the English royalists who had joined him. 10/04/1648 Cromwell occupied Edinburgh. While the army was at war, parliament resumed negotiations with the king. In November 1648, the General Council of the Army sent to parliament the “Remonstration” composed by Ayrton, which declared the only source of power to be the people with whom the king had broken the treaty. The existence of an alliance between the army and God was also declared, a demand was put forward to end the negotiations, try the king, dissolve the Long Parliament and change the system of parliamentary elections. Parliament rejected Remonstrance. On December 1, the army re-entered the capital. On December 6, a detachment of commander T. Pride carried out a “cleansing” of the Long Parliament from Presbyterians. The remaining deputies, nicknamed the “rump,” handed Charles I over to a specially created tribunal, which sentenced the king to death. 01/30/1649 Charles I was executed. The First English Republic (1649-1653) The coup of the end of 1648 - beginning of 1649 was prepared and implemented by a politically active army and parliamentary minority. The execution of a legitimate, God-anointed monarch horrified the country. This turn of events did not meet the wishes of the capital and provincial elites, which initially made the position of the “rump” and the new regime rather precarious. In February 1649, the House of Commons abolished the House of Lords and the monarchy, and in May England was proclaimed a republic. All executive power was transferred to the State Council. Ireland and Scotland did not recognize the new English government, declaring the son of the executed monarch King Charles II. The most serious internal opponents of the republic were the Presbyterians and Royalists. Its main support was the army, and its main allies were numerous Protestant sects: millenarians, “people of the fifth monarchy,” Diggers, Baptists, Ranters, Quakers. These sects no longer believed that the Bible was the most direct and simple way to God, but believed that God directly influences every person. Through the grace of God, the uneducated commoner can know the truth better than the greatest theologian. The sectarians did not see the need for a state Church or prelacy; they often promoted social equality and advocated the socialization of lands. They lived in anticipation of the speedy second coming of Christ, who over the next 1000 years would reign on earth along with the resurrected righteous. A number of senior army officers shared the beliefs of some of the sects and longed for further change. However, the powerful elites of the counties and cities made it clear to Cromwell that they needed stability. His politics in the 1650s were characterized by religious tolerance and maneuvering between these two extremes in the search for a stable political and administrative order. Cromwell was aware that the sectarians, or "saints" as they were called, did not constitute the majority of the country's population, but hoped that in time they would prevail numerically. The victorious republic began to conquer Ireland. In August 1649, Cromwell's army landed on the island. In March 1650, the capital Kilkenny capitulated. In May 1650, parliament recalled Cromwell to England. In August 1652, the Irish Settlement Act was passed. 40% of the lands remaining from the Irish and the “Old English” were confiscated. The proceeds from its sale were intended to pay off loans and army salaries. All Catholic landowners were evicted from six Irish counties, and their property passed to the “new Englishmen,” i.e., Protestants. In July 1650, Cromwell moved his troops into Scotland against the combined forces of the Royalists and Scots. 12/03/1651 Scotland capitulated. The Republic pursued an equally offensive foreign policy. In 1651, Parliament adopted the Navigation Act, directed against Holland, which prohibited the import of goods into England and its North American colonies on ships of the three countries. Anglo-Dutch relations worsened, and the war of 1652-1654 began (see Anglo-Dutch Wars), from which England emerged victorious. Holland had to come to terms with the Navigation Act. In 1649, a decision was made to sell lands previously owned by the crown, and in 1651 - to sell royalist lands. As a result, a significant part of the confiscated real estate fell into the hands of prominent parliamentarians and revolutionaries. The level of trust in the republic and the deputies among the vast majority of the population fell even more, and on April 20, 1653, Cromwell dispersed the “rump” with the help of military force. Now independent republicans were added to the disgruntled Presbyterians and Royalists. Cromwell's Protectorate (1653-1658) After the dissolution of the "rump", essentially a constituent assembly of 140 people was convened in June 1653, among whom there were many radical sectarians. They declared themselves a parliament and declared their intention to codify the law, abolish tithes, replace church marriage with civil marriage and free debtors from prison, but were never able to translate their ideas into actual laws. Cromwell did not want new shocks, and on December 12, 1653 the meeting was dissolved, which partly separated Cromwell from the radical sectarians. Then the officers, led by Lambert, drafted a constitution called the "Instrument of Government." The position of Lord Protector was established, which Cromwell received with a scope of powers that exceeded the royal ones. He ruled together with a unicameral parliament and between parliamentary sessions could issue ordinances that had the force of law. Cromwell and the Council of State did not seek to change the economic and social system inherited from the past. A society consisting of classes that differed in the degree of nobility, income and regulated participation in government seemed correct to them. Order, the Lord Protector believed, is impossible where there is no social and political hierarchy. Such principles corresponded to the ideas of the gentry and wealthy townspeople. In order not to increase the number of enemies of his regime, Cromwell pursued a moderate religious policy. The Lord Protector pursued an active foreign policy. Having completed the war with Holland in 1654, he, in alliance with France, declared war on Spain (see Anglo-Spanish Wars). Military expenses were paid for through direct and indirect taxes, the value of which had long exceeded the previous requests of the Stuarts and caused widespread public discontent. In April 1654, a union was proclaimed between England and Scotland. In the first parliament convened by Cromwell (09/03/1654-01/22/1655), Republican deputies tried to revise the orders of the Lord Protector and some provisions of the constitution, and also demanded that the army, the main support of the regime, be halved. Cromwell dissolved parliament. In 1655, the royalists rebelled, which, although easily suppressed, nevertheless showed that the regime was in need of reorganization. The Lord Protector divided England into 12 administrative-military districts led by major generals, who began to liquidate the royalist underground, confiscate the possessions of supporters of the monarchy and impose a special tax on them. The second parliament of the protectorate (09/17/1656-02/04/1658) turned out to be just as obstinate as the first. Already at the very beginning, about 100 Republican deputies were forcibly removed from it, and parliament began to look for a way to transition from military rule to a more predictable and stable civilian one. As a result, a new constitutional document, “The Most Obedient Petition and Council” (May 1657), proposed that Cromwell take the title of king, recreate the upper house and rule together with the Council appointed by him. Cromwell renounced the monarchical title, agreed with the rest of the proposals and received the additional right to appoint a successor for himself. Thus, it was not possible to find a mutually acceptable form of government. The stability of the regime depended entirely on the personal authority of Cromwell, but the Lord Protector died on 09/03/1658. Second English Republic (1659) Richard Cromwell, the successor and son of the deceased Lord Protector, came into conflict with the generals, and was forced to resign from his post in May 1659. For some time, the republic was restored, led by the newly assembled deputies of the Long Parliament. In February 1660, an army returned from Scotland to London under the command of J. Monck, who actually assumed supreme power and entered into negotiations with Charles II. 04.04. 1660 Charles II issued a declaration in Breda (Flanders), promising, in the event of his return, a general amnesty for the participants of the revolution, with the exception of those who condemned his father to execution, freedom of religion and the inviolability of the property that replaced the owners. On April 25, the so-called Parliamentary Convention was assembled in London, which on May 1, 1660 restored the monarchy with Charles II at its head. Results of the Revolution Usually, “revolution” is understood as a decisive break with the past, achieved through violence, and the establishment of a new social order. However, with regard to events in Britain in the mid-17th century. We can definitely talk, perhaps, only about violence and rupture. During the years of the civil war, at least a quarter of a million people died in battles and from disease. The social and economic changes that followed such dramatic events were not so radical and not so obvious. The abolition of royal suzerainty over land and the abolition of some other previous legal norms contributed to the formation of a land market, accelerated the concentration of arable land and pastures in the hands of landlords and the dispossession of peasants. But these processes began under the Tudors; by the beginning of the revolution, the population had adapted to them to a certain extent, and, in addition, they continued throughout the entire 18th century. The movements of land ownership during the revolution were quite large-scale, but after the Restoration most of the alienated lands returned to their previous owners. The final abolition of monopolies opened up prospects for a freer development of industry and trade, but in general the economic structure and social order did not undergo significant changes. Moreover, negative memories of empty and utopian promises of the imminent establishment of the Kingdom of God and general justice in a certain sense contributed to the conservation of the hierarchical social order. After the Revolution, Britain's economic development accelerated significantly, and the British economy a century later became the world's leading economy, but this the country could probably have achieved without a civil war. In politics, the republican experiment did not justify itself, and there was a return to the monarchical form of government. Until the first half of the 19th century. England's electoral system remained archaic, and the actual participation of the majority of the population in electoral procedures was minimal. The revolution did not contribute to the strengthening of the union between Scotland and England, which would happen almost half a century later. The most noticeable were institutional changes. Henceforth, English monarchs could no longer manage without parliament. The idea of ​​a balance of powers gradually took hold in the public consciousness. The formation of political parties began, the institutions of a standing army and direct taxation were established. A mechanism for the turnover and circulation of political elites began to take shape and function, eliminating to a large extent the possibility of a repetition of the revolution. After the revolution, the religious sphere began to gain greater independence from the authorities. Presbyterians in England almost disappeared, but the number of different sects, which had supporters among a wide range of social classes, remained significant. The idea of ​​tolerance and freedom of conscience, overcoming cultural stereotypes, became increasingly relevant, despite the fact that the restored Anglican Church continued to stubbornly insist on uniformity. There was no other period in the history of Britain when such broad masses of the people came into movement, driven by mixed social feelings. discontent, religious, legal and political infringement, religious exaltation and hope for the establishment of universal freedom and justice. At the same time, the revolution instilled in the British a strong immunity from utopian calls for a rapid reorganization of the world. It contributed to the formation of a society in which respect for tradition, the rule of law and the public heritage received from ancestors coexists with the ideas of individualism, freedom and popular sovereignty.

Russian Historical Encyclopedia