517. The Divine Right of Kings; the Civil War; the "Glorious
Revolution" of 1688.
The period began with the attempt of James I to carry out his theory
that the King derives his right to rule directly from God, and in no
wise from the people. Charles I adopted this disastrous theory, and
was supported in it by Manwaring and other clergymen, who declared
that the King represents God on earth, and that the subject who
resists his will, or refuses a tax or loan to him, does so at the
everlasting peril of his soul.
Charles I's arbitrary methods of government and levies of illegal
taxes, with the imprisonment of those who refused to pay them, led to
the meeting of the Long Parliament and the enactment in 1628 of the
statue of the Petition of Right, or second great charter of English
liberties.
The same Parliament abolished the despotic courts of Star Chamber and
High Commission, which had been used by Strafford and Laud to carry
out their tyrannical scheme called "Thorough."
Charles I's renewed acts of oppression and open violation of the laws,
with his levies of "ship money," led to the Grand Remonstrance, an
appeal to the nation to support Parliament in its struggle with the
King. The attempt of the King to arrest five members who had taken a
prominent part in drawing up the Remonstrance brought on the Civil War
and the establishment of the Commonwealth. The new republic was
utterly opposed to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. It
declared "the People are, under God, the origin of all just power."
Eventually Cromwell became Protector of the nation, and ruled by means
of a strong military force.
On the restoration of the Stuarts, Feudal Tenure and the Right of
Purveyance were abolished by Parliament (1660). Charles II endeavored
to rule without Parliament by selling his influence to Louis XIV, by
the secret Treaty of Dover. During his reign, the Habeas Corpus Act
was passed and feudalism was practically abolished.
James II endeavored to restore the Roman Catholic religion. His
treatment of the University of Oxford, and imprisonment of the Seven
Bishops, with the birth of a son who would be educated as a Roman
Catholic, caused the Revolution of 1688, and placed William and Mary
on the throne.
Parliament now, 1689, passed the Bill of Rights, the third great
charter for the protection of the English people, and later confirmed
it, 1701, by the Act of Settlement, which secured the crown to a line
of Protestant sovereigns. The Mutiny Bill, passed at the beginning of
William III's reign, made the army dependent on Parliament. These
measures practically put the government in the hands of the House of
Commons, where it has ever since remained. The Long Parliament had
passed a Triennial Act (1641) requiring a new Parliament to be
summoned within three years from the dissolution of the last
Parliament, which was to sit not longer than three years. This law
was repealed in 1664 and reenacted under William III in 1694.
William's wars caused the beginning of the National Debt and the
establishment of the Bank of England.
In the reign of Anne, 1707, Scotland and England were united under the
name of Great Britain. During her sovereignty the permanent Whig and
Tory parties, which came into existence in the time of Charles II,
became especially prominent. They have since continued to divide the
parliamentary government between them,--the Whigs seeking to extend
the power of the people; the Tories, that of the Crown and the
Church. After the passage of the Reform Bill in 1832 (S582) the Whigs
took the name of Liberals and the Tories that of Conservatives. The
system of Cabinet Government, which now prevails, took its rise in
1721 under Robert Walpole, seven years after Anne's death (S534).