Absolutism in England and Scotland

1485-1715

The Tudors (1485-1603): Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

Henry VIII and his six wives, incl. Anne Boleyn

Edward VI (Protestant), Mary I (Catholic) and Elizabeth I (Protestant)

The Stuarts (1603-1715)• James I (r. 1603-1625)

• Charles I (r. 1625-1649)

• Interregnum: Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Commonwealth

• Charles II (r.1660-1685) and the Restoration

• James II (r.1685-1688) and the Glorious Revolution

• William and Mary, followed by Queen Anne

James I, the “Most Learned Fool in Christendom”

• Son of Mary, Queen of Scots• Raised as a Protestant in Scotland • Sponsored King James Version of

the Bible• Defender of the divine right of

kings• Had financial difficulties during his

reign, which caused him to call Parliament into session to try to get revenue from it; thus led to clashes between royal power and parliamentary power

King Charles I and the Civil War (1642-1649)

• Wanted Absolute Rule• Believed in Divine Right • Disagreed with Parliament about money,

religion, and foreign policy• Petition of Right (1628) = Charles I accepted it in

exchange for money, then ignored the agreement, setting off clash with Parliament

• Conflict between Anglicans and Puritans also• King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers,

lost to the Parliamentary forces, including the Roundheads, in the Civil War

• Charles was eventually executed

Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth

• Cromwell was a Puritan leader

• He was from the gentry class

• He led the Model Army to victory in the Civil War

• He ruled England as a de facto dictator in the 1650s

• A couple of years after his death, the Commonwealth ended and the Stuart monarchy was restored under King Charles II (the so-called “Merry Monarch”)

James II and the Glorious Revolution (1689)

• After Charles II’s death in 1685, his brother James II took over

• James II was a Catholic convert. He was also an advocate of an absolute monarchy. For these two reasons he became unpopular.

• The English people rebelled in the Glorious Revolution (1689). James II was forced to flee. James daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William took over as limited or constitutional monarchs.

• William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights (1689)