England: Henry VIII to The Glorious Revolution
Henry VIII
• 1509-1547
• Had 6 wives
• Broke with the Catholic
Church
• Created his own church with the Act of Supremacy
– Anglican Church
Mary Tudor
• Favored the Catholics
• Passed laws that benefited them
• Persecuted many people
Elizabeth
• 1558 – 1603
• Took away Mary’s laws
• Favored the Anglican church
• Tried to balance - didn’t want wars
James I
• Believed in the Divine right of kings – king given power by god, only have to answer to god
• Does whatever he wants
• Ignores the parliament
Charles I
• Also believes in the divine right of kings
• Decides to ignore parliament
• Shuts down parliament from 1629-1640
• Members of parliament were wealthy, had power & land, had more control than the king
English Civil War
• Royalists / Cavaliers -supporters of the king
• Roundheads – supporters of the parliament
Oliver Cromwell
• Head of the New Model Army
• His roundheads defeat the Royalists, take control of England
• He gets Parliament to execute Charles I
• New government called a commonwealth
• It’s a republic in name only
• Fires anyone who didn’t support him =rump parliament
• Basically, he has total control – a dictator
Charles II
• Put in power by Parliament
• The problem that they have – Charles likes Catholics
• Exclusion Bill – James can’t become king
• Charles gets rid of Parliament to avoid having to pass the bill.
James II
• Catholic
• Starts favoring Catholics
• Parliament decides to get rid of him to maintain their power
William & Mary
• Leader of the Dutch
• Mary is James’ daughter
• Raise an army, head to England
Glorious Revolution
• So-called because there was no fighting & no one dies
• Bill of Rights - limits the power of the monarchy, protects parliament
• Toleration Act – protected freedom of worship
