English Revolution 17th century leaders. English revolution. Economic causes of the revolution

Figure of the English Revolution of the 17th century, ideologist of the Independents, general of the parliamentary army, associate and son-in-law of O. Cromwell. He was educated at Oxford. With the outbreak of the civil war, Ayrton sided with Parliament. He supported Cromwell in the fight against the Presbyterian general Manchester and became one of the organizers of the "new model" army. He participated in a number of battles, including at Nezby in 1645. The main author of the Fundamentals of Proposals, later the most consistent organizer and direct participant in the trial of Charles I. Participated in Cromwell's Irish expedition. After Cromwell's departure, he remained there with the rank of Lord Ruler of Ireland, but soon died of a fever.

BACON, Francis (1564-1626)

English humanist and philosopher, founder of English materialism. Major works: "New Atlantis" (1617); "New Organon" (1620). Ideas about the role of sciences for the prosperity of the country and the knowledge of nature based on the inductive method. Son of the Lord Privy Seal under Elizabeth I. Graduated from Cambridge University. For several years he served at the English embassy in Paris, then had a legal practice in London. Since 1584 - Member of Parliament. Under James I, he became Lord Privy Seal and Chancellor of England. In 1621, at the request of Parliament, he was sentenced to a fine and imprisonment on charges of bribery. Socio-political ideas: a strong king should rely on parliament (a representative body for approving taxes and passing laws).

HEMPDEN, John (1594-1643)

English political figure. Since 1621, after being elected to the House of Commons, he became one of the leaders of the parliamentary opposition. In 1637 he defiantly refused to pay the ship tax introduced by Charles I, for which he was convicted. The "Hampden Affair" received wide publicity and contributed to the growth of discontent against royal arbitrariness. With the outbreak of the civil war (1642-1646) he joined the Independents, participated in the organization of the parliamentary army. He died as a result of a wound during one of the battles.

HOBBES THOMAS (04/05/1588-12/04/1679)

English materialist philosopher, political thinker, one of the creators of the concept of the social contract. In Leviathan (1651), he likened the state to a mythical biblical monster: it is immortal and always reborn. The state is good, because it means the end of the natural state of "the war of all against all." Although Hobbes was a royalist and educator of the future King Charles II during the civil wars, after returning to England he actually supported the Independents, and his work was seen as justifying the new political regime.

ELIZABETH I TUDOR (1533-1603)

Queen of England since 1558. Under her reign, Protestantism in the form of the Anglican Church was finally established in England. Elizabeth's policy was characterized by increased trade and colonial expansion (personal patronage of the "Queen's pirates"), the beginning of the systematic conquest of Ireland, the strengthening of the central administration, the streamlining of the financial department, the increase in the fleet, and the complete subordination of the church to the state. The struggle for "parliamentary privileges" against the "prerogatives of the crown" that began already under Elizabeth served as a prerequisite for subsequent clashes between Parliament and the royal administration under the Stuarts.

CALVIN, Jean (1509-1564)

The figure of the Reformation, the founder of Calvinism, the Protestant creed, which was based on the doctrine of divine predestination. According to the doctrine of "absolute predestination," even before the creation of the world, God predestined some people to salvation, others to eternal torment. Calvinists proceeded from the fact that success in activity, combined with a righteous lifestyle and the rejection of entertainment, is evidence of God's chosenness. Calvinism is seen as a revolutionary doctrine that pushed the bourgeoisie to fight against what prevented their enrichment. English Puritanism, the ideological basis of the revolution, is considered a variety of Calvinism. Born in France, Calvin received support in Geneva, where he consistently and firmly enforced his ideas and ethics, for which he received the nickname "Geneva Pope".

CROMWELL, Oliver (1599-1658)

Leader of the English Revolution of the 17th century, head of the Independents in the Long Parliament. He began political activity in 1628, when he was first elected to the House of Commons. During the years of the civil war (1642-1646) he created a "new model army". During the second civil war, he became one of the initiators of the trial of King Charles I and the death sentence. He played a role in the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords and the establishment of the republic. Since December 1653 - Lord Protector, in fact, the sovereign ruler of England.

Compare both engravings. What might be the similarities between them?

LOD, William (1573-1645)

A political and religious activist, one of the closest and hated by the Puritan opposition to the advisers of Charles I. He shared the ideas of Arminianism and considered it possible to bring the Anglican and Catholic Churches closer together. In 1637, he was one of the initiators of the introduction of a single prayer book, which caused an uprising in Scotland, which led to a revolution throughout the kingdom. Executed by the Long Parliament.

MANCHESTER, Earl, Montague E. (1602-1671)

English politician of the initial stages of the English Revolution of the 17th century, one of the leaders of the Presbyterians, their leader in the House of Lords of the Long Parliament (since 1640). In August 1643 he was appointed commander in chief of the eastern army (created from detachments of local militia to protect the eastern counties from the royalists); O. Cromwell was his assistant (he commanded the cavalry). Manchester, being a supporter of an agreement with the king, opposed active hostilities against the royal troops. Cromwell resolutely opposed Manchester, accusing him publicly in Parliament in November 1644 of deliberately prolonging the war. The conflict between Manchester and Cromwell played an important role in the passage of the "Bill of Self-denial" by Parliament at the end of 1644 and in deepening the gap between Presbyterians and Independents. Subsequently, Manchester contributed to the restoration of the Stuarts (1660).

J. MILTON (1608-1674)

English poet and political thinker. Prominent ideologist of the Independents during the revolution. Author of a number of political pamphlets and treatises directed against the Episcopal Anglican Church and defending religious freedom. In two pamphlets "The Defense of the English People" (1650,1654) he spoke out in defense of the regime of the Independents. In the biblical images of the poems "Paradise Lost" (1667) and "Paradise Regained" (1671) he reflected the revolutionary events, recognizing the human right to transgress consecrated morality. Tyrannical motifs found a place in other works of Milton: "History of Britain" (1670), "Samson the Fighter" (1671).

PIM, John (1584-1643)

English politician, one of the main leaders of the parliamentary opposition on the eve and at the beginning of the English Revolution. Puritan, leader of the Presbyterians in the Long Parliament, of which he was elected a member in 1640. In his speeches, he formulated the demands of the opposition, acted as the main prosecutor at the Strafford trial (spring 1641). He was appointed chairman of a special parliamentary committee formed in September 1641, which was actually a provisional government. Pym was among the five parliamentarians whom Charles I tried to arrest in January 1641.

STRAFFORD, Earl, Thomas Wentworth (1593-1641)

English statesman, Count from 1640. In 1614 he was first elected to Parliament. In the 1620s was a prominent leader of the opposition, but since 1628 he went over to the side of the king and became one of his closest advisers. From 1632 - Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1640, in the context of the outbreak of the revolution, he was accused by the Long Parliament of treason, arrested and executed in May 1641. Before his death, he wrote a letter to Charles I, urging him to approve the verdict in the name of appeasing the country. Until the end of his days, Karl believed that his own fate was retribution for not protecting his devoted servant.

FERFAX, Thomas (1612-1671)

Political and military leader of the English Revolution of the 17th century. From the beginning of 1645 he was the commander-in-chief of the "new model" parliamentary army. After the pride purge of Parliament, Fairfax went over to the opposition to the Independents. In 1650 he was dismissed. In 1659-1660. advocated the restoration of the Stuarts.

WINSTANLEY, Gerard (1609-?)

The representative of utopian socialism, the initiator of the diggers' speech in 1649, the center of which was the county of Surrey, where Winstanley lived from 1643. The author of a number of pamphlets, which contained the rationale for the ideas of communal communism.

ESSEX, Count, Robert Devereux (1591-1646)

One of the leaders of the Presbyterians in the English Revolution of the 17th century. In the 20-30s. spoke in the House of Lords against the absolutist tendencies in the politics of James I and Charles I, defended the privileges of Parliament. He commanded the English army in the war with the Scots (1639), in 1641 - a member of the Royal Privy Council. Hailed Strafford's execution. With the beginning of the revolution, he took the side of parliament and in July 1642 was appointed commander-in-chief of the parliamentary army. A supporter of a compromise with the king, Essex, like the Earl of Manchester, avoided decisive action in the civil war and suffered a series of military setbacks, which caused dissatisfaction with the radical wing of parliament headed by O. Cromwell. He opposed the organization of the "new model" army. Removed from command in 1645.

JAKOV I, Stuart (1556-1625)

The son of the Scottish Queen Mary, who died in England on the scaffold, King of Scotland since 1567, King of England since 1603, the first king from the Stuart dynasty on the English throne. He ascended the English throne after the death of Elizabeth I. In his writings, he justified the right of the king to govern the country without cooperation with parliament. His policies are generally seen as absolutist, characterized by growing religious intolerance towards the Puritans, the introduction of new taxes and forced loans, the irregular convocation of parliament, and rapprochement with Catholic Spain - England's main rival in maritime and colonial trade. Favoritism caused growing criticism in the country - reliance on the "king's favorites" and the transfer of positions and property to them.

CARL I Stuart (1600-1649)

The second son of King James I, he became heir to the English throne after the unexpected death of his older brother Henry in 1612. King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625. The reign of Charles was usually considered in historiography as the time of the formation of the prerequisites for the English Revolution, and his policy aimed at establishing absolutism in England as a factor contributing to its approach. After unsuccessful wars with Parliament, he was executed in January 1649.

BUCKINGHAM, Duke, Villiers, George (?-1628)

Favorite of King James I, associate of Charles I, a prominent political figure at the beginning of his reign. Aroused the hatred of the puritanical and parliamentary opposition, he was blamed for the failures in domestic and foreign policy in the 1620s. In 1628, he was killed by the Puritan fanatic Felton, in commemoration of which an illumination was arranged in London. Because of the fear of popular demonstrations, Buckingham was buried secretly.

LILBURN, John (1618-1657)

The son of a poor rural gentleman, Lilburn, as a sincere puritan, during the years of "policy ahead" found himself in opposition to the royal regime, for which he was persecuted by the Star Chamber. During the Civil War, he became a colonel in the parliamentary army, but already in 1645 he left it, not wanting to fight for the interests of the rich. The author of a number of pamphlets, which outlined the ideas of the Levellers, the main ideologist of this movement. After the defeat of the royalists, he was an opponent of the regime of the Independents.

Having a huge impact on the fate of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Pre-revolutionary Britain: features of the economic and social development In the XVI - early XVII century. The most important factors that influenced the economy and the mood of the people of Britain 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-increasing number of people. Another consequence of population growth was galloping inflation. In the 1620s and 1630s, the incomes of the population dropped sharply. This was mitigated by the fact that in England most of the townspeople kept cattle, had vegetable gardens and orchards. In addition, employers often partly paid workers with products. The landlords also sought to increase the efficiency of land use: driving holders off it, they reduced individual plots into one large field, drained the soil, fertilized it, put new areas into circulation, draining swamps and swamps. The peasants, forced to sell their plots under the pressure of landlords and economic difficulties, replenished the army of landless workers who moved around the country in search of employment. Migrations that have become a sign Everyday life, and frequent riots of the dispossessed created general feeling danger and instability. The authorities and society took measures to reduce the number of poor and homeless vagrants. City officials licensed the right to collect alms; 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 kryons and urban residents employed in the agricultural sector to receive high incomes. Profitable sectors of the economy were also the extraction, transportation and sale of coal, the production of iron, glass, shipbuilding, and cloth-making. In the XVI century. the largest and fastest fortunes were made in the field of maritime and ocean trade, which was monopoly engaged in trading companies. In the first half of the XVII 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. The merchants and financiers of the City have repeatedly asked the Stuarts to change their economic policy, to abolish restrictions on the export of money, to impose a ban on the transport of English goods on foreign ships, to demand from the Republic of the United Provinces a reduction in duties on English cloth, to impose fishing limits for the Dutch off the British coast. Since foreign trade was in the hands of monopoly companies or individuals who obtained patents due to their proximity to the court, their opponents demanded greater freedom of trade and the abolition of monopolies. The 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 of James I. England, Scotland and Ireland differed significantly from each other - economically, socially, culturally and confessionally. 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 were largely faithful to Catholicism. There was a clan system. The royal administration in Edinburgh found it difficult to control the clans. The inhabitants of 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 community was the Celts or "Old Irish", who spoke Gaelic and lived in clans (here they were called "septs"). The exchange between the "old Irish" was very often still not monetary, but in kind. Another significant group of the population were the so-called old English, the descendants of the Norman conquerors, who began as early as the 12th century. colonization of Peil (Eastern Ireland), and then established themselves in other regions. The main city of Peil, where the English administration was located, was Dublin. In Peila, the English three-field agricultural system was used. The land belonged to the lords of the manors, who leased it to the peasants for holding. In the XVI - early XVII century. London actively contributed to the resettlement of English and Scots who professed Protestantism to Ireland. They were allocated "plantations" - territories taken away from the Irish. Protestant enclaves were also called upon to serve as a support for the central government on the island. Thus, a 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 Privy Council, created in 1540, which included the heads of the most important departments headed by the chancellor, the secretary of state, and the ministers of the royal court, became the center of government, and where the most significant domestic and foreign policy decisions were worked out. In order to increase 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 power in England was Parliament. Without asking his consent, the king had no right to tax his subjects. Due to inflation, crown revenues from other sources were reduced by 40%, so parliamentary grants were of great importance to the treasury. In pre-revolutionary England, the relations of the Stuarts with the chambers often did not work out. Among the major domestic political problems that fell to the Stuarts was the unfinished Reformation. Although the dogma of Anglicanism absorbed the ideas of Calvin, the church retained the episcopate, hierarchical structure, and magnificent vestments of priests adopted 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, the hierarchy of spiritual positions and the subordination of the Church to royal authority. According to the Presbyterians, at the level of parishes, meetings (consistory) of spiritual pastors (presbyters) and secular elders should support the true faith, and at the level of dioceses, assemblies or synods of elected priests and elders should lead the Church. 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 based on the norms of Roman law. In Scotland the position of the Presbyterian Church was very strong. Protestantism won there on the initiative of secular persons who established the Presbyterian Church - Kirk. As a result, Presbyterian consistories played a largely defining role in the religious and social life of the lowlands of Scotland. The episcopate was formally retained, but was removed from solving church issues. The administration of the Church was carried out by the General Assembly of elected representatives of the consistories, among whom there were many secular persons. Ireland English kings ruled 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 their lords only fixed annuities and duties. Ireland was subject to English law and institutions similar to those of the mother country were created. In 1607, the crown confiscated lands in six counties in the northwest of the island and began their accelerated colonization. The "new English" quickly grew rich and sought to dominate the system of government, causing the envy of the "old English" and the hatred of the Irish. Conflicts between King and Parliament under Charles I The short history of Charles I's relationship with Parliament is full of conflicts. In 1628, the deputies adopted the "Petition for the Right", condemning forced extortions from the population and arbitrary arrests. From 1629 the king ceased to convene parliament. In search of a source of replenishment of the treasury, the government in 1634 ordered to begin collecting "ship money" for the needs of the fleet. Many did not want to obey. The religious policy of Charles I also caused sharp rejection in society. He placed Archbishop W. Laud, a follower of the Dutch theologian J. Arminius, at the helm of the Anglican Church. The Arminians tried to reconcile the Calvinist doctrine of predestination with the Catholic doctrine of free will. Such theological innovations reinforced the suspicion that had already arisen under James I that the Stuarts were condoning Catholicism. The change split the Anglican clergy. The religious balance that existed in the Church and society was upset, and the Puritans acquired in the eyes of the people the image of the heroic defenders of the true faith. Lod strongly promoted doctrinal and ritual uniformity, considering the established liturgy to be better than an impromptu sermon. The clergy Lod considered standing above the rest of the people. Under him, many old symbols of worship were restored. Lod 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 during the Reformation to secular persons, to introduce a specially composed prayer book into the church liturgy. In 1637 the Scots revolted and abolished the episcopacy 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, which was 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 outright obstinacy, and some of its members were even arrested. The Scots, meanwhile, occupied the northern counties of England. The constitutional period of the revolution (1640-1642) The beginning of the A. p. dates from November 1640, when the sessions of the parliament, later called "Long", opened. An opposition group was formed in it, headed by Presbyterian J. Pym, who set the tone for the work of deputies. Parliament adopted a number of laws that significantly limited royal power. A three-year act established the frequency of parliamentary sessions - once every 3 years, regardless of the desire of the monarch. The Star Chamber, the High Commission, the Councils of the North and Wales were abolished, illegal taxes were abolished, and the right of the crown 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, acquiring rumors of hundreds of thousands of brutally murdered Protestants and the readiness of the Irish to invade England. Parliament and the king agreed that to put down the rebellion, an army should be raised and paid for with funds from loans received against future land confiscations in Ireland. In November 1640, the House of Commons passed the Great Remonstrance, demanding that the king reform the Church in the Presbyterian manner and continue to 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, Hezlrig, Gollis and Strode, after which he left the capital. In February Parliament subdued the militias of the counties. On July 12, Parliament ordered the recruitment of the army to begin. On August 22, the king raised the standard over Nottingham, which marked the beginning of the civil war. Supporters of the king in it were called "cavaliers", adherents of parliament - "round-headed". First Civil War (1642-1646) Starting a struggle with the king, Parliament imposed monthly payments on the population and introduced extremely unpopular excises on consumer goods. The first military clash, which took place at Aggihill (October 1642), did not bring victory to either side. In the winter of 1642-1643, the parties strengthened their armed forces. Influential aristocrats recruited soldiers for the king, who then commanded these units, and often kept them. By the beginning of 1643, Parliament had 2 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 in associations to form the armed forces. This is how the army of the Eastern Association appeared under the command of the Earl of Manchester, in which they began their military career T. Fairfax and O. Cromwell. During 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 a Presbyterian church in exchange for military aid Scotland in the fight against the king. The Committee of the Two Kingdoms was established to coordinate military operations. Scotland's entry into the war shifted the balance of power in favor of Parliament. 07/02/1644 the combined forces of the Scottish and Parliamentarian army defeated the royalists at Marston Moor. In turn, the Royalists defeated Essex's army in Cornwall. In Scotland, the Marquis of Montrose, who fought on the side of the king, led the highlanders and the Irish who landed to help them, in the autumn of 1644 - in the 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 the calls of Cromwell and did not complete the defeat of the king's army, there was a disengagement in the parliamentary camp. Manchester, Parliament, the Presbyterians and the Scottish Covenanters began to lean towards a compromise with the king. As early as 1643-1644, the English Presbyterians, in accordance with an agreement with the Covenanters, embarked on a 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 refuse to interfere in church affairs. The 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 dissenters (from the English dissent - “sectarian”, “schismatic”, “dissenter”) sects, in in large numbers emerged from the beginning of the revolution. In December 1644, the Independents passed through Parliament the Ordinance of Self-denial, which forbade the holding of offices. army officer and parliamentarian. And soon many of the former commanders - Presbyterians - chose to leave the army. In January 1645, Parliament, at the suggestion of the Independents, passed the Ordinance on the creation of a professional army, which the royalists ironically called "an army of a new model." From now on, the army units were supported by taxes and were not subordinate 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 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” utterly defeated the royalists at Nazby and decided the outcome of the war in favor of Parliament. In August 1645, the Covenanters defeated Montrose's detachments in Scotland. In 1646 Parliament passed a law abolishing the rights of the king as supreme overlord over the land. The institution of knightly holding, on the basis of which landlords owned land, was abolished, and possessions were turned into freely alienable property. In the same year, the episcopate was abolished, and the bishops' lands were put 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 him over to the British for 400,000 pounds. The political crisis of 1647 The end of the war inspired hopes for the restoration of peace and order. The harvests of 1646 and 1647 were meager. The provinces demanded that Parliament cut taxes. The Presbyterians, who dominated parliament, which had a large debt in paying the salaries of soldiers, 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 army "lower classes" were categorically opposed to this. In the spring and summer of 1647, the army formed a General Council of soldier delegates (agitators) and senior officers (grands) 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, which entered London on 08/03/1647. Before marching on the capital, the General Council of the Army adopted the "Heads 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 grouping of the Levellers (“equalizers”) and their leaders J. Lilburn, R. Overton and W. Wolvin gained wide popularity. The Levellers proclaimed the people the source of power, demanded equal suffrage, legal reform and a 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 work out an electoral reform plan acceptable to both sides. 11/11/1647 Charles I escaped from prison. In mid-November 1647, a mutiny broke out in one of the Leveller regiments, which was immediately suppressed. In December 1647, Charles I concluded a secret agreement with the Scots, who did not like the behavior of the English army, which was out of 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. Riots broke out in the north, in Wales, Kent, Essex, but by the summer of 1648 the army had crushed 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 utterly defeated Hamilton and the English royalists who joined him. 10/04/1648 Cromwell captured Edinburgh. While the army was at war, parliament resumed negotiations with the king. In November 1648, the General Council of the Army sent to the parliamentarians a "Remonstration" composed by Ayrton, declaring the only source of power to be the people with whom the king broke the treaty. The existence of an alliance between the army and God was also declared, a demand was put forward to end the negotiations, judge the king, dissolve the Long Parliament and change the system of parliamentary elections. Parliament rejected the 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 over Charles I to a specially created tribunal, which sentenced the king to death. 01/30/1649 Charles I was executed. First English Republic (1649-1653) The coup of late 1648 - early 1649 was prepared and implemented by a politically active army and parliamentary minority. The execution of the legitimate, God-anointed monarch horrified the country. Such a turn of events did not meet the desires 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 power, declaring the son of the executed monarch King Charles II. The most serious domestic opponents of the Republic were the Presbyterians and the 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 considered the Bible as the most direct and simple way to God, but believed that the Lord directly affects 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, prelacy, often promoted social equality and advocated the socialization of the lands. They lived in anticipation of the speedy second coming of Christ, who for the next 1000 years will rule on earth together 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 search of a stable political and administrative order. Cromwell was aware that the sectarians, or "saints" as they were called, did not make up the majority of the country's population, but he hoped that in time they would prevail in numbers. The victorious republic proceeded 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 Act for the Establishment of Ireland was passed. 40% of the land remaining with the Irish and the "old English" was confiscated. The proceeds from its sale were used to pay off loans and pay the army. All Catholic landowners were evicted from six Irish counties, and their property was transferred to the "new English", i.e. Protestants. In July 1650, Cromwell moved his troops into Scotland against the combined forces of the Royalists and the Scots. On December 3, 1651, Scotland capitulated. The Republic was just as aggressive foreign policy. In 1651, Parliament passed the Navigation Act directed against Holland, which forbade the importation of goods into England and its North American colonies on ships from three countries. Anglo-Dutch relations escalated, 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 the lands previously owned by the crown, and in 1651 to sell the lands of the royalists. As a result, a significant part of the confiscated real estate fell into the hands of prominent parliamentarians and leaders of the revolution. The level of confidence in the republic and 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 Republican Independents have been added to the discontented Presbyterians and Royalists. Cromwell Protectorate (1653-1658) After the dissolution of the "rump" was convened in June 1653, in fact, constituent Assembly out of 140 people, among whom there were many radical sectarians. They declared themselves a parliament and announced their intention to codify law, abolish tithes, replace church marriage with civil marriage and free debtors from prison, but they could not translate their ideas into real laws. Cromwell did not want new upheavals, and on 12/12/1653 the assembly was dissolved, which partly parted Cromwell from the radical sectarians. Then the officers, led by Lambert, drafted a constitution called "Instrument of Government." The position of Lord Protector was established, which was received by Cromwell with a scope of powers that exceeded royal ones. He ruled with a unicameral parliament and between parliamentary sessions he could issue ordinances that had the force of law. Cromwell and the State Council did not seek to change the economic and social system inherited from the past. A society consisting of ranks that differed in the degree of nobility, income and regulated complicity in management seemed to them correct. Order, the Lord Protector believed, was impossible where there was no social and political hierarchy. Such principles corresponded to the ideas of the gentry and wealthy citizens. 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 by direct and indirect taxes, the magnitude of which had long surpassed the previous demands 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 ordinances of the Lord Protector and some provisions of the constitution, and also demanded a halving of the army, the main pillar of the regime. Cromwell dissolved Parliament. In 1655, the royalists raised an uprising, which, although it was easily crushed, nevertheless showed that the regime needed to be reorganized. The Lord Protector divided England into 12 administrative and military districts, headed by major generals, who proceeded to liquidate the royalist underground, confiscate the possessions of supporters of the monarchy and impose a special tax on them. The second protectorate parliament (09/17/1656-02/04/1658) turned out to be as obstinate as the first. Already at the very beginning, about 100 Republican deputies were forcibly removed from it, and the parliament began to look for a way to move from military rule to a more predictable and stable civilian one. As a result, a new constitutional document, "The Most Humble Petition and Council" (May 1657), proposed that Cromwell accept the title of king, recreate the upper house and rule along with the Council appointed by him. Cromwell refused the monarchical title, agreed with the rest of the proposals and received the additional right to appoint a successor to himself. Thus, it was not possible to find a form of government that would be mutually acceptable to all. The stability of the regime was completely dependent on the personal authority of Cromwell, but the Lord Protector died on 09/03/1658. The 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. The republic was restored for some time, headed by the newly assembled deputies of the Long Parliament. In February 1660, an army under the command of J. Monck returned from Scotland to London, 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 to the participants in the revolution, with the exception of those who condemned his father to execution, freedom of religion and inviolability of the property that changed owners. On April 25, the so-called Parliamentary Convention was convened in London, which on May 1, 1660 restored the monarchy with Charles II at the head. The results of the revolution Usually, "revolution" is understood as a decisive break with the past, produced through violence, and the establishment of a new social order. However, with regard to events in Britain in the mid-17th century. one can certainly speak, perhaps, only of 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 former legal norms contributed to the formation of the land market, accelerated the concentration of arable land and pastures in the hands of landlords and the dispossession of peasants. But these processes began even under the Tudors, by the beginning of the revolution the population adapted to them to a certain extent, and, moreover, they then continued throughout the entire 18th century. The transfers of landed property during the revolution were quite large-scale, but after the Restoration, most of the alienated lands returned to their former owners. The final abolition of monopolies opened up prospects for a freer development of industry and trade, but on the whole 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 economic development Greatly accelerated in Britain, and the British economy a century later became the leading economy in the world, but this country could probably achieve without a civil war. In politics, the republican experiment did not justify itself, and there was a return to the monarchical form of government. Up to the first half of XIX in. electoral system England remained archaic, and the real 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 will happen after almost half a century. Most notable were the institutional changes. Henceforth, the English monarchs could no longer manage without a parliament. The idea of ​​a balance of powers gradually took root in the public mind. The formation of political parties began, the institutions of a standing army and direct taxation were established. The mechanism of turnover and circulation of political elites began to take shape and function, excluding 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. The Presbyterians in England had almost disappeared, but the number of various sects, which had adherents among the most diverse social strata, remained significant. The idea of ​​tolerance and freedom of conscience, overcoming cultural stereotypes, became more and more 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 large masses of the people were in motion, driven by the mixed feelings of the social. discontent, confessional, 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 strong immunity from utopian calls for a rapid reorganization of the world. It contributed to the formation of a society in which respect for traditions, legality and the public domain received from the ancestors coexists with the ideas of individualism, freedom and popular sovereignty.

Russian Historical Encyclopedia

The victorious bourgeois revolution, which led to the establishment of capitalism and the establishment of the bourgeois system in England; one of the early bourgeois revolutions. Being the first revolution on a European scale, it opened the era of the collapse of the feudal system in Europe, marking the beginning of a change from the feudal formation to the capitalist one.

By the middle of the 17th century. England has achieved significant success in the development of industry and trade. The basis of the country's economic progress was the development of new forms of production—capitalist manufactory (mainly in the form of dispersed manufactory). However, the system of industrial monopolies, imposed by the kings of the Stuart dynasty, as well as the guild regulation that dominated the cities, narrowed the field of activity of entrepreneurial manufacturers.

The kings of the Tudor dynasty managed to disguise absolutism with parliamentary forms of government, but already the Stuarts - James I and Charles I - came into conflict with parliament, which became especially aggravated under Charles I. Since 1629, an unparliamentary regime was established in England, personifying a decadent form of absolutism. Together with his advisers, Earl Strafford and Archbishop Laud, Charles I began to pursue a "firm course" in England, Scotland and Ireland, which caused discontent and indignation and increased emigration overseas, in North America. In Ireland, the plundering of Irish landowners continued; the policy of "church uniformity" in the conditions of the dominance of Catholicism in a country oppressed by foreign conquerors aggravated relations to the utmost. In Scotland, an attempt to introduce "church uniformity" led in 1637 to a nationwide uprising against Charles I - to the creation of the so-called. Covenant, and in 1639 to the Anglo-Scottish war, in which English absolutism was defeated. This defeat and the outbreak of peasant and urban uprisings (20-30s) hastened the beginning of the revolution. The Short Parliament (April 13 - May 5, 1640) refused to provide subsidies for the conduct of the Scottish war. Lack of money, dissatisfaction not only among the lower classes, but also among the financiers and merchants made the position of Charles hopeless. A new parliament was convened, called the Long Parliament (November 3, 1640 - April 20, 1653); revolution began in the country.

The Long Parliament destroyed the main weapons of absolutism: the emergency royal courts were liquidated - the Star Chamber, the High Commission , all monopoly patents and privileges were destroyed, and their holders were removed from Parliament, a bill was passed on the non-dissolution of the existing Parliament without its consent. The closest adviser to the king, Strafford, was brought to the court of parliament and executed (May 12, 1641). Later, his fate was shared by Archbishop Lod and other advisers to the king. However, already in 1641, disagreements were revealed in parliament. Fearing that the principle of “equality and self-government”, having won in church affairs, could also affect political orders in the country, the landlords and the big bourgeoisie frustrated the solution to the question of the destruction of the episcopate and the reorganization of the church on a Calvinist basis. The fear of a deepening revolution was even more evident in the fierce struggle that unfolded in the Long Parliament during the discussion of the so-called. Great Remonstrance (See Great Remonstrance) , which was adopted on November 22, 1641 by a majority of only 11 votes.

In an effort to suppress the revolutionary aspirations of the people, the parliament in the spring of 1647 tried to dissolve part of the revolutionary army. Facing the threat of disarmament and not trusting the Independent officers - "giants", the soldiers began to elect the so-called. agitators, to whom the leadership in military units and in the army as a whole gradually passed. A conflict broke out 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 left. On June 5, 1647, at a general review of the army, the so-called. A "solemn undertaking" not to disperse until the demands of the soldiers are satisfied and the freedoms and rights of the English people are 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). 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 "grands" of a significant part of the Levellers' program meant that the social program of the Levellers - in particular in the question of the fate of the copyhold - represented only a more radical version of the program of the "grands" and " ... that only the intervention of the peasantry and the proletariat, “the plebeian element of the cities,” is capable of seriously moving the bourgeois revolution forward ... ”(V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 17, p. 47). At the Battle of Preston (August 17-19, 1648), Cromwell inflicted a decisive defeat on the Scots and English royalists. December 1, 1648 the king was taken into custody. The army again occupied London and finally cleared the Long Parliament of the Presbyterian majority (Pride Purge, December 6, 1648). January 6, 1649 was established by the Supreme Court to hear the king's case. On January 30, Karl Stuart was executed as a "traitor and tyrant".

On May 19, 1649, England became a republic, in which the supreme power belonged to a unicameral parliament (the fate of the monarchy was also divided by the House of Lords); in reality the Republic of 1649 turned out to be an Independent oligarchy. Executive power was exercised by the State Council, which consisted of the "grands" and their parliamentary associates. The Social and Protective Functions of the Independent Republic in domestic politics combined with aggressive aspirations and a policy of suppressing the liberation movement of the peoples under British rule. military expedition Cromwell in Ireland (1649-50) was aimed at suppressing the national liberation uprising of the Irish people, in Ireland the degeneration of the revolutionary army was completed; here a new landed aristocracy was created, which became the stronghold of the counter-revolution in England itself. The English Republic dealt with Scotland just as mercilessly, annexing it to England in 1652. The anti-democratic course in solving the agrarian and national question narrowed the social base of the republic. Its only support was the 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 “giants” with the Small (Berbon) Parliament (1653), which, unexpectedly for its creators, took the path of social reforms (the abolition of tithes, the introduction of civil marriage, etc.), paved the way for the regime military dictatorship - the Protectorate (1653-59) of Cromwell.

Shortly after the death of Cromwell (September 3, 1658), this regime collapsed. In 1659 a republic was formally restored in England, but its ephemeral nature was predetermined by the whole course of events. Frightened by the strengthening of the democratic movement, the bourgeoisie and the new nobility began to lean towards the "traditional monarchy". In 1660 the restoration of the Stuarts took place (see Charles II), who agreed to sanction the main gains of the bourgeois revolution, which ensured economic dominance for the bourgeoisie. The coup of 1688-89 (the so-called "Glorious Revolution") formalized a compromise between the bourgeoisie, which from then on received access to state power and the landed aristocracy.

The English Revolution gave a powerful impetus to the process of the so-called. the primitive accumulation of capital (the "de-peasantization" of the countryside, the transformation of peasants into wage-workers, the strengthening of enclosures, the replacement of peasant holdings by large farms of the capitalist type); it ensured complete freedom of action for the rising bourgeois class and paved the way for the industrial revolution of the 18th century. in the same way that Puritanism loosened the soil for the English Enlightenment. In the field of political revolutionary struggle of the masses in the middle of the 17th century. ensured the transition from the feudal monarchy of the Middle Ages to the bourgeois monarchy of modern times.

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Enlightenment, intellectual and spiritual movement of the late 17th - early 19th centuries. in Europe and North America. It was a natural continuation of the humanism of the Renaissance and the rationalism of the beginning of the New Age, which laid the foundations of the enlightenment worldview: the rejection of the religious worldview and the appeal to reason as the only criterion for understanding man and society. The name was fixed after the publication of the article by I. Kant The answer to the question: what is Enlightenment?(1784). The root word "light", from which the term "enlightenment" (English Enlightenment; French Les Lumières; German Aufklärung; Italian Illuminismo) comes, goes back to an ancient religious tradition, enshrined in both the Old and New Testaments. This is the Creator's separation of light from darkness, and the definition of God himself as Light. Christianization itself implies the enlightenment of mankind with the light of the teachings of Christ. Rethinking this image, the enlighteners put a new understanding into it, speaking about the enlightenment of a person with the light of reason.

The Enlightenment originated in England at the end of the 17th century. in the writings of its founder D. Locke (1632-1704) and his followers G. Bolingbroke (1678-1751), D. Addison (1672-1719), A. E. Shaftesbury (1671-1713), F. Hutcheson (1694- 1747) formulated the basic concepts of enlightenment doctrine: "common good", "natural man", "natural law", "natural religion", "social contract". In the doctrine of natural law, set forth in Two treatises on state government(1690) D. Locke, the basic human rights are substantiated: freedom, equality, inviolability of the person and property, which are natural, eternal and inalienable. People need to voluntarily conclude a social contract, on the basis of which a body (state) is created that ensures the protection of their rights. The concept of a social contract was one of the fundamental ones in the doctrine of society developed by the figures of the early English Enlightenment.

In the 18th century, France became the center of the enlightenment movement. At the first stage of the French Enlightenment, the main figures were Ch.L. Montesquieu (1689-1755) and Voltaire (F.M. Arue, 1694-1778). In the works of Montesquieu, Locke's doctrine of the rule of law was further developed. In the treatise About the spirit of laws(1748) formulated the principle of separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial. AT Persian letters(1721) Montesquieu outlined the path along which the French Enlightenment thought with its cult of the rational and the natural had to go. However, Voltaire held to other political views. He was the ideologist of enlightened absolutism and sought to instill the ideas of the Enlightenment in the monarchs of Europe (serving Frederick II, correspondence with Catherine II). He was distinguished by clearly expressed anti-clerical activity, opposed religious fanaticism and hypocrisy, church dogmatism and the primacy of the church over the state and society. The writer's work is diverse in topics and genres: anti-clerical writings Orleans virgin (1735), Fanaticism, or the Prophet Mohammed(1742); philosophical stories Candide, or Optimism (1759), Innocent(1767); tragedy brutus (1731), Tancred (1761); Philosophical letters (1733).

During the second phase of the French Enlightenment, Diderot (1713-1784) and the Encyclopedists played a major role. Encyclopedia, or Dictionary sciences, arts and crafts, 1751-1780 became the first scientific encyclopedia, which outlined the basic concepts in the field of physical and mathematical sciences, natural sciences, economics, politics, engineering and art. In most cases, the articles were thorough and reflected newest level knowledge. Inspirers and editors encyclopedias Diderot and J. D "Alembert (1717-1783) appeared, Voltaire, Condillac, Helvetius, Holbach, Montesquieu, Rousseau took an active part in its creation. Articles on specific areas of knowledge were written by professionals - scientists, writers, engineers.

The third period put forward the figure of J.-J. Rousseau (1712-1778). He became the most prominent popularizer of the ideas of the Enlightenment, introducing elements of sensitivity and eloquent pathos into the rationalistic prose of the Enlightenment. Rousseau proposed his own way of the political structure of society. In the treatise On the social contract, or principles of political law(1762) he put forward the idea of ​​popular sovereignty. According to it, the government receives power from the hands of the people in the form of an assignment that it is obliged to carry out in accordance with the people's will. If it violates this will, then the people can restrict, modify or take away the power given to them. One of the means of such a return of power may be the violent overthrow of the government. Rousseau's ideas found their further development in the theory and practice of the ideologists of the Great French Revolution.

The period of the late Enlightenment (late 18th - early 19th century) is associated with the countries of Eastern Europe, Russia and Germany. A new impetus to the Enlightenment is given by German literature and philosophical thought. The German enlighteners were the spiritual successors of the ideas of the English and French thinkers, but in their writings they were transformed and took on a deeply national character. I.G. Herder (1744-1803) asserted the originality of the national culture and language. His main work Ideas for the philosophy of the history of mankind(1784-1791) became the first fundamental classical work with which Germany entered the arena of world historical and philosophical science. The philosophical quest of the European Enlightenment was in tune with the work of many German writers. The pinnacle of the German Enlightenment, which received worldwide fame, were such works as Rogues (1781), Deceit and love (1784), Wallenstein (1799), Mary Stuart(1801) F. Schiller (1759-1805), Emilia Galotti, Nathan the Wise G.E. Lessing (1729-1781) and especially Faust(1808-1832) I.-V. Goethe (1749-1832). An important role in the formation of the ideas of the Enlightenment was played by the philosophers G.W. Leibniz (1646-1716) and I. Kant (1724-1804). The idea of ​​progress, traditional for the Enlightenment, was developed in Critique of Pure Reason I. Kant (1724-1804), who became the founder of German classical philosophy.

Throughout the development of the Enlightenment, the concept of “reason” was at the center of the reasoning of its ideologists. The mind, in the view of the enlighteners, gives a person an understanding of both the social structure and himself. Both can be changed for the better, can be improved. Thus, the idea of ​​progress was substantiated, which was conceived as an irreversible course of history from the darkness of ignorance into the realm of reason. The highest and most productive form of activity of the mind was considered scientific knowledge. It was during this era that sea travel acquired a systematic and scientific character. Geographic discoveries in pacific ocean(Easter Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii, the east coast of Australia) J. Roggeven (1659-1729), D. Cook (1728-1779), L.A. Bougainville (1729-1811), J.F. Laperouse (1741 -1788) laid the foundation for the systematic study and practical development of this region, which stimulated the development of the natural sciences. A great contribution to botany was made by K. Linnaeus (1707-1778). In work plant species(1737) he described thousands of species of flora and fauna and gave them double Latin names. J.L. Buffon (1707-1788) introduced the term "biology" into scientific circulation, denoting the "science of life" with it. S. Lamarck (1744-1829) put forward the first theory of evolution. In mathematics, I. Newton (1642-1727) and G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) almost simultaneously discovered differential and integral calculus. The development of mathematical analysis was promoted by L. Lagrange (1736-1813) and L. Euler (1707-1783). The founder of modern chemistry A.L. Lavoisier (1743-1794) compiled the first list chemical elements. characteristic feature The scientific thought of the Enlightenment was that it focused on practical use achievements of science in the interests of industrial and social development.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 5

✪ Causes and beginning of the English Revolution (Russian) New story

✪ English bourgeois revolution and its results. Video lesson on General History Grade 7

✪ English Revolution: Civil Wars and Cromwell's Protectorate (Russian) New History

✪ glorious revolution in England

✪ Oliver Cromwell (narrated by historian Natalia Basovskaya)

Subtitles

Terminology

The term "English Civil War" is the common name for the revolution, however historians often divide it into 2 or 3 different wars. Although the concept describes events that took place in England, the conflict also included 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 form of government in Britain and Ireland, and the economic system. That is why historians call the English Civil War the English Revolution. In Marxist historiography, it is customary to call it the "English bourgeois revolution"

Causes of the Revolution

Economic causes of the revolution

Agriculture

But already in November of that year, the Long Parliament met, to which the government had to yield - Pym, Hampden and other opposition leaders conducted a successful election campaign throughout the country. The Long Parliament differed from its predecessors only in the duration of its work. He represented the same classes, chiefly the gentry and wealthy merchants. Despite the fact that internal contradictions were ripening in the opposition camp, in 1640 all classes united against the crown.

Parties to the conflict

The forces involved in the English Revolution represented the old feudal order on the one hand and the new capitalist order on the other. The traditional monarchy and feudal customs were defended by the state church and the conservative part of the landlords. Parliament, on the other hand, enjoyed the support of the developed commercial and industrial groups in town and country, the yeomanry, the progressive nobility, and also the broader masses, when, in the process of the unfolding struggle, they realized which side was defending the more just, albeit new, principles of the social contract.

The English Revolution of 1640 was the struggle of the bourgeoisie, which grew richer and stronger with the development of capitalism, for the conquest of political and economic power, while the monarchical government of Charles I represented the tribal agricultural nobility, whose policy was solely to protect their privileges and the status quo.

religious conflict

In the spirit of the time, both opposing sides in their rhetoric resorted to religious argumentation, but social content was hidden behind purely theological ideas. Each class created religious views adapted to its needs and interests, and sought to inculcate these views in others.

The English historian Christopher Hill, author of books on the history of Puritanism, wrote: “We<...>we do not deny that the "Puritan Revolution" was both a political and religious struggle, but we affirm that it was something more. The struggle was over the very nature of English society and its future development. In the struggle of two social systems, two ideologies, the position of the monarchy was defended by the Anglican Church, and the views of the bourgeoisie were expressed by puritanism. The official church called for obedience to the king. During the course of the conflict, the clergy acted not only as a deterrent, but also as an offensive force, seeking to regain some of the lost church income and privileges, in particular the tithe, which was originally levied for church needs, but was subsequently embezzled by secular landlords. After the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the chief royal adviser. Lod believed that the king ruled by "God's grace", and those who did not believe in the divinity of the king, Lod called bad Christians.

During the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-1558), many Protestants went into exile. Having become acquainted with the ideas of one of the leaders of the Reformation of that time, John Calvin from Switzerland, they returned back to their homeland when Elizabeth I was already on the throne. They were upset by the state of the country and the fact that the Anglican Church borrowed so much from Catholicism. The Puritans were a religious sect of Protestantism that wanted to purge the Church of England of Catholic traditions.

Puritanism preached ideas that were suitable for the accumulation of capital and the development of capitalism: it taught thrift, sobriety, incessant work, but without too much enjoyment of the fruits of one's labor. As the gap between the crown and the bourgeoisie widened, the attacks of the Puritans on the Church, on its traditions and rites, became more and more consonant with the criticism of the monarchy in Parliament.

In Parliament, the Puritans formed two parties: the Presbyterians and the Independents (eng. Independents). The Presbyterians were a moderate party, they wanted to abolish the institution of the priesthood, and put elected presbyters accountable to the assembly at the head of the congregations. The Independents, unlike the Presbyterians, were opposed to any church hierarchy. They formed a radical revolutionary party and fought to limit the power of the monarch. Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the Independents. Fight different sides for dominance over the church was of paramount importance: whoever ruled over it could exert a powerful influence on the consciousness of the population. On the surface, the confrontation looked like an ideological struggle between Puritanism and Anglicanism. In reality, the struggle was for political power. The opposition realized that they were fighting not only a few bad advisers, and not even only the king himself. She fought against the outdated feudal system.

The revolution

The beginning of the revolution

The Long Parliament put forward the main demands:

1. demolition of the feudal bureaucracy,
2. preventing the creation of a standing army subject to the king,
3. the abolition of the financial measures of the crown, which caused a general economic disorder,
4. control of the bourgeois parliament over the church as an instrument of propaganda.

The crisis was hastened by an Irish rebellion in 1641. Parliament was unanimous in its determination to pacify the first British colony, but the bourgeoisie flatly refused to entrust Charles with the army necessary for its new conquest. Thus, Parliament was forced to assume power over the army.

According to Arthur Haselrig's Bill of Militia, the king was not to become supreme commander of the army. After the categorical refusal of Parliament to change the bill, an angry Charles I decided that the time had come to strike back. On January 4, 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 - "the birds have flown", as the king summarized. Members of Parliament decided to form their own army. After failing to arrest five members of Parliament, Charles fled London for York. Fearing that civil war was imminent, Charles began to raise an army.

The conservative part of the nobility sided with the king. The future royalists left Parliament on the pretext of not wanting to abolish the episcopate, but in reality (as one of the members of Parliament said in the debate) because "if we establish equality in the church, we will come to equality in the state." The confiscation of property of church landowners would potentially open the way to the confiscation of large property of secular owners. The big bourgeoisie was frightened and felt the need for some kind of agreement with the monarchy, reformed and in line with its interests, in order to check the rise of popular excitement.

Thus, the conditions of the First Civil War were formed.

First Civil War

The conciliatory mood in Parliament gave the king the courage to reject all proposals, and on August 22, 1642, he raised his flag in Nottingham and then marched on London.

The feudal lords had more experience in waging war, which was considered the traditional occupation of the nobility. The king's nephew, Prince Rupert, was appointed commander-in-chief of the cavalry. Despite the fact that the prince was only twenty-three years old, he had already gained a lot of experience in battles for the Netherlands. Prince Rupert trained the cavalry in tactics he himself had learned in Sweden. The tactic included engaging the enemy at full gallop.

The main resources of Parliament were the wealth of London, the administrative abilities of the bourgeoisie, and most importantly, the initiative and resourcefulness of the common people. Only the stubborn resistance of the population of the three major ports - Hull, Plymouth and Gloucester, as well as the defense of London citizens at Turnham Green in 1643 and their campaign to help Gloucester stopped the advance of the royalists on London.

Oliver Cromwell managed to overcome the spontaneity of these efforts of the people, to organize the masses. He drew attention to the enemy cavalry. Although he had no military training, his experience as a landowner allowed him to understand horses. Cromwell knew that pikemen, armed with 5-meter peaks, could give a good rebuff to the "cavaliers". He also noticed that Rupert's cavalry was poorly disciplined and that each rider attacked an individual target when charging. Cromwell then taught his horsemen not to crumble when attacked 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 whole north of England was at the mercy of Parliament.

The army of Parliament won a complete victory at the battle of Nesby in Northamptonshire on June 14, 1645, capturing the most experienced enemy and capturing the weapons and equipment of the royal army. This battle was the defeat of the royalist army. After her, Charles was no longer able to assemble a new army that would be able to repulse the parliamentary army. In 1646 Charles surrendered.

Second Civil War

After the victory in the first civil war, contradictions were revealed in the camp of the victors. The Presbyterians entered into negotiations with the captive king, and they hoped to get rid of the revolutionary-minded army by sending it to conquer Ireland. But the soldiers created their own party, expressing their interests. The officers joined the movement, called the Levellers. At a general meeting in June 1647, the whole army made a solemn "undertaking" not to disperse until the freedoms of England were secured.

In January 1647, Charles fled to Scotland, where he was soon caught. He was imprisoned at Hampton Court, but managed to escape in November 1647 and collected new army. At this time, he managed to convince the Scots to fight on his side. In May 1648, civil war broke out again, and this temporarily reconciled the grandees (higher officers) with the Levellers and again rallied the army around Cromwell. Already in August 1648, Charles's army was defeated, and he was again taken prisoner. After the victory in the second civil war, the grandees and the levellers united to expel the compromisers from parliament (the Pride purge) and bring the king to justice. January 30, 1649, after a short trial, Charles I was executed as "the enemy of all good people this nation." The monarchy was declared "superfluous, burdensome and dangerous to the freedom, security and public interests of the people" and abolished. The House of Lords, also deemed "useless and dangerous", was also abolished. On May 19, 1649, a republic was proclaimed.

This was the peak of the development of the English Revolution.

The role of the army

The successes of the parliamentary army were based on the wealth and administrative abilities of the bourgeoisie, the initiative and resourcefulness of the common people, and the democratic nature of the organization. The anti-royalist Puritan army was split into Independents and Presbyterians. The Independents sought to win the war with the king, the Presbyterians were in favor of a compromise with him. The Presbyterians in the war relied on a professional Scottish army, which was expensive but did little. In 1645, Cromwell managed to democratize the army: according to the "Bill of Self-denial", all members of Parliament resigned their command. The peers lost their traditional right to command the armed forces, and a 22,000-strong "Army new model" was created, based on democratic elements in the army. General Thomas Fairfax became its commander in chief, while Oliver Cromwell became commander of the cavalry. The striking force of the army was Cromwell's yeomanry cavalry, whose discipline was based on voluntary submission. The army had an open discussion of any, including political, problems, its soldiers were more politically conscious and disciplined than the soldiers of ordinary armies.

Yeomanry cavalry became the center of the organization of fragmented peasants and artisans. Among the rank and file soldiers and lower officers in 1647, the Leveller movement arose. They organized the Councils of Soldiers' Agitators and the Army Council, they had at their disposal the party fund, the printing press, connections with London, with other armies and garrisons, and with the fleet. The Levellers advocated a radical democratization of the army and authorities and the protection of the interests of small proprietors. Their political manifesto called "The Case of the Army" (eng. The Case of the Armie Truly Stated), was discussed at an extended session Council Army in Putney, as a result of which it was decided to work out a declaration that would be approved at a general meeting of the army and would become the basis of any future constitutional agreement. In 1649, after the victory of the army in the second civil war, the Pride of Parliament, the execution of Charles I and the proclamation of the republic, the Levellers were suppressed by the grandees, the leaders of this movement were shot. The unstable class position of the small proprietors, the Levellers, among whom there was an active stratification of property, doomed the movement to defeat.

The suppression of the Levellers meant a break between the big bourgeoisie and the nobility and the popular forces. But the army was still needed as an instrument of the bourgeois transformations taking place in the 1650s:

1. Conquest of Ireland, expropriation of local landowners and peasantry.
2. The conquest of Scotland, necessary to prevent the restoration of feudalism that might have come from there.
3. The demolition of fortresses, the disarmament of the cavaliers and the imposition of ruinous taxes on them, which prevented the restoration of the old order.
4. Implementation of the Navigation Act, which was provided by the commanders of military courts.
5. Creation of a strong navy, necessary for imperialist policy.
6. Sale to speculators of the land of the church, the crown and many prominent royalists to finance all these activities.

Protectorate

By the 1650s The Independent leaders became more and more conservative as their interests were satisfied. Their rapprochement with the Presbyterians resumed. By 1654, the sale of the land was over. Appeared new class landowners who wanted peace and order to increase their property.

On September 17, 1656, the second protectorate parliament opened. On March 25, 1657, the Humble Petition was adopted proposing Cromwell to assume the title of king. But the Leveller and democratic traditions were strong in the army, despite repeated purges of politically suspicious elements. Under pressure from the officer elite, who did not want to part with their influence in the state, Cromwell was forced to abandon royal title. This did not prevent Parliament from giving its power a de facto royal character. The protectorate was declared hereditary. On June 26, 1657, a new parliamentary constitution was adopted. The executive power passed to the council of army grandees, which was under parliamentary control. The army was placed under the financial control of Parliament.

Restoration

Oliver Cromwell died in September 1658 before the new constitution had begun to function satisfactorily. The successor, Richard Cromwell, did not have such influence in the army as his father. This led to the fact that the grandees made a palace coup and seized power. Richard Cromwell was forced to abdicate on May 25, 1659.

On May 7, 1659, the grandees convened Parliament again. After 5 months of reign, he again had a conflict with the army. In October 1659, Major General John Lambert dispersed Parliament by force and imposed a military dictatorship in England. The new hope of the conservative classes of the state, frightened by the radicalism of the English army, was the former royalist General George Monk, who commanded the English army of occupation in Scotland. In January 1660, Monck marched from Scotland against Lambert with his army. Lambert's army deserted. Lambert fled to London, and after him Monk entered the city. A parliament formed on the basis of the old suffrage was proclaimed. This meant the restoration of the monarchy and the rule of the landowning classes. In May 1660, the new parliament called on Charles II to take the throne of the three kingdoms.

The results of the revolution

Revolutionary transformations of the 1640-1650s. destroyed the social structure of feudalism and created the conditions for the free development of capitalism.

As a result of the sale of land, a new class of landowners appeared - the Independent nobility. Land became a commodity, bourgeois relations were established. Representatives of the old regime who returned later were also forced to join them. The defeat of the democratic movement and the disenfranchisement of the petty holders opened up the possibility of a ruthless increase in rents, enclosures and the expulsion of peasants from the land, which led to the formation of a class of landless proletariat.

The king was deprived of financial independence and became the first official of the state on the salary of parliament. The church lost its power and monopoly on the formation of public opinion, and also became completely dependent on parliament.

Royal monopolies and royal control disappeared forever from the sphere of industry and commerce, except for the necessary bourgeoisie of the East India Company. The guilds and apprenticeship laws were destroyed. The revolution proclaimed freedom of trade and enterprise. Of exceptional importance was the adoption in 1651 of the Navigation Act, according to which foreign trade transportation could be carried out only on English ships or on the ships of the country that produced this product. The law undermined the intermediary trade and shipping of England's strongest rival, Holland.

The liberation of science and the impetus given by the revolution to free thought and experience were of great importance for the development of technology, which ensured the industrial and agrarian revolution of the 18th century. The ideas of a republican structure, people's rule, equality of all before the law, which the revolution carried, influenced the history of other European states.

Chronology

• , November 3 - after an eleven-year break, a parliament was convened, which soon got out of control of the crown and later called the Long (eng. Long Parliament), as it operated until 1653.
• - Parliament refused to finance the suppression of the rebellion in Ireland and passed a law on the impossibility of dissolving Parliament without its consent. In August, Parliament passed The Great Remonstrance, a collection of articles listing the crimes of the crown. After that, state power was actually concentrated in the hands of parliament.
• - attempts by King Charles I to dissolve the Parliament lead to a confrontation between supporters of Parliament (eng. Roundheads - “roundheads”) and supporters of the king (“royalists”).
  • On January 10, the King leaves London.
  • On July 4, the Defense Committee was created to lead the military activities of the 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 start of an operation to suppress the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, which actually means declaring war on parliament. Oxford became the residence of the "cavaliers".
  • October 23 - Battle of Edgegill - 1st major battle parliamentary forces of the "roundheads" and "cavaliers", the second on 13 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 - the battle at Naisby: the defeat of the "cavaliers".
• , June 24 - the capture of Oxford: the flight of the king to Scotland.
• - The Scots gave the king roundhead for a handsome fee. An attempt by Parliament to dissolve the army ran into resistance from the Levellers. Cromwell was forced to make partial concessions to the rebels. 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

the victorious bourgeois revolution, which led to the establishment of capitalism and the establishment of the bourgeois system in England; one of the early bourgeois revolutions. Being the first revolution on a European scale, it opened the era of the collapse of the feudal system in Europe, marking the beginning of a change from the feudal formation to the capitalist one.

By the middle of the 17th century. England has achieved significant success in the development of industry and trade. The basis of the country's economic progress was the development of new forms of production - capitalist manufactory (mainly in the form of scattered manufactory). However, the system of industrial monopolies imposed by the kings of the Stuart dynasty, as well as the guild regulation that dominated the cities, narrowed the field of activity of entrepreneurial manufacturers.

The principle of free competition and free enterprise therefore became one of the main demands of the bourgeoisie in the revolution. The early penetration of capitalist elements into the countryside led to the development of capitalist tenancy and the emergence of a class of capitalist tenants on the one hand and rural laborers on the other. The English nobility split into two groups, one of which - the "new nobility", having adapted to the conditions of capitalist production, entered into an alliance with the bourgeoisie. Peasant landownership in England was in danger of disappearing; freeing Kopihold and turning it into Freehold was the main condition for the preservation of the peasantry as a class in England.

One of the most important features of A. b. R. - a kind of ideology, the drapery of its class and political goals. This was the last revolutionary movement in Europe, taking place under the medieval banner of the struggle of one religious doctrine against another. The assault on absolutism in England began with the assault on its ideology, ethics and morality, which were embodied in the doctrine of the semi-Catholic state Anglican Church (See Church of England). Bourgeois revolutionaries acted as church reformers - Puritans (See Puritans). The sermons of the Puritans laid the foundations of a revolutionary ideology - the ideology of a popular anti-feudal uprising. By the beginning of the 17th century. two main currents of Puritanism were formed - the currents of Presbyterians (See Presbyterians) and Independents (See Independents).

The kings of the Tudor dynasty managed to disguise absolutism with parliamentary forms of government, but already the Stuarts - James I and Charles I - came into conflict with parliament, which became especially aggravated under Charles I. Since 1629, an unparliamentary regime was established in England, personifying a decadent form of absolutism. Together with his advisers, Earl Strafford and Archbishop Laud, Charles I began to pursue a "firm course" in England, Scotland and Ireland, which caused discontent and indignation and increased emigration across the ocean to North America. In Ireland, the plundering of Irish landowners continued; the policy of "church uniformity" in the conditions of the dominance of Catholicism in a country oppressed by foreign conquerors aggravated relations to the utmost. In Scotland, an attempt to introduce "church uniformity" led in 1637 to a nationwide uprising against Charles I - to the creation of the so-called. Covenant, and in 1639 to the Anglo-Scottish war, in which English absolutism was defeated. This defeat and the outbreak of peasant and urban uprisings (20-30s) hastened the beginning of the revolution. The Short Parliament (13 April - 5 May 1640) refused to provide subsidies for the conduct of the Scottish war. Lack of money, dissatisfaction not only among the lower classes, but also among the financiers and merchants made the position of Charles hopeless. A new parliament was convened, called the Long Parliament (November 3, 1640 – April 20, 1653); revolution began in the country.

The Long Parliament destroyed the main weapons of absolutism: the emergency royal courts were liquidated - "Star Chamber", "High Commission" , all monopoly patents and privileges were destroyed, and their holders were removed from Parliament, a bill was passed on the non-dissolution of the existing Parliament without its consent. The closest adviser to the king, Strafford, was brought to the court of parliament and executed (May 12, 1641). Later, his fate was shared by Archbishop Lod and other advisers to the king. However, already in 1641, disagreements were revealed in parliament. Fearing that the principle of “equality and self-government”, having won in church affairs, could also influence the political order in the country, the landlords and the big bourgeoisie frustrated the decision to abolish the episcopate and reorganize the church on a Calvinist basis. The fear of a deepening revolution was even more evident in the fierce struggle that unfolded in the Long Parliament during the discussion of the so-called. Great Remonstrance (See Great Remonstrance) , which was adopted on November 22, 1641 by a majority of only 11 votes.

The secret of the victories of Parliament, to which power in the state actually passed in August 1641, consisted in the fact that behind it was the rebellious people (primarily London), who thwarted, in particular, the king’s attempt (January 1642) to arrest the opposition leaders Pym, Hampden and others. On January 10, 1642, Charles left for the north under the protection of the feudal lords.

On August 22, 1642, the king, who was in Nottingham, declared war on Parliament. The first civil war began between the royalists - the "cavaliers" (See Cavaliers) and the supporters of parliament - the "roundheads" (See Roundheads). The economically developed south-eastern counties, led by London, came out on the side of parliament, and the relatively backward counties of north and west came out on the side of the king. regular armies. The indecisive policy of the "moderate" majority of Parliament - the Presbyterians - led to the fact that the parliamentary army was defeated in the 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 the Independents, led by O. Cromwell. He sought to transform the army into a people's, revolutionary, capable of achieving victory. The old (mostly Presbyterian) command was dissolved. On January 11, 1645, it was decided to create a new parliamentary army - the army of the so-called. new sample. On June 14, 1645, at Naseby, the reorganized parliamentary army defeated the royal army. By the end of 1646 the first civil war ended with the victory of Parliament. Charles I surrendered to the Scots, who then handed him over to Parliament (February 1, 1647).

The new nobility (gentry) and the bourgeoisie considered the revolution basically finished: their main goals had been achieved. The ordinance of February 24, 1646, abolished the knighthood and all the obligations arising from it in favor of the crown; in this way the big landowners appropriated the right of bourgeois private ownership of lands that had previously been only their feudal property. In industry and trade, with the elimination of monopoly rights, the principle of free competition partially prevailed; legislation against enclosures was suspended (See Enclosures) . The entire burden of taxes for military needs has been shifted onto the shoulders of the working people.

Under these conditions, the masses of the people took the revolutionary initiative into their own hands. They not only frustrated all plans to stifle the revolution, but also made an attempt to turn it into a democratic direction. An independent party of "equalizers," the Levellers, emerged from the Independent Party (leaders J. Lilburn and others).

In an effort to suppress the revolutionary aspirations of the people, the parliament in the spring of 1647 tried to dissolve part of the revolutionary army. Facing the threat of disarmament and not trusting the Independent officers - "giants", the soldiers began to elect the so-called. agitators, to whom the leadership in military units and in the army as a whole gradually passed. A conflict broke out 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 left. On June 5, 1647, at a general review of the army, the so-called. A "solemn undertaking" not to disperse until the demands of the soldiers are satisfied and the freedoms and rights of the English people are 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 undertook a march on London, as a result of which the leaders of the Presbyterians were expelled from parliament. How great was the gulf between the Independents and the Levellers in understanding the goals of the revolution, it became apparent at the Army Council in Putney on October 28 - 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 political structure of the country, the so-called. "People's agreement", "grands" opposed their own program - the so-called. Proposal Points, which proposed to retain a bicameral parliament and a king with veto power. The conflict between the “giants” and the Levellers led to the dissolution of the Council. The disobedience of individual regiments, which demanded the adoption of the Leveller program, was brutally suppressed. The army was at the mercy of the "grands". At this time, the king escaped from captivity, entering into a secret agreement with the Scots.

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 "grands" of a significant part of the Levellers' program meant that the social program of the Levellers - in particular in the question of the fate of the copyhold - represented only a more radical version of the program of the "grands" and " ... that only the intervention of the peasantry and the proletariat, “the plebeian element of the cities,” is capable of seriously moving the bourgeois revolution forward ... ”(V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 17, p. 47). At the Battle of Preston (August 17 - 19, 1648), Cromwell inflicted a decisive defeat on the Scots and English royalists. December 1, 1648 the king was taken into custody. The army again occupied London and finally cleared the Long Parliament of the Presbyterian majority (Pride Purge, December 6, 1648). January 6, 1649 was established by the Supreme Court to hear the king's case. On January 30, Karl Stuart was executed as a "traitor and tyrant".

On May 19, 1649, England became a republic, the supreme power in which belonged to a unicameral parliament (the fate of the monarchy was also shared by the House of Lords); in reality the Republic of 1649 turned out to be an Independent oligarchy. Executive power was exercised by the State Council, which consisted of the "grands" and their parliamentary associates. Having sold the confiscated lands of the king, bishops and "cavaliers" for 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 leaders of the Levellers were thrown into prison, and the Leveller uprisings in the army in May 1649 were suppressed. The Levellers were defeated, in part, because they missed the main issue of the revolution, the agrarian question; they opposed the "socialization of property" and the "equation of fortunes". The representatives of the interests of the lower ranks of the people during the period of the highest upsurge of the revolution were the so-called. true Levellers - Diggers , who demanded the destruction of copyhold and the power of landlords, the transformation of communal lands into the common property of the poor. The ideas of the diggers are reflected in the works of their ideologist J. Winstanley and in the so-called. "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 solving the agrarian question.

The social and protective functions of the Independent Republic in domestic policy were combined with aggressive aspirations and a policy of suppressing the liberation movement of the 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 ended in Ireland; here a new landed aristocracy was created, which became the stronghold of the counter-revolution in England itself. The English Republic dealt with Scotland just as mercilessly, annexing it to England in 1652. The anti-democratic course in solving the agrarian and national issues narrowed the social base of the republic. Its only support was the 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 “giants” with the Small (Berbon) Parliament (1653), which, unexpectedly for its creators, took the path of social reforms (the abolition of tithes, the introduction of civil marriage, etc.), paved the way for the regime military dictatorship - the Protectorate (1653-59) of Cromwell.

The constitution of this regime is the so-called. The tool of government - endowed the protector with such broad powers that it can be considered as a 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 took the English crown upon himself. 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 Westindian possessions ("Jamaica Expedition", 1655-57).

Shortly after the death of Cromwell (September 3, 1658), this regime collapsed. In 1659 a republic was formally restored in England, but its ephemeral nature was predetermined by the whole course of events. Frightened by the strengthening of the democratic movement, the bourgeoisie and the new nobility began to lean towards the "traditional monarchy". In 1660 the restoration of the Stuarts took place (see Charles II), who agreed to sanction the main gains of the bourgeois revolution, which ensured economic dominance for the bourgeoisie. The coup of 1688-89 (the so-called "Glorious Revolution") formalized a compromise between the bourgeoisie, which had since then gained access to state power, and the landed aristocracy.

The English Revolution gave a powerful impetus to the process of the so-called. the primitive accumulation of capital (the "de-peasantization" of the countryside, the transformation of peasants into wage-workers, the strengthening of enclosures, the replacement of peasant holdings by large farms of the capitalist type); it ensured 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 field of political revolutionary struggle of the masses in the middle of the 17th century. ensured the transition from the feudal monarchy of the Middle Ages to the bourgeois monarchy of modern times.

Lit.: Marx K. and Engels F., [Review] Guizot “Why did the English Revolution succeed? Discourse on the History of the English Revolution. Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 7; Marx K., Bourgeoisie and counter-revolution, ibid., vol. 6; Engels F., The situation of England. Eighteenth century, ibid., vol. 1; his, Introduction to the English edition of "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science", ibid., vol. 22; Lenin V.I., On the assessment of the Russian revolution, Poln. coll. soch., 5th ed., v. 17; his own. Fundamental questions of the election campaign, ibid., vol. 21; English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, vol. 1-2, ed. E. A. Kosminsky and Ya. A. Levitsky, Moscow, 1954 (bibl.); Lavrovsky V. M., Barg M. A., English bourgeois revolution, M., 1958; Arkhangelsky S. I., Peasant movements in England in the 40s - 50s of the 17th century, M., 1960; Barg M.A., Popular lower classes in the English revolution of the 17th century. Movement and ideology of true levellers, M., 1967; Saprykin Yu.M., Irish uprising of the 17th century, M., 1967.

M. A. Barg.

• - BOURGEOIS OR PETISTISTIC DRAMA - the name of a special type of dramatic work, which is a cross between tragedy and comedy ...

  Dictionary of literary terms

• - see BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY ...

  Encyclopedia of Sociology

• - English. democracy, bourgeois; German Demokratie, burgerlich...

  Encyclopedia of Sociology

• - the socio-political upheaval of the 1640-1660s in England, accompanied by civil wars, the execution of the king, the proclamation of the republic, and ended with the establishment of a parliamentary monarchy ...

  Political science. Vocabulary.

• - bourgeois revolution of 1566-1609 in the Netherlands, combining national liberation. war against absolutist Spain with antifeud. revolutionary struggle. strength...
• - see Bourgeois revolution ...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - The Great French Revolution - bourgeois-democratic. revolution in France in 1789-94, which dealt a decisive blow to the feudal-absolutist system and cleared the ground for the development of capitalism ...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - social revolution, osn. whose task is the destruction of the feud. building or its remnants, clearing the way for the development of bourgeois. states; in dependents and columns...

  Philosophical Encyclopedia

• - The English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, the victorious bourgeois revolution, which led to the establishment of capitalism and the establishment of a bourgeois system in England; one of the early bourgeois revolutions...
• - a social revolution, the main task of which is the destruction of the feudal system or its remnants, the establishment of the power of the bourgeoisie, the creation of a bourgeois state ...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - the direction of bourgeois economic thought that arose during the formation of the capitalist mode of production and the undeveloped class struggle of the proletariat ...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - the bourgeois revolution of 1566-1609 in the historical Netherlands, combining the national liberation war against absolutist Spain with the anti-feudal struggle ...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - see English bourgeois revolution ...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - see the Great French Revolution ...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - THE REVOLUTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY IN ENGLAND - see the English Revolution of the 17th...

  Large encyclopedic Dictionary

• - Wed. "Contemporaries about modern love. Love of the end of the century." Wed At the age of two, she was processed there, turned into a girl of the "end of the century" - she calls herself that. P. Boborykin. Decay. 1. Wed. Fin de siecle. Micard et de Jouvenot. Fin de siècle...

  Explanatory-phraseological dictionary of Michelson

"English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century" in books

World bourgeois revolution

From the author's book

World bourgeois revolution Bourgeois revolution 1985–1991 was imported to Russia. Just like in 1917. However, as in France in 1789. True, then it took much more time, the French Enlightenment for almost a century and a half rewrote English

BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA

From the book ON DEMOCRACY. GENERATION WAR author Gorodnikov Sergey

BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA Victory Soviet Russia in the Cold War coincided with the completion of the depeasantization of the Russian way of life, with the disappearance of the Russian village. The depeasantization, the industrialization of Russian life did not occur because of " cold war", a

§ 1. English bourgeois revolution

From the book History of World Civilizations author

§ 1. The English bourgeois revolution The English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, which had a truly world-historical significance, became the beginning of the New Age and at the same time a harbinger of the end of the era of feudalism, the Middle Ages.

1. THE NETHERLANDS BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION

From the book History of the Middle Ages. Volume 2 [In two volumes. Under the general editorship of S. D. Skazkin] author Skazkin Sergey Danilovich

1. THE NETHERLANDS BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION The Netherlands by the beginning of the 16th century. Netherlands - an area in the lower reaches of the Meuse, Rhine and Scheldt, along the coast North Sea. In the XIV - XV centuries. most of the counties, duchies and seigneuries located in this territory, which were, as a rule, in

THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY

From book The World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 3: The World in Early Modern Times author Team of authors

ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF THE 17th CENTURY English Revolution of the 17th century. was a religious and political social conflict, which took the form of parliamentary confrontation and civil wars and led to radical changes in public relations. In 1637 in Scotland,

41. BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND

From the book History of State and Law of Foreign Countries: Cheat Sheet author author unknown

41. THE BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND The English bourgeois revolution began in 1640, when the so-called "Long Parliament" met for the first time. Stages of the revolution: 1. Constitutional monarchy (1640-1642) - there is a polarization of forces: the king against parliament. 2. Civil

16. English bourgeois revolution 1640-1688

From the book History [Cheat Sheet] author Fortunatov Vladimir Valentinovich

16. English bourgeois revolution 1640-1688 Many believe that the beginning of the New Age and at the same time a harbinger of the end of the era of feudalism, the Middle Ages, was the English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century, which had a truly world-historical significance.

CHAPTER 3 THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY

From the book General History. History of the New Age. 7th grade author Burin Sergey Nikolaevich

Chapter 3 The English Revolution of the 17th Century “The Victory of the English Bourgeois Revolution in the Middle of the 17th Century. led to the establishment of the capitalist mode of production as politically dominant in England along with Holland, and thus gave the process of genesis

From the book Big Soviet Encyclopedia(AN) author TSB

bourgeois revolution

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BU) of the author TSB

Dutch bourgeois revolution of the 16th century

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (NI) of the author TSB

French bourgeois revolution of the late 18th century

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (FR) of the author TSB

84. English bourgeois revolution

From the book History of State and Law of Foreign Countries. cheat sheets author Knyazeva Svetlana Alexandrovna

84. English Bourgeois Revolution K early XVII in. in England absolute royalty became a brake on emerging bourgeois relations. The emerging bourgeoisie and the new nobility aspired to power and wanted to direct government policy in their own interests. For

bourgeois revolution

From the book War and Myth author Zygar Mikhail Viktorovich

Bourgeois Revolution Adherents of the opposition continued to stand on the neighboring Ala-Too Square. The day before, they were sent home because opposition leaders agreed on their draft constitution with the president's supporters and made a number of concessions. But in the morning the President did not

bourgeois revolution? But what?

From the book 10 myths about the USSR author Buzgalin Alexander Vladimirovich

bourgeois revolution? But what? Historians of the Soviet era agreed in their assessment of the revolution of 1905–1907. and the February Revolution as bourgeois-democratic. I don't think this is entirely accurate. If the main tasks of the bourgeois revolution have not been solved, to speak of a bourgeois-democratic