Politics 1660-1688

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Summary

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• Charles asserted his right to rule upon restoration and clashed with Parliament in his attempts to consolidate monarchical power
• parliament became increasingly anxious about preventing and arbitrary monarchy
• fears over James II as heir developed during Charles' reign
• Parliament therefore became more dominant in asserting control over the monarch but not over the monarchy itself

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Key legislation

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1660 Monarchy restored, Charles II back on throne and HoL summoned to parliament

1661 Cavalier Parliament meets and sits until Jan 1679; bishops back in HoL; Act of Conformity

1670 Treaty of Dover

1673 Test Act passed to prevent Catholics from holding office (James resigns)

1677 four peers imprisoned by HoL for claiming that Parl was automatically dissolved as it had not met for over a year

1678 second Test Act stops Catholics sitting in parl (exception for James)

1679 first Exclusion Parliament meets; HoC drafts bill to exclude James from succession

1680 second EP met; Exclusion Bill defeated in the Lords

1681 third EP met for only a week, outside Oxford instead of Westminster

1681-4 'Tory reaction' saw purges, prosecutions and executions of prominent Exclusionists (Whigs)

1685 Charles II dies in Feb; James' parl meets in May but prorogued from November until dissolution in July 1687

1686 court case Godden v Hales allowed James to dispense individuals from penal laws; bishop of London suspended from office for not taking action against an anti-Catholic preacher

1687 DoI for Nonconformists; sent agents to find potential MPs who would vote for repeal of TAs

June 1688 'Seven Bishops' (refused to announce DoI) were acquitted; 'Immortal Seven' send invitation to William of Orange after birth of James' son

Nov-Dec 1688 'Glorious Revolution'; James flees to France; Convention summoned to decide political settlement

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Relationship between kings and parliament

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• 'normal' relationship between kings and parliament was (theoretically) restored under Charles II and James II
• under James I, relationship based on belief that kings took authority directly from God, although actions of monarch still subject to human laws
• neither CII or JII ever tried to raise money without parl's consent
• CII kept Cav Parl for 18 years
• suggests that both monarchs were much more cooperative with parliament, or were warier of displeasing parliament

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Relationship: Macauley

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• steady progression towards constitutional monarchy
• Whig historian: belief in trajectory from monarchy to modern society

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Relationship: Harris

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• most people welcomed monarchy back, but little consensus over nature of restored monarchy
  
• disagreements over power of monarch
• "the constitutional settlement restored the monarchy to its position on the eve of the Civil War, avoiding any stringent limitations, but keeping most of the reforms passed in the early months of the Long Parliament...which had been designed to prevent a repeat of the experiment with personal rule"
• remained room for conflict between "those who wanted the monarchy to develop into a more autocratic direction and those who stressed the parliamentary nature of the English monarchy"
• the exact nature of relationship between king and parl in 1660 was ambiguous and unclear

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Relationship: Miller

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• perceived danger of arbitrary government from above balanced with equally clearly perceived threat of resistance and rebellion from below
• prospect of strengthening monarchical authority or of a revived civil war might provoke quarrels in localities or parliament
• 'power balance' between two sides remained fairly equal for the beginning of period (fairly balanced relationship initially)

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Relationship: Hoppit

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• clear decline in the role of parliament during latter stages of Restoration period
• 14,216 acts passed between 1660 and 1800 with 7,025: success rate of 66.9%
• this rate was low and declining, starting at about a third and finishing at less than a tenth during Restoration period
• "general trend...decline of the Restoration period, the rise under William and Anne and the stability thereafter"
• under CII and JII only 28.2% of attempts at legislation succeeded
• after 1688, success rates rose to 51% until 1714
• 11 of 22 sessions between 1660 and 1688 lasted fewer than 50 days
• in the 121 sessions after 1688 only 4 were so short
• in Restoration era, 8 sessions came 300 days after end of the previous sessions: after 1689 no gap reached that length
• these statistics imply that Parliaments were far less active during the Restoration parliament - parliament a bit weaker?

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Why did the relationship between Parliament and the King change throughout the Restoration period? 1681-1688

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• March 1681 sees dissolution of Oxford Parliament (last of CII's reign)
• English monarchy is at a strong position at this time, and will grow stronger through 1680s
• Coward notes how England followed many other European countries at the time in its move towards a strong, centralised, authoritarian government
• accession of JII to the throne in 1685 demonstrates strength of the monarchy at this point - OR does it demonstrate parl's belief in its ability to control the king?

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Why did the relationship between Parliament and the King change throughout the Restoration period? 1681-1685

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• key reason for change in relationship was CII's actions after diss. of OxParl: ruled a declaration to be read out in churches which recalled the horrors of the Civil War ("religion, liberty and property were all lost and gone") and attributes this to lack of monarchical rule during the period; this taints the image of the Whigs in England and associates them with a negative form of republicanism
• Whig party themselves responsible: extremist tactics lost them the 'propertied' classes
• diss of parl ensured continuation of dwindling Whig support; monarchy grew in strength; whigs won elections based on electoral organisation, which they were stripped of when Charles dissolved parl
• criminal law was weighted against defendants and judges who resisted royal wishes were dismissed; protestors were therefore unable to speak out against Charles
• financial matters: Charles restricted expenditure during latter years; period of prosperity increased national revenues; £1,370,750 total revenue 1684-5; size and efficiency of executive departments grew, again adding to power of the Crown

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Why did the relationship between Parliament and the King change throughout the Restoration period? 1685-1688

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• James' religion
• James had moderate aims: didn't want to completely catholicise the country nor rule unconstitutionally (dissolves P in 1688)
• RELIGION moved their relationship into conflict: no son until 1688 so tensions between Prot and Cath grew in first 3 years of reign; parliament increasingly apprehensive and afraid of a Catholic dynasty; James' daughter Anne married William of Orange, so parl invited WoO to invade England

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Relationship change: issues in existence

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• Charles restored with no definitive limitations on issues such as parliamentary control of the army, ability to veto legislation and of his ministers; therefore fundamental questions concerning powers of the crown and parliament were not resolved
• Miller argues that "the restoration constitutional balance was not in itself unworkable: it became so because CII's policies and his brother's conversion made it increasingly difficult to work with parliament"

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Relationship change: period of harmony

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• Charles had an extremely powerful position initially: could still veto legislation, dispense individuals, suspend statutes, dissolve and call parl and dictate foreign policy
• Militia Act of 1661 and 1662 put the crown in sole charge of the militia
• Triennial Act of 1664 stated that maximum period between parls should be 3 years but had no machinery for enforcing this
• acts against tumultuous petitioning
• parliament supported press censorship
• Coward claims that "relations between the crown and parliament in the parliamentary sessions of 1670-1 were perhaps the most harmonious of the whole reign"

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Relationship change: policy of toleration

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• for first half of reign, CII favoured policy of reconciliation with dissenters
• DoI March 1672: Charles' decision to extend toleration to Catholics was too extreme for parl; turned most of political nation against the king ad his ministers

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Relationship change: French Treaty

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• CII claimed to parl that there were no treaties other than ToD, but embarked upon two further secret agreements with Louis XIV (he was going to pay C £112,000)
• by 1677, MPs feared spread of French power and pressed for a Dutch alliance; whereas earlier MPs resolved war matters to be the king's businesses, some now claimed that they had a right to scrutinise alliances and discuss foreign policy
• in Feb 1678, HoC voted in favour of money to wage war against France and to raise an army; Charles did not declare war nor disband army - this alienate both parl and the French
• Montagu (former Paris ambassador) revealed Charles' and Danby's secret French agreements in Dec 1678: this increased fear regarding king's intention to introduce arbitrary government
• Charles later decided to dissolve CP in order to prevent further damaging revelations - could be seen as pseudo-absolutism

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Relationship change: James and Exclusion Crisis

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• fears of possible future of arbitrary rule and popery intensified in 1673
• Exclusion Bill read 3 times and consistently rejected by CII
• "never was a civil war feared more than now"
• Popish Plot and James' associated with it exacerbated fears and made many MPs embrace exclusion
• Charles prorogued and later dissolved parliament
• Civil unrest was avoided because Charles remained firm in his brother's right to succession but made strategically timed confessions: in April 1679, he enlarged his privy council to include many of James' opponents (empty gesture)
• the Whigs lacked an obvious candidate as successor: helps to understand why a large number of MPs supported a policy of limitation as opposed to exclusion

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Relationship change: extravagant spending

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• CII's excessive spending legitimised complaints of backbenchers over administrative waste and corrupted
• financial issues of crown in 1660s can be attributed to failure of convention and CavParl to provide monarchy with adequate permanent revenue
• Charles' extravagance largely to blame in 1670s: Danby failed to reduce expenditure so crown was increasingly dependent upon Parliament thus enlarging importance of having a cooperative parliament
• Macauley argues that "the commons systematically exploited the power of the purse to extort confessions: forced C to withdraw DoI, agree to TA and make peace with Dutch all through withholding money - lack of trust and cooperation forced parl to assert their economic power as a means of obtaining their desired policy
• Lord Treasurer Danby replaced by Treasury Commission in 1679 which introduced severe cutbacks to the king's expenditure; as a consequence Charles' financial strength increased; he could dispense with parliament in 1681