The last post was a very brief and grossly oversimplified history of England in the Middle Ages (with an emphasis on law). English kings established both courts and Parliament in order to enhance their own power, but these bodies developed ther own institutional interests apart from the king, and their own concepts of law apart from the king's will. In addition, the nobility forced King John to sign the Magna Charta placing limits on the king's arbitrary power.
At this point someone in CHILP asked, did the king ever test the limits of his power. And the answer was, of course. During the later Middle Ages, there was an ongoing tug-of-war between the king and Parliament for power, with strong kings prevailing over Parliament, and Parliament prevailing over weak kings. Weak kings also tended to be overthrown and to die of unnatural causes. Invariably they were replaced by a royal cousin. Invariably, the overall balance between the king and Parliament continued to see-saw back and forth and never be resolved.
But it was in the 17th Century that the struggle truly came to head. Full-scale civil war broke out between the king and Parliament in the reign of Charles I (life 1600-1649, reign 1625-1649). Supporting him were the Cavaliers (Royalists); opposing him were the Roundheads (Puritans). Part of the war was secular (the king and Parliament fighting for supremacy) and part was religious. (Henry VIII had decisively broken with the Pope, but the Church of England seemed suspiciously semi-Catholic to the Puritans who were so-called because they wanted to “purify” of of Catholic influences). Besides, in the religious fervor that was common in the early 17th Century, both sides saw the secular side of the war in religious terms. Charles argued for the divine rights of kings – the king was chosen by God and answerable to God only. Disobedience to the king was disobedience to God. The Puritans saw the society as a sacred covenant between God and the nation (based on the covenants of the Old Testament). God gave the king power only on condition that he obey God’s law. When the ruler disobeyed God’s law, he brought God’s wrath on the entire nation.
Parliament and the Puritans won the war. In 1649, they deposed Charles, put him on trial for treason and cut his head off (almost 150 years before the French made such things popular). Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Puritan army, established a military dictatorship known as the “Protectorate.” Rule by Puritans soon proved unpopular, and the Protectorate failed soon after Cromwell died. Charles I’s son, Charles II returned to the throne, and the struggle continued, though in less violent form and (on the whole) with less religious fervor. Charles II kept his throne and his head, but his yo unger brother and successor, James II committed the unpardonable sin of being a Catholic and was bloodlessly overthrown in 1688. Parliament offered the throne to James’ daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, subject to the Bill of Rights.
Much of the British Bill of Rights should sound familiar to Americans. It forbids unilateal rule by the king without the consent of Parliament and guarantees the right of petition, the right to keep and bear arms, freedom of speech within Parliament, trial by jury for treason, a ban on excessive bail or fines or cruel and unusual punishment and free elections and frequent sessions of Parliament.
It was out of this turmoil and upheaval that the Thirteen Colonies were formed. The colonists were generally whoever was losing at any particular time during all this war and strife, Much of our distrust for governmet, and may of our concepts of freedom, set forth in our own Bill of Rights, spring not just from complaints about British colonial rule in the 18th Century, but struggles to curb the king's power in the 17th. Indeed, fear of a return to the 17th Century kingship haunted both our Revolution and the founding of the Constitution. These 17th Century struggles shaped the attitude of the colonists who formed the colonies that became the United States.
And so, before I get to the writing of the Constitution, I would like to give a review of Albions's Seed, the immensely popular and influential cultural history of the colonists who founded the 13 colonies and the culture and attitudes they brought over from England.
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