Section 3: Constitutionalism and Roots of Modern Political Thought

• Introduction: This Week's Goals
• Text
• Multimedia
• Sources
• Outline
• Web Exercise
• Discussion Questions
   
• Test Yourself!
  An online quiz for this section.

Introduction: This Week's Goals

Absolutist states lead the way in developing modern governmental methods such as hierarchical bureaucracies, standing armies, strict definitions of sovereignty, and so forth. But it was in England, the Netherlands, and the early American colonies that a series of internal and external military conflicts lead to the creation and spread of modern ideas about constitutional government. At the end of this section you should:

• Know the institutional background in England under the Tudors and the significance of Parliament.
• Know what the English Civil War was about
• Know about new ideas which emerged in the period, and who put them forward, and what was distinctive about the ideas.
  • Parliament
  • Levelers
  • Women
  • Baptists and Quakers
• Know what events took place during the "Glorious Revolution"
• Understand John Locke's views on government.
  • How government emerged.
  • The nature of "natural rights" (and what they are)
  • Theory of the social contract
  • The "right to resist government" and the historical background.
• Know how political stability was established in the 18th century.
  • The emergence of Constitutional monarchy.
  • Cabinet government at Robert Walpole.
• Know about other areas: the Netherlands.
• Be able to discuss the effects of these events in colonial North America
  • Calvinism
  • Governmental liberties
• Be able to discuss the origins and issues around slavery in the Western hemisphere.

Text

Kagan, 450-63, 506-509, 518-25

Multimedia

Images

• Elizabeth I, and 2 (b.1533, r. 1558-1603)
• Charles I (b.1600- r 1625-d.1649) and Charles I beheaded and 2
• A Cavalier
• Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658, r.1653-58)
• John Locke
• English Puritan Woman 17C

Sources

• Petition of Right, 1628
• Statement of the Levellers, 1649
• Radical Women During the English Revolution
• Declaration of Right, February 1689
• John Locke (1632-1704): Second Treatise on Government, 1689, excerpts [At Northpark]
• William Temple: Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands

Outline

I. Introduction

The problem of political disintegration in early 17^th century England

• Led to the English Revolution
• Absolutism and Constitutionalism in competition.

II. Elizabeth I (1558-1603) - Practical Constitutionalism

• Withdrawal of nobility from politics.
• Working with the gentry.
• The Gentry as a class - hold local power.
• Parliament.
• Ministers - the Cecils.

Note: This was the great age of literature in England - Spencer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster, Donne.

III. The Stuart Family - Attempted Absolutism

• Mary, Queen of Scots, granddaughter of Henry VII.
• James I & VI came to the English throne in 1603. ruled in England 1603-25
• Charles I 1625-49

They promoted absolutism and the Divine Right of Kings.

• James VI A Trew Law of Free Monarchies 1598
  advocated the Divine Right of kings to rule.

Problems Faced by the Stuart Kings

1. Fiscal problems: Issue of Taxation and Consent.
2. Power of Parliament: problem for Kings in England was the strong tradition of Parliament.
3. Religious issues between Anglican Kings and very Protestant parts of the population. Also there were Protestants in Scotland - opposed to bishops.
4. James I and Charles I were not tactful in dealing with the Gentry, the   class who controlled Parliament. James I, for instance, gave away titles, plus favorites - Duke of Buckingham.
5. Both James and Charles were very moderate Protestants. which angered the Calvinists who wanted a "purer" church.
6. James had dirty habits. He had ruled well in Scotland, did not go down well in England, but was generally accepted. Charles I was much more conventionally "moral", but a much less successful ruler.

IV. The English Civil War 1642-49

1. Charles II tried to rule without Parliament but he needed it for direct taxation.
2. Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop after 1633. Episcopacy in Scotland.
3. Parliament called 1628.
   Petition of Right - against taxes and arbitrary royal power.
4. Intellectual Debate in the Period
   Ranters Baptists levelers Unitarians Quakers Congregationalists
5. War with Scotland
   Forced Charles to call Parliament twice in 1640. Short and Long Parliament,
6. War broke out between Charles and Parliament.
   Cavaliers and Roundheads.
   He lost. Beheaded 1649
7. The Parliamentary Army (New Model Army)
   Marston Moor 1644, Nasby June 1645

V. The Commonwealth 1649-1660

1. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) (Destroyer of Ireland) Cromwell became Lord Protector/Military Dictator died 1658
2. England a Republic
   Scotland and Ireland conquered.

VI. The Restoration 1660-

1. The Stuarts were restored 1660.
2. Charles II (1660-1685) was clever king. died a Catholic.
3. 1662 - Anglicanism restored fully
4. Mercantilism - competition in trade.
5. Restoration culture. Plays. Science

VII. James II & VII (1685-1688)

• Roman Catholic - belief in England in Catholic plots His aim was absolutism.

VIII. 1688 - The Glorious Revolution

• James II deposed - a bloodless coup known as the Glorious Revolution.
• William III of Orange and Mary (James' daughter) became joint monarchs.
• 1688 Bill of Rights said sovereignty - the right to rule - rested with "the King in parliament"

IX. The Hanoverians

• 1714 George I of Hanover becomes King.
• He could not speak English. - results of this.

X. The Establishment of Political Stability

• After 1688 you have a process of political stabilization consequent on the return of the nobility to politics.
• Tories - lower level gentry
• Whigs - Upper Aristocrats

Control of Patronage was the issue.

• English Whig aristocrats take control of Britain through buying up parliamentary seats - The three year rule helps -
• King is in background.
• Effectively get a one party state.
• Robert Walpole (1676-1745) becomes first in long series of Prime Ministers from about 1720 until 1742.

XI. Why did Kings in England Fail to Become Absolute Monarchs?

• They were personally inept
• They also faced a strong tradition in Parliament. The people who ran Parliament actually ran the country.
• But 18th c. England was not, although the most liberal regime in Europe, a Democracy.
• Britain was looked to from all over Europe in 18th and 19^th Centuries as a model for government.

XII. The Netherlands

• Dutch Wars with Spain
• The United Provinces
  • League of Counties
  • Statholder
• Social and Economic Issues
  • High Population
  • Trade as source of Wealth
  • Amsterdam as and Entrepot
• The Dutch Golden Age
• The Atlantic Economy

XIV. Theoretical Elaboration of Constitutionalism

• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
  • Absolutism defended as rational, not by divine right
  • See Diagram
• John Locke, Two Treatises on Government
  • See Second Treatises on Government
  • See Diagram
    

Web Exercise

Religion, and religiously motivated politics, played an important role in the events of the seventeenth century.  Today religion still plays a role in politics.

• Using your web search skills, find websites that use religion to argue for specific political objectives.  Use Yahoo! for this assignment, as you want websites, not pages.
• Try to find both "left wing" and "right-wing" sites. Each person need only find and discuss one, but as a group you should be able to find sites based on:
  • Roman Catholicism
  • Evangelical Protestantism
  • Islam
  • Judaism
  • Hinduism
• Try to explain how the religious position of the site creators affects their politics.

Discussion Questions

1. What roles did religion play in the events of English Civil war and after?
2. What makes a country "constitutional".
3. What makes a constitution work?
4. Which were the politically important groups in England in the 17th century? Which in France? Which in the modern United States?
5. What makes a "good" government? Efficiency and "getting things done", or preserving human rights?
6. What is the difference between a "constitutional" state, and a "democratic" state.

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created/revised 4/19/1999