Paths to Constitutionalism and essays

Paths to Constitutionalism and essays Paths to Constitutionalism and Absolutism- England and France in the Seventeenth Century Constitutional Crisis and Settlement in Stuart England: James I, a believer in the divine right of kings, failed to understand the importance of Parliament in governing England. He dissolved Parliament, trying to rule without it until Englands involvement in the Thirty Years War made it necessary to reconvene it. But after Parliament passed the Great Protestation in 1621, James once again dissolved it. Charles I, forced by wars, called for Parliament to vote funds, which it refused to do until he signed the Petition of Right in 1628. In 1642, Parliament seized control of the Army. This started the English Civil War (1642-1649). The middle class people were the Roundheads and the Anglican clergy and nobility and peasants who backed the king were Royalists or Cavaliers. The Roundheads allied with Presbyterian Scotland; the king called on Irish Catholics for help. Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan leader of Parliament, led his New Model Army of Puritans against the Cavaliers and defeated them. Charles surrendered to the Scots, who turned him over to Parliament, but then turned about and allied with him. Cromwell defeated the Scots at the Battle of Preston, and helped get rid of the Presbyt. in Parliament...Parliament then voted to behead Charles. Cromwell ruled until he died in 1658. Richard was deposed in 1660 and Charles II was proclaimed ing. The Tory and Whig parties develop. Tories are mostly nobles and conservatives that support monarchy over parliament. Whigs are mostly middle class and Puritan and favor parliament and religious toleration. The Glorious Revolution: James II was unpopular the moment he took the throne. In 1688, important nobles invited William of Orange and Mary to take the English throne. James fled to exile in France. The new monarchs accepted the Declaration of Rights from parliament. The Glorious Revolution inc...