This is the third installment of my look back at the issues of the English Civil War that a century later became embedded in the ideology of the generation of the American Revolution. The major themes of the English Revolution are of absolutism vs constitutional government, and the role of religion in the state. Americans continue to argue over these issues after over three centuries - just look at the remarks prominent Evangelical leaders made in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Massacre, blaming ban on school prayer for the tragedy. The Exclusion Crisis provides a concrete example of why many of the Founders insisted that the First Amendment prohibit the establishment of official state religion in the United States.
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Titus Oates’ clamed discovery of a Popish Plot to attack Charles II and England’s Protestants led to renewed crisis between the Stuart Monarchy and its Whig opponents in Parliament. The revived threat of a Catholic conquest of England provided the opposition the opportunity to campaign for the removal of the Catholic Duke of York from the succession, and the imposition of limits on the power of the monarchy and the Anglican Church hierarchy. Unlike his father, Charles II was able to survive his enemy’s attacks by engaging in his own propaganda campaign, by securing royal income without having to call Parliament, and by avoiding war while dealing with a domestic political crisis.
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Titus Oates’ clamed discovery of a Popish Plot to attack Charles II and England’s Protestants led to renewed crisis between the Stuart Monarchy and its Whig opponents in Parliament. The revived threat of a Catholic conquest of England provided the opposition the opportunity to campaign for the removal of the Catholic Duke of York from the succession, and the imposition of limits on the power of the monarchy and the Anglican Church hierarchy. Unlike his father, Charles II was able to survive his enemy’s attacks by engaging in his own propaganda campaign, by securing royal income without having to call Parliament, and by avoiding war while dealing with a domestic political crisis.
The
Exclusion Crisis was precipitated by the 1678 discovery of the Popish Plot,
which Oates claimed was a Jesuit design to conquer England and convert the
populace to Catholicism. He
claimed that the Jesuits would disguise themselves as presbyters and foment a
rebellion in Scotland, which would accompany an Irish Catholic revolt. Once these revolutions began, the
Jesuits would assassinate Charles II and burn London to the ground. The Plot fed English anxiety about the
security of the Protestantism and coincided with a rebellion of 8,000
covenanters in Scotland in response to perceived oppression at the hands of the
Scottish church hierarchy. Rumors
of massacres in Ireland in 1679 and a French-backed Irish rebellion in 1680
lent further credence to Oates’ tale.
Fear
of rebellion combined with English fears of the security of the Protestant
Reformation in Northwest Europe to lead religious dissenters to worry that
Charles or his Catholic heir would adopt arbitrary power in the manner of Louis
XIV of France to reintroduce Catholicism.
Jonathan Scott argues that the Whigs’ parliamentary movement for
limitations on the monarchy and Anglican hierarchy that they believed would
protect them from persecution by an absolute ruler represent a reawakening of
republican ideals. Although members of the House of Commons offered lesser
solutions such as creating a regency council during the reign of future
Catholic monarchs, or having Charles remarry to produce a legitimate heir,
their primary goal remained the exclusion of his Catholic brother, the Duke of
York, from the succession primarily due to this dormant republicanism. In the Duke of York’s place, Charles’
parliamentary opponents asked him to declare his illegitimate son, the Duke on
Monmouth, legitimate, making him next in the line of succession.
When
Charles proved unwilling to alter the succession, Whig parliamentarians
attempted to force the issue by introducing the Acts of Exclusion in
parliaments of 1679, 1680, and 1681.
Charles prevented passage of all three attempts by suspending, and then
dissolving parliament. Frustrated
by his intransigence, and unable to coerce Charles into either maintaining
parliament or calling new ones due to his ready income, the Whig waged a
propaganda campaign of pamphlets, broadsheets, and newspapers. The Whigs also utilized popular coffee
houses to coordinate their attacks on Charles and his ministers. The propaganda campaign was an
effective one, allowing the Whigs to return majorities to the parliaments of
1680 and 1681 by playing on the electors’ fear of Catholics and arbitrary
rule. When these measures did not
achieve the desired effect, parliamentary Whigs impeached or imprisoned
Charles’ ministers.
The
Whig campaign included defenses of the “Right of War” espoused by John Locke,
who argued that when government invaded the rights of the individual; the
government lost its authority to govern.
Locke expanded on the arguments of William Penn and William Mead, who
argued that laws had no force if they ran counter to the rights provided by
Magna Charta, and that the individual would therefore be in a state of war
against the oppressive regime. In
addition to the contention that a government that violated individual rights,
Scott finds that radicals revived the rhetoric and idealism of the revolution
in order to defend their religious freedom. John Locke and Algernon Sidney wrote their treatises on
civil government in response to the belief that spiritual and civil oppression
were irrevocably linked.
To Charles II and his Tory supporters it
appeared that the Whig campaign was leading in the direction of the First Civil
War, and responded by fighting fire with fire. When the Duke of York was charged with recusancy, the grand
jury was dissolved before it could indict him. When he was ultimately indicted in Middlesex, the case was
moved to the King’s Bench and not prosecuted. In response to Whig sermons that equated Catholicism with
arbitrary rule and persecution of Protestants, the Anglican hierarchy preached
that dissent and Civil War would return England to the arbitrary rule of
Parliament. When dissolving the
eight-day Parliament of 1681, Charles publicly accused the sitting parliament
of arbitrary use of its power by imprisoning his supporters without due process.
The
Parliament of 1681 was the last called during his reign. After dissolving parliament, Charles
and the Tories embarked on a campaign to suppress all political and religious
dissent. He accomplished this by
appealing to public opinion and by purging Whigs from local and national
government. The purge allowed
Charles to silence dissent using his powers to censor the press. Unlike his father, Charles II was able
to pursue this course because he was not dependent upon parliament for
income. The 1660 restoration
provided the monarchy with permanent revenues in the form of excise taxes and
monthly assessments, which later supplemented by chimney money and poll taxes. Increasing trade and efficiency in
collecting customs duties further bolstered Charles revenue. Charles also received a secret subsidy
from Louis XIV, a result of his agreement to stay neutral in the Franco-Dutch
conflict.
Freedom
from parliamentary interference, allowed Charles and the Tories to sway public
opinion through a propaganda campaign that not only matched Whig treatises and
newspapers with persuasive arguments, but also popular clubs. Charles published his own works, which
he ordered read from the pulpit.
In order to keep the peace and to demonstrate his divine right to rule,
Charles’ supporters targeted all levels of society, not just the propertied
elite who voted or served in parliament.
Harris argues that the propaganda campaign was a direct response to the
opposition appeals to the public that led to the Civil War in the 1640s. Addresses, or petitions supporting the
King, were also used to demonstrate pubic support for the monarchy. Towns, counties, and groups collected
signatures of individuals agreeing to statements supporting Charles’ policies
in a coordinated campaign. The
receipt of the addresses was then published in the Tory press to convince the
reading public of wide support for the King. Like other propaganda efforts, the addresses targeted the
muddled middle that initially supported the Whigs in the absence of counter
arguments.
The
propaganda campaign accompanied the purge of Whigs and dissenters from local offices
and returned loyalists to their places.
Justices of the Peace and militia leaders not loyal to the crown lost
their offices. The purge was not
limited to the counties, but extended to the corporations. Corporations were a particularly tricky
issue, as they selected their own magistrates, voted for the majority of MPs,
and had their own judicial systems.
The corporations were purged through a series of systematic challenges
of their charters. The purpose of
the corporate purge was to prevent Whigs from packing juries. By controlling municipal juries, the
crown could ensure that its censorship efforts were effective, as juries
controlled by Tories returned staggering judgments against Whig partisans for libel
or recusancy. Excessive fines
allowed the crown to imprison its opponents, removing them from the political
scene.
The
combination of propaganda, income, and control of local government allowed
Charles and the Tories to quash opposition to his reign and his brothers’
succession through his death in 1685.
Charles’ success was furthered by his ability to play his three kingdoms
against each other. His supporters
in the Scottish parliament passed an act declaring that the parliament in
England could not alter the succession.
During the Exclusion Crisis, Charles II enjoyed freedom of action
because he did not have to rely on parliament for income, and the fact that he
was not held as a virtual hostage by an invading army from the north. His understanding of the need to
placate the populace combined with his financial freedom to allow him to
strengthen the Stuart monarchy during his reign.
The
causes of the Exclusion Crisis continue to be debated by historians. Steven Pincus argues that the debate
was a wholly secular one on the nature of government, while Richard Greaves
argues that radicals primarily focused on defending Protestantism in England,
Scotland, and the Netherlands against encroaching Catholic gains in
Europe. Jonathan Scott contends
that the work of Locke and Sidney clearly focus on the combination of arbitrary
government and imposition of Catholicism.
Tim Harris supports Scott’s interpretation of the Exclusion Crisis and
political conflict in the later restoration. The contrast shows that the main historiographical issue is
whether the radicalism of the Restoration period was more due to religious
dissent, republican political ideals, or a combination of the two extremes.
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