Revolution of 1688 and the Birth of the English Political Nation

256 Pages·1973·7.84 MB·English

by  Gerald M. Straka

The Revolution and the Birth
of 1688 of the English
Political Nation
Second Edition
Edited and with an
introduction by
Gerald M.Straka
THE PROBLEMS IN EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION SERIES
(Arranged in approximate chronoiogical order)
Monotheism and Moses: The Genesis of Judaism Robert J. Christen and Harold E. Hazelton
Tiberius Gracchus: Destroyer or Reformer of the Rupublic? John M. Riddle
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Why Did It Collapse? Donald Kagan
The Pirenne Thesis: Analysis, Criticism, and Revision (rev. ed.) Alfred r. Havighurst
The Rise of Rome: How to Explain It David Hood
Town Origins: The Evidence from Medieval England John F. Benton
The Coronation of Charlemagne: What Did It Signify? Richard E. Sullivan
The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages: Universal State or German Catastrophe?
Robert E. Herzstein
The Gregorian Epoch: Reformation, Revolution, Reaction? Schafer Williams
Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? James M. Powell
The Crusades: Motives and Achievements James A. Brundage
Early English Parliaments: High Courts, Royal Councils, or Representative Assemblies?
Gerald P. Bodet
The Renaissance: Medieval or Modern? Karl H. Dannenfeldt
Machiavelli: Cynic, Patriot, or Political Scientist? De Lamar Jensen
Henry VIII and the English Reformation Arthur J. Slavin
The Reformation: Basic Interpretations (2nd ed.) Lewis W. Spitz
Calvin and Calvinism: Sources of Democracy? Robert M. Kingdon and Robert D. Linder
Reformation and Authority: The Meaning of the Peasants’ Revolt Kyle C. Sessions
The “New Monarchies" and Representative Assemblies: Medieval Constitutionalism or Modern
Absolutism? Arthur J. Slavin
The Rise of Modern Science: External or Internal Factors? George Basalla
The Expansion of Europe: Motives, Methods, and Meanings De Lamar Jensen
The Character of Philip II: The Problem of Moral Judgments in History John C. Rule and
John J. TePaske
The French Wars of Religion: How Important Were Religious Factors? J. H. M. Salmon
The Thirty Years’ War (2nd ed.) Theodore K. Rabb
Mercantilism: System or Expediency? Walter E. Minchinton
Protestantism, Capitalism, and Social Science: The Weber Thesis Controversy (2nd ed.)
Robert W. Green
The Origins of the English Civil War: Conspiracy, Crusade, or Class Conflict?
Philip A. M. Taylor
Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Revolt: Failure of a Man or a Faith? Richard E. Boyer
The Revolution of 1688 and the Birth of the English Political Nation (2nd ed.)
Gerald M. Straka
Peter the Great Changes Russia (2nd ed.) Marc Raeff
The Greatness of Louis XIV (2nd ed.) William F. Church
Enlightened Despotism: Reform or Reaction? Roger Wines
George III: Tyrant or Constitutional Monarch? E. A. Reitan
The Eighteenth-Century Revolution: French or Western? Peter Amann
The Influence of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution (2nd ed.) William F. Church
The Economic Origins of the French Revolution: Poverty or Prosperity? Ralph W. Greenlaw
Metternich, the "Coachman of Europe”: Statesman or Evil Genius? Henry F. Schwarz
Napoleon: Historical Enigma David H. Pinkney
The Industrial Revolution in Britain: Triumph or Disaster? (rev. ed.) Philip A. M. Taylor
{continued inside back cover)
The
Revolution of 1688
and the Birth of the
Engiish Poiitieal
Nation
PROBLEMS IN
EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION
Under the editorial direction of
John Ratte
Amherst College
The
Revolution of 1688
and the Birth of the
English Politieal
Nation
Second Edition
Edited and with an introduction by
Gerald M. Straka
University of Delaware
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY
Lexington, Massachusetts Toronto London
Copyright © 1973 by D. C. Heath and Company.
Also copyright 1963 by D. C, Heath and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or re¬
trieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Printed in the United States of America.
International Standard Book Number: 0-669-82032-6
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-6195
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I THE REVOLUTION AND THE NATION
John Evelyn
THE CONFUSION OF EVENTS, MAY, 1688-FEBRUARY, 1689 3
i/George Macaulay Trevelyan
THE REVOLUTION AS A MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC
UNIFICATION 15
✓William L. Sachse
MASS MOVEMENT BEHIND THE REVOLUTION 26
Gerald M. Straka
THE NATION CONTEMPLATES ITS REVOLUTION, 1689-1789 42
II THE REVOLUTION, THE
CONSTITUTION, AND THE CROWN
The Bill of Rights
THE REVOLUTION AS A CONSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM 63
John Locke
REVOLUTION AND THE NATURAL RIGHT OF REBELLION 71
Peter Laslett
REAPPRAISAL OF JOHN LOCKE’S RELATION TO
REVOLUTION THEORY 82
t/David Ogg
THE REVOLUTION AS A REINFORCEMENT OF ENGLISH
INSTITUTIONS 97
Gerald M. Straka
THE REVOLUTION JUSTIFIED BY DIVINE RIGHT 111
V
Contents
Vi
‘^ucile Pinkham
WILLIAM OF ORANGE: CONQUEROR 127
'-Stephen B. Baxter
WILLIAM OF ORANGE: PRIME MOVER OF THE
REVOLUTION 141
111 THE REVOLUTION AND THE
EMERGENCE OF PARTY POLITICS
The Jacobites
THE REVOLUTION AS IMMORAL, ILLEGAL, AND
ANTI-MONARCHICAL 159
George L. Cherry
WERE THE JACOBITES RIGHT? 168
Henry Horwitz
THE ROLE PLAYED BY PARTIES IN THE REVOLUTION 182
Robert Walcott, Jr.
THE REVOLUTION AND UNREFORMED FACTION 194
J. H. Plumb
THE REVOLUTION AND THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL
STABILITY 207
SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READING 233
INTRODUCTION
It was called the “Glorious Revolution” from its onset. The glory
therein consisted of a remarkable avoidance of the civil war ex¬
pected by most contemporaries. Only ten years earlier the Exclu-
sionists under Lord Shaftesbury had warned the country of a dreaded
Catholic resurgence led by the court. He had tried in three desperate
futile attempts to ram through Parliament an Exclusion Bill to re¬
move the king’s brother, the Catholic James, Duke of York, from the
succession. But Charles II forestalled these “Whigs” (a Royalist in¬
sinuation that the Exclusionists were little better than Scottish brig-
ands) and James II assumed the throne on Charles M’s death in
1685. Plots against the court culminated in a major insurrection in the
West Country led by Charles’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Mon¬
mouth, in the first summer of James’s short reign. Monmouth was
destroyed and the “bloody assizes” condemned hundreds of his
simple followers to death, prison, or exile. This the West Country folk
were not to forget when William landed on their shores in 1688.
James began a series of actions through the courts and the
church to wipe out the Whig strongholds in the towns and universi¬
ties, the Army came under Catholic officers, and an attempt was
made to grant religious toleration to Catholics through a Declaration
of Indulgence that politicly included dissenters as well.
The lords, the gentry, and the general public were alarmed. While
much of what James did was within lawful procedure, there was the
growing feeling that his will should be exercised through a freely
elected Parliament. The majority of the Anglican Church was in favor
of some toleration for dissenters, but not if it meant the infiltration
of the church by Catholics. Though James steered a far more neu¬
tral diplomatic course than had Charles II (with his reliance on
vii
Introduction
viii
French subsidies), his standing army far exceeded his brother’s, and
its support did not come from parliamentary tax grants. By 1688 no
Englishman would have followed a John Pym—much less an Oliver
Cromwell—as in 1640 and 1650, but there was a gene.'al feeling
that James had to be brought to some kind of reasonableness.
In 1688 three events turned the public’s perturbation into aliena¬
tion: the announcement of the birth of the king’s son (thus entailing an
interminable succession of Catholic monarchs), the promulgation of a
second Declaration of Indulgence coupled with the order it be read
from every pulpit in England, and the arrest and trial of “the Seven
Bishops” for refusing to obey that order. A small group of both Whig
and Tory lords, encouraged by an increasing animosity, pledged the
country’s support to the king’s nephew and son-in-law, William of
Orange, claiming if he would but cross over from the Netherlands
with a protecting army, “there are nineteen parts of twenty of the
people throughout the kingdom who . .. would willingly contribute to
it, if they had such a protection to countenance their rising as would
secure them from being destroyed before they could get to be in a
posture to defend themselves.”
And so William invaded in November, 1688. James II fled England
for France just before Christmas. The Parliament that convened on
William’s order yielded him and his wife, Mary (James’s daughter), a
shared crown, the only joint reign in English history. It passed a Dec¬
laration of Rights (the Bill of Rights), a Mutiny Act abolishing
standing armies, and a Toleration Act granting religious worship to
dissenters, though not to Catholics.
Though it resolved a momentary crisis, the Revolution of 1688 is
also thought of as the culmination of the seventeenth-century strug¬
gle between Parliament and the Stuarts over the issue of sovereignty.
From the time James I came to the throne in 1603, legislature and
crown debated and fought over which of them had ultimate control
over the making of law. At times, as under Charles I and Strafford,
the crown claimed and exercised the right; under Cromwell, Parlia¬
ment triumphed. When the later Stuarts, Charles 11 and James 11, at¬
tempted to match and then outdo their father in destroying parlia¬
mentary sovereignty, the Whigs and a majority of the Tories withdrew
their support.
The Revolution, then as now, impresses students of history with
its simplicity. It exhibits none of the complexities of the rebellion