King James I of England (who came to the throne after the death of Elizabeth I) was immensely unpopular amongst both Parliament and the general mass of his own subjects. The King’s unpopularity was due to many factors, several of which stemmed from his overall attitude. As a monarch, James was a firm believer in the notion of divine right and so he had an intense dislike for any consultation or cooperation in his decision making process. This disdain extended directly to Parliament – as per English law, Parliament was only permitted to assemble if the monarch instructed it to, which James had absolutely no intention of doing. So, instead of obtaining money from Parliament, James chose to raise the necessary funds through “impositions,” which were customs taxes placed on trade items. Naturally, the members of Parliament did not at all appreciate being cut out of the nation’s legislative and economic processes. James also turned a blind eye to corruption within his tight circle of court friends, many of whom engaged in scandalous behavior that horrified the English citizenry. These problems were further compounded by the King’s harsh treatment of the Puritans, whom he firmly shunned from the Anglican Church (this led to religious dissenters leaving the country in droves). Throughout this whole process, James seemed either entirely ignorant or completely unconcerned by his people’s growing suspicion and dislike of him, which didn’t exactly endear him to them any further. Perhaps the final straw came in 1604, when James made a peace deal with the Spanish government. This agreement was followed by the arranged marriage of James’s son, Charles, to a prominent Spanish princess. These alliances with Catholic Spain, which had traditionally been England’s arch enemy, caused outrage amongst a great deal of the English population, many of whom began to doubt their King’s loyalty to both the Anglican faith and to the English crown.

Unlike his father, who had largely left the nation’s province of Scotland alone, King Charles I decided to force the Scottish people to declare allegiance to the Anglican Church. This was a deeply foolish move, because Scotland was infamous throughout English history for its unwillingness to conform to demands and its dislike of authoritarian requirements. Sure enough, the Scots swiftly rose up in armed rebellion against the King. Desperate for money to properly equip his army and put down the revolt, Charles was forced to summon Parliament and ask for funding. But the members of Parliament were in no mood to humor their unpopular ruler and so they warned that before they would turn over any money, Charles would first have to take several steps to address his subject’s numerous complaints. Instead of agreeing or even trying to negotiate, instead the infuriated King dissolved Parliament, immediately forcing the legislative body to close (an act which could only be reversed with the King’s express approval). This Parliament therefore became known as the Short Parliament, because it was only in session for two months (April and May) of 1640.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, the power structure of the European continent had begun to settle and coalesce. Five countries would emerge as the dominant players – England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (while the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden all fell from power). These top five nations achieved their high status thanks to their military prowess and prosperous economies; a few of these countries also gained in prestige due to their establishment of overseas colonial empires. For the duration of the century, the successive leaders and/or governments of these five nations would engage in near-constant competition against one another. Quite often, these struggles took place through economic means, such as the accumulation of new wealth or the cultivation of new foreign businesses or lands. These rulers also believed that having a strong national military force was absolutely essential (the better to intimidate the opposition), and so they engaged in massive recruitment campaigns and tried to obtain the latest weapons and supplies.

When studying seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe, the United Provinces of the Netherlands stand out as completely unique amongst all other countries. What set the Netherlands apart was its governmental structure – unlike most of its European counterparts (which favored monarchy or some similar sort of centralized power), the Netherlands was a republic. This was no accident – generally speaking, the Dutch despised monarchy (which they associated with the Spanish King Phillip II’s brutal invasion of their land) and they didn’t want to give up their independent ways. So, while a central government, called the States General, was established in The Hague, all decisions were made in cooperation with each of the seven provinces, which retained quite a few freedoms. Only in severe times of military distress would the Netherlands ever depart from this system: central authority would temporarily be ceded to a few military commanders but their power was always revoked as soon as the fighting stopped.

Following the disastrous Battle of Newburn, in which the Scottish rebels completely routed the English Army, King Charles I of England had no other choice but to summon Parliament to meet once again. This new session, known as the Long Parliament, reconvened in 1640. Riding high on a wave of massive public approval and calls for change, the Long Parliament immediately began to change the course which Charles had set for the country. They quickly ordered the impeachment and execution of two of the King’s closest and most corrupt advisors, the earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud. Next, Parliament passed a series of sweeping reforms which placed many limits on the monarchy’s control over the legislative body. These new laws prevented the King from instituting any new taxes without Parliamentary approval, prohibited the King from dissolving Parliament without its consent, and required that Parliament meet every three years at a minimum. The members also agreed that, due to the King’s poor leadership, it would be best if Parliament took over as Commander-in-Chief of England’s war against the Scottish rebels. All these decisions were reached with widespread support from both sections of Parliament. The one issue on which the body could not agree was the matter of religion – Parliament soon became divided into religious factions, with conservatives attempting to preserve the status quo while moderate and radical Puritans advocated for varying degrees of change. This one area of disagreement would prove pivotal in the events soon to come.

After Parliament’s army won the English Civil War in 1645, it decided that the country needed to undergo some radical changes. Yet Parliament’s leadership didn’t operate independently; its dependence on Oliver Cromwell, who had led the Roundheads to victory, ensured that Cromwell would be real voice behind the new government. In the first of a broad series of transformations, Cromwell and Parliament abolished the entire monarchy, Parliament’s House of Lords (which was filled with nobles and aristocrats), and the Anglican Church. At the same time, in a shocking twist, Cromwell began to call for the execution of King Charles I. Never before had any English monarch been killed by his own people but Cromwell’s influence was unstoppable. On January 30th, 1649, Charles was convicted in court as a criminal and was put to death. After the King’s execution, Cromwell moved to seize power. He created what he referred to as a Puritan republic but his government actually operated as a dictatorship, with the Puritan general wielding absolute power. Cromwell forced all English citizens to live according to his own set of religious morals – all dancing, singing, and consumption of alcohol was banned. Any protestors or nonconformists were brutally attacked by his fifty-thousand man army. These assaults were most ruthless in Ireland and Scotland, where Cromwell’s army crushed all resistance and violently persecuted Catholics. When Parliament’s remaining members in the House of Commons attempted to intervene, Cromwell dissolved Parliament as well. He ruled as the massively unpopular but incredibly feared Lord Protector until his death (from natural causes) in 1658.

After the English dictator Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, England was both relieved and quite desperate. Motivated by the numerous sufferings, restrictions, and deprivations which they had endured under Cromwell, the English people decided that their best course of action would be return to their previous form of government: parliamentary monarchy. To that end, in 1660, the monarchy, both Houses of Parliament, and the Anglican Church were officially restored. As their new ruler, Parliament and the army asked Charles II, the son of the executed Charles I, to return to the country (he had fled after his father’s death) and become King. Charles II agreed and he became the new King of England in 1660. The original conditions of political life were all restored: England was once again a Parliamentary monarchy, with hereditary rulers, an official Anglican Church, and a Parliament which served at the king’s pleasure.

In 1625, after his father’s death, Charles I became the new King of England. It quickly became apparent to both Parliament and the general English population that their new ruler was every bit as immune to popular opinion as his predecessor had been. When Parliament cut off any further funding to the new monarch, Charles foolishly resorted to the exact same method of fundraising once used by his father – he brought back the hated “impositions” and even raised these taxes beyond previous heights. Charles carried this tactic even further by reviving old tax laws that had expired decades previously, requiring citizens to pay them anyway even though these laws technically no longer existed. Any individuals who protested were promptly thrown into prison. Charles once again followed in his father’s footsteps by making peace deals not only with Spain but with France as well, which increased his people’s suspicions that he was too favorable to Catholic powers (a charge further compounded by his wife’s Spanish descent and Catholic faith). Yet Charles continued blindly on, expanding his military and forcing private citizens to allow soldiers to live and operate out of their homes. Finally, in 1628, Parliament attempted to rein in the King – it informed him that it would deny him any funds unless he signed the Petition of Right, a document which placed restrictions on his powers. Charles agreed and did sign the Petition but he soon began to ignore it.

Martin Luther’s posting of his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31st, 1517 soon launched him into regional fame. As Luther’s prominence grew and his ideas spread, the popularity of the Protestant Reformation correspondingly increased. Naturally, this attracted the notice of high-level governmental and religious officials, many of whom considered Luther, not to mention the growing number of self-proclaimed Reformation adherents, as a potential threat to the reigning sociopolitical order. These concerns were not just confined to native German princes and rulers, but many other heads of state contemplated making moves against the Reformation as well – these included Pope Leo X, King Francis I of France, and many of the various Italian despots. Fortunately for the Reformation (and Luther himself), a dire political distraction soon occurred – namely, the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, in 1519. The Emperor’s death threw the various European heads of state into a mad scramble to appoint a successor, with opposing regional forces backing different candidates. The conflict appeared to be teetering right on the edge of open warfare, especially between France, Spain, and the Papal State, and in the ensuing chaos, no one had time to deal with the Reformation anymore. Consequently, Luther’s ideas were free to continue their spread throughout the German, Switzerland, and Western European cultures – essentially, the Reformation gained valuable time in which to grow unimpeded.

After the bloody Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s grimly repressive dictatorship, England was ready for a return to monarchy. In 1660, at the invitation of Parliament and the Army, Charles II was crowned as the new King of England and the Anglican Church (along with the full Parliament) was restored. But England’s internal troubles were far from over, especially when it came to religious sentiment. By this time, England had a firmly established Anglican (aka Protestant) population and anti-Catholic feelings were widely held by many citizens. Between 1661 and 1665, Parliament passed the Clarendon Code, a series of laws that banned Catholics (as well as Presbyterians) from holding any official religious or political positions. However, King Charles II didn’t agree with these new rules; instead, he favored religious toleration for both Catholics and Puritans. Furthermore, Charles actually secretly dabbled in Catholicism himself, even toying with the idea of conversion. In response to the Clarendon Codes, in 1672 Charles issued the Declaration of Indulgence, which declared that the Clarendon Codes’ restrictions on Catholic involvement in government and religious life were no longer legal. Parliament was outraged and eventually forced the King to retract the Declaration. Immediately afterward, Parliament passed the Test Act, which required any military or civil official to take a mandatory oath that renounced Catholic principles. Not only did the Test Act alarm Charles but it also greatly angered his brother and heir, James, the Duke of York, who had actually just publicly announced his conversion to the Catholic faith. Charles and James believed that Parliament’s new law was intended to prevent James from succeeding his brother as King of England (which may very well have been true).