Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History Read online

  Contents

  List of Plates

  List of Maps

  Preface to the Second Edition

  Preface to the First Edition

  Acknowledgments

  Conventions and Abbreviations

  Introduction: England and its People, ca. 1485

  This Sceptered Isle

  This Seat of Mars – and Less Happier Lands

  This England

  This Happy Breed

  The Mental World of the English People, ca. 1485

  Chapter One Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525

  The Wars of the Roses, 1455–85

  Establishing the Tudor State

  Young King Hal

  The Great Cardinal

  War and Diplomacy

  Chapter Two (Dis-)Establishing the Henrician Church, 1525–1536

  The King’s Great Matter

  The Attack on the Church

  The Royal Supremacy

  Reaction

  A Tudor Revolution?

  Chapter Three Reformations and Counter-Reformations, 1536–1558

  Catholic or Protestant?

  Marriage, Succession, and Foreign Policy

  Henry VIII’s Last Years

  The New King, the Lord Protector, and the Legacy of Henry VIII

  Northumberland and the Protestant Reformation

  Mary I and Marital Diplomacy

  Catholic Restoration

  Foreign Policy and the Succession

  Chapter Four The Elizabethan Settlement and its Challenges, 1558–1585

  The New Queen

  Cecil vs. Dudley

  Marital Diplomacy I

  The Religious Settlement

  The Puritan Challenge

  The Catholic Threat

  England and Scotland

  England and Spain

  Plots and Counter-Plots

  Marital Diplomacy II

  Chapter Five The Elizabethan Triumph and Unsettlement, 1585–1603

  What about Mary?

  The Spanish Armada

  The War at Sea and on the Continent

  The War(s) in Ireland

  Crises of the 1590s

  Chapter Six Merrie Olde England?, ca. 1603

  Population Expansion and Economic Crisis

  The Social Order

  The Gender Order

  Elite Private Life

  Commoners’ Private Life

  Religion

  Paternalism and Deference

  Kinship and Neighborliness

  Poverty and Charity

  Law and (Dis)order

  Trade, Exploration, and Colonization

  Cultural Life

  Chapter Seven The Early Stuarts and the Three Kingdoms, 1603–1642

  The Problem of Government Finance

  The Problem of Foreign Policy, War, and England’s Place in Europe

  The Problem of Religion

  The Personal Rule and the Problem of Local Authority

  The Crisis of Scotland

  The Long Parliament

  The Crisis of Ireland

  Chapter Eight Civil War, Revolution, and the Search for Stability, 1642–1660

  Rebellion, 1642–6

  Revolution, 1646–9

  The Radical Hydra?

  Commonwealth, Protectorate, and the Search for Stability, 1649–58

  The Restoration, 1658–60

  Chapter Nine Restoration and Revolution, 1660–1689

  The Restoration Settlements, 1660–5

  Charles II and the Unraveling of the Restoration Settlements

  Problems of Sovereignty, Finance, Religion, and Foreign Policy, 1660–70

  The Declaration of Indulgence and the Third Dutch War, 1670–3

  The Earl of Danby and the Court and Country Blocs, 1673–8

  The Popish Plot, Exclusion Crisis, and Loss of Local Control, 1678–81

  The Tory Revenge and Reestablishment of Local Control, 1681–5

  James II and the Attempt at a Catholic Restoration, 1685–8

  The Glorious Revolution, 1688–9

  Chapter Ten War and Politics, 1689–1714

  William III, Mary II, and the English People

  The Revolution in Scotland and Ireland, 1688–92

  The War and the Parties, 1688–97

  The Rise of the Whig Junto, 1693–97

  The Tory Resurgence, 1697–1701

  The Spanish and English Successions, 1700–2

  Anne and the Rage of Party

  The War, the Union, and the Parties, 1702–10

  The Queen’s Revenge, 1710

  The Treaty of Utrecht, 1710–13

  The Oxford Ministry, 1710–14

  Conclusion: Augustan Polity, Society, and Culture, ca. 1714

  Notes

  Introduction: England and its People, ca. 1485

  1 Establishing the Henrician Regime, 1485–1525

  2 (Dis-)Establishing the Henrician Church, 1525–1536

  3 Reformations and Counter-Reformations, 1536–1558

  4 The Elizabethan Settlement and its Challenges, 1558–1585

  5 The Elizabethan Triumph and Unsettlement, 1585–1603

  6 Merrie Olde England?, ca. 1603

  7 The Early Stuarts and the Three Kingdoms, 1603–1642

  8 Civil War, Revolution, and the Search for Stability, 1642–1660

  9 Restoration and Revolution, 1660–1689

  10 War and Politics, 1689–1714

  Conclusion: Augustan Polity, Society, and Culture, ca. 1714

  Glossary

  Select Bibliography

  Introduction

  General

  Pre-Tudor (1400s–1485)

  Tudor (1485–1603)

  Stuart (1603–1714)

  Documents and Other Primary Sources

  Appendix: Genealogies

  1 The Yorkists and Lancastrians

  2 The Tudors and Stuarts

  3 The Stuarts and Hanoverians

  Index

  To our parents, with gratitude and love

  Lillian Aguirre Bucholz in memory of Robert Edward Bucholz

  Cornelia Buck Key

  H. Newton Key

  This second edition first published 2009

  © 2009 Robert Bucholz and Newton Key

  Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 2004)

  Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.

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  The right of Robert Bucholz and Newton Key to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bucholz, R. O., 1958–Early modern England, 1485–1714: a narrative history / Robert Bucholz and Newton Key. – 2nd ed.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-4051-6275-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  1. Great Britain–History– Stuarts, 1603–1714.

  2. Great Britain–History–Tudors, 1485–1603.

  3. England–Civilization. I. Key, Newton. II. Title.

  DA300.B83 2009

  942.05–dc22

  2008030352

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  1 2009

  Plates

  1 Diagram of an English manor

  2 Henry VII, painted terracotta bust, by Pietro Torrigiano

  3 Henry VIII, after Hans Holbein the Younger

  4 Diagram of the interior of a church before and after the Reformation

  5 Mary I, by Moro

  6 J. Foxe, Acts and Monuments title-page, 1641 edition

  7 Elizabeth I (The Ditchley Portrait), by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, ca. 1592

  8 First Encounter Between the English and Spanish Fleets, from J. Pine, The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords Representing the Several Engagements Between the English and Spanish Fleets, 1739

  9 Hatfield House, south prospect, by Thomas Sadler, 1700

  10 Tudor farmhouse at Ystradfaelog, Llanwnnog, Montgomeryshire (photo and groundplan)

  11 Visscher’s panorama of London, 1616 (detail)

  12 A view of Westminster, by Hollar

  13 James I, by van Somer

  14 George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, by William Larkin

  15 Charles I, by Van Dyck

  16 The execution of Charles I

  17 Oliver Cromwell, by Robert Walker, 1649

  18 The entrance of Charles II at the Restoration, 1660

  19 Charles II as Patron of the Royal Society, by Laroon

  20 James II, by unknown artist

  21 Mary of Modena in Childbed, Italian engraving

  22 Presentation of the Crown to William III and Mary II, by R. de Hooge after C. Allard

  23 Queen Anne, by Edmund Lilly

  24 The battle of Blenheim

  25 Fighting in a coffee-house after the trial of Dr. Sacheverell

  26 Castle Howard, engraving

  Maps

  1 The British Isles (physical) today

  2 The counties of England and Wales before 1972

  3 Towns and trade

  4 The Wars of the Roses, 1455–85

  5 Southern England and western France during the later Middle Ages

  6 Europe ca. 1560

  7 Early modern Ireland

  8 Spanish possessions in Europe and the Americas

  9 War in Europe, 1585–1604

  10 London ca.1600

  11 The Bishops’ Wars and Civil Wars, 1637–60

  12 Western Europe in the age of Louis XIV

  13 The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702–14

  14 The Atlantic world after the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713

  Preface to the Second Edition

  The appearance of a second edition of Early Modern England is most welcome to its authors, not least because it allows them to correct the errors which inevitably crept into the first. The opportunity of a “do-over” is also a chance to bring the narrative up to date by incorporating exciting new material on the period which has come out since the first edition, not to mention older material which we had neglected previously. (The companion volume, Sources and Debates, has also been extensively revised in its 2nd edition.) In particular, the authors have attempted to take into account recent Tudor historiography and strengthen those sections which address Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. We have also become more conscious of the continental and Atlantic dimensions of this story and have adjusted accordingly. We have added a section on the historiography of women and gender, modifying our presentation of women’s lives in light of a more nuanced history of gender, which sees the story of men and women as more intermingled, and which gives early modern women agency rather than pities them as perennial victims.

  At the same time, your faithful authors have resisted the temptation to make of this story something that it is not: a history of the British Isles, the Atlantic world, of Europe as a whole, or even a transnational story of a very mobile people. We are deeply aware and appreciative of new historiographical currents which view England and the English within each of these four contexts. We have made a conscious effort to take account of those contexts, and to strengthen them for this edition. But we have not attempted to tell a trans-British Isles, Atlantic, Britain- in-Europe, or migrants story precisely because these are, in fact, many stories, the narrative threads of which inevitably become tangled and broken if contained within a single book. Indeed, Welsh and Irish historians have recently reacted with some skepticism to an all-embracing “three kingdoms” British Isles approach. Thus, we stand by our initial position that an English narrative retains a coherence that such wider perspectives lack; and that that narrative is of particular importance for the Western and Anglophone world. This last conviction has only been strengthened by the experience of the last few years, which have seen serious debates on our side of the Atlantic over the rights of habeas corpus and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, the parliamentary power of the purse, the role of religion in public life, and whether or not the ruler can declare himself above the law in a time of national emergency. These were themes well known to early modern English men and women. They remain utterly – even alarmingly – relevant to their political, social, and cultural heirs on both sides of the Atlantic.

  Which brings us to a final word about the audience for this book. When we first undertook to write it, we set out self-consciously to provide a volume which would tell England’s story to our fellow countrymen and women in ways that would be most accessible to them. That implied a willingness to explain what an expert or a native Briton might take for granted; and to do so in a language accessible to the twenty-first-century student. Since its initial publication, Early Modern England has had some success on both sides of the Atlantic, not least, it turns out, because, as the early modern period recedes from secondary training in History in Great Britain, the twenty-first-century British student cannot be assumed any longer to have become familiar with – or jaded by – this story. And so, as we have undertaken this revision, we have tried to become more sensitive to its potential British, as well as Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and other Anglophone readers, while retaining the peculiar charms of the American vernacular. It is in the spirit of transatlantic and global understanding and cooperation that we welcome all our readers from the Anglophone world to a story which forms the bedrock of their shared heritage.

  Robert Bucholz

  Newton Key

  [email protected]

  Preface to the First Edition

  The authors of this book recall, quite vividly, their first exposure to English history. If you are like us, you first came to this subject because contemporary elite and popular culture are full of references to it. Perhaps your imagination has been captured by a clas
sic play or novel set in the English past (Richard III, A Man for All Seasons, Journal of the Plague Year, Lorna Doone), or by some Hollywood epic which uses English history as its frame (Braveheart, Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, Restoration, The Patriot). Perhaps you have traveled in England, or can trace your roots to an English family tree (or to ancestors whose relationship to the English was less than happy). Perhaps you have sensed – rightly – that poets and playwrights, Hollywood and tour books have not given you the whole story. Perhaps you want to know more.

  In writing this book, we have tried to recall what we knew and what we did not know about England when we first began to study it as undergraduates. We have also tried to use what we have learned over the years from teaching its history to (mostly) our fellow North Americans in a variety of institutions – Ivy League and extension; state and private; secular and sectarian. Thus, we have tried to explain concepts that might be quite familiar to a native of England, and have become familiar to us, but which may, at first, make little sense to you. To help you make your way through early modern England we have begun with a description of the country as it existed in 1485, and included several maps of it and its neighbors. We have highlighted arcane contemporary words and historical terminology in bold on their first use, and tried to explain their meaning in a Glossary. We urge you to use these as you would use maps and language phrase books to negotiate any foreign land. When we introduce for the first time a native of early modern England, we give his or her birth and death dates, where known. In the case of kings and queens, we also give the years they reigned. We do this because knowing when someone came of age (or, if he was a Tudor politician, whether or not he managed to survive Henry VIII!) should give you a better idea of what events and ideas might have shaped his or her motivations, decisions, and destiny.

  Thinking about historical characters as real people faced with real choices, fighting real battles, and living through real events should help you to make sense of the connections we make below and, we hope, to see other connections and distinctions on your own.

  The following text is, for the most part, a narrative, with analytical chapters at strategic points to present information from those subfields (geography, topography, social, economic, and cultural history) in which many of the most recent advances have been made, but for which a narrative is inappropriate. That narrative largely tells a story of English politics, the relations between rulers and ruled, in the Tudor period (1485–1603, chapters 1–5) and the Stuart period (1603–1714, chapters 7–10). Chapter 1 includes a brief narrative of the immediate background to the accession of the Tudors in 1485, the Conclusion, a few pages on the aftermath of Stuart rule from 1714. We believe, and hope to demonstrate, that the political developments of the Tudor–Stuart period have meaning and relevance to all inhabitants of the modern world, but especially to Americans. We also believe that a narrative of those developments provides a coherent and convenient device for student learning and recollection. Finally, because we also think that the economic, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual lives of English men and women are just as important a part of their story as the politics of the period, we will remind you frequently that the history of England is not simply the story of the English monarchy, or its relations with Parliament. It is also the story of every man, woman or child who lived, loved, fought, and died in England during the period covered by this book. Therefore, we will stop the narrative to encounter those lives at three points: ca. 1485 (Introduction), 1603 (chapter 6), and 1714 (Conclusion).