Civil Wars (1642-49) and Interregnum (1649-60)

1 Civil Wars (1642-49) and Interregnum (1649-60)

PRELUDE

1625-1649: reign of Charles I

1625: English settlement of Barbados begins

1626: death of Sir Francis Bacon

1628: English settlement of Nevis

● Puritan colony established at Salem

1629: Massachusetts Bay Company chartered

1631: death of John Donne; death of Michael Drayton

1632: English settlement of Antigua and Montserrat

1633: Galileo is put on trial by the Catholic Church for his unorthodox ideas and forced to recant

1634: death of George Chapman

1635: Académie française established by Cardinal Richelieu

1637: death of Ben Jonson

● Pequot War

In which the English Puritan colonists in what is now Mystic, Connecticut, killed between 300 and 700 Pequots, including women and children, as they burned whole villages and then enslaved the few remaining survivors

1638: Scottish National Covenant drawn up (to resist imposition of rule of bishops in Scotland)

1639: March-June: First Bishops’ War

between the Scottish Covenanter army and the forces of Charles I; it was halted by the temporary truce of the Pacification of Berwick in June.

1640: Aug.-Oct.: Second Bishops’ War

a continuation of the First; it ended inconclusively, but with Scottish advances, with the Treaty of Ripon

1641: Irish rising, by Irish Catholics against English and Scottish colonists

------2 1642-49: CIVIL WARS

1642: Civil Wars in the “three kingdoms” of England, Scotland, & Ireland:

● Charles I and Royalists vs. Parliamentarians/Puritans

● theaters closed

● increase in news publication

The breakdown of royal authority (and hence the relaxation of censorship and post-publication prosecution) and the public interest in the momentous events of the day created a huge expansion in the print public sphere and in the supply of newsbooks, pamphlets, and broadside ballads. This opening up of publication had already come under pressure by the time of Milton’s Areopagitica (1644), which critiques the order of June 14, 1643 requiring (in imitation of a Star Chamber decree of 1637) that all works be licensed by a Parliamentary Committee prior to publication. After the Restoration in 1660, restrictions on publication were further consolidated with the Press Licensing Act of 1662.

● death of Cardinal Richelieu, the leading French politician of his age

● [Sir Thomas Browne (b. 1605)], Religio Medici (non-fiction)

● [Sir John Denham (b. 1615)], Cooper’s Hill (poetry)

● [Sir John Denham (b. 1615)], The Sophy (drama)

● John Milton (b. 1608), The Reason of Church-government Urg’d Against Prelaty (non-fiction)

1643: Long Parliament abolishes prelacy (consequently, bishops eliminated from House of Lords)

● Sept.: Parliament accepts a Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots undertaking to establish the Presbyterian system in England in exchange for Scottish support of the parliamentary armies

● Sir William Davenant (b. 1606), The Unfortunate Lovers A tragedie (drama)

● Sir Kenelm Digby (b. 1603), Observations on the 22 stanza in the 9th canto of the 2d book of Spencers Faery Queen (non-fiction)

● John Milton (b. 1608), The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce Restor’d to the good of both sexes (non- fiction) (2nd edn, heavily revised, 1644; 3rd and 4th edns, 1645)

1644: John Milton (b. 1608), Areopagitica (non-fiction)

● [John Milton (b. 1608)], Of Education (non-fiction)

● René Descartes, Principia Philosophiae (non-fiction)

1645: Charles’s forces defeated at the battle of Naseby by the Parliamentary army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell 3 ● [John Milton (b. 1608)], Tetrachordon (non-fiction)

● Francis Quarles (1592-1644), Solomons Recantation, entituled Ecclesiastes, Paraphrased (poetry)

● Edmund Waller (b. 1606), Poems (poetry)

1646: First Civil War comes to an end in the spring of 1646

● Charles I surrenders himself to the Scots army at Newark (who turn him over to the English)

● Sir Thomas Browne (b. 1605), Pseudodoxia Epidemica (extensively revised through six editions, to 1672)

● Richard Crashaw (b. 1612/13), Steps to the Temple: Sacred Poems (poetry)

● John Milton (b. 1608), Poems of Mr John Milton, both English and Latin (poetry) (dated ‘1645’; pub. 2 Jan. 1646; 2nd rev. edn, 1673)

● James Shirley (b. 1596), Poems (poetry)

● Sir John Suckling (1609-1642), Fragmenta Aurea: A collection of all the incomparable pieeces, written by Sir John Suckling (works, containing letters, poems, and four plays) (2nd edn, 1648; 3rd edn, 1658)

● Henry Vaughan (b. 1622), Poems (poetry)

1647: Abraham Cowley (b. 1618), The Mistresse (poetry)

● [Bathsua Makin (fl. 1616-73)], An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen (non-fiction)

● Francis Quarles (1592-1644), Hosanna; or, Divine Poems on the Passion of Christ (poetry)

1648: April-August: Second Civil War breaks out

● the Scots army enters England in support of the king (who had entered into an “Engagement” with the Scots in Dec. 1647 to accept Presbyterianism as the form of church government), but the New Model Army, under Cromwell, is victorious by August 1648 at Preston

● the Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War on the European continent

● [Sir Robert Filmer (b. 1588?)], The Necessity of the Absolute Power of Kings (non-fiction)

● Robert Herrick (b. 1591), Hesperides (poetry)

● beginning with the period of the Civil Wars and during the Interregnum, many royalists were in exile in France and elsewhere on the Continent (incl. such authors as Richard Crashaw [left for the Continent in 1643 and died there in 1649], Thomas Hobbes [till 1652], Abraham Cowley [left for the Continent in 1645, he was back in England by 1654]); subsequently, significant impact of French cultural influences when the exiled ruling class returned to England after 1660

------4 1648-1653: RUMP PARLIAMENT & NEW MODEL ARMY (FROM 1645)

1648-52: the Fronde (in France):

a series of civil wars, from August 1648 to July 1653, after which the political power of the aristocracy was broken and the supremacy of the monarchy was consolidated. The initial revolt broke out in protest of “the policies of the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, and her minister Mazarin. Named for the slingshot with which boys hurled rocks at stray cats, the Fronde hurled missiles against the tax policies of Mazarin, a man who impoverished France and enriched himself beyond measure. Active opposition to Mazarin arose on August 27 [1648], the famous ‘day of the barricades,’ when Mathieu Molé, first president of the Paris Parlement, was arrested. . . . Other frondes broke out in other cities, notably in Normandy, in Provence, and in Guyenne where the duc d’Épernon remained loyal to Mazarin” (Virginia Scott. Molière: A Theatrical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. 69). In 1650, the Fronde of the Princes began, “an anti-Mazarin crusade led by some of the highest nobles of France, and especially by the prince de Condé, his brother the prince de Conti, their sister Mme de Longueville, her husband, and the prince de Marcillac, all of whom saw in the Fronde an opportunity to battle the growing power of the centralized monarchy. In January of 1650 they were arrested and imprisoned” (Scott 2000: 71). The Fronde was not finally settled until the signing of the peace of Bordeaux in July 1653.

**1649: execution of Charles I**

1649: Jan. 19-30: trial and execution of Charles I

Charles I tried for “treason”–among the principal charges was his “Engagement” with the Scots. The trial opened on January 19th and concluded with his execution on January 30th. Immediately after the king’s death, a work appeared purportedly written by him (actually ghost written by John Gauden) and titled Eikon Basilike (“The King’s Image”); the work quickly went into 40 editions and supported the royalist portrayal of Charles as a “martyr.” John Milton responded to the propaganda work being done by this work with his own Eikonoklastes (“The Image-Smasher”), which also appeared in 1649.

● Feb. 5: upon learning the news of Charles I’s execution, the Scottish Parliament declares his son “Charles II, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland”

● Sir William Davenant (b. 1606), Love and Honour (drama)

● Richard Lovelace (b. 1618), Lucasta (poetry)

● [John Milton (b. 1608)], The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (non-fiction)

● John Ogilby (b. 1600), trans, The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (poetry)

1649-52: Puritan reconquest of Ireland (against Catholic and royalist forces)

Begun by Cromwell in August 1649; completed by his lieutenants, Ireton and Ludlow, by May 1652

1650-52: Puritan conquest of Scotland (the Scots having endorsed Charles II)

Cromwell, newly made commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary forces, defeated the Scots decisively at Dunbar (1650) and General Monck completed the subjugation of Scotland in May 1652. 5 1650: death of René Descartes (1596-1650)

● Richard Baxter (b. 1615), The Saints Everlasting Rest (non-fiction)

● [Anne Bradstreet (b. 1612)], The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (poetry)

● Abiezer Coppe (b. 1619), A Fiery Flying Roll: A Word from the Lord to all the Great Ones of the Earth (non-fiction) (pub. Jan. 1650, dated ‘1649’; the work was ordered to be seized and burned by the hangman)

● Jeremy Taylor (b. 1613), The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (non-fiction)

● Henry Vaughan (b. 1622), Silex Scintillans (poetry) (2nd edn, in two books, 1655)

1651: population estimates:

England and Wales 5.2 million. The population then declines to about 4.9 million in the 1680s before climbing back up to about 5.06 and reaching 5.2 million by 1711. On this estimate, the population thus remains “flat” overall for the 60 years between 1651 and 1711, before increasing slowly till mid-century (5.8 million) and then more rapidly for the next long while (reaching 6.45 million by 1771, 9 million by 1801, and 11.5-12 million by 1821). (Other estimates put the population of England and Wales somewhat higher–by about 700,000–through much of the period from 1701.)

● Navigation Act passed

● Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery (b. 1621), Parthenissa That Most Fam’d Romance (parts I and II, 1651; parts III and IV, 1655; part V, 1656; part VI, 1669; complete work repr. 1676) (fiction)

● William Cartwright (1611-1643), Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, with Other Poems (works)

● Sir William Davenant (b. 1606), Gondibert An heroick poem (poetry)

● Thomas Hobbes (b. 1588), Leviathan (non-fiction)

● John Milton (b. 1608), Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (non-fiction)

● Jeremy Taylor (b. 1613), The Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying (non-fiction)

● Henry Vaughan (b. 1622), Olor Iscanus (poetry and prose translations)

1652-54: First Anglo-Dutch War

1652: Richard Brome (b. 1590?), The Jovial Crew; or, The Merry Beggars (drama)

● Nathanael Culverwell (1618/19-1651?), An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature (non- fiction)

● ‘Eliza’ (fl. 1644-52), Eliza’s Babes; or, The Virgins-Offering Being divine poems and meditations (poetry and non-fiction) 6 ● John Selden (b. 1584), Of the Dominion, or Ownership of the Sea (non-fiction) [English trans. of Selden’s Mare clausum (1635), a reply to Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), Mare Liberum (1609)]

● Gerrard Winstanley (b. 1609), The Law of Freedom (non-fiction)

● [Madeleine de Scudéry (b. 1607)], Ibrahim; or, The Illustrious Bassa An excellent new romance. Trans. Henry Cogan (fl. 1652). [orig. pub. in French as Ibrahim, ou l’Illustre Bassa (1641-44)] (fiction)

------

1653-1658: COMMONWEALTH OR PROTECTORATE UNDER OLIVER CROMWELL

● period of republican statehood in the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland; a new political order, with the abolition of the House of Lords and the establishment of a Protectorate under the rule of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) as Lord Protector

● iconoclasm; proliferation of various religious sects (including the Quakers); abolition of traditional holidays–including Christmas–as smacking too much of “pagan” festivities

1653: Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament and installs the Nominated (Barebone’s) Parliament; later this year, the Protectorate is established and Cromwell is named Lord Protector

● Richard Baxter (b. 1615), The Right Method for a Settled Peace of Conscience (non-fiction)

● Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle (b. 1624?), Philosophicall Fancies (misc.)

● Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle (b. 1624?), Poems and Fancies (poetry and non-fiction)

● Anne Collins (fl. 1653), Divine Songs and Meditacions Composed by An [sic] Collins (poetry)

● Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (non-fiction)

● François Rabelais (ca. 1494-ca. 1553), [Gargantua and Pantagruel]. Trans. [Sir Thomas Urquhart (b. 1611)] (poetry)

1654: John Milton (b. 1608), Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda (non-fiction)

● Anna Trapnel, The Cry of a Stone: or a Relation of Something spoken in Whitehall (poetry and prose)

● Richard Whitlock (b. ca. 1616), [Zootomia (in Greek characters)]; or, Observations of the Present Manners of the English (non-fiction)

1654-59: Dec. 1654: Cromwell’s “Western Design” against Spanish colonial possessions

1655: English seize Jamaica

● Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle (b. 1624?), The Worlds Olio (non-fiction) 7 ● John Cotgrave (fl. 1655), ed., The English Treasury of Wit and Language Collected out of the most, and best of our English dramatick poems; methodically digested into common places for general use (anthology)

● [John Cotgrave (fl. 1655)], Wits Interpreter The English Parnassus (non-fiction)

● [Andrew Marvell (b. 1621)], The First Anniversary of the Government Under His Highness the Lord Protector (poetry)

● Edmund Waller (b. 1606), A Panegyrick to my Lord Protector (poetry)

● George Wither (b. 1588), The Protector (poetry)

● Luis de Camoëns (1524?-1580), The Lusiad; or, Portugals Historicall Poem. Trans. Sir Richard Fanshawe (b. 1608) (poetry)

● Charles Sorel (b. ca. 1599), The Comical History of Francion (fiction) [English trans. of Sorel’s La Vraie histoire comique de Francion (1623)]

1656-59, Anglo-Spanish war

1656: James Naylor, a Quaker from Bristol, tried and convicted of blasphemy:

the High Court of Parliament ruled that Naylor “be repeatedly set in the pillory and scourged; that he be branded on the forehead with the letter ‘B’; that he have his tongue bored with a red hot iron and be confined afterwards in prison and set to hard labor” (Webster 1990: 22)

● Abraham Cowley (b. 1618), Poems (poetry)

● [Sir William Davenant (b. 1606)], The Siege of Rhodes (drama)

● William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649), Poems (poetry)

● Richard Flecknoe (b. ca. 1620), A Relation of Ten Years Travells in Europe, Asia, Affrique, and America (non-fiction) (publication date conjectural)

● [James Harrington (b. 1611)], The Common-wealth of Oceana (non-fiction)

1657: Cromwell declines offer of a crown

● Dutch mathematician and scientist Christiaan Huygens invents the pendulum clock, allowing for more accurate measurement of time

● Joshua Poole (b. ca. 1615), The English Parnassus; or, A Helpe to English Poesie Containing a collection of all rhyming monosyllables, the choicest epithets, and phrases (dictionary)

1658: death of Oliver Cromwell (on 3 Sept. 1658); succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell

● [Richard Allestree (b. 1619)], The Practice of Christian Graces; or, The Whole Duty of Man (non-fiction) (repr. 1659, 1660, 1661, 1663, 1664, 1668, 1669, 1670, 1673, 1674, 1675, etc.) 8 ● Richard Baxter (b. 1615), A Call to the Unconverted (non-fiction)

● Sir Thomas Browne (b. 1605), Hydriotaphia, Urne-Buriall (non-fiction)

● [Sir William Davenant (b. 1606)], The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (drama)

● Richard Flecknoe (b. ca. 1620), Enigmaticall Characters All taken to the life (non-fiction)

● [Edward Phillips (b. 1630)], The New World of English Words (dictionary)

------

1658-1659: RULE OF RICHARD CROMWELL

● Richard Cromwell (1626-1712) is unable to contain the power struggle between the army and the Parliament, which leads to the collapse of the Protectorate and the reestablishment of the Commonwealth in 1659

1659-60: period of political instability

1659: Richard Baxter (b. 1615), A Holy Commonwealth, or Political Aphorisims (non-fiction)

● John Dryden (b. 1631), Edmund Waller (b. 1606), and Thomas Sprat (b. 1635), Three Poems Upon the Death of His Late Highnesse Oliver Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (poetry)

● [John Evelyn (b. 1620)], A Character of England (non-fiction)

● Richard Flecknoe (b. ca. 1620), The Idea of His Highness Oliver, Late Lord Protector (non-fiction)

● James Harrington (b. 1621), Aphorisms Political (non-fiction)

1660: Long Parliament recalled

● March 16, 1659/60: final dissolution of the Long Parliament

● Convention Parliament votes to restore monarchy; Richard Cromwell goes into exile abroad for twenty years (1660-80), but eventually returns to England and lives there under an assumed name. On 25 April 1660, Parliament invited Charles II to return to England; he entered London on 29 May.

______

Overview │ Civil Wars and Interregum (1642-60) │ Restoration Period (1660-88)

Revolution of 1688 and Aftermath (1688-1714) │ First Two Georges (1714-60)

George III (1760-1820) │ Sources

< http://mason.gmu.edu/~ayadav/historical%20outline/civil%20wars%20and%20interregnum>

[created Sept. 2004; last modified 26 Jan. 2006] 9