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Absolutism in England and

1485-1715 The Tudors (1485-1603): Henry VIII and Elizabeth I Henry VIII and his six wives, incl. Anne Boleyn Edward VI (Protestant), Mary I (Catholic) and Elizabeth I (Protestant) The Stuarts (1603-1715)

• James I (r. 1603-1625) • Charles I (r. 1625-1649) • : and the Puritan Commonwealth • Charles II (r.1660-1685) and the Restoration • James II (r.1685-1688) and the • William and Mary, followed by Queen Anne James I, the “Most Learned Fool in Christendom”

• Son of Mary, Queen of Scots • Raised as a Protestant in Scotland • Sponsored King James Version of the Bible • Defender of the divine right of kings • Had financial difficulties during his reign, which caused him to call into session to try to get revenue from it; thus led to clashes between royal power and parliamentary power King Charles I and the (1642-1649)

• Wanted Absolute Rule • Believed in Divine Right • Disagreed with Parliament about money, religion, and foreign policy • Petition of Right (1628) = Charles I accepted it in exchange for money, then ignored the agreement, setting off clash with Parliament • Conflict between Anglicans and Puritans also • King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers, lost to the Parliamentary forces, including the Roundheads, in the Civil War • Charles was eventually executed Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth

• Cromwell was a Puritan leader • He was from the gentry class • He led the Model Army to victory in the Civil War • He ruled England as a de facto dictator in the 1650s • A couple of years after his death, the Commonwealth ended and the Stuart monarchy was restored under King Charles II (the so-called “Merry Monarch”) James II and the Glorious Revolution (1689)

• After Charles II’s death in 1685, his brother James II took over • James II was a Catholic convert. He was also an advocate of an . For these two reasons he became unpopular. • The English people rebelled in the Glorious Revolution (1689). James II was forced to flee. James daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William took over as limited or constitutional monarchs. • William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights (1689)