20. Political developments and conflicts: the Exclusion Crisis and James II Flashcards
(26 cards)
Popish Plot ‘78
1) In ‘69 J2’s Catholicism became public knowledge
2) Refused ‘73 Test Act requiring him to take the Oaths of allegiance + supremacy (loyalty to CofE + King over Pope etc.)
3) J2 marries Catholic Mary of Modena ‘73 (pushing out the possibility of his protestant daughters (1st marriage) having succession)
1) In ‘78 Titus Oates’ catholic conspiracy spread revelation of the Pope’s plan to assassinate C2 before raising a Catholic insurrection throughout the 3 kingdoms
2) TO attempted to implicate Thomas Bedingfield, J2’s Jesuit confessor w/ forged letters + successfully incriminate Edward Coleman (J2 secretary) - arrested + plot getting closer to J2
3) Sir Edmund Godfrey (magistrate) found dead - created crisis (presumed to have known abt the plot) of anti-Catholic hysteria (Godfrey seen as Protestant martyr)
4) Green, Berry + Hill confessed to Godfrey’s murder + were hanged (as well as Coleman) in Nov ‘78
5) High profile Catholics: Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel + Lord Strafford incriminated
Why was there such an extreme reaction to the accusation of a Popish Plot in 78 (4)
1) Fear of growth of expansionist France
2) Catholic influences at court - previously Clifford, mistress Louise de Keroulle, Henrietta Maria (until ‘65 - esp w/ her French connections)
3) Catholic line of succession more complete w/ J2 e to Mary of Modena and their son’s birth in June ‘88
4) Anti-catholic propaganda c.1670 e.g. abt Mary I buring nearly 300 Protestants in John Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ (Catholics seen as potential traitors)
5) Equation of Catholicism with absolutism - clashes with English common law - pmentary privilege, habeas corpus + independent judiciary owned their origin to the law of the land not person as in Catholicism where anointed magistrates word is law
Exclusion Crisis
‘78 - ‘81 4 diff. Pments (Cavalier + 3 ‘Exclusion’ Pments) tried to limit J2 power as king or exclude him from the throne altogether
Culmination of Popish plot + rift between court + country parties growing over 18 yrs
Supporters of Exclusion (6 methods)
Driven by Whigs - unprecedently challenging primogeniture (also used by aristocracy for titles + land - opp.) - methods:
1) petitioned for freedom of Pment to meet again - 16,000 signatures
2) Pamphlets and books after Licensing Act expired in’ 79 - from 79-81, 200 anti-Catholic ones made
3) Locke’s Two Treatises of Gov.
4) Processions saw burnings of popish effigies esp. on Nov 17 ‘79
5) Oates popish plot + anti-Catholic conspiracy theories killed 35 over treason ‘79 - ‘81
6) June ‘80, attempted to prosecute J2 as a recusant in Middlesex Grand Jury but C2 dissolved it before jdmt made
Opponents of exclusion
1) Tories largely anti-exclusion - swept up reaction from moderates being against radicals
2) Abhorrence Movement of ‘82 saw anger against Shaftsbury’s organisation of non-Pmentary for pressure for Exclusion (+ the radicalism of it)
3) Tory ideology emerged in support of DRoKs, royal prerogative, rule of law + passive obedience
-Petitions, pamphlets and books organised, Tory arg against exclusion by L’estrange had 64,000 copies
-Patriarcha
-Observator was an anti-exclusionist newspaper
-Poems and playing card designs used to strengthen tory cause
End of the Cavalier Pment
1) Oct ‘78 - 2nd Test Act excluded all Catholics from Pment = the King issued a Proclamation banishing all Catholics within 20 miles of LND (Popish plot having a direct impact on politics)
2) Nov - Shaftsbury targets J2 suggesting he should be removed from the presence of C2 + no longer attend the Privy Council
1st Exclusion Pment (9)
6 Mar 79
1) Granted C2 £200,000 in exchange for disbanding of the army
2) Secured Habeus Corpus amendment act in May 79, forcing trials before imprisonment
3) Court party outnumbered 2 to 1
4) Colemans wish for England to be converted to Catholicism revealed on 27th April apparently showing negotiations between James, France + Pope
5) Pment believed J2 couldn’t be trusted
6) 30 Apr C2 promised a Catholic monarch couldn’t have church patronage + Pment would have power over civil + military appointments, appeasing some moderate exclusionists
7) 11 May, 1 MP called for J2 to be impeached for charges of high treason, Exclusion bill read on 15th by Ashley Cooper
8) 21 May - passed second reading 207 to 128
9) C2 prorogued Pment on the 27th, dissolved in July (Sought funding from France to avoid another Pment)
Issues post 1st Exclusion Pment
1) Aug ‘79 C2 became v sick, worrying many abt succession
2) C2 sent Monmouth to Brussels in Sept + sent J2 to Scotland to secure order against Dissenters
3) C2 remodelled the Privy Council, removing opponents such as Cooper
4) C2 purged local councils, replacing them with loyalists (quo warranto)
2nd Exc. Pment (3)
1) Opened 21 Oct 80
2) Exclusion bill passed 3 readings + w/ HoL in Nov
3) C2 intervened + HoL rejected the bill (shoulders)
40 HoC offered £600,000 for exclusion, C2 refused + dissolved Pment on 18 Jan 81
Oxford Parliament (3rd Exc. Pment)
1) 21 - 28 Mar 81, Oxford = loyalist area
2) C2 offered William + Mary be regents for J2 - rejected
3) 26 Mar - decided overwhelmingly for another exclusion bill
4) Secret Treaty w/ Louis in Mar ‘81 saw £40,000 immediately
+ £115,000 annually for 3 yrs in return for not calling Pment
Why each exclusion Pment failed (3)
1) 1st Exc Pment dissolved July 79 due to Charles’ actions to manage the situation
2) 2nd Exc Pment Oct ‘80 - Jan ‘81 (most problematic - fear increased due to C2 being ill) - C2’s actions over the HoL - over their shoulders when voting + C being rich after 81 (Navigation act, customs)
3) 3rd Exclusion Pment (Oxford - loyalist area) - (dissolved 28) Mar ‘81 - failed due to C2’s management
Why exclusion failed (in general) (7)
1) Conservatism of Lords and the Church/ wide support for Tories objections to the Whigs - divided nature of Pment (300 abstentions)
2) Radicalism of Exclusion (wanted J2 hung, drawn + quartered) - fear of Civil War + constitutional revolution
3) Absence of serious disturbances in Scotland or Ireland
4) C’s concessions to Whigs
5) Absence of serious alternative to James (Duke of Monmouth - illegitimate son not recognised as blood - no primogeniture)
6) C2’s apparent acceptance of the seriousness of the popish plot
7) C2 got funding from Louis - financial sit (could rule w/o Pment)
Post 3rd Exc. Pment (2)
1) C2 pushed propaganda - Apr ‘61 Declaration Touching the Reasons That Moved Him to Dissolve the Two Last Parliaments - ordered to be read from every pulpit - clear stance asserted - Exc. + radicalism suppressed
1) C2 didn’t recall Pment again (didn’t need to - rich) - breaking the 1663 Triennal act based on trust - (ev. of C being in theory absolutist), giving Pment v. limited power
C2’s ordinary revenue by ‘85
£1,370,750 (not relying on subsidies) - exceeding £1.2 mill restoration settlement helped by Crown collecting custom duties directly (since early ’70s), trade expanded
Provincial gov strengthened ‘81 - ‘85
C2 systematically purged political opp. from the boroughs through giving quo warranto writs - required proof of the legality of their royal charters - often found faulty (v. old) so king can veto their appointment - e.g. in City of LND, after 3 yrs C2 got the lord mayor, sheriffs + other major office holders to need to have the his approval - entrenched Tories (C’s base of support) in municipal gov
Between 1681 - ‘85, 51 new charter were issued + 47 more in the first 3 months of James’ reign - J2 had now influence in the election of 238 members
Crushing Whig Opp
In the later years of C’s reign the judiciary was mobilised against Whigs - defendants struggled to prove their innocence - leading Whigs such as Algernon Sidney + William Lord Russell executed 1683 for the Rye House Plot (attempted assassination of C2)
Shaftesbury was arrested on a charge of treason in ‘81 + imprisoned in ToL - survived (due to grand jury chosen by Whigs - allowed to happen) but died in exile in ‘82
J2’s goals and character (5)
1) Inflexible and authoritarian like Charles
2) Regarded opposition as treason
3) Aimed to improve Catholics position + repeal penal laws against them such as Corporation and Test Acts
4) Declared that he wouldn’t move from the just rights of the crown
5) Failed to recognise Tory loyalty was to an intolerant Church of England, not to him
1685 rebellions
1) Earl of Argyll rose in Spring ‘85 in SW Highlands but failed to secure control
2) led to J2 appointing Catholics in positions of power (?)
3) Monmouth plotted a rebellion in W England but was crushed in July
4) Monmouth Executed along w/ 250 rebels (800 transported to West Indies as slaves - carry out indentured servitude)
6) Illustrations of only serious trouble in J2’s succession - rest of Pment hoped for harmonious rel. + proceeded to supply him w/ more than adequate revenue from customs duties - rebellions had little support (due to no Catholic heir - issue seemed remote)
The ‘Bloody Assize’ of Lord Chief Justice Jeffries
1) unpleasant persecution in West Country following Monmouth’s failed rebellion
2) 100s pople condmended on minimal evidence + hung, or hung, d + q - mostly low-born men + women - posed little threat
3) Used as evidence of J2’s absolutism
J2’s 1st Pment (3)
1) Met in May ‘85 and funded J2 £2 million annually
2) Gave James 20,000 troops in Dec
3) Charles appointed 90 catholic officers, leading to a clash with parliament in November 85 (no previous Pment)
4) Aroused suspicion by refusing to stand down army after Monmouth rebellion - fear he’ll use it against political opp
Anglican Revolt under J2
1) J made no secret he wanted Test + Corporation Act repealed
2) ‘85 Pment prorogued after only 2 weeks bc of opp.
3) When Halifax objected to challenging the 2 acts he was dismissed from the privy council
4) J also began ‘closeting’ members of the court - pressurising them to convert to Catholicism w/ little success
5) Declaration to Preachers in Mar ‘86 forbidding attacks on Catholics, w/ ‘absolutist lawyers’ being set up to enforce this - caused a confrontation when J2 ordered Bishop of LND, Henry Compton to discipline LND minister John Sharp for disobeying D to P - Compton refused + was suspended by a Court of Ecclesiastical Commission est. for this purpose in July ‘86
6) fears of army exacerbated when J2 replaced Protestant officers w/ Catholic ones
7) campaign to force Magdalen College Ox to accept a Catholic President in contravention of the Uni’s statues - after success in doing so in Sidney Sussex college Cbridge
Godden v. Hales
June ‘86 - test case of (Test Act) J’s dispensing power to allow Catholics to be in offices of power
Hales Catholic in army
James had 6 judges removed before trial - Jdmt in his favour - used this to appoint 4 Catholics to the Privy Council
Restoration of Catholicism in Ireland under J2 (4)
1) James appointed Earl of Tyrconnell as lieutenant general to remodel irish army (appointed Lord Deputy in Jan ‘87 to reestablish English Catholic power)
2) By Sept 86, most of the army was Catholic
3) Remodelled Justice system, Pment and corporations to be Catholically owned
4) Tyrconnell forced Protestants to give up half their land - destroyed balance of forces in Ireland - in ‘60 78% of land owned by Protestants
Restoration of Catholicism in Scotland under J2 (2)
1) Scotland’s parliament rejected calls for toleration of catholics in 86, but..
2) February ‘87, James declared freedom of private worships for them and quakers (but not Presbyterians) using his prerogative - increased anti-Catholicism (esp among elite)
