ENGLAND 1660 AD

Charles II 1660-1685. James II 1685-1688. The English Revolution 1688-1689. William III 1689-1702.

The up side of the Restoration of 1660 was that forced military dictatorship of Cromwell and latterly his son was the restoration of the rule of Parliament and the rule of Law. The nobility and the gentry were, however, more completely restored to their power than the King, in the shape of Charles II who had been in exile in France. Cromwell’s bones were dug up in a display of childishness by Charles II, but surprisingly many Roundhead leaders were retained in power such as Monk, Ashley Cooper, Colonel Birch and Andrew Marvell.

The ‘Clarendon Code’ and the Anglican Church after the Restoration of the Monarchy. Puritans suffer.

Religious non-conformity was harshly put down under what was known as the Clarendon Code. The victims were the easy to get at middle class townsfolk. This sufferance was often born by wealthy Middle Class merchants – who took their Roundhead spirit and turned it into the Whig ‘party’ – whilst it could be said that the Cavaliers turned into Tories. A rough definition. Anglicanism became the firm preserve of the Upper Classes, with some catholic families surviving in Lancashire and Northumberland. But, most Anglicans were gentry and thus the Church services were bound to the preference and patronage of the gentry who would sit in families’ pews. Church became a pleasant, social gathering, lacking conflict and nonconformity.

Some Dissenters were around the country. Wesleyan, Quaker and Baptist movements had toe holds I some communities. Some were people like the poet John Bunyan. Quakers were led by George Fox (d. 1691 AD,) and they were persecuted by stripes and imprisonment. But their sufferance and patience got recruits and they were the most numerous of the sects. Quakerism got many thousands of converts in the common folk of England.

For a generation after 1660 AD Puritans were persecuted. People had had enough of their ‘eat religion with your bread’ attitude.

The formation of Tories and Whigs.

With politics dividing between the pro Anglican Tories and Whigs promoting the idea of Toleration. The Tories wanted to make Anglicanism widely distributed across England. They, like the Cavaliers before them, were more in tune with the country and landed estates. Whigs were fewer in number, but like their Roundhead forefathers, were often wealthy commercial types with large estates. The nobility and gentry now truly ran England.

1663 AD. Censorship and the Press in Restoration England.

This age produced Newton’s Principia, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, Purcell’s music, Wren’s churches. But the print machines brought by Caxton from Belgium to England some 250 years before were few in number and press censorship was prevalent. In 1663 AD the Licensing Act was passed by the Cavalier Parliament, to stop heretical writings. Meaning mainly Puritan or Whig writings. For most of Charles II reign there were no newspapers except the Gazette, which was an official publication. 

1667 AD. Sprat and The Royal Society.

Early in Charles II reign Sprat wrote ‘The History of the Royal Society.’  It would be some time before the likes of Isaac Newton, but the Fellows of the Royal Society had the aim of increasing ‘the powers of all mankind and to free them from the bondage of errors.’ Puritanism had failed to produce religious orthodoxy in England and now God was no longer All in All. Science was here to stay.

1671 AD. The Game Laws.

The Norman and Plantagenet Forest Laws had protected hunting estates, especially the rights of the King to hunt. But game that wandered freely on to Yeoman’s land could be killed. Now the Squirearchy of the House of Commons banned that as well. So many poor families went without traditional meals, lest they risk severe punishment. The advent of the shotgun and its ability to kill game quicker than Hawking increased the anxiety of the Squires.

1677 AD. The repeal of De hearetico comburendo.

Despite the drive towards non-conformity spearheaded by the Clarendon Code, the above act was repealed and ‘punishment by death in pursuance of any Ecclesiastical Censures’ was abolished. Heresy was no longer a death sentence and the idea of religious Toleration had taken root in England. However, trials for Witchcraft were still being held at late as 1687 AD. Sir John Reresby’s account of a Witch trial at the York Assizes was written in 1687:

‘a poor woman had the hard fate of being condemned a witch.’

The restoration of the Theatre.

For many years one or two theatres had survived the austere years of the Cromwellian Regicide government. The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane London was one of them. Plays such as Wycherley’s Country Wife was written.

Shakespeare and Ben Jonson works were revived. Drydon’s dramas and Purcell’s musical genius were adorning the stage.

1684 AD. The first public library. Knowledge expands.

Private libraries were growing from the collection of Samuel Pepys to small bookshelves in English Yeoman’s manor house. The first public library was formed in 1684 Ad by Tenison when Rector of St Martin’s in The Fields. Later the Archbishop of Canterbury. Evelyn writes in his diary:

‘Dr. Tenison communicated to me of his intention of erecting a library in St Martin’s parish church, for the public use, and desired my assistance, with Sir Christopher Wren…...’

The period also saw the researches of Sir William Dugdale of the Monasticon, Anthony Wood and Hearne of Oxford, Jeremy Collier, Nicholson, Burnet, and the first serious historian of the Restoration, Wharton of Anglia Sacra. Anglo-Saxon texts and mediaeval texts and antiquaries were studies in phenomenal detail and value from 1660 to 1730 AD. (See English Scholars, by Prof Davis Douglas 1929.)

The decline of the English county Squire.

Many of the English squires post Restoration, like Sir John Reresby, baronet of Thryberg in the West Riding of Yorkshire did well – he paid off post Civil War family debts by 1688 and began to add to his estate. But others with no expansive lands or rent found it hard. The illiterate county squires needed capital in this changing society. Many were bought out by the likes of the Duke of Bedford.

The Corn Laws The Navigation Act and Bounties of Stuart England.

Parliamentry control of the economy was centred on The House of Commons. Corn Laws, which restricted imports from Europe and Ireland, protected the English landowners they were supposed to. Those English landowners filled the House of Commons. A neat win-win. The House of Commons would now move into ever increasing areas of power, despite a King who believed in absolute power. The real result of the English Civil War.

This hold on the economy extended to the seas with the passing of the Navigation Act in 1651, passed by the Long Parliament. It kept sea trade on English ships, preventing use of competitive shipping, such as Dutch ships. Thus we see in the magnates their position. James, Duke of York, was also Lord High Admiral. Governor of the Royal African Company, and shareholder in East India Company stock. He succeeded Prince Rupert as Governor of the Hudson Bay Company and was in turn succeeded by Marlborough. The wars with Holland during the reign of Charles II were mainly commercial in their objectives. To protect English trade.

Thus pacifist ‘Little England’ of the county squire was less and less influential in the House of Commons as the desire to increase colonial presence and commercial trade with Europe grew. English commercial magnates held true power.

Labour and Wages in Stuart England.

The two largest classes by far I an analysis by Gregory King were the ‘cottagers and the paupers’. The Elizabethan Statute of Artificers, which prevented work being unfinished, was still in place and Justices of the Peace set maximum wages. This all controlled the ‘lower’ English classes. But all English classes insisted on a high standard of living. Defoe said:

‘Good husbandry is no English virtue. English labouring classes eat and drink, especially the latter, three times as much value as any sort of foreigner…’

The English Revolution and Gregory King’s Tables.

The first Census for England was conducted in 1801. But the Tables calculated by Gregory King are worth note. It breaks down what it estimates to be a population of over 5.5 million. This is possibly quite accurate and is calculated from the Hearth Tax and other data at the time of the English Revolution and the installation of King William of Orange. The heads per family column relates to those living under one roof. The families and income data is average.

English Sporting and Hunting in Stuart Times.

The English Civil War had broken open many deer parks, but deer hunting of the old deer chase still continued in a declining way. Fox hunting was popular as was pursuing hare.

Singlestick (Cudgel) fighting (as Morris dancing celebrates,) boxing, sword-fighting, bull and bear baiting abounded in the country. Cock fighting was the most popular. Rough games of football and hurling were also favoured.

Coal Mining in Stuart England.

The 17th Century saw important contributions by coal mining. Pits grew deeper and miners spent more time underground and became separate communities.

English Sporting and Hunting in Stuart Times.

The English Civil War had broken open many deer parks, but deer hunting of the old deer chase still continued in a declining way. Fox hunting was popular as was pursuing hare.

Singlestick (Cudgel) fighting (as Morris dancing celebrates,) boxing, sword-fighting, bull and bear baiting abounded in the country. Cock fighting was the most popular. Rough games of football and hurling were also favoured.

Coal Mining in Stuart England.

The 17th Century saw important contributions by coal mining. Pits grew deeper and miners spent more time underground and became separate communities.

Estimated Coal Mining Annual Production in Tons (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.)  

Durham Northumberland and The Midlands of England are by far the bigger contributors.

English Ports in Stuart Times.

Plymouth, Hull, Whitby, Yarmouth, Harwich and Newcastle flourished with shipbuilding, coal trading, Custom Houses controlled the ports and gathered duties. The trade routes bolstered by the Navigation Laws favoured trade to the West and increasingly the Americas and the Caribbean. Trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic reduced leaving many Eastern Ports to decline.

1665 to 1666 AD. The last ‘Plague of London’ and the Great Fire of London.

The last outbreak of the Plague or Black Death in England was in 1665 AD. Followed quickly by the Great Fire of London in 1666 AD. London was ½ million in population and suffered greatly from both occurrences. But the resilience of the English, and that of ‘Londoners’ brought the City through. But London was rebuilt at an astonishing speed. Sir John Reresby wrote:

‘The dreadful effects of the fire were not so strange as the (speed of) rebuilding of this great city.’

The Plague was the last in England because the mediaeval Black rat was replaced by the modern Brown rat, which does not carry plague fleas. Rebuilt - London was ready to spring forward into an era of Empire building.  This was illuminated by the genius that was the architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, and the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral in London was his epitome. Its rebuild went on through to Queen Anne’s reign, undeterred by the Popish Plot, the English Revolution, and the Marlborough Wars. It was built in White Portland Stone, which is now common to architecture in England and London in particular.