The English Republic ( English Commonwealth of England , literally English Commonwealth , later the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland ( English Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland )) - the historical form of government in England from 1649 to 1660 , introduced after the execution of the king Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy . English historians also refer to this period as the “Interregnum” ( English Interregnum ), since in 1660 the monarchy in England was restored.
abolished form of government | |||||
English Republic | |||||
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English Commonwealth of england | |||||
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Motto : “Pax quæritur bello” | |||||
← ← ← → → → 1649 - 1660 | |||||
Capital | London | ||||
Currency unit | GBP | ||||
Square | 130,395 km² | ||||
Form of government | Parliamentary Republic , in fact, Military dictatorship | ||||
Lord Protector | |||||
• December 16, 1653 - September 3, 1658 | Oliver cromwell | ||||
• September 3, 1658 - November 25, 1659 | Richard Cromwell |
Periods of English History | |
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Tudor period | (1485—1558) |
Elizabethan era | (1558-1603) |
Yakovian era | (1603–1625) |
Caroline Age | (1625–1642) |
Civil Wars , Republic and Protectorate | (1642—1660) |
Restoration of the Stuarts and the Glorious Revolution | (1660—1688) |
UK Education | (1688-1714) |
Georgian era | (1714-1811) |
Regency | (1811–1830) |
Victorian era | (1837-1901) |
Edwardian era | (1901–1910) |
World War I | (1914-1918) |
Interwar period | (1918-1939) |
The Second World War | (1939-1945) |
Content
Establishment of the English Republic (1649)
On January 26, 1649, Charles I , King of England , Scotland and Ireland , was sentenced to death for "criminal actions against the English Parliament and people." The execution took place 4 days later. On March 17, Parliament announced the abolition of the English monarchy as "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous for the good of the people." The House of Lords was also abolished. It should be noted that all moderate deputies — 150 out of a total of 250 members of the House of Commons — were expelled and partially arrested from the parliament (December 6, 1648 ), and were partially arrested.
On May 19, 1649, the parliament solemnly adopted the “Act of declaring England a republic”, proclaiming that the country was ruled by the parliament and its appointed officials. In fact, the power belonged to the top of the army, led by Oliver Cromwell , who relied on radical puritans - independents .
Formally, the State Council of 41 members, annually elected by Parliament, was declared the supreme authority. The judiciary and the common law have been retained in their previous form [1] .
Major events in the republic period
The execution of the king caused outrage among European monarchs, political and trade relations with the new regime were curtailed or reduced to a minimum. France, Spain and Austria sent an official protest and tried to organize armed intervention, but could not agree among themselves. Russia, where Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich ruled, drove out all the English merchants. On February 3, 1649 , immediately after the execution of Charles I, his son Prince Charles , who fled to Holland, with the support of other monarchies, declared himself the rightful king of England.
In England, the unrest began poor ( diggers , levellers ), severely suppressed by Cromwell. At the same time, a mutiny arose in Ireland and Scotland. Until the end of 1649, Cromwell spent the cruel pacification of Ireland, and then arrived in Scotland, where the local parliament declared Prince Charles the king (the Scottish Presbyterians uncompromisingly opposed both the Anglicans and the Independents ).
On May 1, 1650, Charles had to sign the Bradish Agreement , in which he pledged to make the Presbyterian state church in England, Scotland and Ireland, and also to grant self-government to Scotland. Cardinal Mazarin from France and Wilhelm II of Orange from Holland provided Karl with considerable financial and material assistance. In the same 1650, Charles landed in Scotland, where he gathered a large army of his supporters. Cromwell pulled his forces to the Scottish border and defeated superior enemy forces in the decisive battle of Dunbar . The British army occupied Edinburgh, after which there was a lull for a while. In the summer of 1651, Karl, having expanded his army, crossed the English border. The final outcome of the war was the Battle of Worcester , which ended in a complete victory for Cromwell. The civil war is over, Karl fled to France. Scotland and Ireland, previously considered separate states with a common king, were merged with the English Republic into the “English Commonwealth”, in 1653 renamed the “Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland”.
After the collapse of hopes for a military victory over the republic, first Spain, and after it, most other European countries recognized the new regime in England. Among other events of this period, it is possible to note the adoption of the “Navigation Act” (1651), which banned imports on ships of third countries. The act was a serious blow to the Dutch trade and provoked several Anglo-Dutch wars (the first of them lasted from 1652 to 1654).
Cromwell Protectorate (1653-1659)
In April 1653, members of parliament , who had not been re-elected since 1640, decided to make their membership lifelong. Cromwell with a group of musketeers came to the meeting and dispersed the audience with the words: "I will put an end to your chatter" [2] . From that moment on, he began to rule the country alone. Members of the new House of Commons, formed in July 1653, were not actually elected, but were appointed by the Council of State, that is, Cromwell. However, the new body did not show complete submission, and after only 5 months was dissolved.
On December 16, 1653, the ruling group declared Cromwell the lifelong Lord Protector (literally: High Defender) of the country, in fact with royal authority. A new parliament was elected (September 1654) from 400 deputies, which existed just over a year and was dissolved in January 1655. The new parliament (1657) offered Cromwell the title of king. Cromwell rejected this proposal, but agreed to make his power hereditary.
Cromwell’s domestic policy was a harsh Puritan dictatorship. All types of gambling were banned. Proved adultery was punishable by death. Constantly carried out (unsuccessful) struggle with drunkenness, fasting days were strictly observed [3] .
Foreign policy during the protectorate was aimed at strengthening the military and economic power of the country. The English fleet achieved superiority over the former maritime hegemon - Spain, the Mediterranean Sea was cleared of pirates, Jamaica was captured. English trade expanded rapidly. By this time, however, England was drawn into a long and ruinous war with Spain . The economic situation of the population as a whole has deteriorated, the number of supporters of the restoration of the monarchy has grown rapidly.
End of the English Republic
After the death of Oliver Cromwell (September 1658 ), the tread of the Lord Protector passed to his son Richard , who immediately called a new parliament. Deputies immediately began to dismantle the protectorate system, trying to restore the principles of a parliamentary republic, and first of all - to put the army under its control. The army resisted and demanded that Richard dissolve parliament; On April 22, 1659, Richard Cromwell was forced to submit.
Nevertheless, the dismantling of the protectorate, which no longer had supporters, continued. To the place of the dispersed parliament, a State Council was convened from the highest generals and the surviving deputies of the Long Parliament (elected before the protectorate period). The post of Lord Protector was abolished, Richard Cromwell and his brothers were allocated real estate, money income and their debts as compensation. All of them no longer took part in politics and, after the Restoration, were not oppressed [4] .
In the meantime, the royalists became active in the country, joined by Presbyterians , some MPs and the common people. In August 1659, a serious royalist insurrection occurred, successfully suppressed by General Lambert . Two months later, Lambert’s troops dispersed parliament, but other generals did not support his actions.
The conflict was resolved unexpectedly. Popular in the army, General George Monk , who did not fall into the ruling military group, moved his troops from Scotland to London and in February 1660 carried out a coup d'etat. Lambert was arrested and thrown into the Tower . Monk convened a new parliament, re-including in its membership all victims of the "Pride purge" . The first law passed by parliament declared all republican legal acts invalid (adopted after 1648). Then Monk was approved as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces, after which elections for a new parliament were appointed (March 1660).
In the new environment, a significant part of the deputies supported the restoration of the monarchy, and Monk entered into negotiations with Prince Carl (through his Chancellor Edward Hyde ) [5] . April 4, 1660, Charles announced the so-called. “ Brad's Declaration ”, in which he promised:
- all participants in the revolution (except for the “regicides” who signed the death sentence of Charles I) will be granted an amnesty;
- large debts to officers and soldiers will be paid immediately;
- he does not intend to demand the redistribution of property and will respect the rights and privileges of parliament and English citizens;
- the Anglican Church will remain dominant in England; tolerance will be shown to other confessions;
- the remaining issues will be submitted to Parliament.
On April 25, the newly elected parliament, in which the Presbyterians and the royalists got the majority, invited Charles to take the throne of the three kingdoms. At the same time, the House of Lords was reinstated. On May 29, 1660, on the day of his thirtieth birthday, Charles II triumphantly returned to London and was proclaimed king.
After the Restoration, England, Scotland and Ireland again began to be regarded as separate states with a common king. The Anglican Church has restored its privileged position in England (especially for public servants), and the Puritan denominations were subjected to various kinds of infringements up to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Notes
- ↑ W. Churchill. Britain in the New Time, 2006 , p. 284.
- ↑ W. Churchill. Britain in the New Time, 2006 , p. 301.
- ↑ W. Churchill. Britain in the New Time, 2006 , p. 310-311.
- ↑ W. Churchill. Britain in the New Time, 2006 , p. 318.
- ↑ Ronald Hutton. The British Republic 1649-1660. - 2nd Edition Macmillian. - P. 130.
Literature
- English bourgeois revolution of the XVII century / Ed. Acad. E. A. Kosminsky and Cand. ist Sciences Ya. A. Levitsky . - M .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1954. - 10 000 copies.
- Barg MA The Great English Revolution in the portraits of its leaders. M .: Thought, 1991.
- World history in 24 volumes. Volume 13. - Minsk: Literature, 1996. - 560 p.
- Lavrovsky V. M., Barg M. A. The English Bourgeois Revolution. M .: Publishing house of socio-economic literature, 1958. 366 c. ISBN 978-5-9989-0205-5 .
- Hill K. English Revolution. M .: State Publishing House of Foreign Literature, 1947.
- Churchill, Winston. Britain in modern times (XVI-XVII centuries.). - Smolensk: Rusich ,, 2006. - 416 p. - (Popular historical library). - ISBN 5-8138-0601-6 .
- Firth, CH & Rait, RS, eds. (1911), "September 1650: Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 , p. 423-425 , < http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56416 >
- Schultz, Oleg, ed. (14 March 2010), Scotland and the Commonwealth: 1651–1660 , Archontology.org , < http://www.archontology.org/nations/scotland/01_laws.php > . Verified December 1, 2012.
- Sevaldsen, Jørgen (2007), Angles on the English-Speaking World, V.7: The State of the Union: Scotland, 1707–2007 , Museum Tusculanum Press, p. 39 , ISBN 978-87-635-0702-8