S eventeenth Century British Context The early C17th fear of absolute power Thomas Hobbes Behemoth written 1668 published 1679 The greatest part of the Lords in Parliament and the Gentry throughout ID: 461242
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Absolutism in the Seventeenth Century British ContextSlide2
The early C17th fear of ‘absolute’ power
Thomas Hobbes,
Behemoth
(written 1668, published 1679): ‘The greatest part of the Lords in Parliament, and the Gentry throughout England, were more affected to Monarchy than to a Popular Government; but so, as not to endure to hear of the King's absolute Power, which made them in time of Parliament easily to condescend to abridge it, and bring the Government to mixt Monarchy, as they called it, wherein the absolute Sovereignty should be divided between the King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons’.Slide3
‘Popery and arbitrary government’
2 revolutions
Popery – fear that
catholicism had increasing influence at Court: conversion of James duke of York, the future James II, to catholicism; the influence of catholic mistresses (Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth); the ‘Popish Plot’ of 1678Arbitrary power – the emasculation of Parliament, either by refusing to summon it or let it sit, or by packing it with Court supporters or by trying to regulate elections to ensure a compliant Parliament. Arbitrariness also
French style government? Worries about emulation/admiration of Louis XIVSlide4
Charles II and James II in imperial posesSlide5Slide6
1688: The First Modern Revolution?
Steve
Pincus
(2011): Britain faced two alternatives models of state developmentDutch invasion and popular violence against catholic targets – violence esp in Ireland and ScotlandSlide7
Did the eclipse of absolutism mean a free state?
Constitution – bill of rights
Frequent Parliaments
Ideology of consent and libertyReligious tolerationbutSuppression of Irish catholicsUnion with Scotland despite oppositionIdeology of security of property could justify enslavement of AfricansWar against France meant an unprecedented degree of taxationSlide8
By the time peace was signed in 1697, the war had cost £49m - three times the average level of expenditure during James's reign
1702-14 national debt of £35million. Average of £5m a year of taxation (3 times level under Charles II). Total cost of war 1702-14 about £100m.
National debt rose enormously
Did the eclipse of absolutism mean a less powerful state? Ironically it probably led to a stronger ‘fiscal-military’ state. The post-revolutionary state was able to achieve what had evaded the attempts by absolutist rulers
1721Slide9
GB was at war more frequently and on a wider scale than ever before:
1689-1697 (Nine Years War), 1702-1713 (War of Spanish Succession),
1718-20 (War of the Quadruple Alliance)
1739-48 (War of Jenkin’s Ear; War of Austrian Succession) Some critics by 1720 feared that a new type of ‘behemoth’ had been created that encroached on popular freedoms and liberties