Challenge To Royal Policies And Authority In Early Stuart England

In 1957, Lord Darnley was murdered and Queen Mary was forced to renounce her throne. He made her son King of Scotland. He became the official King of Scotland when he was one year old. James was a devout scholar who studied the English language. The kingdom was strong and centralized during his rule, and he eventually married Anne of Denmark. He was a devout Protestant, and fought against the Puritans who tried to get rid of Roman practices in the church. He was not liked much, because of favoritism, and his schemes to get an alliance with Spain. During his rule, William Ruthven, one of the leaders of the Church of Scotland, kidnapped James, and held him captive for almost a year. When James finally escaped, he did not take any more chances, and executed William. With Queen Elizabeth the First aging, James realized that he had the highest chance of becoming the King. The only problem was that his mother, Mary, was still in live. She was prosecuted, and then executed. Once Elizabeth died, we move onto the chapter of King James’ life.

Upon the death of beloved Queen Elizabeth in England, her cousin James I was announced the new king of England. As a Catholic from the rival nation Scotland, King James I was inherently distrusted by his Anglican subjects, and his guarded, haughty personality only further decreased his popularity (Matthew). King James was also known for his strong belief in the Divine Right of Kings, in which the king is second only to God (Matthew). However, his greatest disadvantage was that he was previously Catholic; the English were never truly confident in his conversion to the Anglican Church (Matthew). Skeptical,

Religious radicalism was fundamentally linked politics. Following Civil War in 1642, religious radicalism evolved due to the collapse of censorship and the Church of England which brought social upheaval across England, making it increasingly difficult for Cromwell to achieve an acceptable settlement. The less influential groups amongst society were the Diggers and Fifth Monarchists who believed that

The Civil war between King and the parliament caused many factors to arise. Religion, money and power played a part. As for religion King Charles I married queen of France who was Catholic. This feared people in England because the thought of the king changing the country from protestant to catholic. Not only, King Charles I used tax money on his family and military weapons rather than the country. He believed the rights of kings and the power they held. As a ruler for eleven years, he always had way to make money either by taxation or loans. In the sixteenth century, these conflicts lead to a new turning point in Europe. In response, new transformation in working class, modern revolution, and expanding the government while improving the

After this was when things started to get harder for Charles V. He was faced with Religious differences as a challenge to political authority. Charles V.

Throughout history, authentic sources have made kings seem like, either, tyrannical beings or beings that have turned a country over from a depressed past. Who the citizens celebrated or detested, but were too scared to protest because the power of the king was too overbearing to challenge his authority. King Charles II was the king of England from 1630 to 1685, and during his reign the citizens of England criticized him for his efforts, or lack of in his governing. Sir George Savile, a member of Charles’ Privy Council, in an essay, used rhetorical devices to portray King Charles II as an ordinary person, that gets to live the life of royalty.

(Blue) Although James had a much bigger army than William’s, lots of soldiers betrayed James and joined the other side; scared that they will kill him; he fled to France. (Harris) It was after the battle that they called it the glorious revolution, it was called glorious because in which religious and political problems were solved without bloodshed. February 2nd 1689 William and Mary were crowned as the first ruler where two people equally share the power. (Stuart) That year the English Bills of Rights were written which basically limited the power of the monarchs and that there are limits to what the King or Queen can do. William and Mary humbly accepted the document and signed, a new type of government also rose in which the people could choose who ruled their kingdom, and it was called a democratic government. (Stuart)

James VI formed a new Stuart dynasty that replaced the Tudor rule. His rule as the king of England and Scotland affected the lives of millions of people all over Europe. Because of this, English Catholics becoming even more marginalized due to the Protestant King.

In England, from about 1400 to 1700 there was a constant struggle between Parliament and the ruling monarch. During that time, there were six documents that tried to weaken or challenge the power of the monarch. One of these documents was the Petition of Right. The Petition of Right, although it did not last, challenged Charles I by stating that he could not levy taxes without Parliament’s approval, not declare martial law, not to quarter soldiers in private homes while during peacetime, and could not imprison someone without a valid charge. Another document is the Grand Remonstrance. The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances against Charles I. This lead to Parliament asking for control of the army. Although it was brutally denied, it

Almost all governments during the 16th and 17th centuries were absolute monarchies. These monarchs caused a lot of controversy because the people they were residing over believed that it was unfair for them to not have a say in the government. This caused many people to look at at absolute monarchs as tyrannical because they did not like the way that they chose to rule. This period of absolutism caused people to look at monarchs as tyrannical because the people believed that they saw themselves as equal to God, did not listen to their people, and because they thought only they knew how to lead.

2. Henry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before ascending the throne in 1589. Before his coronation as King of France at Chartres, he changed his faith from Calvinism to Catholicism and, in 1598, he enacted the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to the Protestants, thereby effectively ending the civil war. One of the most popular French kings, both during and after his reign, Henry showed great care for the welfare of his subjects and displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the time. By him granting religious liberties to the Protestants he was helping establishing a modern state in France.

England’s lengthy history of hereditary monarchs and abusive absolutists has led to the system of constitutionalism in 17th century English government. The encouragement of these absolutism practices triggered the need to search for a new way to govern. The reigns of the Stuart monarchy led to the shift from absolutism to constitutionalism during 17th century England. After witnessing the success of Louis XIV's of France establishment of absolutism, England would soon see that James I, and his son Charles I, will fail at establishing absolutism in England and see a constitutional government established.

There are many events that happened in history that makes the world how it is today. Many people don’t realize that society has changed dramatically from the 17th century to now. In those days they dealt with a different type of government system, (monarchy) in which the king is in control of the government. Some kings are great in which they run their country well and have the respect of those around them and beneath them in society, and you also have those who don’t have the respect or the authority to the people.

In 1559 Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was crowned Queen. Elizabeth sought to find a middle ground during her rein (1558-1603) in England, by allowing both Catholics and Protestants to worship without fear of any repercussions. However, Gilbert (1976) that ‘Elizabeth I and her successors had legislated to make Anglican worship compulsory’ (p. 4). By introducing the Act of Uniformity of 1559 it laid out the rules of worship that both religions were to follow and reissued the Book of Common Prayer for use in worship. The Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 also set to define the doctrine of the Church of England which set out a middle path between the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church and the Protestants (Wolffe, 2008). By the end of Elizabeth’s I forty five year reign, the majority of people in English society were Protestant. As the older, mainly Catholic members of society had died through old age (Christianity in Britain, 2011). Knight and Mason (2006) describe a dissenter during

Elizabeth I in now the successor to the throne, and was crowned on January 1559. She restored Protestantism to