Buy this book on Amazon: A Short History of the World
During the 16th century England had only a fraction of the population and resources of either Spain or France. France was an historic foe, and an ascendant Netherlands was on the way to becoming England’s main commercial enemy. England would make war and peace with both countries many times over the next hundred years. But England had advantages over other European countries that included the difficulty of invading an island and a strong parliament to check the power of the king. It was to do so in a devastating civil war between 1642 and 1651.
Like his father, Charles I was a strong believer in the divine right of kings and for a time he refused to allow parliament to meet, recalling it only to raise money to fight the Scots, who had invaded England after Charles had imposed a new prayer book for their church services. Charles’ unsuccessful attempt, in 1642, to have five members of parliament arrested drove the country to civil war. The Civil War was not between Catholics and Protestants but rather between royalists, known as ‘cavaliers’, and the opposition who were known as ‘roundheads’, due to their short haircuts.
Oliver Cromwell, a puritanical member of parliament, became leader of the anti-royalist forces and was instrumental in encouraging parliament to develop a professional army that he led to victory on numerous occasions both in England and Ireland. In 1649, having lost the Civil War, Charles I was executed, and four years later, Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. Cromwell imposed military rule and led the country until he died in 1658. His son briefly replaced him, but Charles II, who had fled the country and spent his exile at the court of Louis XIV, was invited back in 1660 and reinstated as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. One of his first acts was to have Cromwell’s body dug up and posthumously beheaded.
Charles II’s reign was to see both the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 which destroyed some 13,000 homes. When Charles died in 1685, he was succeeded by his brother, James II, who proceeded to appoint a number of Catholics to senior positions in the realm, enough at any rate to worry a predominantly Protestant parliament. As a result, parliament urged the Dutchman, William of Orange, husband of James’ daughter, Mary, to save the country from a Catholic takeover.
When William landed in England in 1688 at the head of an army, James II, his father-in-law and the last Catholic monarch to rule England, fled the country and sought sanctuary in France. After this bloodless revolution, William and Mary acceded as co-rulers in 1689, and ruled the land together until Mary’s death in 1694, from which time William ruled alone until his own death in 1702. James II’s daughter, Anne, inherited the throne, but when she died in 1714, the Stuart royal line died with her. The crown passed to James I’s great-grandson, the Elector of Hanover, who was invited to rule England as George I. He spoke German, but no English.
By copying the advanced banking system of the Netherlands, and by turning its attention west towards the Americas where the future lay, England gradually replaced the Netherlands as the world’s economic and military superpower.