Union of the Kingdoms and the early rule of King Charles I
For brevity's sake we’ll begin our history with the formation of modern Britain, a feat whose seeds were first sowed with the War of the Roses, a bloody dynastic dispute eventually leading to the House of Tudor, most famous for its illustrious queen Elizabeth I, who led England through a golden age both in the arts and in the field of battle as England established itself as a major naval power through the defeat of a Spanish Armada. She would, however, die childless, and her crown passed to a relative of hers; James VI, the King of Scotland, who was proclaimed James I of England, the first monarch to rule the Three Kingdoms, which included the Kingdom of Ireland a holding that was in a personal union with England after centuries of English conquest and colonization on the island. While James’s rule wouldn’t see a truly united British isle, as England, Scotland, and Ireland were all still independent nations with their own parliaments, just under a personal union with a shared Monarch, his rule paved the way for the future Union of these three shared nations. It also saw the success of the American colonies, chief among them being recently founded Suriname, Virginia, and Massachusetts colonies, and the success of Elizabeth’s East India Company as it established trading posts and conducted trade with the Indians and Indonesians of Java.
It would now be extremely useful to mention a very key and somewhat unique element of England and to a lesser or greater extent Ireland and Scotland; Parliament. A King may be all-powerful but they do not fight or collect taxes themselves, no they must rely on others to do so for them, and it has come to pass that those others have not done so. In specific, a King relies greatly on his nobility, those who hold feudal titles, to maintain order and provide for the Kingdom’s defense; but he also relies greatly on his Gentry, the landed and wealthy, for they are fundamental to the bureaucracy, and the collection of revenue. This is common among many European and non-European nations of the age, and to address this it was common for Kings to consult with councils of nobles or gentry, in order to get their assent in order to put into place policy or edicts. In England, these councils came to constitute a political body all their own, known as Parliament. This body was divided into two houses; the House of Lords, which assembled the nobility, and the House of the Commons, which assembled the Gentry. Over time, the Commons became a powerful institution, as without it and by extension without the support of the Gentry, the Monarch could not raise revenue. The power of this institution, largely composed of non-nobles, began to give credence to a belief in popular sovereignty, that the monarch ruled because the people, or in this case the gentry, were pleased with him and gave their assent to his rule.
This doctrine came into conflict with some monarchs, who believed that their rule was Divine, that it was mandated by God, and that the monarch themselves embodied the state, with all power coming from them and being granted on those lower than the monarch. No monarch in British history detested the rule of parliament more than Charles I of England, who succeeded his father James in March of 1625. Charles soon came into great conflict with parliament, not only about questions of power but also importantly about questions of religion. Britain had been Catholic for much of the medieval period, but Henry VIII, the father of Elizabeth, saw England break from the papacy with the declaration of the Church of England, otherwise known as the Anglican Church or Anglicanism. It was a uniquely English branch of Protestantism, which under Charles was dominated by Arminianism or as it was also known, the High Church. Charles and the Arminians were often accused of having papal sympathies and were denounced by some for their use of rites and organization which some considered too Catholic. The main opponent of the Arminians were the Puritans, who favored a more “purified” version of worship along with local control of church teachings rather than a centrally controlled church. In Scotland, the Anglicans were opposed by the Kirk, the Scottish Church, which was mostly controlled by Calvinist Presbyterians, a type of Protestantism that favored control of the church by assemblies of Presbyters or church elders.
Religion sparked the first major conflict of Charle’s reign, as his attempts to force the use of a common prayer bible based on the English one in Scotland caused the Kirk to form an assembly, denouncing Charles’s religion reforms in Scotland, leading to an armed insurrection known as the Bishops War. Charles raised an army but avoided any open battle with the Scots, as he feared losing his expensive troops. Remember how the Kings of England could only raise revenue through the cooperation of the Gentry and by acts of parliament? Well, Charles had spent eleven years of his reign without having ever called a parliament to session, a period known as his personal rule. During this time, Charles was forced to raise revenue through convoluted methods such as appropriating funds from the ship tax, a tax meant to fund the navy or downright theft such as when he seized the bullion in the Mint. These methods made him extremely unpopular with the gentry, but it also made Charles extremely cash strapped, and so when he spent a good chunk of money on an army he didn’t dare lose it. Temporary peace came with the treaty of Berwick, which in effect acted as a ceasefire for Charles to build up his forces. Charles would try a few more methods to raise funds, such as seizing the East India Company’s stores of spices, but eventually, he’d be forced to convene the Irish and English parliaments; the Irish raised funds and an army of 9,000 men, the English denounced the King and had their parliament dissolved only a month after it was called, earning it the name of the Short Parliament.
The Scots =capitalized on this internal instability and restarted the war in 1640, leading an invasion of north England. With no other option, Charles signed the Treaty of Ripon; under its terms, the Scots would halt their advance, continue to occupy the areas they had taken, and Charles would pay them a monthly fee in order to keep them from advancing. To avoid military defeat, Charles had added more onto his debt and had completely humiliated himself by accepting defeat by the hands of the Scots. In order to finance this peace, Charles called parliament once more, forming what would come to be known as the Long Parliament.
This parliament was a convention of 493 members, of which 350 were in opposition to the King. Its first acts were impeachments of the King’s councilors, chief among them Lord Stafford, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and right-hand man of the King. Parliament also took radical action to protect itself, including passing an act mandating that it must meet at least once every three years, which Charles reluctantly agreed to due to its combination with a subsidy bill. The case against Stafford fell apart in the courts, so the leader of the radicals, John Pym, went to Parliament seeking a bill of attainder; a death warrant, authorized by parliament's vote. While Pym was initially in the minority, an attempted royalist army coup turned opinion against Stafford; he was beheaded by Parliaments orders on May 12th. After this, parliament passed a slew of bills, including the abolition of major courts which Charles had used to enforce his revenue acts, along with the abolition of said acts to gain revenue, and an act which forbade the King from dissolving parliament. Charles granted these acts in order to concede and gain favor, and also to allow for the passage of taxation bills. He even made visits to Scotland and endorse the Kirk, although an attempted royalist coup there undermined his support.
A new rebellion soon popped up in 1641, this time in Ireland. Said island was a complicated area both politically, ethnically, and religiously; the Kingdom of Ireland was technically a separate political entity but centuries of English, previous Norman, invasions, and colonization had made Ireland a holding of England. Its population was mostly Catholic with a Protestant minority, but while religion played a large role, so did class and ethnicity; the lower classes were mostly composed of the Irish Gaelics, while the gentry and nobility were divided between the Old English, those who had come over during the Norman invasions and older England, and the New English, who had settled after the establishment of the Church of England. The chief difference between these two groups was religion; the Old English were Catholic, which they shared with the Gaelics, while the New English formed the protestant minority. These religious and ethnic differences caused tensions, and it didn’t help that the Catholics were often discriminated against and had their lands taken over by Protestant plantations, particularly in the north around Ulster or Dublin. The Irish Rebellion was primarily one in opposition to this colonization and religious tension, and it saw the Gaelics be supported by the Old English, while said Old English still professed loyalty to the King. A government known as the Irish Confederacy, formed shortly after the initial uprising, and primarily dominated by Old English gentry and nobility, raised regiments of Irish soldiers and fought the New English.
In England, Pym pushed through the Grand Remonstrance, a bill listing grievances and complaints against the King and the House of Lords, a very controversial bill that nonetheless passed. Shortly after, news of the Irish rebellion and rumors of Charles’s involvement began to spread, inciting embers to burn. When Charles asked for funds to raise an army to put down the Irish, parliament suspected Charles meant to raise an army to instead march on parliament, and so Pym pushed the Militia Act to place the military under parliament. Soon, the antipathy between parliament and Charles boiled over by rumors that parliament meant to arrest Charle’s wife, and so he took drastic action.
The boots of soldiers dressed in red, armed with pikes and matchlock pistols, trampled over the carpet of the Commons. They forced open the doors and secured the chamber as the King marched in and sat in the speaker’s chair. He held in his hand a warrant for the arrest of five men, five agitators and radicals, five members of parliament. The men had fled, forewarned by trusted sources, and so Charles looked around a house containing none of the men he had come for. He asked the speaker where they were, but the speaker told his monarch that he could not answer except as the Commons instructed him; that he was a servant of parliament first, not the King. Charles left the house, and soon after fled London fearing for his safety. With the king in flight, Parliament raised an army; civil war had come to England.
War of the Three Kingdoms and English Civil War
Charles attempted to seize the militia arsenal at Hull but was rebuffed by its parliamentary governor. The lines had been drawn; on one side, the Royalists or Cavaliers, on the other the Parliamentarians or Roundheads. In the north, the Scottish who had once fought the king in the Bishops war now constituted the Covenanters, now allied with the Parliamentarians, while Royalist Scots under James Graham attempted to retake Scotland for the King. Ireland was a mess as New English Royalists and New English Parliamentarians fought each other and the semi-Royalist Irish Confederation. Charles formed his court in Nottingham on the 22nd of August 1642, soon after moving to Oxford where he’d also form a rival parliament. Both sides formed their armies, and soon enough marched out to fight.
With both sides relatively evenly matched in arms and numbers, the fighting came down to tactics. For the parliamentarians, their forces came under the command of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex; Charles brought in Prince Rupert of the Rhine to give counsel and command his elite cavalry, which is exactly what he did at the Battle of Powick Bridge, routing a force of parliamentarian cavalry. On the 12th of October, his army marched out on the road to London, baiting Devereux’s army to come out and meet them. He would do just that, and at Edgehill, the two fought a bloody but indecisive battle, and later they’d fight again at Turnham Green, where Charles was forced to retreat to Oxford. The two sides hunkered down for the winter, and the dawning of 1643’s spring saw the Royalists gain many victories, but the parliamentarians were beginning to gain steam, undercut somewhat by demonstrations in August by Londoners demanding peace.
Devereux gained much-needed victories at the Battle of Newbury and the siege of Gloucester. Other victories such as at Winceby and King’s Lynn put immense pressure on the Royalists, leading to Charles agreeing to a ceasefire with the Irish Confederates in order to bring Royalist troops there over to England. These reinforcements, along with Prince Rupert’s cavalry utilizing effective scouting, delivering Charles a decisive victory at the Battle of Marston Moor; his outnumbered troops managed a successful fight against a joint parliamentarian and covenanter force, where the quick use of Rupert’s cavalry decimated a charge by the Ironside Cavalry under command of Oliver Cromwell, taking his life, and destroying infantry under command of the covenanter the Earl of Leven. The victory dealt a large blow to the parliamentarian forces and crippled the covenanters, allowing for Charle’s forced to link up with the forces of James Graham, eventually leading to the pacification of Scotland in 1645. Earlier in 1644, Parliament reformed its forces, creating the New Model Army of professional officers and soldiers to fight Charles. Command of this army was given to Thomas Fairfax, who saw it through the fighting at the Battle of Lostwithiel and Second Battle of Newbury, both Royalist victories. Fairfax was beginning to see the writing on the walls and was increasingly coming to blows with the more radical members of the army such as Henry Ireton, who vied with him for power. Fairfax officially defected along with a contingent of moderate officers and soldiers, leaving the New Model Army as a mass of radical soldiers and a handful of radical officers, now under the command of Ireton. It fought two more battles at Naseby and Langport, both of which were Royalist victories. Fighting continued into the next year until Ireton was captured in battle in May of 1646, and Charles entered London at the head of an army commanded by Fairfax in June of the same year.
What followed was known as Charles’s Purge, as he put to death fifty major members of the parliamentarian rebellion and stripped titles, land, and peerage from hundreds more. Charle’s legalized all of this along with new taxes through a new parliament, known as the Rump Parliament or the Royalist Parliament as it was stacked with royal supporters. Charles had defeated the parliamentarians and put to death or exiled his major opponents, but more importantly, he had, through force of arms and more blood than had ever been spilled, enforced the doctrine of divine right, and taken the growing power of parliament and put it to the torch.
However, his fighting was not over yet, as Ireland was still in a tricky situation. The Irish Confederation there professed to be loyal to Charles but had been in opposition to the New English and Royalist forces there; and while Charles was sympathetic to the Irish Catholics he loathed the amount of autonomy the Confederation sought. Charles sat at home, gaining funds and men, until finally breaking his ceasefire and launching the Irish Campaign in the spring of 1649. His forces landed and soon put to siege the city of Dublin, a bloody fight that saw over 3,500 killed. This ruthlessness was seen throughout the campaign at places such as Rathmines and Drogheda, coming to an end only having the complete destruction of the Confederacy and subjugation of Ireland under New English lords in 1651.
Postbellum Britain and the reign of Charles II
The final years of Charles’s reign, known as the Postbellum Period, was an era primarily of reconstruction and the strengthening of the monarch's position. This period also saw a few last uprisings against Charles, including the Second Scottish Civil War where the covenanters give their last fight and Pride's Coup where Thomas Pride, a former colonel in the New Model Army, lead a band of former soldiers to seize Parliament and attempt to re-install parliamentary rule, only to see the force be put to death by Royalist militias. With the end of the Irish campaigns and the brutal put down of the last uprisings, Charles finally cemented his rule, and in 1654 he looked out from the windows of the palace on his empire, only for his heart to finally give out after years of campaigning. Charles I was dead and his son now inherited a destroyed Kingdom.
Coronated Charles II, the new King saw the unrestricted implementation of “Thorough”, a policy drafted by his father’s advisors, chiefly Stafford, to centralize royal power for the establishment of Absolute Monarchy. The first acts his Royal government and parliament passed were the Clarendon Codes, a series of laws named after one of the king’s chief advisors, which in effect banned nonconformists and non-Anglican, along with standardizing the Church of England as the dominant religion throughout the three Kingdoms, although mostly England and Scotland. These saw Puritans and other non-Anglicans flee England for the colonies, joining those Roundheads who had gone into exile there as well, in an event known as the Great Ejection. Charles also implemented the Fairfax Reforms, a series of reforms championed by Thomas Fairfax to create a professional core similar to the New Model Army although restricted in order to keep it under monarchist control, along with the adoption of parliamentarian naval doctrine and tactics, allowing the Royal navy to be reformed into a more effective fighting force.
The new King ruled with absolute power, with a parliament of yes men rubber-stamping anything he asked for. Charles saw a great expansion in colonial efforts including plantations in Ireland and the American colonies which, while full of Puritans and now former roundheads, and by and large stayed loyal, earning the most loyal, Virginia, the title of the Old Dominion. However, it was not to be all sunshine and rainbows, as in 1665 Charles needed to oversee his nation as it went through the Great Plague of London, the last major outbreak of the disease, and in 1666 London was hit again, this time with the Great Fire decimating much of the urban city.
1668 saw the acquisition of Bombay by the British East India Company. It’s worth mentioning them briefly; the Honorable East India Company has acted as a nation unto itself with the sole purpose of trade and colonization in the East ever since its establishment. Utilizing colonial ports established in West Africa and the growing Cape Colony, first established by the HEIC and then nationalized by James I, the company came into the Indian ocean and soon set up in Java, where it made deals and fought conflicts to gain ports and allies in order to control the islands valuable spices. These spices were then sold in India, ruled by the Mughals. Bombay was the first port acquired by the British, and to support it's growth Charles II granted the HEIC sweeping powers such as to raise troops and taxes, make peace and war, and others in order to allow it to operate.
While parliament was filled with Royalist supporters, it was also filled with protestants, who began to chafe under the Catholic friendly Charles II. Of note was the Declaration of Indulgence in 1670 which lifted penal laws placed on Catholics, and also Charles’s alignment with Catholic Iberia. Charles recanted this Declaration soon after, bowing to parliament which passed the Test Act, which placed restrictions on Catholics being able to be civil servants and other penalties. Parliament had been willing to fund the King’s projects and allow for his acts, but finally, it had broken from him on religion; Charles favored the High Church like his father which drew accusations of Papal influence, while the protestant royalists in parliament were not happy with such accused influence.
Rumors of a papal plot to overthrow Charles ran rampant through London, and soon enough ire fell on one of Charles’s ministers; Lord Danby, who had been a part of Charles’s effort to negotiate non-aggression with Catholic France. To avoid having his minister be tried and possibly executed, Charles dissolved parliament in August of 1679. This didn't work, however, and he’d be forced to recall it and have Danby face trial, leading to his exile to the colonies. These troubles were overshadowed by the biggest showdown between Charles and parliament over Charles’s brother, James. Charles was childless, and so if he died the crown would pass to James, who was a Catholic. James had earned popularity after taking part in the effort to fight the Great Fire, and even more so when an attempted assassination was foiled in 1682. However, he was still a Catholic, which was not popular with the largely protestant and anti-papist gentry and nobles. A divide formed over the introduction of the Exclusion Act, which aimed to exclude James from succession; its supporters were called Whigs in reference to a group of radical Scottish parliamentarians, and its opponents were called Tories referencing a group of Irish Catholics. Whigs formed an opposition to the King, while the Tories supported him and his attempts at Absolute Monarchy. The exclusion bill never saw a vote as Charles dissolved parliament and began a few years long personal rule after he attempted to form another parliament only to see the Whigs fill it, necessitating him to dissolve it again. A string of acquittals towards those accused of involvement in papal plots showed the growing support for Charles and growing opposition to the exclusion bill, allowing Charles to push support for Tories in the civil service and judiciary. Support grew again after the Rye House Plot of 1683, a failed protestant assassination, was uncovered, leading to the prosecution and execution or exile of many leading Whigs. With support at an all-time high, Charles solidified control by replacing judges and sheriffs at will and packing juries to achieve convictions favorable to him. He also disenfranchised many Whigs to achieve electoral victories for the Tories in municipal elections.
Monmouth's Rebellion and the reign of James II
Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of February 2nd, 1685; he died shortly after. With the country firmly in the hands of Tory politicians, James ascended to the throne of the three kingdoms as James II of England and James VII of Scotland. James called a parliament, known as the Loyal Parliament, which was largely packed with Tories thanks to the before-mentioned disenfranchisement campaign. James mostly kept Charles’s old ministers and officers, relying on them and continuing their policy of Throughout. All was not roses, however, as soon after his coronation, James faced his first test, as his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth raised an army hellbent on dethroning the Catholic King.
Monmouth was joined by the Earl of Argyll who raised a rebellion in Scotland; the rebellion was primarily based on religious and political differences, as Monmouth declared himself the rightful King and was supported by many Whigs who opposed the Stuart's policy of absolute monarchy and James’s catholicism. James raised an army thanks to the generous funding provided by the Loyal Parliament and crushed the Scottish uprising, capturing Argyll, in June of 1685. Monmouth saw a similar fate at the Battle of Sedgemoor where his forces were routed and himself captured, leading to the Bloody Assizes; a series of trials where Monmouth and Argyll were put to death and over three hundred other rebellion leaders and Whigs were sent into indentured servitude in the Suriname colonies of America.
After the rebellion, James sought security by incorporating the troops he raised for the Monmouth Rebellion into the standing Royal Army. This, along with James’s use of Catholic officers in the army, caused outrage among Whigs, while the conduct of the often rowdy soldiers in towns alienated many. When parliament objected to James’s use of Catholic officers in defiance of the Test Act, James dissolved Parliament. James then began to surround his court with men dubbed “papists” by the public, even receiving the first envoy of the Papacy itself since the reign of Mary I. While this alienated many Anglicans, even tory ones, James’s powerful standing army and the utter control of the courts by James’s appointments meant there was little power to stop him as he entered his personal rule. In May of 1686, James utilized a court packed with his supporters to rule that he had the power to nullify acts of parliament, and so overturned many of the penal laws against Catholics. Between 1687 and 1688 the King went on a speaking tour of the nation, driving support for his reforms throughout the nation, including new reforms granting tolerance to Scottish Presbyterians, who had become a minority in a new Anglican dominated Scottish Kirk.
Alongside his speaking tour, James instituted a new round of purges and disenfranchisement which saw the Dissenters; Whigs, and Tories alike who supported the Test Act and opposed James’s religious tolerance; removed from offices and purged from Parliament, along with the appointment of new Lord-Lieutenants in the counties and other municipal positions. After this, James issued writs of elections calling for a new parliament, which was seated in May of 1688 and was packed with Tories, most of whom were Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers. In that same year, eleven Anglican lords formed a parliament of their own, which voted to declare the King’s Parliament null, nominating Lord Danby to lead their forces. Militias on both sides were raised, and within a month England was plunged into another civil war.
Many Tories of Anglican belief, or generally just opposed to James’s policies, joined the new Parliamentarians. Also joining the rebellion were the Agitators; and it is now that we shall take a detour to explain them. When the New Model Army was formed, its members became a group of conscripted, mostly puritan, men from all across England, now brought together. The rank and file became a hotbed for radical ideas, and the representatives of these men were called the Agitators. After the defection of Fairfax, Ireton rose to power and he empowered the Agitators, turning the Army into a radical force of Republicans. When they were defeated, these men didn’t disappear; while their officers fled to America, they were pardoned and returned to their homes, where they kept their arms and their radical ideas. Throughout the reign of Charles II and James II, these Agitators worked in the shadows, the most radical of the radicals, more radical than even the Whigs. Influenced by groups such as the Levelers who sought full political enfranchisement of the citizenry, the Agitators formed Green Ribbon clubs where they discussed and planned. With the rising of a new Parliamentarian force, the Agitators raised their own militias and went out to fight for parliament, even if parliament didn’t want them.
James met the rebels in June of 1688, resulting in a victory for his larger and more professional army. However, James did not capitalize on his victory, as despite his numbers much of the professional officer corps and troops had defected and he wished to sit and build up his forces before moving. This allowed parliament's forces to regroup in the north, although this was a short respite as disagreements led to all-out war between parliament and the Agitators in 1689, soon to be joined by the landing of Irish forces loyal to James in 1690. With his main opposition fighting amongst themselves, James fought multiple battles across a campaign cutting a bloody path north until he retook Nottingham in March of 1690. Now linked up with his Irish forces, James launched a final bloody fight stomping out the rebellion, with the last pockets falling in 1692.
Second reconstruction and the Jacobite Golden Age
The King was merciful to those lords who decided to pledge allegiance to him once more but gave only hellfire to the Agitators captured, ordering hundreds to death or exile. A second civil war, a second bloody purge, and a second Stuart King upholding his absolute god-given right to rule. Nine years later, just short of a decade, he was dead. A brain hemorrhage killed the Catholic King; he left behind a Britain utterly transformed from the one his ancestor, James I, knew. Succession passed officially to the thirteen-year-old James III, although his sister Mary ruled as regent until her death in 1704. Mary was a protestant, and so became favorable to the Anglican Tories. Her pressuring resulted in James officially converting to Anglicanism, and so his full rule in 1706 was marked with cheers from a now united Tory party.
James III began his reign mostly relying on his ministers. While there was some push for it, he refused to undo the reforms of his father, although he did not push any new ones, instead toeing the line between Anglicanism and tolerant reform, as he was a closet Catholic. James’s reign was focused greatly on trade and the colonies, as the North American colonies, most established under his father and grandfather's rule, flourished, with booming populations and rich trades. The triangular trade emerged where slaves from British colonies on the west African coast were transported to British Suriname to work the extremely valuable sugar plantations. This sugar then was sent either back to Britain or to North America where it was used in alcohol production. America also sent back to Europe many raw goods such as tobacco, indigo, wood, and grain, while Britain sent to America manufactured goods like linens and guns. The whole trade became even more profitable with the Mughal Rebellions of the 1710s, where instability in that Indian Empire allowed for the HEIC to expand its holdings around Bombay and acquire the port of Puducherry. Their holdings in Java had also expanded, to the point where most of the island was either under direct company control or company allies. This meant that the British became the largest European power in the Indian Ocean trade and the ever-important spice trade which exploded in profitability over the emerging 18th century.
This period, known as the Jacobite Golden Age, became an era of extreme growth in the British economy, the further centralization of control and unity among the three kingdoms, and general peace in the Empire. It was also an era of progress, both in technology as the Royal navy adopted new techniques and weapons to stay ahead in the age of sail, and in policy as the Bank of England was formed by royal charter in 1708. The bank is of particular note not only for the fact that it was a private institution backed by the crown which allowed for the financing of the expansion of the Empire but also the fact that it was a Whig institution. In fact, British politics had evolved to the point that being a Whig wasn’t a sign of radicalism and opposition to the king, but a new type of ideology; Liberalism and Capitalism. Ideals of the burgeoning enlightenment such as toleration but more importantly free trade became the defining ideology of these “New Whigs”, while the Tories became a party of those dedicated to protectionism; their disagreements became primarily economic, as both sides had their radicals weeded out by the Second Civil War. James tended to play the two sides off each other, although leaned Whig due to their tolerant stance and his own support for the expansion of trade.
That’s not to say there was no opposition, after all in 1712 a plot to assassinate the King was uncovered and its ringleader executed, but these types of things were common, and there was no sizable uprising or political opposition to the monarch on the basis of his right to rule. The plot, however, is notable for the fact that the ringleader went to the beheading block wearing a green ribbon. Despite their defeat in the civil war, the Agitators were still alive, just underground, and the growing enlightenment profoundly altered them. They perceived their defeat as having been due to the betrayal of the largely noble rebel parliament, just as the original New Model Army had been betrayed by the noble Fairfax. This, along with a growing movement in support of popular sovereignty and works from enlightenment writers such as John Loche, an Englishmen, turned the agitators towards what they called the “Grand Old Cause”; Universal Suffrage, Republicanism, an end to the nobility, and redistribution of noble lands to peasant farmers. The actions of James and his parliament helped him, as the agitators were soon joined by many of the Old Whigs who abhorred the New Whigs for their cooperation with the King.
Some of the first “Police” organizations were formed personally by James to combat the Republicans, who formed a complex net of “Regiment” areas, Green Ribbon clubs, and Correspondence Committees to organize, communicate, plan, and share resources. These royal police were mostly informal organizations, usually hired by courts, who’d root out these organizations and often investigated political figures to ensure they didn’t have Republican leanings.
1715 saw the passage of the Acts of Union, which combined England, Scotland, and Ireland into one nation; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It also abolished the Scottish and Irish parliaments and created one Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, although other institutions and common law continued to stay separate. While there was no major armed uprising, there was discontent in the two, although the act mainly affected the Scottish gentry and New English in Ireland, both of whom now had seats in the Parliament of Great Britain.
While there was peace at home, James was often involved in the wars of Europe, supporting various sides ranging from Catholics to Protestants, mostly just attempting to keep the balance. The largest of these wars was the War of Jenkins Ear beginning in 1739 over the Iberian mutilation of a British smuggler. The war saw the British and the Iberians trade blows across the ocean, mostly in the form of privateers hired to raid the other's shipping routes. A few major naval battles had England come out on top, and on land, the Georgia militia made huge gains taking the Iberian colony of Florida. This fighting distracted the Royal government and military, a distraction that allowed for a rebellion to strike in the Spring of 1745; it was the work of the Agitators, who sought to overthrow the monarch and establish a Republic. They marched across the fields singing songs of Cromwell and Ireton, only to be crushed by a force of militia led by Charles Edward, the King’s son. While the fight crushed the only major rebellion against James’s rule, Charles’s actions did him a considerable disservice and turned the Rebels of ‘45 into martyrs.
Later wars, including the Seven Years War which saw Britain gain full control of Canada and what was upper Louisiana, now the western territories, were costly. While the Empire was rich off its trade, taxation felt like a burden to many making this revenue. Nowhere was this hated more than in British North America, where the colonists hated the fact that Catholic Ireland had representation in parliament but they didn’t. These tensions erupted into outright protests during the 1760s after British authorities cracked down on smuggling and tax evasion. In 1766, King James passed away, leaving his crown to his some Charles, now Charles III; the Butcher of 45.
Caroline Era
His rule, known as the Caroline Era, would be remembered for the escalation of the American conflict; in 1770 a group of British soldiers labeled Red Coats by the Americans, fired on a protest. This, along with the proclamation that they’d be tried in England, not America, stoked outrage. In 1773, rebels in Boston seized ships of the HEIC and dumped their stores of tea into the harbor; in response, Charles pushed through punitive acts known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Americans formed a continental congress, and soon fighting broke out, causing the Americans to declare independence in 1776. The war became of considerable concern for Charles, as he feared a successful American rebellion might spread to the profitable Suriname colonies, and possibly even back home.
After years of conflict, major successes by the Americans combined with the entrance of France and Iberia into the war forced Britain to seek peace in the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, recognizing the American Republic and ceding it the western territories, although Canada had stayed loyal thanks to the presence of the Royal Navy. The same year, Britain signed the Treaty of Holland, recognizing the southern Commonwealth. The defeat at the hands of not only Britain's long time enemies of France and Iberia but also the upstart American rebels humiliated the Stuart monarchy and began to incite the people who had lived so long under its absolute control. The monarchs absolute control had been a fact for decades now, and one that was very unpopular, even to the royalist tories in parliament; but the Second Civil War had seen to it that rebellion was seen as impossible and so it was deemed by many prefer to simply deal with it and work within the system. It helped that the large growth in the economy over the 18th century meant that many cared little for what the King did as long as they stayed well fed and the gentry stayed well paid. Now, not only had the Americans proved rebellion possible, but the loss of the colonies and the war with France had caused a major depression in the economy, which was slowly recovering.
The United Kingdom was further destabilized by the death of Charles III in 1788, struck down by a stroke. The king has died heirless, and so the crown passed to an extremely controversial inheritor; Henry Stuart, otherwise known as the Cardinal-Duke of York. Henry, now Henry IX of England, was a devout Catholic and had been made a Cardinal in 1747 by the Pope. His ascension to the throne sparked massive riots; some, like the Gordon Riots, were fueled by discontent over the loss of the American War and poor living conditions due to the depression, while others were fueled by anti-papist sentiment within the Anglican population. The new King was extremely unpopular, and to make matters worse he barely even wanted to be a King, having dedicated his life to his faith. He was almost wholly absent from the running of the country, leaving it entirely in the hands of his brother's ministers, who themselves were unpopular due to being blamed for losing the American revolution.
Glorious Revolution
This unusual intersection of several unfortunate events led to many Radicals and Republicans winning municipal and even parliamentary elections during the 1790 elections. While they boycotted parliament, refusing to take their seats, those in the municipalities soon took over and begin to undermine royal control, taking control of the local militias and administration. While it was not rebellion yet, these actions weakened the power of the monarchy, although the absent king Henry acted only in limited ways against this.
Despite their wave of radicalism, the revolution didn't begin in England, but instead in Ireland; a nation in its own right just as Scotland, but which had less independence than some colonies and which was ruled by a clique of Anglo-Protestants. During the American War, the Irish had formed the Irish Volunteers, and this armed force successfully pressured Henry to form an Irish Parliament. However, when the British Parliament refused to pass a 1793 law lifting many restrictions on Irish Catholics, the parliament became controlled by the largely Catholic and Whig dominated Irish Patriot Party. While initially conciliatory like the British Whigs, the Patriots had an internal shift towards American-style Patriotism, and in 1794 launched an armed insurrection; the Irish Rebellion, led mostly by the Patriots and the Liberal-Protestant United Irish Society. The Irish Rebellion sparked the Society of the United Scotsmen, a liberal and presbyterian organization of Scots, to also rise up in rebellion. Finally, a few months after the Scots, the English rose up.
The press labeled the English rebels as Jacobins, after the French political club. They called themselves the Republicans of the Grand Republican Party; they were the outcome of a century of activism and organizing by the agitators and green ribbon clubs combined with a newly radicalized populace inspired by enlightenment ideals and the American revolution. Led by men such as Charles James Fox, William Godwin, and John Wilkes, the Republicans sought one clear goal; the overthrow of the British Monarchy. They would also not repeat the mistakes of the Second Civil War and united with the Irish Patriots and United Scotsmen and declared the New Whigs enemies. A new Republican parliament, composed only of a House of Commons, was formed in London shortly after it was secured by radical militias, its members being those who previously boycotted after the elections. Those areas who had seen republicans and radicals elected now pledged loyalty to this new parliament, and to the Republic of England which was proclaimed in June of 1794.
While they lacked a professional officer corps, which Henry and his Royal army had in abundance, they had large numbers in the form of militias raised from the Regiment system, soon joined by mass defections of units from said Royal Army. With their numbers, they soon found battle with the smaller but more professional Royalist Army, seeing a mixed result of defeats and victories. Within time, the battle lines were set with much of southern England, including London, under Republican control while Royalists held the north. In Scotland, the United Scots retreated into Highlands where they’d fight a protracted resistance, and in Ireland, the Patriots and United Irishmen traded blows with Royalist forces in Dublin and Ulster. Winds of change came with the help of American patriots who’d come to Britain on their own, despite the disapproval of the American Republic which worried about the British Republican’s radicalism. Men like Thomas Paine joined the ranks of the new Republican Parliament, Thomas Jefferson counseled leadership in his role as Ambassador, and many more radical American commanders helped implement reforms in the Republican forces, creating the New Army which formed a core of professional conscripts.
New forces had successes on the battlefield. By 1795 Cornwall and Wales were taken from Henry’s control, and in 1796 the United Scots took Edinburgh. Later that year, the Battle of Nottingham saw Royalist army destroyed and the King himself captured, making the end of the official war and ushering in a sweeping campaign to mop up remaining Royalist pockets, as many nobles fought to the bitter end in an attempt to save their own titles and wealth. The King was imprisoned in the Tower of London before being put before a tribunal for trial, where he was, surprisingly, defended by Thomas Paine. Paine, who hated the monarchy, stood before the tribunal for the sole purpose of sparing the King’s life, and his arguments swayed opinion leading to a sentence of exile from Britain for the royal family.