Art and Culture/British - Stuarts and English Civil War
James I (VI of Scotland) (1603 – 1625)
James I succeeded his cousin Elizabeth I (more precisely 1st cousin, twice removed).
After the Union of the Crowns, James based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617, and styled himself "King of Great Britain and Ireland".
James married Anne of Denmark at the Bishop's Palace in Oslo on 23 November 1589 after her ship had failed to reach Scotland because of storms and been diverted to Norway. He sailed to Norway for the marriage.
Gunpowder Plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. It was led by Robert Catesby, the other plotters being: John Wright, Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, Robert Wintour, Christopher Wright, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham. A search party, headed by Thomas Knyvet, found Fawkes in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords and arrested him. He gave his name as John Johnson. He was carrying a lantern now held in the Ashmolean Museum and a search of his person revealed a pocket watch, several slow matches and touchwood.
The conspirators made a stand at Holbeche House and those that survived (Catesby and Percy were killed) were arrested and taken to the Tower.
Henry Garnet was an English Jesuit priest executed for his complicity in the Gunpowder Plot.
Edward Coke was the chief prosecutor of the plotters.
Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant, Thomas Bates, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) – Viscount St Albans, Lord Chancellor to James I.
Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster by people from England and Scotland. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I began in 1609.
The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September 1607, when Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eóghain (Tyrone), Rory Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill (Tyrconnell) and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe. They set sail from Rathmullan, a village on the shore of Lough Swilly in County Donegal reached the Continent on 4 October 1607. Their destination was Spain, but they disembarked in France. The party proceeded overland to Spanish Flanders, some remaining in Leuven, while the main party continued to Italy. They planned to return to Ireland and campaign for the recovery of their lands, with the support of Spain, but both died in exile.
The Spanish Match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Negotiations took place over the period 1614 to 1623 before breaking down completely.
Bristol Channel floods, which occurred in 1607, resulted in the drowning of a large number of people and the destruction of a large amount of farmland and livestock. Recent research has suggested that the cause may have been a tsunami.
Edward Wightman, a Baptist, is the last person to be executed for heresy in England by burning at the stake at Lichfield in 1612.
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales (1594 – 1612) was the elder son of King James and Anne of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's thrones. However, at the age of 18, he predeceased his father when he died of typhoid fever.
James’ daughter Elizabeth Stuart married Frederick V, Elector Palatine. She was Electress Palatine, and briefly, Queen of Bohemia. Because her husband’s reign in Bohemia lasted for just one winter, Elizabeth often is referred to as The Winter Queen.
The Addled Parliament of 1614 (passed no bills).
Mayflower set sail from Rotherhithe to Plymouth in 1620, containing the Pilgrim Fathers attempting to escape religious persecution in England. It was captained by Christopher Jones and accompanied by another ship – Speedwell.
Oliver Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier in 1620. They had nine children
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset, born Frances Howard, was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I. Lady Somerset had poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury, a friend of her husband Robert, with the help of her waiting-woman and companion Mrs Anne Turner. She was found guilty but spared execution, being eventually pardoned by the King and released from the Tower of London in early 1622.
James was the author of works such as Daemonologie (1597), True Law of Free Monarchies (1598), and Basilikon Doron (1599). He sponsored the translation of the Bible that was named after him: the Authorised King James Version. Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed "the wisest fool in Christendom” (by Henri IV of France?).
James died at Theobalds House on 27 March 1625 during a violent attack of dysentery and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
He was succeeded by his second son Charles.
Charles I (1625-1649)
Charles married Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henri IV of France, on 13 June 1625.
George Villiers, a favourite of James I, was created Earl of Coventry and Duke of Buckingham in 1623. Buckingham, who continued in office as chief minister into the reign of Charles I, was responsible for a policy of war against Spain and France. In 1628 was assassinated by John Felton, a disgruntled army officer who had served under him, as he prepared an expedition to relieve the Huguenots of La Rochelle. Known as “Steenie”.
Edward Coke used Magna Carta extensively in the early 17th century, arguing against the divine right of kings propounded by the Stuart monarchs.
Charles I shut down parliament in 1629 and began 11 years of ‘personal rule’, resurrected in 1640.
To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called the "Distraint of Knighthood", in abeyance for over a century, which required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted. Relying on this old statute, Charles fined individuals who had failed to attend his coronation.
The chief tax imposed by Charles was a feudal levy known as ship money
From 1632 to 1639 Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the king, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. In 1633, Charles appointed William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury. Together, they began a series of anti-Calvinist reforms that attempted to ensure religious uniformity by restricting non-conformist preachers, insisting that the liturgy be celebrated as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer.
In 1637 William Prynne, Henry Burton and John Bastwick were pilloried, whipped and mutilated by cropping and imprisoned indefinitely for publishing anti-episcopal pamphlets.
On 23 July 1637, riots erupted in Edinburgh on the first Sunday of the prayer book's usage, and unrest spread throughout the Kirk. The public began to mobilise around a re-affirmation of the National Covenant, whose signatories pledged to uphold the reformed religion of Scotland and reject any innovations that were not authorised by Kirk and Parliament. When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in November 1638, it condemned the new prayer book, abolished episcopal church government by bishops, and adopted Presbyterian government by elders and deacons.
Wars of the Three Kingdoms was a series of conflicts that took place in England, Scotland and Ireland between 1639 and 1651. Included the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the English Civil Wars.
Bishops' Wars refers to two armed encounters between Charles I and the Scottish Covenanters in 1639 and 1640, which helped to set the stage for the English Civil War.
First Bishops' War (1639) - Charles raised an army without parliamentary aid and marched to Berwick-upon-Tweed but did not engage the Covenanters. Signed the Treaty of Berwick (Pacification of Berwick) under which the king agreed that all disputed questions should be referred to another General Assembly or to the Parliament of Scotland.
Second Bishops' War (1640) – following a invasion of Northern England by the Scots, the Battle of Newburn (aka Newburn Ford) was fought between a Scottish Covenanter army led by General Alexander Leslie and English royalist forces commanded by Edward, Lord Conway. Conway, heavily outnumbered, was defeated, and the Scots went on to occupy the town of Newcastle. Charles agreed to peace and signed the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640.
Short Parliament (13 April - 5 May 1640) – called by Charles to raise money for the Bishops' Wars, only sat for 3 weeks.
Long Parliament (1640 – 1648/1660) – called by Charles on 3 November 1640, following the end of the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and at the end of Interregnum in 1660. It sat from 1640 until 1648 when it was purged by the New Model Army.
Triennial Act (1641) (aka Dissolution Act) was an Act passed by the Long Parliament, during the reign of King Charles I. The act requires that Parliament meet for at least a fifty-day session once every three years. If the King failed to issue proper summons, the members could assemble of their own volition. This act also forbade ship money without Parliament's consent, declared unlawful both fines in Destraint of Knighthood (see above) and forced loans, severely cut back monopolies, and abolished the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission by the Habeas Corpus Act 1640 and the Triennial Act 1641.
One of Parliament's first utterances after its eleven-year forced hiatus was to impeach Strafford (Thomas Wentworth, see above) for "high misdemeanours" regarding his conduct in Ireland. Charles promised Strafford that he "should not suffer in his person, honour or fortune". Soon after Strafford’s arrival in London he was taken into custody and sent to the Tower of London. When Parliament condemned him to death Charles reneged on his promise and signed the death warrant. Wentworth was executed on 12 May 1641. Strafford's reaction when he was told that he must die was reported by some sources to be "put not your trust in princes". Archbishop Laud wrote that the King's abandonment of Strafford proved him to be "a mild and gracious prince, that knows not how to be, or be made, great".
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule. The coup failed and the rebellion developed into an ethnic conflict between native Irish Catholics on one side, and English and Scottish Protestant settlers on the other. This began a conflict known as the Irish Confederate Wars.
The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances presented to King Charles I by the English Parliament on 1 December 1641, during the Long Parliament; it helped to foment the English Civil War.
Charles I tried to arrest the ‘Five Members’ (John Hampden, Arthur Haselrig, Denzil Holles, John Pym and William Strode) for treason on 4 January 1642. After his failure to capture the five members ("I see the birds have flown"), and fearing for his family's lives, Charles left London for Oxford. Most of the royalist members of Parliament left to join him there where they formed the Oxford Parliament. Without its royalist members, the Long Parliament continued to sit during the Civil War.
In January 1641 on the orders of Parliament, Sir John Hotham, 1st Baronet seized the arsenal at Kingston upon Hull. In April he refused entry to Charles.
Bishops Exclusion Act (February 1641), the bishops of the Church of England were excluded from the House of Lords.
In February 1642 Henrietta Maria went to the Netherlands with Princess Mary and the crown jewels.
Nineteen Propositions (June 1642) - Parliament sent a list of proposals known as the Charles, who was in York at the time, seeking a larger share of power in governance of the kingdom. Among the MPs’ proposals was Parliamentary supervision of foreign policy and responsibility for the defense of the country, as well as making the King’s ministers accountable to Parliament. Before the end of the month the King rejected the Propositions and in August the country descended into civil war.
First English Civil War
Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642 to signal the start of the Civil War.
Commanders
Royalist
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (1619 – 1682) - was a noted German soldier, admiral, scientist, sportsman, colonial governor and amateur artist. Rupert was a younger son of the German prince Frederick V, Elector Palatine and his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of James I of England. Thus Rupert was the nephew of Charles I.
William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1592 – 1676) - during the Civil War he was made a general for the fight in the North of England. After the defeat at Marston Moor, Cavendish went into self-imposed exile, only returning with the Restoration where he was created a duke.
Ralph Hopton (1596 – 1652) – a Royalist commander in the West.
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612 – 1650) - he initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650 he fought a civil war in Scotland on behalf of the King. He was executed after the Battle of Carbisdale.
Parliamentary
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (1591 – 1646) - was the first Captain-General and Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army. He was eventually overshadowed by the ascendancy of Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax and resigned his commission in 1646, shortly before his death.
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1612 – 1671) was a parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War. In charge of the New Model Army, Fairfax led Parliament to many victories, notably the crucial battle of Naseby, becoming effectively military ruler of the new republic, but was eventually overshadowed by his subordinate Oliver Cromwell. He publicly refused to take part in Charles I's show trial and played an active role in the Restoration. He was exempted from the retribution exacted on many other leaders of the revolution. His dark hair and eyes and a swarthy complexion earned him the nickname "Black Tom".
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester (1602 – 1671) was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior. He opposed the trial of the king, and retired from public life during the Commonwealth but after the Restoration, which he actively assisted, he was loaded with honours by Charles II.
William Waller (1597 – 1668) - Parliamentary general in the West, where he opposed his close friend Ralph Hopton. He made the original suggestion of forming the "New Model Army".
Oliver Cromwell (1599 – 1658) - an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. Elected MP for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short (1640) and Long (1640–49) Parliaments. Nicknamed "Old Ironsides", he was quickly promoted from leading a single cavalry troop to become one of the principal commanders of the New Model Army, playing an important role in the defeat of the royalist forces.
1642
Battle of Powick Bridge (23 September) - first major cavalry engagement of the First English Civil War. Royalist victory (Prince Rupert v Nathaniel Fiennes)
Battle of Edgehill (23 October) - first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in Warwickshire on 23 October 1642. The inconclusive result of the battle prevented either faction gaining a quick victory in the war. Commanders were Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.
Battles of Brentford and Turnham Green (12 and 13 November) – a Royalist victory and Brentford was followed by a stand-off at Turnham Green, outside London between Charles and a larger Parliamentary army reinforced by the London Trained Bands. Charles retreated back up the Thames Valley towards Oxford where he set up his headquarters for the rest of the war. Never again during the civil war would the Royalists come as close to capturing London.
1643
Battle of Chalgrove Field (18 June) - John Hampden killed in a skirmish.
Battle of Adwalton Moor (30 June) – the Earl of Newcastle, the Royalist Commander, was marching on Bradford (which was Parliamentarian in sympathy) with 10,000 men. Fairfax, the Parliamentary commander, had 3000-4000 men in Bradford. The strong Royalists defeated the Parliamentarians consolidating Royalist control of Yorkshire.
Battle of Roundway Down (13 July) - a Royalist cavalry force under Lord Wilmot won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller who were besieging Devizes, which was defended by Lord Hopton. Parliamentary forces were cornered and fled over a precipitous slope to their deaths in the "Bloody Ditch," a steep escarpment off the back of Roundway Hill.
Storming of Bristol (26 July) - the Royalist army under Prince Rupert of the Rhine, captured the important city and port of Bristol. It remained under Royalist control until near the end of the war.
Battle of Gainsborough (28 July) - fought in Lincolnshire. A Parliamentary victory, one of the first involving Oliver Cromwell.
First Battle of Newbury (20 September) – having broken a Royalist siege of Gloucester, the Earl of Essex began a retreat towards London. Faced with a Royalist army commanded by Charles personally, Essex contrived a Parliamentary victory. Some see this as the high point of the Royalist advance as it was followed by the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant, which brought the Scottish Covenanters into the war on the side of Parliament.
Solemn League and Covenant - an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It is ratified by the Church of Scotland on 17 August and by Parliament and the Westminster Assembly on 25 September. It is in effect a treaty for the preservation of the reformed religion in Scotland, the reformation of religion in England and Ireland "according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches", and the extirpation of popery and prelacy.
Battle of Winceby (11 October) – fought in Lincolnshire. A Parliamentary victory engineered by Oliver Cromwell (a relatively minor battle but one I have been asked about in 3 quizzes to date).
1644
Battle of Cheriton (29 March) – the defeat of a Royalist army meant that the Parliamentarian armies could concentrate against the King at Oxford. Although Charles was able to partly restore the situation later in 1644 by gaining victories at Cropredy Bridge and Lostwithiel, the Royalists could never again resume the offensive in the south of England.
Bolton Massacre (28 May) - The strongly Parliamentarian town was stormed and captured by Royalist forces under Prince Rupert. It was alleged that up to 1,600 of Bolton's defenders and inhabitants were slaughtered during and after the fighting. The "massacre at Bolton" became a staple of Parliamentarian propaganda.
Battle of Cropredy Bridge (29 June) – a rare Royalist victory which recovered some earlier losses.
Battle of Marston Moor (2 July) – a combined Scottish Covenanters and Parliamentarian army defeated a Royalist force trying to relieve the siege of York. The Marquess of Newcastle’s foot, known as the “Whitecoats” made a last stand for the Royalists. Prince Rupert was decisively beaten for the first time in the war and his dog "Boye" was killed during the battle. York surrendered to Parliament.
Siege of Newcastle ends (19 October) – captured by Scottish troops.
The first Self-denying Ordinance was a bill moved on 9 December 1644 to deprive members of Parliament from holding command in the army or the navy of the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War. It failed to pass the House of Lords. A second Self-denying Ordinance was agreed to by both houses in April 1645.
1645
The Committee of Both Kingdoms orders the creation of the New Model Army.
Uxbridge Negotiations (Nov 1644 – Feb 1645) - Parliament drew up 27 articles in November 1644 and presented them to Charles at Oxford. The conditions were very assertive, with Presbyterianism to be established south of the border, and Parliament to take control of all military matters. Charles had decided that the military situation was turning in his favour, after the Second Battle of Lostwithiel, Second Battle of Newbury and consequent relief of Donnington Castle, and the campaign of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose in Scotland. Montrose's victory at the Battle of Inverlochy was during the conference. His incentive to compromise was thereby reduced, but the same was true of the Parliamentary side, with its growing confidence in the New Model Army.
Battle of Inverlochy (2 February) – a Royalist army of Irish and Highland Scots led by Montrose defeated Scots Covenanters under Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck, who was killed.
Battle of Naseby (14 June) – the main Royalist army was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. The King lost his veteran infantry (including 500 officers), all his artillery, and many arms. He lacked the resources to create an army of such quality again, and after Naseby it simply remained for the Parliamentarian armies to wipe out the last pockets of Royalist resistance. The Parliamentarians also captured the King's personal baggage, with correspondence which showed he intended to seek support from the Irish Catholic Confederation.
Battle of Langport (10 July) – the last Royalist field army in England was destroyed.
Battle of Philiphaugh (13 September) – following victories at Alford and Kilsyth, the Royalist army of the Marquess of Montrose was destroyed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie, restoring the power of the Committee of Estates.
Battle of Rowton Heath (24 September) – Charles was defeated whilst attempting to join with Montrose in Scotland (unaware of his recent defeat at Philiphaugh).
Matthew Hopkins was a witch finder who claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament. Elizabeth Clarke, his first victim, was hanged in 1645.
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. He opposed radical forms of Puritanism. This, and his support for Charles I, resulted in his beheading in the midst of the English Civil War in 1645.
1646
Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold (21 March) - the last pitched battle of the First Civil War is a victory for the New Model Army.
Charles surrendered to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire on 5 May.
Fall of Wallingford Castle (27 July) - after a 65-day siege the last English royalist stronghold surrenders to Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Parliament passes the Ordinance for the abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops in England and Wales and for settling their lands and possessions upon Trustees for the use of the Commonwealth.
1647
Harlech Castle (13 March) - the last Royalist stronghold in Wales surrendered to the Parliamentary forces.
Cornet George Joyce (a junior officer in Fairfax's horse) with a troop of New Model Army cavalry seizes the King from his Parliamentary guards at Holdenby House and place him in protective custody of the New Model Army on 3 June.
The Solemn Engagement - was a declaration to the House of Commons adopted unanimously by the General Council of the Army commanded by Thomas Fairfax at Newmarket on 29 May 1647. Acting in response to a parliamentary threat of disbandment, the document asserted that the army would not disband until satisfactory terms were negotiated. This was in part because of weeks of arrears owed to the soldiers, and in frustration of the slow progress parliament had made in securing a settlement with the imprisoned Charles I.
Putney Debates - a series of discussions, which took place in 1647, between members of the New Model Army – a number of the participants being Levellers – concerning the makeup of a new constitution for Britain. The debates began at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Putney starting on 28 October 1647 but moved to the nearby lodgings of Thomas Grosvenor, Quartermaster General of Foot, on 29 October. The debates lasted until 11 November.
1648
Second English Civil War (1648–1649)
In early 1648 rebellions in support of the King broke out in various parts of the country, including Pembrokeshire, Kent, Essex and the North.
For the Parliamentarians, Cromwell besieged Pembroke in South Wales, Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex, and Colonel Rossiter besieged Pontefract and Scarborough in the north. On 11 July, Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on 28 August.
Battle of Preston (17 – 19 August) - a victory for the New Model Army under the command of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton. The Parliamentarian victory presaged the end of the Second English Civil War.
Treaty of Newport (15 September) - a failed treaty between Parliament and King Charles intended to bring an end to the hostilities of the English Civil War. Negotiations were conducted between 15 September 1648 and 27 November 1648, at Newport, Isle of Wight. The King was released on parole from his confinement at Carisbrooke Castle and lodged in Newport.
Pride's Purge (7 December) – troops under Colonel Thomas Pride removed opponents of Oliver Cromwell from Parliament by force of arms resulting in Rump Parliament (1648 – 1653)
1649
“An Agreement of the People” was a series of manifestos, published between 1647 and 1649, for constitutional changes to the English state. They have been most associated as the manifestos of the Levellers but were also published by the Agitators and the General Council of the New Model Army.
Trial and Execution of Charles I
20 January - trial of Charles I by the High Court of Justice begins.
27 January - death warrant of Charles I is signed.
30 January 1649 - Charles I of England executed by beheading on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall
His execution was delayed by several hours so that the House of Commons could pass an emergency bill to make it an offence to proclaim a new King, and to declare the House of Commons, as the source of all just power.
Charles dressed in two shirts so that he would not shiver from the cold, in case it was said that he was shivering from fear.
The Interregnum and Commonwealth
The Rump Parliament passed an Act prohibiting the proclaiming any person to be King of England or Ireland, or the Dominions thereof.
February - the eldest (surviving) son of Charles I, Charles, Prince of Wales, was proclaimed "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland" by the Scottish Parliament at the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh and by Hugh, Viscount Montgomery and other Irish Royalists at Newtownards in Ulster.
7 February - Parliament votes to abolish the English monarchy (Act passed 17 March).
14 February - Parliament creates the English Council of State.
Capitulation of Pontefract Castle (24 March) – this fortress had, even after the death of Charles I, remained loyal to Charles II.
Cromwell in Ireland
Oliver Cromwell was known as ‘God’s Executioner’ in Ireland in 1649.
Siege of Drogheda (1649) – Drogheda in eastern Ireland was held by the Irish Catholic Confederation and English Royalists when it was besieged and stormed by English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell. In the aftermath of the assault, much of the garrison and an unknown but "significant number" of civilians were killed by the Parliamentarian troops.
Siege of Wexford (1649) – Parliamentarian troops broke into the town while the commander of the garrison, David Sinnot, was trying to negotiate a surrender – massacring soldiers and civilians alike. Much of the town was burned and its harbour was destroyed. Along with the Siege of Drogheda, the sack of Wexford is still remembered in Ireland as an infamous atrocity.
Oliver Cromwell exiled prisoners on the island Montserrat.
Third English Civil War (1649–1651)
1650
Treaty of Breda (May) - signed between Charles II and the Scottish Covenanters. Charles undertook to establish Presbyterianism as the national religion and to recognise the authority of the Kirk's General Assembly in civil law in England as it already was in Scotland. Charles also took the Solemn League and Covenant oath of 1643.
Battle of Dunbar (1650) - English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II of England. Cromwell then captured Edinburgh.
1651
Charles II was crowned King of Scots at Scone on 1 January 1651.
Battle of Worcester (3 September) - was the final battle of the English Civil War (on British mainland soil – see Battle of the Severn below). Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II. Around 8,000 Scottish prisoners were deported to New England, Bermuda, and the West Indies to work for landowners as indentured labourers.
Charles II escaped after many adventures, including one famous incident where he hid from a Parliamentarian patrol in an oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House. Charles II landed in Normandy, France, on 16 October.
Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas from 1649 to 1660
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto Agreement of the People
The Diggers were an English group of Protestant agrarian communists, begun by Gerrard Winstanley as True Levellers in 1649. The Council of State received a letter in April 1649 reporting that several individuals had begun to plant vegetables in common land on Saint George's Hill, Weybridge near Cobham at a time when food prices reached an all-time high
Sealed Knot – a secret Royalist association which plotted for the Restoration of the Monarchy during the Interregnum (1649–1660)
The Rump Parliament was disbanded by Oliver Cromwell in April 1653. ‘Take away that fool’s bauble, the mace’ – Oliver Cromwell in a speech dismissing the Rump Parliament.
Cromwell set up a short-lived nominated assembly known as Barebone's Parliament, before being invited by his fellow leaders to rule as Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland from 16 December 1653.
Battle of the Severn (25 March 1655) was fought in the Province of Maryland and was won by a Puritan force fighting under a Commonwealth flag who defeated a Royalist force fighting for Lord Baltimore.
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws which, beginning in 1651, restricting the use of foreign shipping in the trade of England and its colonies. Resentment against the Navigation Acts was a cause of the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the American Revolutionary War.
The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652 - 1654). The Battle of Scheveningen (aka Battle of Texel) (July 1653) was the final naval battle of the war.
Cromwell encouraged Jews to return to England, 350 years after their banishment by Edward I
After a royalist uprising in March 1655, led by Sir John Penruddock, Cromwell divided England into military districts ruled by Army Major Generals who answered only to him. The 15 major generals and deputy major generals—called "godly governors"—were central not only to national security, but Cromwell's crusade to reform the nation's morals.
Cromwell declined the crown in 1657 after thinking it over for 6 weeks.
Cromwell died at Whitehall on 3 September 1658, the anniversary of his victories at Dunbar and Worcester. He was buried with great ceremony, with an elaborate funeral based on that of James I, at Westminster Abbey.
He was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell (1658 – 1660).
Richard Cromwell (1626–1712), third son of Oliver Cromwell, was known as ‘Tumbledown Dick’ and ‘Queen Dick’ by his enemies. Cromwell was the second Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Richard had no power base in either Parliament or the Army, and was forced to resign on 25 May 1659, ending the Protectorate.
Richard Cromwell left England for France in July 1660 where he went by a variety of pseudonyms, including “John Clarke”. He eventually returned to his English estate, dying in his eighties. None of his children had offspring of their own and he has no descendants. He is buried in Cheshunt.
After the abdication of Richard Cromwell, a group of MPs and officers, led by General George Monck, felt the only solution was to offer Charles II the throne.
Charles II (1660 – 1685)
Charles returned to England on 30 January 1660 and was proclaimed King of England.
Charles married Catherine of Braganza in Portsmouth in 1662.
Charles had no legitimate children, but acknowledged a dozen by seven mistresses, including five by Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, for whom the Dukedom of Cleveland was created. His other mistresses included Moll Davis, Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Killigrew, Catherine Pegge, Lucy Walter, and Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. As a result, in his lifetime he was often nicknamed "Old Rowley", the name of one of his horses which was notable at the time as a stallion.
Declaration of Breda (issued on 4 April 1660) was a proclamation by Charles II of England in which he promised a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum for all those who recognised Charles as the lawful king.
After the Declaration of Breda had been received, Parliament proclaimed in May 1660 that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the death of Charles I in January 1649. The Convention Parliament then proceeded to conduct the necessary preparation for the Restoration Settlement.
Charles II arrives in London and the English monarchy is restored on 29 May 1660.
Convention Parliament was disbanded by Charles II on 29 December 1660.
Charles II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661.
The trials and executions of the regicides of Charles I (1661-1662)
On the 12th anniversary of the beheading of Charles I (30 January 1661), the exhumed remains of Oliver Cromwell were posthumously executed. Cromwell's severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
At the restoration, thirty-one of the fifty-nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were living. A general pardon was given by Charles II and Parliament to his opponents, but the regicides were excluded. A number fled the country. Some, such as Daniel Blagrave, fled to continental Europe, while others like John Dixwell, Edward Whalley, and William Goffe fled to America.
Those who were still available were put on trial. Six regicides were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas Scot, and Gregory Clement.
The captain of the guard at the trial, Daniel Axtell who encouraged his men to barrack the King when he tried to speak in his own defence, an influential preacher Hugh Peters, and the leading prosecutor at the trial John Cook were executed in a similar manner.
Colonel Francis Hacker who signed the order to the executioner of the king and commanded the guard around the scaffold and at the trial was hanged. Concern amongst the royal ministers over the negative impact on popular sentiment of these public tortures and executions led to jail sentences being substituted for the remaining regicides.
Some regicides, such as Richard Ingoldsby were pardoned, while a further nineteen served life imprisonment. The bodies of the regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton which had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in posthumous executions. In 1662, three more regicides John Okey, John Barkstead and Miles Corbet were also hanged, drawn and quartered. The officers of the court that tried Charles I, those who prosecuted him and those who signed his death warrant, have been known ever since the restoration as regicides.
Clarendon Code – four Penal Laws in the 1660s, named after Charles II's chief minister Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, though Clarendon was neither their author nor fully in favour of them:
· Corporation Act (1661) - required all municipal officials to take Anglican communion, and formally reject the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The effect of this act was to exclude nonconformists from public office. This legislation was rescinded in 1828.
· Act of Uniformity (1662) - made use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory in religious service. Over two thousand clergy refused to comply and so were forced to resign their livings (the Great Ejection). The provisions of the act were modified by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act, of 1872.
· Conventicle Act (1664) - forbade conventicles (a meeting for unauthorized worship) of more than five people who were not members of the same household. The purpose was to prevent dissenting religious groups from meeting.
· Five Mile Act (1665) - forbade nonconformist ministers from coming within five miles of incorporated towns or the place of their former livings. They were also forbidden to teach in schools. Most of the Act's effects were repealed by 1689, but it was not formally abolished until 1812.
The Cavalier Parliament lasted from 1661 - 1679, is also known as the Pensioner Parliament for the many pensions it granted to adherents of the King.
Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665 – 1667) - after initial English successes, the war ended in a decisive Dutch victory. Battle of Lowestoft (1665) - worst defeat of the Dutch Republic's navy in history. Four Days' Battle (1 June - 4 June 1666) - remains one of the longest naval engagements in history, a Dutch victory. Raid on the Medway (June 1667) - was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham.
Great Plague (1665) – was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in the England. The Great Plague killed an estimated 100,000 people, about 15% of London's population. The plague is caused by the “Yersinia pestis” bacterium, which is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected rat flea.
The Great Fire of London (1666)
The fire started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner (or Farynor) on Pudding Lane, shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September 1666 and it spread rapidly west across the City of London. Only a few deaths from the fire are officially recorded, and deaths are traditionally believed to have been few (8 is the most regularly given number).
Robert Hubert, a watchmaker from Rouen, made a false confession to starting the fire and was hanged at Tyburn.
Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Valentine Knight and Richard Newcourt proposed rebuilding plans, all of which were ignored by Charles II
On Charles' initiative, a Monument to the Great Fire of London, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, was erected near Pudding Lane. Standing 61 metres (200 ft) tall it is known simply as "The Monument".
Test Acts – passed after the Reformation in 1672 and 1678, imposed penalties on Roman Catholics. They were repealed in 1828.
Great Stop of the Exchequer (1672) was a repudiation of state debt. One important legacy of the Great Stop of Exchequer was the founding of the Bank of England in 1694.
The Popish Plot - Titus Oates returned from a period as a spy in France in 1678, claiming to have discovered a Catholic conspiracy to murder Charles II and replace him with his Catholic brother James. The allegations gained little credence until the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, MP and strong supporter of Protestantism. His disappearance on 12 October 1678 and the finding of his mutilated body on 17 October on Primrose Hill sent the Protestant population into an uproar. The Popish Plot led to the Exclusion Bill, a Whig attempt to prevent James’s succession. Investigators realised the plot was fictitious, and Oates was thrown into prison.
Samuel Pepys (1633 – 1703) was an English naval administrator and MP who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work, and his talent for administration to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and subsequently King James II. The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London.
In 1679 Samuel Pepys was imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of treasonable correspondence with France, specifically leaking naval intelligence. The charges are believed to have been fabricated under the direction of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. He was released after two months but proceedings against him were not dropped until June 1680.
An English Parliament assembled in the city of Oxford for one week from 21 March until 28 March 1681 during the reign of Charles II.
Rye House Plot – a conspiracy that involved a group of Protestants who planned to murder Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York as they traveled from Newmarket races to London, past Rye House in Hertfordshire, in 1683. The Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s first-born illegitimate son, was implicated in the plot and fled to the Netherlands with his Protestant entourage.
Charles died on 6 February 1685 at Whitehall Palace. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother, James, to look after his mistresses: "be well to Portsmouth, and let not poor Nelly starve", and told his courtiers: "I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying" He was buried in Westminster Abbey "without any manner of pomp" on 14 February.
Charles was succeeded by his brother, who became James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland.
James II (1685 – 1688)
James married Anne Hyde (daughter of Charles II’s chief minister, Edward Hyde) in 1660 after she became pregnant. Only two daughters survived: Mary (born 30 April 1662) and Anne (born 6 February 1665). Anne Hyde died in 1671.
James used dispensing power to allow Roman Catholics to command several regiments in an expanded standing army without having to take the oath mandated by the Test Act (see above). When Parliament objected to these measures, James ordered Parliament prorogued in November 1685, never to meet again in his reign.
Battle of Sedgemoor (1685) - fought during the Monmouth Rebellion at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset between the troops of the rebel James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (illegitimate son of Charles II) and James II in an attempt to seize the throne. Sedgemoor is the last pitched battle fought on English soil.
After defeat at Sedgemoor, Monmouth fled, but was caught, sent to the Tower, and beheaded.
The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials in 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor. The site of the trials survives almost unchanged – the Oak Room of the Antelope Hotel, Dorchester. James II sent the infamous Judge Jeffreys to round up and try the defeated supporters of the rebel Duke of Monmouth. About 1300 people were found guilty. Most were transported abroad, while some suffered drawing and quartering.
Alice Molland was the last English woman to be executed for witchcraft (1685).
James allowed Catholics to occupy the highest offices of the Kingdoms, and received at his court the papal nuncio, the first representative from Rome to London since the reign of Mary I. In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence in which he used his dispensing power to negate the effect of laws punishing Catholics and Protestant Dissenters.
James re-issued the Declaration of Indulgence in April 1688, subsequently ordering Anglican clergymen to read it in their churches. When seven Bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel.
James married the Catholic Mary of Modena in 1673 and she gave birth to James Francis Edward Stuart (later "The Old Pretender") 10 June 1688. When the young prince was born, rumours immediately began to spread that he was an impostor baby, smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan. The true child of James and Mary was allegedly stillborn.
The Glorious Revolution (1688 – 1689) replaced James II, with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange.
On 30 June 1688, a group of seven Protestant nobles invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. When William arrived in Torbay on 5 November 1688, many Protestant officers, including John Churchill, defected and joined William, as did James's own daughter, Princess Anne.
On 10 December Mary of Modena fled to France long with the 6 month-old Prince of Wales. The next day James also tried to flee to France, allegedly first throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames in the hope that the machinery of government would cease to function. He was captured in Kent; later, he was released and placed under Dutch protective guard. Having no desire to make James a martyr, the Prince of Orange let him escape on 23 December. James was received by his cousin and ally, Louis XIV, who offered him a palace and a pension.
William III (1689 – 1702) and Mary II (1689 – 1694)
Bill of Rights (1689) - was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It enumerated certain rights to which subjects and permanent residents of a constitutional monarchy were thought to be entitled in the late 17th century, asserting subjects' right to petition the monarch, as well as to have arms in defence. It also sets out certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, as represented in parliament.
Resistance to William and Mary
Williamite War in Ireland - was a conflict between Jacobites (supporters of Catholic King James II) and Williamites (supporters of Protestant Prince William of Orange) over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
When Franco-Irish Jacobites arrived with French forces in March 1689 to join the war in Ireland and contest Protestant resistance at the Siege of Derry. William sent his navy to the city in July, and his army landed in August. After progress stalled, William personally intervened to lead his armies to victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 after which James II fled back to France.
Dutch General Godert de Ginkell was named Commander in Chief of William's forces in Ireland and entrusted with further conduct of the war there. Ginkell took command in Ireland in the spring of 1691, and following several ensuing battles, succeeded in capturing both Galway and Limerick, thereby effectively suppressing the Jacobite forces in Ireland within a few more months. The Irish Jacobites were finally defeated after the Battle of Aughrim in 1691.After difficult negotiations a capitulation was signed on 3 October 1691—the Treaty of Limerick.
Flight of the Wild Geese - refers to the departure of an Irish Jacobite army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, following the end of the Williamite War in Ireland. More broadly, the term ‘Wild Geese’ is used to refer to Irish soldiers who left to serve as mercenaries.
Jacobite War in Scotland - a series of Jacobite risings also took place in Scotland, where Viscount Dundee raised Highland forces and won a victory on 27 July 1689 at the Battle of Killiecrankie, but he died in the fight and a month later Scottish Cameronian forces subdued the rising at the Battle of Dunkeld. William offered Scottish clans that had taken part in the rising a pardon provided that they signed allegiance by a deadline, and his government in Scotland punished a delay with the Massacre of Glencoe of 1692 (38 MacDonalds were killed), which became infamous in Jacobite propaganda as William had countersigned the orders.
William's reputation in Scotland suffered further damage when he refused English assistance to the Darien scheme, a Scottish colony (1698–1700) (called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darién) that failed disastrously.
Window tax (1696) - was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. To avoid the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces (ready to be glazed or reglazed at a later date), as a result of the tax. It was repealed in 1851.
Charles ‘Turnip’ Townshend introduced to England the four-field crop rotation system in the early 18th century.
The Act of Settlement (1701) was an Act of the Parliament to settle the succession to the English throne on the heirs of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I. It remains the main Act of Parliament governing the succession to the thrones of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms.
Captain William Kidd (1645 – 1701) - was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians deem his piratical reputation unjust, as there is evidence that Kidd acted only as a privateer. He was hanged at Wapping.
Mary II died at Kensington Palace on 28 December 1694. During a cold winter, in which the Thames froze, her embalmed body lay in state in Banqueting House, Whitehall. On 5 March 1695, she was buried at Westminster Abbey. Her funeral service was the first of any royal attended by all the members of both Houses of Parliament.
William III died of pneumonia on 8 March 1702, a complication from a broken collarbone following a fall from his horse, Sorrel. Because his horse had stumbled into a mole's burrow, many Jacobites toasted "the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat." William was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside his wife.
His sister-in-law, Anne, became queen regnant of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Anne (1702 – 1714)
Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. She reigned as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 May 1707 (following the Acts of Union – see below) until her death in 1714.
Anne married Prince George of Denmark, younger brother of King Christian V, on 28 July 1683 in the Chapel Royal, Windsor.
Between 1683 and 1700, Anne had been pregnant at least seventeen times over as many years, and had miscarried or given birth to stillborn children at least twelve times. Of her five live-born children, four died before reaching the age of two. Anne's sole surviving child, the Duke of Gloucester, died at the age of eleven on 30 July 1700. Prince George died in 1708.
Great Storm of 1703 affected southern England. There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the West Country, particularly around Bristol. Hundreds of people drowned in flooding on the Somerset Levels, along with thousands of sheep and cattle, and one ship was found 15 miles inland. At Wells, Bishop Richard Kidder was killed when two chimneystacks in the palace fell on him and his wife, asleep in bed.
At sea, many ships were wrecked with between 8,000 and 15,000 lives lost overall. The first Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth was destroyed. The number of oak trees lost in the New Forest alone was 4,000.
The Great Storm was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale. Daniel Defoe produced his full-length book, “The Storm”, published in July 1704, in response to the calamity, calling it "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England."
The Acts of Union were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England to put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed in 1706. The Acts joined the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into a single, united kingdom named ‘Great Britain’.
In 1708, after Union with Scotland, a Secretary of State for Scotland was appointed
Scilly naval disaster of 1707 led to the sinking of a British naval fleet off the Isles of Scilly. With four large ships and more than 1400 sailors lost in stormy weather, it was later determined that the main cause of the disaster was the navigators' inability to accurately calculate their position. This eventually led to the Longitude Act in 1714, which established the Board of Longitude and offered a large money prize for anyone who could find a method of determining longitude accurately at sea.
War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714) – was a major European conflict triggered by the death in 1700 of the childless Charles II, the last Habsburg King of Spain. The succession was disputed by two claimants: the Habsburg Archduke Charles of Austria and the Bourbon Philip, Duke of Anjou and led England, Austria and the Dutch Republic to fight against France and Spain. The major battles:
Battle of Blenheim (1704) - an overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, thus preventing the collapse of the Grand Alliance. The GA army was commanded by Duke of Marlborough (see below) and Prince Eugene of Savoy.
The Battle of Ramillies (1706) - in less than four hours Marlborough's Dutch, English, and Danish forces overwhelmed Villeroi's and Max Emanuel's Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army. The Allies were able to fully exploit their victory. Town after town subsequently fell, including Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp; by the end of the campaign Villeroi's army had been driven from most of the Spanish Netherlands.
Battle of Oudenarde (1708) – was a decisive victory for the allies. The French army lost about 15,000 soldiers (about 8,000 of whom were prisoners) and 25 guns, while the Allies lost fewer than 3,000.
Battle of Malplaquet (1709) – was a Pyrrhic victory for the allies.
The war was ended with a series of treaties collectively known as the Treaty of Utrecht which were finally signed on 11 April 1713. The treaty recognised Louis XIV's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, as King of Spain (as Philip V), thus confirming the succession stipulated in the will of the Charles II of Spain. However, Philip was compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne. The French continued to be at war with Emperor Charles VI and with the Holy Roman Empire itself until 1714.
Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain.
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650 – 1722) - was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs. Rising from a lowly page at the court of the House of Stuart, he served James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s. He married Sarah Jennings sometime in the winter of 1677–78. His role in defeating the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 helped secure James on the throne, yet just three years later he abandoned his Catholic patron for the Protestant Dutchman, William of Orange. He was honoured for his services at William's coronation with the earldom of Marlborough.
His relationship with William suffered after he accused the King of appointing too many foreigners and in 1692 he was dismissed from all appointments and forbidden the court. He was then imprisoned in the Tower on a false charge of treason. In 1698 he was restored to the Privy Council, together with his military rank. He was remarkably successful during the War of the Spanish Succession (see above) but towards the end he was dismissed after charges of corruption were brought in an attempt to bring about a peace settlement of which he did not approve. He went into voluntary exile to the Continent on 1 December 1712. He returned to England on the day of Queen Anne’s death and he served George I during the Jacobite Rising of 1715. He suffered a stroke in 1719 and died in 1722.
Sarah Churchill (née Jennings), Duchess of Marlborough (1660 – 1744) – she rose to be one of the most influential women of her time thanks to her close friendship with Queen Anne. Sarah's friendship and influence with Princess Anne was widely known, and leading public figures often turned their attentions to her in the hope that she would influence Anne to comply with requests. As a result, by the time Anne became queen, Sarah’s knowledge of government, and intimacy with the Queen, had made her a powerful friend and a dangerous enemy. Anne and Sarah had invented petnames for themselves during their youths which they continued to use after Anne became queen: Mrs Freeman (Sarah) and Mrs Morley (Anne).
Sarah had previously introduced her impoverished cousin Abigail Hill to court. However, Abigail (who married Samuel Masham, groom of the bedchamber to Prince George, in 1707, without Sarah’s knowledge) grew to be a rival to Sarah in influencing the Queen, especially after 1708 and the death of Prince George.
Jane Wenham was the last English woman to be convicted of witchcraft, in 1712, but she was reprieved by the judge.
The Queen Anne's Revenge was the name of Blackbeard's famous pirate ship. Originally named Concord, the vessel was built by England in 1710, but captured by France in 1711.
