hi I'm John Green and this is crash
course European history so as we saw
last week absolutism was in the air
during the 17th century but not just in
France across the English Channel King
James the sixth of Scotland became King
James the first of England after the
death of the childless Elizabeth in 1603
and he found himself thinking you know I
might not agree with those French
Catholics about everything but they are
on to something when it comes to the
Divine Right of Kings to have absolute
power the inhabitants of the British
Isles however weren't so sure in fact
Protestant reformers were imagining a
different idea of government that's
right my friends the Constitution's are
coming
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so when he inherited the British throne
James aspired to unite his holdings in
Wales England Scotland and Ireland into
a more cohesive whole but of course
those regions despite their geographic
proximity contain quite a lot of
religious ethnic and economic diversity
religiously Calvinists called
Presbyterians in Scotland Catholics and
Anglicans had big disagreements also if
you've ever been to a Scottish bar and
accidentally said how much you're
enjoying your visit to England you will
know that Scottish people are not
English true story by the way the entire
bar went quiet all at once it was really
uncomfortable and then I tried to fill
that silence by saying well you have the
same money which also didn't go over
great James thought he could solve these
problems by taking the title of King of
Great Britain one place one king he also
had his officials Institute English laws
across all his kingdoms and promote
adherence to anglicanism and he sought
to keep the peace among Europe's great
families by marrying his son Charles to
Henrietta Maria the Catholic sister of
Francis Louisa 13th but that only ended
up furthering divisions because
Henrietta Maria refused to convert to
anglicanism and became a target for
opponents from various factions
Henrietta Maria's husband James's son
Charles came to the throne in 1625 and
he too firmly believed in the Divine
Right of Kings because you know of
course he did he was backed by the
nobility and about half of the gentry or
the wealthy landowners who were below
the nobility but other members of the
gentry opposed the idea of absolutist
monarchy coal power as did many other
less powerful people including many
farmers and much of the merchant classes
who tended to live in cities those
groups didn't have titles or ancient
claims to land but they were driving
much of Britain's economy and they felt
that the elected English Parliament
should have more power because of course
that would also mean that they had more
power in 1628 Charles bound to that
parliamentary strength by agreeing to
the petition of right which said that
the king could not raise taxes without
Parliament's permission but then he was
like I think I'm
have found a loophole and he basically
ghosted them he simply stopped calling
Parliament back into session which of
course infuriated Parliament and also
felt like a rather blatant absolutist
move from a king who had just agreed to
a check on his power meanwhile Puritans
who objected to the pump of Anglicanism
with its statues and stained glass and
incense resisted the Archbishop of
Canterbury named William laud who was
attempting to bring the Puritans back to
Anglican orthodoxy Puritan critics were
tortured sometimes put into the stalks
or whipped some had their faces
mutilated as were members of the upper
classes who disapproved of the king and
his administration then loud stirred up
defiance among the Presbyterians in
Scotland whom he also aimed to restore
to Anglicanism he pushed them to adopt a
new version of the prayer book of the
Anglican Church and resistance to that
was literally riotous young women hurled
the new prayer books during religious
services and provoked their
congregations to join them in fact the
Presbyterian Scots were eventually so
enraged that they invaded England in
response after more than a decade of
refusing to summon Parliament Charles
was like Oh Parliament can you come back
please I I need your support in
declaring war like many a ruler Charles
the first thought that warfare which he
undertook on numerous occasions would
make Parliament rally around him and
allow him to raise taxes but that was a
big mistake instead the representatives
responded by removing Archbishop laud
from power decreeing that Parliament
must meet at least every three years and
putting additional roadblocks in
Charles's way when Charles called on
soldiers to arrest the members of
parliament who had thwarted his demands
outright civil war erupted between 1642
and 1646 those loyal to the king called
Cavaliers faced off against those loyal
to Parliament called round heads because
of their short haircuts parliamentary
forces raised the new model army led by
Oliver Cromwell and this new army saw
opposing religious sects let go of their
differences which allowed them
ultimately to capture Charles the first
and then execute him in 1649 we also
have to remembered that during these
years the little ice age was taking its
toll many people died from famine
furthermore between 1625 and 1636
the bubonic plague killed some 45,000
people in London alone amid successive
bad weather entire villages disappeared
as their inhabitants either died of
illness or starvation or else abandoned
their communities in search of food
and all of that enhanced the resistance
and criticism of those who found it
impossible to pay more taxes so that
Charles could realize his absolutist
dreams and fight his Wars a higher
percentage of Britain's population died
in this period then during both World
War 1 and World War two combined but
with the war ended and Charles defeated
England was now a republic although not
quite like contemporary Republic since
it was ruled by the increasingly
dictatorial Oliver Cromwell although
come to think of it that does make it
like some contemporary republics
Cromwell was still the head of the New
Model Army but without a shared enemy in
the king all those varying sects and
religious factions went back to
squabbling with each other until
Cromwell wiped out those in the New
Model Army who objected to the policies
of his Puritan regime
Cromwell's army for instance crushed the
Catholics in Ireland whom it was
suspected favor to restored monarchy but
even so Cromwell could not keep his army
or his government unified despite
building a very impressive network of
spies in 1658 after less than a decade
in power Cromwell died and a civil war
once more seemed inevitable in 1660
Parliament summoned charles ii to the
throne did the center of the world just
open is there a wig in there am I gonna
have to put that on stand so this was
the time in English history when the
wigs that I at least associate with
English history and fancy British people
started to be a thing what purpose did
they serve well then as now they were a
way of concealing hair loss but also
people like to cut their hair short to
minimize the risk of lice so now I'm
worried that this wig that Stan gave me
has lice and we're gonna move on with
the video so charles ii was summoned by
parliament to become the english king
and you might be wondering why someone
who'd seen his father executed for being
king charles the first would want to
become king charles ii but humans are
moths that fly toward the light of power
my friend
and charles ii thought he could be a
better king in some ways he was his
reign began the so called restoration a
time of creativity and discovery and
also further tragedy in 1665 another
outbreak of plague quickly killed some
30,000 people the next year fire broke
out in London destroying more than
10,000 buildings including many churches
and businesses the monument to the Great
Fire of London encapsulate how
thoroughly religious disagreements
shaped every facet of human life even
when memorializing the dead the
monuments and scribers couldn't help but
make it sectarian writing here by
permission of heaven hell broke loose
upon this Protestant city the most
dreadful burning of this city begun and
carried on by treachery and Malak of the
Pope ish faction now of course that
wasn't true the fire started in a bakery
run by an Anglican charles ii meanwhile
had a catholic mother in henrietta maria
and was seen to be gravitating toward
what that monument called the pope ish
faction he loosened restrictions on
Catholics and other dissenters and moved
parliament responded to with the test
act of 1673 which excluded all those who
weren't loyal to the anglican church
from government positions so just for a
quick recap james the first tried to
unite all of Great Britain and Ireland
under one absolutist crown before dying
in 1625 his son Charles the first ended
up being on the losing side of the
English Civil War and was separated from
his head in 1649 at which point Britain
technically became a republic that more
closely resembled a military
dictatorship which eventually failed
leading in 1662 charles ii becoming king
charles ii had at least 12 children but
none with his wife so his rightful heir
was his brother james a catholic who
would eventually become king but only
for a few years but before we get there
let's go to the thought-bubble across
these decades people saw the social
order turned upside down
as some male reformers proposed free
love and women took up arms even
carrying them openly during the 1640s
and 1650s one pro parliament woman
recalled seeing the leader of the Irish
rebels approaching riding the cheek
sent him a shot in the head that made
him bid the world good night
other women began publishing and
preaching with Quaker women emphasizing
the divine light shining from all humans
both male and female and with the
political scene fluctuating so rapidly
and alliances changing women served many
roles including as spies even going to
other countries to gather intelligence
on those plotting to restore the
monarchy or when it was restored those
plotting to overthrow it again among
these was offer a Bane daughter of a
butcher and midwife she was Pro Stewart
the family name of James and Charles and
traveled incognito to the Netherlands in
the 1660s to gather intelligence on
Stewart enemies however Bane also picked
up another career soon becoming a
popular playwright at a time when as
part of the world turning upside down
women began going to the theater and
serving as actresses before that men had
taken women's roles in plays in 1688 the
year before she died bane published
Orinoco the story of a wrongly enslaved
African Prince and his love for a
highborn slave woman in this regard Bane
was part of a thriving restoration
literary scene which rejected Puritan
austerity in favour of wit sexual desire
and playfulness thanks thought-bubble so
despite the efforts of offer bane and
her ilk the stuart drive for absolutism
halted for good in between 1688 and 1689
when the Catholic ways of james ii just
became too much for the pro parliament
advocates and when to compound the
danger James's second wife gave birth to
a son and heir
James's older daughter Mary and her
spouse William the third were summoned
as monarchs to replace James the second
but only after they agreed to rule by a
bill of rights
this document stated in its first
article that no monarch would reject or
publish a decree without the consent of
parliament it also guaranteed some of
the rights later found in the u.s. Bill
of Rights including for instance the
right to bear arms at least as long as
you were Protestant and it's important
to note that political theory
underpinned this political
transformation which came to be called
the Glorious Revolution and this is the
part in European history where we use
we talked about Thomas Hobbes and John
Locke Thomas Hobbes took a very
pessimistic view of human nature and
argued for an absolutist form of
political organization in his book
Leviathan and it argued that a lack of
political regulation created lives that
were quote solitary poor nasty brutish
and short in Hobbes's worldview with
absolute rule one surrendered any claim
to personal liberty but received in
exchange a measure of personal
well-being and protection from that
absolutist government but there was
another famous English theorist of
government and human society John Locke
who presented a much rosier view of
humanity in his two treatises of
government Locke argued that in a
natural world individuals were born free
and equal but that they rationally
banded together to create a government
that would uphold laws and protect their
rights so Locke is seen as articulating
a theory of government similar to the
one put forth by the Glorious Revolution
and also similar to the one outlined in
the preamble to the US Constitution and
in many ways Locke's political thought
is the foundation of traditional or
classical liberalism that is the belief
in rights and freedom as intrinsic to
the human self and we see this theory
amplified from Locke's time down to the
present day like today many of us take
it for granted that humans have certain
natural rights including the rights to
life liberty and property language taken
directly from two treatises but human
rights are an invented concept albeit a
very useful one King Henry the eighth
for instance did not agree with the
notion that those who claim to own land
actually owned it as evidenced by his
extensive reclamation of Catholic land
for himself the creation of concepts of
human rights reminds us again that how
we imagine the world and indeed how we
imagined ourselves and each other deeply
impacts the world in which we end up
living whether we believe in human
rights and how we act on that belief has
profound consequences today just as it
did during the Glorious Revolution next
week we're going to cross back to the
continent to see the Dutch variant on
constitutional
government including all its twists and
turns and cannibalism thanks for
watching I'll see you then
thanks for watching crash course the
European history which is made by all of
these nice people and filmed here in the
Jaden Smith studio in Indianapolis our
animators are thought cafe we have lots
more crash course available you want to
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we've got you covered thanks again for
watching and don't forget to be awesome
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