Background of the English Revolution Dean nn. English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century: causes, features, main stages

Introduction

In the last centuries of the Middle Ages, new productive forces and new economic relations, capitalist relations, corresponding to them, developed in the depths of feudal society. The old feudal relations of production and the political dominance of the nobility retarded the development of the new social system. The political system of Europe at the end of the Middle Ages in most European countries had a feudal-absolutist character. A strong centralized state was an instrument of the feudal nobility to protect the feudal order, to curb and suppress the working masses of the countryside and the city, who fought against feudal oppression. The elimination of the old feudal economic relations and the old feudal-absolutist political forms that hindered further growth capitalism, could only be produced in a revolutionary way. The transition of European society from feudalism to capitalism was carried out mainly as a result of the English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century.

English Revolution in the 17th century the first proclaimed the principles of bourgeois society and the state and established the bourgeois system in one of the largest countries in Europe. It was prepared by the entire previous development of Europe and took place simultaneously with serious socio-political upheavals in France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Russia. The English Revolution evoked numerous ideological responses in Europe as early as the 17th century.

Thus, the English revolution of the XVII century. can be seen as the boundary between the Middle Ages and modern times. It became the beginning of a new era and made irreversible the process of formation of bourgeois socio-political orders not only in England, but also in Europe as a whole.

Features of the economic development of England on the eve of the revolution. Economic background.

On the eve of the revolution, England was an agrarian country. Of its 4.5 million population, about 75% were rural residents. But this did not mean that there was no industry in England. The metallurgical, coal and textile industries had already reached significant development at that time, and it was in the industrial sphere, especially in the textile industry, that the features of the new capitalist order were most clearly manifested.

New technical inventions and improvements, and most importantly, new forms of organization of industrial labor and production clearly showed that British industry was more and more imbued with capitalist tendencies and the spirit of commerce.

In England, there were quite large reserves of iron ore. Gloucestershire was especially rich in ore. Ore processing was carried out mainly in the counties of Cheshire, Sussex, Herefordshire, Yokshir, Somersetshire. Copper ore was mined and processed on a significant scale. England also had large coal reserves - mainly in the county of Northumberland. Coal as a fuel has not yet been used in metallurgy, but was widely used in everyday life (especially in London). The need for coal both for domestic consumption and for export abroad was very high.

Both in the metallurgical and stone industries in the 17th century there were already quite a few fairly large manufactories where hired workers worked and there was a division of labor. Despite the importance of these industries, they, however, had not yet become the main ones in the English economy at that time.

The most widespread industry in England was the textile industry, especially the production of woolen fabrics. To a greater or lesser extent it existed in all the counties. Many counties specialized in the production of one or two grades of matter. The wool industry is most widespread in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, West Riding (Yorkshire) and in east england where sheep breeding was highly developed.

The linen industry developed mainly in Ireland, where there were suitable climatic conditions for growing flax.

In the 17th century, the cotton industry appeared, the raw materials for which were brought from the Levant, Smyrna and from the island of Cyprus. Manchester became the center of this industry.

In the textile industry, there was a significant variety of organizational forms of production. In London and in many old cities, handicraft workshops with their medieval rules, which hindered the free development of industry, were still preserved. In rural areas and in settlements where there were no workshops, a large number of independent small artisans worked, and in rural areas they, as a rule, combined craft with agriculture.

But along with workshops and small artisans, a new form organization of production - manufactory, which was a transitional form from the small-scale production of artisans to large-scale capitalist industry. In the 17th century England already had a centralized manufacture. But in most branches of industry, the so-called scattered manufacture, associated with the processing at home of raw materials belonging to the entrepreneur, was predominant. Sometimes the workers also used the tools of the owner. These were already independent artisans. They became, in essence, hired workers subjected to capitalist exploitation, although in a number of cases they still retained a tiny piece of land that served as additional source livelihood. Cadres of manufacturing workers were recruited from among the landless and ruined peasants.

A very important moment in the history of the disintegration of English feudalism was the penetration of capitalist relations into agriculture. English agriculture developed in close cooperation with the development of capitalism in other areas of the national economy - in industry, trade, maritime affairs.

The English countryside turned out to be very early connected with the market - first with the external, and then more and more with the internal. A huge amount of wool was exported from England to the continent of Europe as early as the 11th-12th centuries. and especially from the XIII - XIV centuries. The growth in demand for English wool in the foreign and domestic markets led to the extraordinary development of sheep breeding in England. And this, in turn, was the impetus for the beginning of the famous "fencing" (forcible removal of peasants from the land by feudal lords) of the 15th, 16th and first half of the 17th centuries. The mass breeding of sheep and the transformation of arable land into pasture entailed the most important socio-economic consequences. Enclosures were the main method of so-called primitive accumulation carried out in the English countryside by the landowning class in the most cruel forms of open forcible exploitation of the masses of the people. A feature of the fences of the XVII century. was that their motive was no longer so much sheep breeding as the development of intensive agriculture. The immediate result of the enclosures was the separation of the mass of producers, the peasants, from their main means of production, i.e. from the earth.

In the English countryside in the XVI - XVII centuries. capitalist farming developed, which in economic terms was an analogy with manufacture in industry. The entrepreneurial farmer exploited on a large scale agricultural workers from the rural poor. However, the central figure of the village of the Stuart period was still not large farmers - tenants of foreign land, and not landless cotters - rural laborers, but the numerically predominant yeomen - independent tillers, owners of a hereditary allotment.

The peasant population (yeomen) was going through a process of property and legal stratification and was to a greater or lesser extent from the landowners. The most prosperous peasants, approaching the position of full owners of the land, were called freeholders (free holders). In the southeastern part of the country, they made up about a third of the peasantry, while in the northwest they were much smaller. The bulk of the peasants were represented by the so-called copyholders (holders by copy, or by agreement), who were in a much worse position. Some of them were considered eternal hereditary land holders, but usually the landowners were inclined to consider this holding as temporary and short-term. Short-term holders were called tenants or leaseholders. Copy holders were obliged to pay the landlord a permanent monetary rent, but when the allotment was transferred to a new holder by inheritance or as a result of a purchase and sale, the landlords increased the rent. Fines were heavy requisitions - special payments to the landowner upon transferring the allotment to other hands, as well as posthumous contributions (heriots). Landlords levied fees for the use of pastures, forests, mills, etc. In the north-west of the country, quitrents in kind and corvée work were often preserved. Kopigolder held an answer before the landowner's court in petty cases, which were not under the jurisdiction of special judicial authorities.

The poorest part of the village was made up of landless laborers, day laborers, apprentices and workers of village workshops, who had only their own hut, or cottage - they were called cotters. Among the rural poor, the desire for equalization of property and hostility towards wealthy landowners intensified.

Thus, England in the 16th century and in the first half of the 17th century became a major economically developed power with a highly developed industry and a capitalist form of production. "By building a strong navy, the British were able to participate in the Great geographical discoveries and in the capture of many overseas territories. In 1588, they defeated the fleet of their main rival in colonial conquests, Spain. The colonial possessions of England expanded. Merchants and the growing bourgeoisie profited from their robbery, and the new nobility profited from the "fencing" that was taking place. The economic power of the country was actually concentrated in the hands of these sections of the population, and they began to strive through parliament (the House of Commons) to direct state policy in their own interests.

The alignment of social forces on the eve of the revolution. Social background.

The political and economic image of the society of pre-revolutionary England was determined, as mentioned above, by the presence of two economic structures at the same time: the new - capitalist and the old - feudal. The leading role belonged to the capitalist system. England, as already noted, moved along the capitalist path much faster than other European countries, and the peculiarity of the development of this country was that the active breakdown of the medieval economic structure began in the countryside much earlier than in the city, and proceeded along a truly revolutionary path. . English agriculture much earlier than industrial turned into a profitable object of profitable investment of capital, a sphere of the capitalist type of management.

The agrarian revolution that had begun in the English countryside provided industry with the necessary raw materials and at the same time pushed out a mass of "surplus population" that could be used by capitalist industry in various types of domestic and concentrated manufacturing production.

For these reasons, it was the English countryside that became the center of social conflict. In the English countryside, two processes took place in class form - the dispossession of the peasantry and the formation of a class of capitalist tenants. The dispossession of peasants, largely caused by the notorious enclosures of communal lands, went so far that many villages disappeared and thousands of peasants became vagabonds. It was at this time that the rise of the movement of the peasantry and the urban poor was observed. The immediate reasons for the actions of the peasantry were given by this or that next oppression (most often, fencing or depriving the peasants of communal marshy pastures under the pretext of draining the swamps). The real reasons for the rise of the peasant movement lay deeper. The peasantry strove for the abolition of feudal rent, for a radical agrarian reform that would turn the unsecured feudal land holdings of the peasants into their complete "free" property.

Scattered peasant uprisings were an almost constant occurrence. At the same time in the first decades of the XVII century. in various cities "revolts" of the urban plebeians broke out from time to time. All these popular uprisings, of course, were not yet the beginning of the revolution. But they undermined the existing "order" and created the feeling among the bourgeois leaders that it was only necessary to give a push - and the forces necessary for victory would set in motion throughout the country. This is what happened in the 40s. Engels, speaking of the revolutionary uprising in England, points out: “The urban bourgeoisie gave it the first impetus, and the middle peasantry of the rural districts, the yeomanry, led it to victory. An original phenomenon: in all three great bourgeois revolutions, the fighting army is the peasants; and it is the peasants who turn out to be the class that, after winning a victory, is inevitably ruined as a result of the economic consequences of these victories ... Thanks to the intervention of this yeomanry and the plebeian element of the cities, the struggle was brought to the last decisive end, and Charles I landed on the scaffold. In order for the bourgeoisie to be able to get at least those fruits of victory, which were then already quite ripe for harvesting, it was necessary to carry the revolution much further than such a goal.

Thus, in the course of the English bourgeois revolution, rather complicated and contradictory relations between the bourgeoisie and the peasant-plebeian masses were bound to come to light. An alliance with this mass, capable of leading to victory, could not but frighten the bourgeoisie at the same time, since it concealed the danger of an excessive activation of the masses. The English bourgeoisie, therefore, in practice only used the movement of the masses, but did not enter into an alliance with them; all the time she never ceased to be afraid of too much to shake and shake the old state machine, which curbed the masses of the people.

The feudal-absolutist state for a long time skillfully used these fluctuations of the bourgeoisie. Throughout the 16th century under the Tudor dynasty, it made partial concessions to the bourgeoisie, provided it with economic protection, and thereby separated it from a possible alliance with the muffled bubbling in the 16th century. peasant-plebeian revolutionary forces.

The main social support of absolutism was the nobility. But a feature social structure England XVI-XVII centuries. was that the English nobility itself was in some part subjected to capitalist degeneration, approaching in its socio-economic appearance more and more to the bourgeoisie.

Absolutism, which hindered the development of capitalism, could not solve the problem of jobs for the vast mass of peasants who had become unemployed. The activities of the government were reduced to the adoption of legislation against vagrants and healthy beggars, providing for punishment and forced labor, and the creation of a system of "help to the poor." Nine-tenths of the population of England were disqualified from voting for members of Parliament. Only one-tenth of the male population were gentlemen, burghers, wealthy peasants who had access to government.

The most remarkable feature of the social structure of England in the pre-revolutionary period is the split of the nobility into two social classes, in many respects antagonistic - the old and the new (bourgeois) nobility. Of the English nobility, Marx wrote: "This class of large landowners associated with the bourgeoisie ... was ... not in contradiction, but, on the contrary, in full agreement with the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie." Gentry (small local nobility), being nobles by class position, were bourgeois by economic structure. The history of industry and trade in England in the pre-revolutionary period was largely created by representatives of the new nobility. This feature gave the revolution of the 40s. 17th century historical originality and predetermined both its character and the final result.

So in social conflict between feudal England and bourgeois England were involved various sections of the population.

Puritanism - the ideology of the revolution

One of the most important features of the English revolution of the XVII century. is a kind of ideological formulation of its social-class and political goals. The role of the combat theory of the rebels was played by the ideology of the Reformation in the form of puritanism, i.e. the struggle for the "purification" of the faith, which performed an ideological function in the process of mobilizing the forces of the revolution.

Puritanism as a religious movement arose long before the revolutionary situation in the country, but in the 20-30s of the XVII century. turned into the ideology of a broad anti-absolutist opposition. The most important consequence of this movement was the dissemination in large sections of society of the consciousness of the urgent need for change in both church and state.

The opposition against absolutism developed in England precisely under the religious principles of Puritanism. The reformist teachings of the sixteenth century created fertile ground for the ideology of the English bourgeois revolution. This ideology was Calvinism, the dogmas and church-political principles of which, even during the Reformation period, served as the basis for the organization of the church in Switzerland, Scotland and Holland and were the beginning of the revolution of 1566 in the Netherlands.

Calvinism in the 16th - 17th centuries became the ideology of the most daring part of the then bourgeoisie and fully met the needs of the struggle against absolutism and the English Church in England. Puritanism in England was a variation of Calvinism. The Puritans rejected the doctrine of "grace," the need for the episcopate, and the subordination of the church to the king. They demanded the independence of the church from royalty, collegial management of church affairs, the expulsion of "idolatry", i.e. magnificent ceremonies, painted windows, worship of icons, rejected the altars and utensils used in English churches during worship. They desired the introduction of free oral preaching, cheapening and simplification of religion, the abolition of the episcopate, and they conducted worship in private homes, accompanying it with accusatory sermons against the luxury and depravity of the court and the aristocracy.

Diligence, frugality and stinginess were glorified by the Puritans in full accordance with the spirit of enrichment and hoarding, characteristic of the young English bourgeoisie. The Puritans were characterized by the preaching of worldly asceticism, secular entertainment. In these features of puritanism, which turned into hypocrisy, the protest of the English average noble nobility and the royal court was vividly expressed.

During the revolution, Puritanism was split. Among the Puritans, various currents arose that met the interests of various strata and classes of society that were in opposition to absolutism and the English church. A moderate trend among the Puritans was represented by the so-called Presbyterians, who advocated a Presbyterian church structure. The Presbyterians wanted to maintain a single church in England with the same worship, but demanded that the church be cleansed of the vestiges of Catholicism, or papism, and that bishops be replaced by assemblies of elders, or presbyters, chosen by the faithful. They sought the independence of the church from the king. The Presbyterians found their supporters among the wealthy merchants and the top of the new nobility, who, with such a structure of the church, hoped to seize the leading influence on it in their own hands.

A more radical trend among the Puritans were the Independents, or "independents", who stood for the abolition of any single church with obligatory texts of prayers and dogmas. They advocated complete independence in religious affairs for each religious community, i.e. for the disintegration of a single church into a number of independent communities and sects. This trend was successful among the middle and petty bourgeoisie, peasants, artisans and the middle class of the rural gentry. An analysis of Puritanism shows that its essence was bourgeois, i.e. that it was only a religious shell of bourgeois class demands.

Presbyterianism, uniting the big bourgeois and landed aristocracy, preached the idea of ​​a constitutional monarchy. Independence found supporters in the ranks of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. In general, agreeing with the idea of ​​a constitutional monarchy, the Independents at the same time demanded the redistribution of electoral districts, which would allow them to increase the number of their representatives in Parliament, as well as the recognition of such rights as freedom of conscience, speech, etc. for a free person. The most radical movement of the Levellers united artisans, free peasants, who demanded the establishment of a republic, equality of all citizens.

Conclusion

Gradually in the economic and political life the absolutism of the Stuarts and the feudal order they protected became the main obstacle to the development of capitalist relations in the country. The conflict between the growth of the productive forces of the new, capitalist order, on the one hand, and the old, feudal production relations, together with their political superstructure in the form of absolutism, on the other, was the main reason for the maturing of the bourgeois revolution in England. This root cause of the revolution should not be confused with the revolutionary situation, i.e. set of circumstances leading directly to the beginning of the revolution.

A revolutionary situation developed in England in the late 30s and early 40s of the 17th century, when illegal taxes and other restrictions led to a delay in the development of trade and industry and a sharp deterioration in the situation of the people. The mediation of merchants - monopolists interfered with the sale of cloth and increased their cost. Many thousands of pieces of cloth did not find buyers. A large number of apprentices and workers were dismissed and lost their earnings. The aggravation of the needs and misfortunes of the working people was combined with the critical position of the ruling elite. The king and his court fell into the grip of a financial crisis: in 1637, an uprising broke out against the king in Scotland, where Charles I wanted to establish an absolute monarchy and an episcopal church; the war with Scotland demanded large expenditures; a large deficit formed in the treasury, and the king was faced with the need to convene parliament to approve new loans and taxes.

The sittings of Parliament opened on April 13, 1640, but on May 6 the king dissolved it without achieving anything. This parliament went down in history under the name of the Short. Its dispersal gave a new impetus to the struggle of the masses, the bourgeoisie and the new nobility against absolutism.

IN AND. Lenin noted that in any revolutionary situation, 3 signs are sure to take place: a crisis of the “tops”, or the inability for them to govern in the old way, a significant increase in the misfortunes of the masses and events that cause an increase in their political activity. All these signs of a revolutionary situation arose and were evident in England in the early 1740s. The political situation in the country has heated up to the extreme limit.

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6. New History, Part 1, ed. A.L. Narochnitsky, M., 1972

At the beginning of the XVII century. England has entered a historical period of crisis of the former state structure. The crisis was largely historically objective: as a result of significant shifts in the economic life and in the agrarian system of the country over the previous century, a new socio-political situation had developed, and English absolutism showed no desire to modernize either its system or its legal policy.

English absolutism arose during the period of the decline of feudalism and the development of the capitalist system, which, in comparison with other European countries, established itself in England quite early. Its peculiarity was that it developed not only in cities, but also in rural areas, where the nobility (gentry) ran its economy on a capitalist basis, using the labor of hired workers and tenants, selling their products on the market. Those. the nobility merged with the bourgeoisie. Together they were interested in a single national market and the elimination of the arbitrariness of the old feudal nobility who aspired to wars, both on the continent and in their own country. And this could happen only if a strong centralized government was created.

During the reign of the first kings from the Stuart dynasty (1603-1649), the crisis took on an open form of political confrontation between the absolute monarchy (and the aristocracy, part of the nobility, especially the northwestern regions, the Anglican clergy who fully supported the old order) and the modernizing sections of society. This was facilitated by the failure domestic politics monarchy, which, among other things, violated traditional ideas about the tasks of the state and the goals of its activities.

As long as the capitalist structure was relatively weak, it could develop within the framework of the feudal system, especially since the policy of absolute monarchy as a whole contributed to its success. But as market relations strengthened, it became increasingly clear that feudalism and the absolutism that stood guard over it fettered the development of productive forces.

The archaic economic and legal policy of the monarchy retained a class-corporate character. While in the country a new layer of the nobility was formed, the logic of economic development involved in commercial and industrial activities. As a result of the breakdown of the medieval agrarian system during the "enclosures" of the 16th century. a significant stratum of large and medium-sized land tenants formed the basis of the entrepreneurial class. By a system of crown monopolies and ubiquitous state tutelage, they were pushed aside from the benefits of foreign and colonial trade, from the opportunities for the prospective development of domestic production.

The state apparatus of absolutism, despite the numerical growth and complexity of the structure, turned out to be less and less capable of governing the country in the interests of society and in accordance with established law. The purchase of administrative posts, including titles of nobility, became a practice. The absolutist administration resorted to forced loans to prevent chronic financial shortages. Immeasurably increased corruption caused general discontent. Traditional British self-government, especially city government, gradually dissociated itself from the absolutist administration.

Religious contradictions became the most important prerequisite for the socio-political conflict. The policy of the absolutist government was aimed at strengthening the position of the Anglican Church and practically forcing the public to participate in the cult of the state church.

The revolutionary ideology of the bourgeoisie was puritanism - a religious movement that demanded the complete purification of the church organization and the creed from Catholicism. Demanding the separation of the church from the state, the election of church officials, the conduct of free preaching not related to canonical texts, the Puritans thereby opposed the absolutist state, its official ideology. From the conviction that there are no intermediaries between man and God, the conclusion followed that a social organization was created by people who fulfill the will of God. Royal power is not established by God, i.e. does not have a divine origin, but is formed as a result of an agreement between the people and the king. Thus, within the framework of Puritanism, a purely political theory of the “social contract” was born, according to which the people have the right and even the obligation to overthrow the king if he violates the contract, rules to the detriment of society.

However, the moderate wing of the Puritans, consisting of the largest financiers, merchants and part of the gentry, was inclined to confine themselves to peaceful pressure. They were called Presbyterians - from the presbyter - the elected religious foreman of the parishioners. The radical wing was represented by the Independents, who insisted on the complete ecclesiastical self-government of the communities and, as a result, proclaimed at least a partial release of the citizen from the power of the state.

A series of unsuccessful political decisions by James I and Charles I, attempts to reconcile with Spain on a dynastic basis, a marriage alliance with Catholic France, including secret agreements on indulgences at the English court for Catholic priests - all this caused an unprecedented increase in public opposition. The crisis of relations between the absolutist statehood and society acquired a specific form of confrontation between the crown and parliament.

Long Parliament.

At the beginning of the XVII century. A new dynasty of Stuarts came to the throne. After the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the Scottish king James I became king of England, the two countries were united by a dynastic union. Jacob and his son Charles I (1625-49) . ) were faced with a choice: either to abandon the position of absolute monarchs, and submit to the dictates of the bourgeoisie and gentry, to sacrifice the interests of the secular and spiritual nobility, or to take the path of feudal reaction. The Stuarts chose the latter and directed the entire power of the state apparatus against the Puritans.

Submissive to the king and bishops, the judges sentenced the Puritans to imprisonment, torture, cutting off their ears, and nailing them to the pillory. The Star Chamber - an emergency court created by Henry VII (the first king of the Tudor dynasty) became the body of reprisals against the opposition. especially raged High Commission- the highest church body, which included members of the royal Privy Council. Severe censorship was introduced. The reprisals also caused economic damage: Protestants from Europe and more than 60 thousand English Puritans left the country.

James I and Charles I consistently defended the prerogatives of the crown and the priority of the principles of absolutism to the detriment of the historical constitution of England. The practical influence of parliament on state affairs weakened: from 1611 to 1640, parliament did not sit in total for two years. The crown preferred to do without Parliament, because it met with constant opposition, and could not do without taxes and subsidies approved by Parliament, because the opposition population refused to pay taxes, and the courts took a twofold position in this, following the principles of "common law" (in 1629 d. Parliament directly decided that "the enemy of English freedom is the one who will pay taxes not approved by Parliament").

Since 1614, the composition of Parliament was 2/3 Puritan. The constant motive of his studies was the adoption of various kinds of resolutions about his political priority. This led, as a rule, to the rapid dissolution of the representation. Parliament's claim to supremacy in particular was stated in a resolution of December 18, 1621: “All the liberties, privileges, powers, and judicial power of Parliament are the hereditary property of every Englishman; Parliament has the right to intervene in all state affairs, no one but the House itself has power over any of its members. Enraged, James I personally appeared in parliament and tore out a sheet from the protocol with this entry, then dissolving the parliament.

Ended in failure, and the first attempts of Charles I to find political agreement with Parliament. Convened in 1626 in Oxford, the parliament refused to grant subsidies to the crown due to disagreement over the war with Spain and the policy of the government of the Duke of Buckingham. The parliament, which met again in 1628, proposed to the king a special act - the Petition of Right. A more decisive opposition formed in the new parliament (around the deputies O. Cromwell, G. Pym, Gampden, etc.), which led the political discussion without the usual reverence for the crown: the king is called to help the kingdom or the parliament will do without him.

The petition basically declared the foundations of the historical constitution of the kingdom, confirmed the rights of the parliament, including the exclusive vote of taxes, condemned the actions of the royal administration in violation of the established laws of the kingdom. The petition was at first accepted by the king. But then, relying on the opposition of the Anglican Church, Charles I practically annulled its significance and dissolved Parliament. Explaining the reason for the dissolution of Parliament and the reservations regarding the Petition of Right before the House of Lords, Charles I directly named among them "the rebellious behavior of several vipers."

After the dissolution of parliament in 1629, 11 years of non-parliamentary rule followed, during which the crisis of power and opposition to the crown took on forms that anticipated civil war. The government of the new minister of the king, the earl of Strafford, acted "to the point", regardless of either tradition or the agreements in the Petition of Right. Emigration from the country to the New World intensified (over the years, about 20 thousand people left, most of them supporters of new religious movements).

It was the reign of the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop William Laud. The latter decided to extend the Anglican Church to Scotland, where Calvinism was established. The country was on the verge of an economic disaster: unrest among the peasants , workers, artisans and merchants. In 1636, due to the attempts of the crown to introduce episcopal administration in Scotland and new church rites, an armed Scottish rebellion began, which turned out to be impossible to suppress due to the weakness of the internal army and the lack of subsidies for it. In fact, during the uprising, which grew into an open Anglo-Scottish war, English absolutism was actually broken.

The newly convened parliament turned out to be puritanical again and was called the "long parliament", because. he sat from 1640 to 1653. The activities of the Long Parliament (1640-1653), which opened on November 3, 1640, became the main political form of state transformations in the country. Behind this activity was a broad public movement of opposition to the monarchy and, on the contrary, in its support, religious disputes and interethnic conflicts, which eventually resulted in two successive civil wars in the country.

The Long Parliament consisted of 516 members of the House of Commons and 150 of the House of Lords. The most significant part - more than 250 deputies - was the new chivalry, mainly representing the cities and - secondarily - the counties. There were many deputies who were members of the memorable parliament of 1628, including the leaders of the opposition Grimston, Pym, Bagshaw who increased their political influence. Presbyterians and other opponents of the established church entered the House of Commons overwhelmingly.

The position of the Church of England was the first object of political attack by Parliament and forced concessions by the Crown. At the suggestion of the leaders of the House of Commons, Parliament considered a list of clear abuses and violations of freedoms and rights, including the Cases of three previously convicted citizens for pamphlets against bishops (by decision of the Star Chamber, the ears were cut off as "slanderous and insulting speeches"). The verdicts were overturned, the Star Chamber was convicted, recognized as "harmful", and it was ordered by the power of Parliament to pay significant compensation to the convicted.

At the beginning of 1641, Parliament began to discuss the petition (and then the bill) "On Roots and Branches", which provided for the destruction of episcopal power. Although the bill was passed later, the episcopal structure of the Church of England ceased to exist. And more importantly, the bishops were expelled from the House of Lords. This significantly changed the political weight of the chambers in favor of the Commons.

With a series of other decisions, the parliament tried to create an administration responsible to the representation. One of the main supporters of the crown, Archbishop V. Lod, several senior dignitaries, and then the head of the royal administration, Count Strafford, were convicted for political activities. Moreover, having failed to achieve conviction in the usual legal way, Parliament adopted a special “Act of Conviction” against Strafford on charges of high treason (in the tradition of the revived law of impeachment). The King was forced to approve the Act, and in May 1641 Strafford was executed. At the end of the struggle for the supremacy of Parliament in executive affairs, decisions were made (July 7, 1641) on the liquidation of the High Commission, the Star Chamber, and some other administrative committees.

The judicial powers of the crown were reduced. Parliament liquidated the courts of royal prerogative (extraordinary judicial chambers), the Councils for the North and Wales, and limited the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. All courts of justice (except the chancellor's) were abolished, and instead the exclusive powers of the common law courts, which historically were under the influence of the statutory law of Parliament, were confirmed. Thus, the parliament ensured its supremacy in the field of justice.

1. Prerequisites for the revolution.

2. The main stages of the revolution.

3. Restoration of the Stuarts.

4. "Glorious Revolution" 1689

1. In the history of the countries of Western Europe in the 17th century. was marked by a crisis that engulfed most countries in the region and had an impact on almost all aspects of public life. The economy was in a depression. Many European countries in the XVII century. were covered by socio-political mass movements, the cause of which was a deep crisis in the existing socio-political systems. Under these conditions, English bourgeois revolution 17th century marked the beginning of a new era. It proclaimed the principles of a new, bourgeois society, made irreversible the process of the formation of bourgeois social and political orders, not only in England, but in Europe as a whole.

By the beginning of the XVII century. in England, the economic, political and ideological preconditions for a bourgeois revolution matured. The bourgeoisie and the new nobility, armed with the ideology of puritanism, increasingly came into conflict with the royal power. The presence of this religious ideology as a religious one was one of the most important features of the English Revolution. In general, the most important consequence of the Puritan movement was the dissemination in large sections of society of the consciousness of the urgent need for change in both church and state.

Puritanism was not a homogeneous movement. In its ranks, three main currents can be distinguished, which set different tasks during the revolution:

1. Presbyterianism - united the big bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy, who adhered to the idea of ​​establishing a constitutional monarchy.

2. Independence found supporters in the ranks of the middle and petty bourgeoisie. Agreeing in general with the idea of ​​a constitutional monarchy, the Independents at the same time demanded a redistribution of electoral districts, which would allow them to increase the number of their representatives in Parliament, as well as the recognition of such rights as freedom of conscience, speech, etc., for a free person.

3. The Levellers are the most radical movement. It united artisans, free peasants, who demanded the establishment of a republic, equality of all citizens. The most militant positions in the ranks of the Levellers were the so-called diggers.

Conflicts began to escalate in connection with the policy of the first kings from the Stuart dynasty. In 1603, after the death of Elizabeth, the Scottish king James VI acceded to the English throne; in England he was James I (1603-1625). The two states were united by a dynastic union, although each of them retained its own governments and parliaments; this was some step towards the peaceful unification of the two states.

James I and his son Charles I (Charles) (1625-1649) were faced with a choice: either abandon the position of absolute monarchs, submit to the dictates of the bourgeoisie and the new nobility and sacrifice the interests of the secular and spiritual nobility, or take the path of feudal reaction. The choice that the first Stuarts made - in favor of feudal reaction - was determined primarily by the fact that the interests of the feudal lords for an absolute monarchy were always higher than the interests of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois nobility. Of course, it was also of some importance that the Stuarts did not have a tradition of seeking support in the "middle classes", and even the fact that James I - the son of the executed Mary Stuart - belonged to a group closely associated with international Catholic reaction.

The new king directed the entire power of the state apparatus not against the opposition from the right - the Catholic elements, but against the Puritans - the bearers of the bourgeois revolutionary ideology. The persecution of the Puritans, which had a religious character, in essence, was a repression directed against political opponents.

The most severe repression fell upon the Puritans. Submissive to the king and bishops, the judges sentenced the Puritans to imprisonment, cruel torture, cutting off their ears, and nailing them to the pillory. The Star Chamber, created by Henry VII to fight against political opponents from among the big feudal lords, has now become an organ for reprisals against the bourgeois opposition. The High Commission, the highest judicial body of the Anglican Church, was especially raging, having the right to judge secular persons who committed "crimes against religion and morality." The most severe censorship was introduced in the country, but Puritan literature printed in Holland was secretly delivered to England and distributed in Puritan circles. The massacre of political opponents not only exacerbated the contradictions, but also brought economic damage to the state. The Protestants from the Netherlands, Germany, and France, who had found shelter in England, predominantly the artisan and merchant population, were now leaving the country en masse. Moreover, at least 60,000 English yeoman Puritans, artisans, and merchants left England. It was due to these emigrants that the settlement of Virginia and other North American colonies - the future United States of America - began.

And the foreign policy of the Stuarts was contrary to the national interests of England. The Stuarts preferred an alliance with this Catholic power to the traditional struggle against Spain. It was precisely on the basis of international reaction that the new dynasty opposed the growing progressive forces. The king even planned to strengthen the alliance with Spain through a dynastic marriage and marry the heir to the throne to the Spanish infanta. When this plan met with strong resistance, James I married Charles to the Catholic French princess Henrietta Maria, thereby securing the support of French absolutism. This turn in foreign policy was directly related to the political and ideological reaction within the country. Although Anglican Protestantism remained the official religion, Catholics received de facto freedom of religion, approached the court, and Henrietta Maria's entourage openly celebrated mass.

But nothing caused such indignation among the broad sections of the people, among the bourgeoisie and squires, as the economic policy of the first Stuarts. Pensions and festivities, the maintenance of a huge staff of the clergy were very expensive, and the monarchy was looking for more and more new sources of income. Occasionally, parliaments convened systematically denied appropriations to the king and made the provision of money dependent on all internal and foreign policy. Then parliament would dissolve, and the king would intensify the sale of patents and privileges, the collection of fines for violating senseless restrictions on trade and industry, and so on.

Spurred on by mass actions of the urban and rural lower classes, which undermined the strength of the monarchy, the members of parliament became more and more determined. In March 1628, Parliament declared that it would not agree to any appropriations or new taxes until the king recognized some of the principles of government set forth in the Petition of Right. It was the first clearly formulated document that reflected the demands of the opposition: the elimination of royal arbitrariness and some limitation of royal power - such was the essence of the requirements. The petition forbade arrests without trial, i.e. was directed against illegal repressions. Equally important was the clause prohibiting the collection of taxes, "gifts", loans without the sanction of Parliament. Thus, the king was placed in complete dependence on the parliament, which received the opportunity to decide annually whether to release or not to release certain amounts. Finally, two points of the petition were calculated to prevent the creation of a standing royal army, which could become an instrument of despotism. The very fact that these demands were put forward meant that an organized force of the bourgeois opposition had already formed in parliament. Charles I needed money so much that he agreed to all the conditions. The petition was accepted, the money released, but the king did not intend to fulfill these promises. In 1629 he dissolved parliament and for 11 years ruled the country uncontrollably. It was during this period, when, it would seem, absolutism won completely, a revolutionary situation began to take shape in the country.

The cruelties of the Star Chamber and the High Commission during the period of "non-parliamentary government" were monstrous. The closest advisers to the king were Earl Strafford, a defector from the camp of the parliamentary opposition, and Archbishop William Laud. Both of them deserve universal hatred. Lod sent the Puritans on the rack and pillory, Strafford, who held the whole of England in the grip of terror, left a particularly bloody trail in Ireland, where he was appointed Lord Lieutenant in 1633. Confident that they could crush any opposition, the king and his entourage went ahead. Contrary to the decrees of Parliament, royal officials levied customs duties. In 1635, the king resumed levying a long-forgotten tax - the so-called ship's money, which was paid "to combat piracy" in the coastal counties. Now, in the presence of a powerful English fleet, pirates had not been heard of for a long time, and the tax, which, moreover, was extended to all of England, caused a storm of indignation.

The fanatical opponent of the Presbyterian Church, Laud, had long been contriving a means of subjugating the Scottish Church. Although Scotland, associated with England since 1603 by a dynastic union, completely retained its independence, in 1637 Laud, inspired by the "successes" of absolutism, announced that Anglican worship was being introduced in Scotland. This was the first step towards the liquidation of the Presbyterian organization of the church. But it didn't take the next step. The Scottish Calvinists refused to obey this order, concluded, as in the 16th century, a covenant and began to prepare for armed struggle. The popular masses of Scotland, who had repulsed the English invading armies more than once in the past, went after the nobility and the bourgeoisie, since they saw in this conflict not so much a church dispute as a struggle for the independence of their country.

The Scottish struggle for independence, begun under the slogan of resistance to the Anglican Church, very close and understandable to the Puritans, met with sympathy in the broad strata of the English people. The army assembled by Charles did not want to fight against the Scots, and the king, trying to gain time, offered the enemy a truce. This first defeat of the hated king caused a storm of delight in England; London merchants even held a feast in honor of the defeat of Charles I.

Meanwhile, the reactionary economic policy of the Stuarts by the end of the 30s. brought the country to the brink of disaster. Production was reduced, thousands of artisans and factory workers lost their jobs. This caused widespread unrest in London and other parts of the country. The majority of the population stopped paying the "ship tax", and the officials could no longer cope with this mass movement. The long-pent-up popular anger finally broke through, and this, along with the Scottish example, whipped up the leaders of the opposition.

When, in April 1640, for the first time since the Petition of Right, Charles convened Parliament, demanding subsidies for the war with Scotland, the members of the House of Commons spoke in a different language. By categorically refusing subsidies, Parliament attacked the king and his advisers with sharp criticism. But even in this situation, Charles I, Strafford, Lod did not make concessions. Parliament was dissolved three weeks after it was convened, hence it was called the "Short Parliament".

The renewed war with Scotland brought new defeats to the English army, now led by Strafford. The Scots occupied the northern counties. The monarchy turned out to be powerless both in the face of an external enemy and in the fight against internal opposition. Stay in power by ruling in the old way, i.e. in the spirit of absolutism, the tops of English society could no longer.

2. After the dissolution of the obstinate Parliament, the position of Charles I became even more critical.

Realizing that without a parliament it would not be possible to resolve the military and political crisis, the king in November 1640 convened a new parliament, which later became known as the Long Parliament: it lasted until 1653.

With the activities of the Long Parliament, the first stage of the revolution begins - the constitutional one.

In general, the history of the English bourgeois revolution is usually divided into four stages: 1) the constitutional stage (November 3, 1640 - August 22, 1642); 2) the first civil war (1642-1646); 3) the second civil war and the struggle to deepen the democratic content of the revolution (1646-1649); 4) independent republic (1649-1653).

Elections to the Long Parliament did not produce a composition of Parliament favorable to the King. To protect itself from unexpected dissolution, the Long Parliament passed two important acts: a three-year act providing for the convocation of a parliament every three years regardless of the will of the king, and an act according to which this parliament could not be dissolved except by his own decision. These documents, for the first time in the history of England, put Parliament, if not above the king, then in a position independent of him. Just at this time, crowds of demonstrators surrounded the parliament building, demanding radical legislation, and even threatened to sack the royal palace. This decided the matter. The king was forced to sign the bill. Parliament therefore became "long" because the people forced the king to sign a law that sharply limited his rights.

Within a year (until the autumn of 1641) Parliament passed and the king signed a whole series of bills that undermined the absolutist system and its state apparatus. All illegal taxes, including ship money, were abolished; henceforth it was forbidden to levy any taxes without the sanction of Parliament. In other words, the parliament took control over the country's finances and received a powerful lever to put pressure on the crown. Patents for monopolies and privileges were also abolished. The Star Chamber, the High Commission and other organs of political terror were abolished.

On December 1, 1641, Parliament adopted the Great Remonstrance, which outlined the program of the allied classes in the revolution as it was seen by them at that stage. The demonstration began by pointing out the danger hanging over the kingdom, the source of which was the "malicious party" in its desire to change religion and political system England. The actions of this "party" explained the wars with Scotland, and the uprising in Ireland, and the constitutional conflict between the king and parliament. In the Remonstrance, demands were made to remove bishops from the House of Lords and reduce their power over subjects. To this end, it was proposed to carry out a complete reformation of the church. Many articles of the Remonstrance are devoted to the issues of the inviolability of property, both movable and immovable. The illegality of the fencing of communal lands and the ruin of the cloth industry were also noted. A number of articles pointed to the destruction and impossibility of arbitrariness in the collection of taxes on the part of royal power and non-parliamentary government.

All the documents adopted by the Long Parliament limited the royal power and contributed to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

Karl approved all these documents, which was explained by his fear of an armed crowd. The threatening behavior of the crowd was the decisive argument of the House of Commons in the implementation of the most important acts of the constitutional period of the revolution. The constitutional conflict was not resolved, but by the autumn of 1642, it escalated into an armed conflict.

In general, two stages can be distinguished in the course of the civil war: 1) when the military leadership was in the hands of the Presbyterians and the troops of Parliament fought with the royal troops; 2) when the leadership passed to the Independents and the army was already fighting with the top of the parliament. At the first stage of the war, the advantage was on the side of the royal army, better trained and armed. The failures of the parliamentary army forced it to be reorganized according to the plan proposed by General O. Cromwell.

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) is one of the most prominent leaders of the revolution, who later became its strangler.

He was a typical representative of the new nobility, and in particular of that group of it, which became rich during the period of confiscation of church lands. Like other squires, Cromwell was no stranger to capitalist enterprise and attached very little importance to whether he would own his ancestral land (which was very important for the old nobility) or get rich in other ways. He bought and leased land and, when it was profitable, sold his ancestral holdings. The flesh of the flesh of his class, Cromwell possessed both its virtues - disdain for nobility, enterprise, a penchant for using the achievements of science, and its vices - money-grubbing, respect for property, puritanical narrow-mindedness. One of the noble members of parliament left a description of the appearance of Cromwell - a typical rich village puritan: “One morning I, well dressed, appeared in parliament and saw a gentleman making a speech ... , a simple country tailor; his linen was plain and not very clean; ... he had a large figure, and his sword fit snugly to his side, his face was red and puffy, his voice was sharp and unmelodious, and his speech was extremely ardent.

In this mediocrity, proximity to the external and spiritual appearance of the average landowner, there was the strength of Cromwell, since the new nobility considered him theirs and subsequently obeyed his orders more willingly than his will. politicians and military leaders from the aristocratic environment. But Cromwell, of course, differed from the average representatives of his class with extraordinary energy, willpower, determination, oratorical and especially organizational skills.

As a result of the reform proposed by O. Cromwell, an army was created, called the "new model". Soldiers began to be recruited from people of military origin, the army was subordinated to a single command, capable people from the people were promoted to command positions. Cromwell, being an Independent, secured a leading role in the army for members of the Independent communities. To eliminate aristocrats from the military leadership, the "Bill of Self-denial" was adopted, according to which members of parliament could not hold command positions in the army. An exception was made only for Cromwell.

As a result, in 1645 the royal troops were defeated, and the king fled to Scotland, where he was handed over to Parliament.

By this time, the differences between parliament and the army were becoming more and more distinct. For the Presbyterians in Parliament, the revolution was essentially complete. They were quite satisfied with the idea of ​​the supremacy of the parliament, which exercises power in the country together with the king, i.e. the idea of ​​a political system like a constitutional monarchy. The Independents, and especially the Levellers, demanded more radical reforms.

The struggle between the Independents and the Presbyterians escalated in the spring of 1648 - a second civil war broke out, unleashed by the king and the Presbyterian Parliament. Only the support of the Levellers ensured the victory of the Independent army, within which a split occurred between the top commanders (grands) and the rank and file.

After Cromwell's victory, he removed active Presbyterian members from Parliament. The remaining members of Parliament formed a "parliamentary rump" obedient to the Independents.

After the execution of the king in 1649, Parliament declared England a republic. The House of Lords was abolished and the House of Commons declared itself the supreme power. The State Council became the supreme executive body. His tasks included: opposition to the restoration of the monarchy, the management of the country's armed forces, the establishment of taxes, the management of trade and foreign policy country.

Cromwell's power increasingly acquired the character of a personal dictatorship. Having not received support in Parliament, Cromwell dispersed it in 1653.

At the end of 1653, a constitution was introduced, called the "Instrument of Management" ("Instrument of Management") and consolidated the military dictatorship of Cromwell.

Under the new constitution, the supreme legislative power was concentrated in the hands of the Lord Protector and Parliament. Parliament was unicameral. Participation in elections was limited to a rather high property qualification, which was 100 times higher than that existed before the revolution.

The supreme executive power was given to the Lord Protector and the Council of State, the appointment of whose members was entirely dependent on the Lord Protector.

Between sessions of Parliament, the Lord Protector commanded the armed forces, carried out diplomatic relations with other states, and appointed senior officials.

The constitution directly declared Cromwell Lord Protector for life, thus securing his personal dictatorship.

Soon Cromwell ceased to convene Parliament, he appointed members of the State Council at his own discretion. In 1657 the upper chamber was restored. Local government was concentrated in the hands of the generals of the Cromwellian army.

It can be said that the “Instrument of Management” contained monarchical principles, it consolidated the regime of sole power, corresponding to the monarchic one in terms of the breadth of powers, and in some ways even wider. Since that time, the movement back begins - from the republic to the monarchy.

3. The death of Cromwell in 1658 changed the course of events. For some time, power passed into the hands of his son, Richard Cromwell, who did not enjoy either authority or influence in society. In 1659, the remnant of the Long Parliament declared itself the founding power and in 1660 elevated Charles II (1630-1685), the son of the executed king, to the throne. Upon accession to the throne, he signed the Breda Declaration, which contained his main promises and obligations. He promised to keep their revolutionary gains for the nobles and the bourgeoisie and not to persecute those who fought against the king during the years of the revolution. But these promises were broken. The restoration of the monarchy was accompanied by the revival of the old order.

During these years, the first two political parties appeared in England. One of them - the Tories - united the supporters of the king, supporters of strengthening his power. The second party - the Whigs - represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and the middle nobility, opposed to the crown.

For a long time, representatives of the Tories dominated the Parliament of England. The Whigs, being in opposition and being persecuted, tried to pass a law on guarantees of the inviolability of citizens through Parliament. They managed to do this only in 1679, when the Whigs had a majority in Parliament.

The new law was called the Habeas Corpus Act, or "Act for better security subjects and to prevent imprisonment overseas. According to this law, in the event of arrest, the detainee was to be charged within 24 hours. And the court was obliged either to release the arrested person on bail until the trial, or to leave him under arrest, or to release him completely. The procedure for release pending trial on bail was known in England before. However, for the first time, the responsibility of persons guilty of failure to comply with the instructions provided for in the act was established.

Persons imprisoned for debt, arrested for high treason or a felony, and persons arrested on civil lawsuits were not covered by the law. It was difficult for the poor to take advantage of the benefits of this law, since they did not have a real opportunity to appeal against its violation and reach the highest judicial instances - all this required money.

At the same time, the parliament retained the right to suspend the habeas corpus act in the event of popular unrest and hostilities.

The immediate significance of this Act at the time of its promulgation was to create a guarantee of immunity for members of the Whig Parliament and their adherents from persecution of royal power. The Act later became one of the most important constitutional documents in England.

The habeas corpus act was approved by Charles II on the condition that the Whigs would not oppose the occupation of the throne by James II. This was the first constitutional compromise in post-revolutionary England, whose history has subsequently developed under the influence of such compromises.

4. The new King James II (1633-1701) ascended the throne in 1685. He openly pursued an anti-bourgeois policy, and Parliament, although predominantly Tory, did not support him. Under these conditions, the Tories and the Whigs compromised and, having united their forces, made the so-called "Glorious Revolution". As a result of this event, William of Orange (1650-1702) was elevated to the English throne in 1689. The wife of William of Orange was Mary, the daughter of Jacob Stuart, and this gave an element of legitimacy, continuity to the plans for inviting William to the English throne. In addition, Wilhelm was a Protestant and an active opponent of French hegemony, which corresponded to the foreign policy interests of the bourgeois-noble bloc. From that moment on, a constitutional monarchy was finally established in England. The essence of the new compromise was that political power both in the center and in the regions remained in the hands of the landowners, who pledged to respect the interests of the bourgeoisie.

The new king, upon accession to the throne, signed the Declaration of Rights, which later received the name "Bill of Rights". The main significance of the Bill is in the approval of the supremacy of Parliament in the field of legislation.

The document stated that the king had no right, without the consent of parliament, to suspend the operation of laws, to release anyone from their action, to allow any exceptions to laws. The King may not levy fees for his own benefit without the consent of Parliament. Recruitment and maintenance of troops is possible only with the consent of Parliament.

Parliamentary elections must be free. Freedom of speech and debate is ensured in parliament; Prosecution for speaking in Parliament is prohibited.

The subjects of the king have the right to apply to him with petitions and no one can be prosecuted for such petitions.

It is forbidden to demand excessive bails, fines, apply penalties not provided for by law.

Thus, the Bill of Rights determined the position of Parliament in the system of government and, giving it broad powers in the field of legislation, drew, however, not very clearly the boundary between the executive and legislative branches of government. The king, along with parliament, participates in legislative activity, he has the right of absolute veto. In addition, the king retains significant executive and judicial powers.

Another very important constitutional law of England was passed in 1701. It was the Act of Dispensation or the Act of Succession. An important place in this law was occupied by the question of the order of succession to the throne after the childless William of Orange and his wife. The act established the Castilian system of succession to the throne. This means that both a man and a woman can inherit the throne. The eldest son of the king or queen, who bears the title of Prince of Wales, is considered to be the rightful heir. The next heir is the second, third son, etc. (in descending order), bypassing daughters. If the monarch has no sons at all, then I inherit daughters - according to seniority. At the same time, a Catholic (only a Protestant) cannot be a monarch, and the husband (wife) of a monarch cannot be a Catholic. The throne is transferred only to the heir and his children, but not to the spouse.

In addition, the law confirmed the limitation of royal power in favor of Parliament. For the development of the constitutional order of England, two provisions were most important. One of them established the so-called principle of countersignature, according to which acts issued by the king are valid only if the signature of the relevant minister is present (a kind of sighting).

The second important provision was the establishment of the principle of irremovability of judges. Until that time, judges held their offices as long as it was "pleasing to the king." Under the Act, they perform their duties as long as they "behave well." They can only be removed from office by a decision of Parliament. This rule was of great importance for the development of the English constitution, as it proclaimed the separation of the judiciary from the executive.

Thus, under the influence of the revolution in England to early XVIII v. Three important constitutional laws were adopted (the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, the Dispensation Act), which are now the written part of the English constitution and laid the foundation for the formation of a constitutional monarchy.

Socio-economic: England, by type of economy, is an agrarian country 4/5 of the population lived in villages and was engaged in agriculture. Nevertheless, industry appears, cloth-making comes to the fore. New capitalist relations develop => aggravation of new class differences. Changes are taking place in the countryside (fencing, landlessness of peasants => 3 types of peasants: 1) freeholders (free peasants), 2) copyholders (hereditary tenants of landed lands, performing a number of duties).

3) agricultural workers - the proletariat ( most of) were deprived of their basic means of subsistence and were forced to go to the city in search of work. The nobility is divided into 2 types: new (gentry) and old (lives on dues from the peasant class).

56. Prerequisites for the bourgeois revolution in England (economic, political, ideological).

E. Prerequisites England, earlier than other states of Europe, embarked on the capitalist path of development. Here the classical version of the establishment of bourgeois relations was realized, which allowed England to seize world economic leadership already at the end of the 17th-18th centuries. main role This was played by the fact that the field of development of English capitalism was not only the city, but also the countryside. The village in other countries was a stronghold of feudalism and traditionalism, and in England, on the contrary, it became the base for the development of the most important industry of the 17th-18th centuries - cloth making. Capitalist production relations began to penetrate the English countryside as early as the 16th century. They manifested themselves in the fact that, 1) most of the nobility began to engage in entrepreneurial activity, creating sheep farms and turning into a new bourgeois nobility - the gentry. 2) in an effort to increase income, the feudal lords turned arable land into profitable pastures for livestock, drove their holders - peasants (fenced) from them and thereby created an army of paupers - people who had no choice but to become civilian workers. The development of the capitalist structure in England led to the aggravation of class contradictions and the division of the country into supporters and opponents of the feudal-absolutist system. Absolutism was opposed by all bourgeois elements: the new nobility (gentry), who aspired to become full owners of the land by abolishing knightly holdings and speeding up the process of enclosing; the bourgeoisie itself (merchants, financiers, merchants, industrialists, etc.), who wished to limit royal power and force it to serve the interests of the capitalist development of the country. But main force the opposition drew from the dissatisfaction with its position of the general population and, above all, the rural and urban poor. The defenders of the feudal foundations remained a significant part of the nobles (the old nobility) and the highest aristocracy, who received their income from the collection of old feudal rents, and the guarantor of their preservation was the royal power and the Anglican Church. I. background and socio-political aspirations of the opposition. And the prerequisite for the first bourgeois revolutions in Europe was the Reformation, which gave rise to a new model of consciousness based on individualism, practicality and enterprise. In the middle of the 16th century, England, having survived the Reformation, became a Protestant country. The Anglican Church was a mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. From Catholicism, 7 sacraments, rites, the order of worship and all 3 degrees of priesthood were withheld; from Protestantism the doctrine of church primacy is taken state power, about justification by faith, about the significance of the Holy Scriptures as the only basis of dogma, about worship on mother tongue, the abolition of monasticism. The king was declared the head of the church, so the Anglican Church arose during the reign of Henry VIII, who approved the Anglican catechism ("42 articles of faith" and

a special service) speaking out against the church meant speaking out against the royal power. The same Protestantism, but more extreme, became the ideological opposition to absolutism and the Anglican Church. The most consistent supporters of the Reformation were the English Puritan Calvinists.

(in Latin "purus" - clean) demanded changes both in the church (cleansing it from the remnants of Catholicism) and in

state. There were several currents in Puritanism that were in opposition to absolutism and the Anglican Church. During the revolution, they were divided into independent political groups. The moderate course of the Puritans is the Prosbyterians, (the top of the new nobility and the wealthy merchants). It was believed that the church should not be controlled by the king, but by an assembly of priests - presbyters (as in Scotland). In the public sphere, they also sought the subordination of royal power to parliament. More to the left was the course of the Independents ("independent"), (the middle bourgeoisie and the new nobility). In the religious sphere, they advocated the independence of each religious community, and in the state they desired the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and demanded a redistribution of voting rights in order to increase the number of their voters in the House of Commons. The Levellers (equalizers), (artisans and free peasants) were a radical religious and political grouping. The Levellers advocated the proclamation of a republic and the introduction of universal male suffrage. Diggers (diggers), (urban and rural poor) went even further. They demanded the elimination of private property and property inequality. P. preconditions for revolution. After the death of Elizabeth I, the English throne passed to her relative - the Scottish king, who was crowned in 1603 under the name of James Stuart, King of England. Leaving behind the Scottish crown, Jacob moved to London. John Lilburn was the leader of the Levellers. The Levellers believed that if everyone is equal before God, then in life the differences between people must be eliminated by establishing equality of rights. The diggers got their name from the fact that in April 1649 they began joint cultivation of land on a wasteland hill 30 miles from London. Their leader Gerald Winstanley said: "The earth was created so that all the sons and daughters of the human race could freely use it", "The earth was created in order to be the common property of all who live on it." The first representative of the Stuart dynasty was obsessed with the idea of ​​the divine origin of royal power and the need for the complete abolition of the power of Parliament. The course towards strengthening absolutism was continued during the reign of his son, Charles I. The first Stuarts regularly introduced new taxes without the sanction of parliament, which did not suit the majority of the population. 2 commissions continued to operate in the country: the "Star Chamber", which dealt with issues of state security, and in fact the persecution of those who dared to speak out against the lawlessness, and the "High Commission",

which served as the court inquisition over the Puritans. In 1628, Parliament presented the King with a "Petition of Rights", which contained a number of demands: - not to levy taxes without the general consent of this act of Parliament (Article 10); - not to make arrests contrary to the customs of the kingdom (art. 2); - to stop the practice of military outposts among the population, etc. (Article 6). After some hesitation, the king signed the petition. However, the expected reconciliation did not come. In 1629, the refusal of Parliament to approve new royal requisitions provoked the wrath of Charles I and the dissolution of Parliament. Non-parliamentary rule continued until 1640, when, as a result of an unsuccessful war with Scotland, a financial crisis occurred in the country. In search of a way out, Charles I convened a parliament, called the "Short". By refusing to immediately discuss the issue of financial

subsidies, it was dissolved without even a month of operation. The dispersal of parliament gave a decisive impetus to the struggle of the masses, the bourgeoisie and the new nobility against absolutism. Thus, in England by the middle of the XVII century. the economic, ideological and political prerequisites for the bourgeois revolution took shape. The socio-economic development of the country came into conflict with a more rigid political system. The situation was aggravated by a severe financial crisis, which caused in the early 40s of the XVII century. revolutionary situation in the country.

The prerequisites for the English bourgeois revolution are:

Economic

Ideological

Political

Economic

England, earlier than other states in Europe, embarked on the capitalist path of development. Here the classical version of the establishment of bourgeois relations was realized, which allowed England to become the world economic leader at the end of the 17th-18th centuries. The main factor in the development of capitalism in England was that not only the city developed, but also the countryside (4/5 of the population lived in villages and worked agriculture.) The village in other countries was the basis of feudalism and traditionalism, and in England it became the base for the development of the most important industry of the 17th-18th centuries - cloth making. Capitalist relations of production were manifested in the following:

Most of the nobility began to engage in entrepreneurial activities, creating sheep farms.

In an effort to increase income, the feudal lords converted previously arable land into land for pastures, thereby driving the holders of peasants from these lands, enclosing and creating an army of pauper - civilian workers.

The development of the capitalist structure in England led to the stratification of society and its division into supporters and opponents of the feudal-absolutist system.

The opponents of absolutism were: the new nobility (gentry), merchants, financiers, merchants, industrialists and others who wanted to limit royal power and force it to serve the interests of the capitalist development of the country. But the main dissatisfaction with their position was expressed by a wide class of the population and, above all, the rural and urban poor.

The supporters of absolutism were: most of the nobles (the old nobility) and the highest aristocracy, which received their income from the collection of old feudal rents, and the royal power and the Anglican Church were the guarantor of their preservation.

Ideological

The ideological prerequisite for the first bourgeois revolutions in Europe was the Reformation, which gave rise to a new model of consciousness based on individualism, practicality and enterprise. In the middle of the 16th century, England, having survived the Reformation, became a Protestant country. The Anglican Church was a mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism. From Catholicism, 7 sacraments, rites, the order of worship and all 3 degrees of priesthood were withheld; from Protestantism was taken the doctrine of the ecclesiastical supremacy of state power, of justification by faith, of the significance of Holy Scripture as the sole basis of dogma.

The king was declared the head of the church, so the Anglican Church arose during the reign of Henry VIII, who approved the Anglican catechism (“42 articles of faith” and a special service book). Actions against the church meant actions against the royal power.

The most consistent supporters of the Reformation - English Calvinists - Puritans demanded changes both in the church (cleansing it from the remnants of Catholicism) and in the state.

In Puritanism, there are several currents that were in a contradictory state with absolutism and the Anglican Church. In the course of the revolution, they were divided into independent political groups.

The moderate course of the Puritans is the Prosbyterians (the top of the new nobility and the wealthy merchants). They believed that the church should not be run by a king, but by an assembly of priests. In the public sphere - they sought the subordination of royal power to parliament.

The course of the independents ("independents") - the middle bourgeoisie and the new nobility. In the religious sphere, they advocated the independence of each religious community. In the state, they wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy and demanded a redistribution of voting rights in order to increase the number of their voters in the House of Commons.

A radically religious and political group - the Levellers (equalizers) - artisans and free peasants. They advocated the proclamation of a republic and the introduction of general suffrage for men.

Diggers (diggers) - urban and rural poor. They demanded private property and property inequality.

Political

The crisis of English absolutism began to manifest itself already in the 90s. XVI century, i.e. at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. However, only during the reign of the first Stuarts did he become a determining factor in the domestic political life of the country and its foreign policy. With the weakening of absolutism, absolutist forms and methods of government became less and less effective and efficient. The greater the claims of the first Stuarts became, the more frankly they expressed their views on the nature of royal power and sought to establish rule in England in the manner of the French: the sole rule of the king without the participation of a class-representative body.

The most striking manifestation of the crisis of English absolutism was the escalating conflict between the king and parliament. The sessions of parliament became shorter, which less and less voted subsidies to the king, the consequence of which was a chronic financial crisis of the crown. The policy of the king was criticized more sharply and frankly in parliament. To the same extent that the king insisted on the "sanctity" of his prerogative, parliament with increasing tenacity defended its primordial rights and privileges.

The monarch wanted to limit the power of parliament, parliament - the power of the king, as a result of which there was a clash of interests and this influenced the beginning of the revolution.