Civilisation britannique
Lecture 1).
Henry VIII (1509-1547)
The Henrician Reformation or Claiming England’s National Autonomy.
I) Dynasty in the earls 16thcentury.
The War of the Roses (1455-85) began because of a lack of succession. She opposed the family ofLancaster(the red roses) and the family ofYork(the white roses).
Henry Tudor, Lancaster, won and he became the king. He knew that, despite of the fact that he had won the war, the York’s peoples never respected him. So, he decided to marryElizabeth of Yorkfor the win the respect, and unify the 2 peoples.
King Henry VII (1485-1509) and Elizabeth of York
Then, he needed an heir, a son.
1st son:Arthurmarried toKatherine of Aragon(alliance with Spain). Arthur was supposed to be king, but he died before his father.
2ndson:Henry, will becomeHenry VIII(1509-1547). He reigns until his dead.
II) The king’s Great Matter.
1509: Henry VIII marriesKatherine of Aragon. Katherine was married in first at Arthur. Before, she marries Henry VIII, but she was old at for the time and she had not give a son, but one daughter, thePrincess Mary.
Henry VIII was in love withAnne Boleyn(1527-1528) but he wants a legitimate baby, a son with her.
He decides to ‘divorce’ of Katherine.
A) The background of the divorce.
Katherine was humiliated. Henry VIII had an illegitimate son:Henry Fitzroy.
B) The route of diplomacy and canon law.
Cardinal Thomas Wolseywas employed by the king for negotiate to the Vatican. The pope isClement VII.
The pope could not give them a licence. It’s written is the Leviticus, chap.18 “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your bother’s wife, it is your brother’s nakedness”. In the Bible, there is a prohibition to sleep with your brother’s wife.
But, he broke the Leviticus.
C) Temporal law and the Break with Rome.
1) 1533, the Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome.
The new baby needed to be legitimate.Thomas Cromwell, the consul of the king, is the real architect of the New England. He proposes a new law, an act of parliament: “This realm of England is an empire”. The pope was scotch out; he was called ‘bishop of Rome’. Peoples must obey at the King because the King is “next to God”. If you obey at the King, you obey at God.
This allows the divorce and the new marriage to take place in England.
2) The Act of Succession (1534)
Katherine is no longer Queen, Mary is no longer Princess. It’s like she’s never married with Henry VIII. Anne is the only Queen, her children the only legitimate heirs.
3) The Act of Supremacy (1534)
Henry VIII was “The only supreme Head on earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia”. He has all the power.
III) ‘This Realm of England is an Empire’
A) England becomes a nation in isolation.
“Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same, unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and names of spirituality and temporality, be bounded and owe to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience.”
B) Independent national sovereignty.
The Act of Supremacy (1534):“Be It enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia […] Any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things to the contrary here of not with standing.”
In 1535, Thomas Cromwell becomes the vice regent. He lists a register of valour’s Ecclesiastics.
In 1536, Cromwell starts the dissolution of the monasteries. They take everything, the windows, the led.
Henry VIII was like a “Caesaropapism”.
Lecture II:
The Elizabethan Golden Age (1558-1603)
The king had a daughter with Anne Boleyn.
He married to Jane Seymour, who gives him a son: Edward.
I) Enforcing the Elizabethan Settlement.
Women were disadvantage by her sex. Also, she is the daughter of Anne Boleyn. And the pope never recognized Anne like legitimate. So Elizabeth was not legitimate. Anglicana Ecclesia was a unique protestant church.
A) The new legislation for the ‘middle way’: 1559
-The Act of Supremacy: Elizabeth, like his father, is the ‘supreme governor of the Church of England’. Elizabeth claims her legitimacy. He was chief of the state and of the church. You can’t force people to approve the Queen, laws aren’t sufficient.
She created:
-The Book of Common Prayer. He still exists today. It contain all prays, sings, hymns use by Anglicans. They are going to say the same prays. You pray the same god, in the same prays. She wants to give England uniformity.
-The act of Uniformity: ‘you have to go to church’.
B) Toleration and repression: the balance of the Settlement.
She took some time to convince people.
-1563: The 39 articles. They explain to the people of England the credo of the Church of England; explain the doctrine of Anglicana Ecclesia. It was clear and simple. She left a margin for personal interpretation. They will not persecuted be her. She gives them a middle way.
-Mary Stuart Queen of Scots: 1568. She is Elizabeth cosine. She found refuge. People think that it was the ideal moment for assassinated Elizabeth and take Mary like catholic Queen.
-The rising of the North: 1569, the Catholic Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland.
The people who don’t recognized Elizabeth authority was decapitated.
-The Babington Plot: 1586, Sir Anthony Babington (spy: Sir Francis Walsingham). He enters into a secret correspondence with Mary. Elizabeth had an excellent server, Francis. He discovered the correspondence, and they took copies of this letters. Elizabeth must decapitated Mary, but she is her cosine, and she’s another Queen. Mary was executed.
II) The Elizabethan Golden Age.
She was isolated by the rest of the Europe. They were terribly shocked.
- Fighting the Spanish (1585-1604) and the Armada (1588).
- “I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”
The storm permits to reject the enemies of the cost.
God is English and she’s legitimate, her church was legitimate.
- 1588, king Philip II of Spain
The Virgin Queen: A mother to her nation.
She refused to marry and to have children, it’s as so dangerous to have child, and she can died.
“The wind blew, and they were scattered”.
Lecture 3:
On the road to civil War: James I (1603-25) and Charles I (1625-49)
Elizabeth didn’t have any children and the Tudor dynasty died with her.
James VI of Scotland and James I of England (1603). Charles I is the son of James I. Charles I was indeed a man of war.
I) The Stuart Monarchy in tension against parliament.
A) The philosophy of the divine right of kings.
Elizabeth is the mother of her country.
The king was chosen by God himself, and people have to do exactly what he wants. Like God, kings have power of death and life, over all the subjects. Elizabeth wanted to serve her country, contrary to the Stuart.
B) The new nature of Parliament.
King was the head of the church and the state. Parliament defined the laws. This is a parliamentary monarchy.
C) Issues of control.
“It is sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power”.
Parliament was called by the king when he needs it.
King spent more money not for the country, but for himself.
II) Some long-term causes of the Civil Wars.
A) Incomprehension between monarch and Parliament.
With Charles I,
- The petition of Rights, 1628. It was written by several members of Parliament, it was an explicit affirmation of the rights of English Subjects and the duty of English king. They demanded that the subjects should live well without paying excessive taxes. 1629, Charles I decided to dissolve Parliament, and he did not call another one for the next eleven years.
- 1629, eleven years of personal rule, eleven years of “tyranny”. He became a despot.
B) Revenue and taxes: the financial crisis.
Charles I was free to do what he wanted.
Toutes les personnes ayant un revenu supérieur à 40 livres par ans devaient payer pour devenir chevalier. Il enfreint la loi de son royaume pour son bien personnel.
- The royal debt
- The selling of titles of honour
- Ship Money, 1634. Les villes portuaires, puis ensuite toutes les villes payent cette taxe. C’est une taxe pour la construction des bateaux de la flotte.
He broke the laws of England.
III) Short-term triggers of the Civil Wars: Charles I.
A) Religious policies and growing unrest.
Charles I decided to reform the Church on England.
- Archbishop Laud’s restoration of the English Church: William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. À l’époque, le catholicisme était majestueux, magnifique. L’église anglicane elle, est sobre et simple, ce qui ne plait pas à Charles I.
- Anti-Laudian opposition
- Protestantism and Patriotism.
B) The northern Kingdom.
- England vs. Scotland: in Scotland, the church is independent. And Charles I wanted to impose his authority at
Churches of Scotland.
- The bishops’ War (1639 and 1640).
C) Antagonising Parliament.
Charles realised that he needed a proper army and proper finance. He needed a Parliament. He was back to London and called the Parliament.
- The Long Parliament: November 1640, they did not want to help the king.
- Triennial Act, Pym’s Grand Remonstrance. Il déclare qu’un roi ne peut pas régner pendant plus de trois ans en Angleterre, sans parlement.
The rise of the notion of liberty in 18thcentury England
Introduction: general context.
a) The age of Enlightenment: a general description
Reason became very important in the human development. Nature was considered as something who absolutely an example, a reference. We find a real cult for sciences. Science became a sort of new god.
Human rights: liberty, be happy.
Immanuel Kant wrote an essay: “What is Enlightenment?” Freedom is dependant of the reason.
b) Reason as the cornerstone of human development
There is a real cult for reason. If you do not develop your reason, you’re nothing. It’s the condition to people to be free. Enlightenment is the liberation of human. The Queen of the Night, embodying irrationally and obscurantism in Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”.
c) Progress in sciences, philosophy and ideas
- Liberty, knowledge and empiricism.
“Dare to know”: ose savoir. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) & John Locke (1632-1704). John Locke is the father of empiricism. The best known of knowledge for John is the experience. ‘Tabula Rasa’, 1619 “Essay concerning human understanding”. Your mind, when you come to the world, is absolutely blind.
- The scientific method applied of all forms of knowledge.
Newton: you observe, you write hypotheses, and you have to check it.
- Criticism as the most effective weapon against credulity.
This is the time that religion became to be challenged. Kant says that the 18thcentury is “the very age of criticism”. To refer to Diderot: “Everything must be examined”.
- Optimism and Progress.
Joseph Priestley said “How glorious is the prospect which is now opening upon us. Government, we may now expect to see, calculated for the general good and no more interfering with matters of religion, philosophy or medicine”. Freedom is going to be the characteristic of new government.
I) Political liberty: the end of autocratic rule, the development of democracy, the emergence of the notions of individual liberty and equality.
a) How and why did the 1688 Glorious Revolution (among others) take place?
In 1688, the king was James II. He wanted to have all powers for himself. The Parliament isn’t really happy with that, and he decided to replace James II which someone else. This someone else was William and his wife was Mary, James II daughter. This bloodless revolution turned England into a Parliamentary Monarchy.
The Bill of Rights, the Toleration Act and the Mutiny Act.
Locke wrote the first and second treatises of civil government. They are in fact the expression of political theory. “No government can how the power to do anything to enslave the people”. If your government is tyrannical, your duty is to stand up against this government and make a revolution.
b) The claim for individual liberty: the example of John Wilkes.
John Wilkes was member of Parliament, was born 1725 and elected in 1757. This man fought for the liberty, defended the right of expression and the liberty of the press.
He was elected Mayor of London, in 1774, and he became an activist to reform the electoral system. He wanted everyone to be able to vote.
c) Emergence of the notion of equality: Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man.
Edmund Burke wrote a very critical essay in 1790. Thomas Paine reply to Edmund essay.
Women’s fate. Mary Astell published 2 books, “a serious proposal to the ladies” in 1697, part I and II. She encouraged other women to try to emancipate themselves. She used the ideology of equality for ask about the situation of the women. 1700: “If all men are born free, who is it that all women are born slaves?”
Letters on education: another book, in 1790. In this essay, Catherine Macaulay expressed this idea about equality.
Mary Wollstonecraft published “A vindication of the rights of women” in 1790. The same idea that women are the same rights that man.
This idea of liberty and equality was applied at the slaves.
The Quakers is the Society of Friends, a religious group anti-slavering movement. In England, the Dissenters, the abolitionist movement. In 1787, the first abolition of the slave trade in London. In 1833, in England, slavery were abolished.
Pocket and rotten boroughs:
Rotten borough (les bourgspourris): a parliamentary constituency with a very small population yet which returned one or two MPs to Parliament.
Pocket borough: a parliamentary constituency with a very small electorate under the control of a landowner.
The two started to be denounced in 1800. John Wilkes fought for a more equal representation in the Parliament.
“Every free agent in this kingdom should in my wish be represented in Parliament, that the metropolis (London) should received an increase in its representation, that the mine and insignificant boroughs should be loped off.”
Joseph Priestley:
Essay on the Principles of Government (1768). He was a dissenter and it’s why he denounced the system in his book.
Priestley criticised the Test Acts (1673 & 78) which denied civil rights to the non-Anglicans.
Priestley’s action triggered the creation of radical movements whose aim was to enfranchise a larger part of the population. Gradually, equality was imposed.
5 acts necessary to transform electoral system: 1832, 1867, 1884, 1918 & 1928.
d) Territorial liberty and national sovereignty: the Napoleonic Wars.
He was a military. He tried to evade Britain in 1805. Trafalgar victory for the British.
II) Economic liberty: the rise of the notion of free trade, the development of political economy and the industrial revolution.
a) The Laissez-faire theory and the nation of economic liberty.
No state intervention in economy. Laissez-faire was imported to England, and developed by Adam Smith.
b) Adam Smith (1723-1790) and the development of political economy.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition”.
“Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way”.
Division of labour; “Invisible hand”.
Laissez-faire: a French slogan.
Vincent de Gournay and the school of physiocrats: “Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui-même”.
Mercantilism: economic theory based on the notion that state interventions and monopoly are essential.
Economic liberalism: the opposite of mercantilism.
c) David Ricardo (1772-1823) and the further development of political economy.
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)
d) The industrial revolution.
Rich of invention, technology.
In 1764 James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny.
In the late 1780s the steam engine was invented.
In 1756 concrete was re-discovered by John Smeaton.
There were 2 industrial revolutions, late 18thand middle of 19th.
e) Appearances of a free and industrious class: the middle class.
People changed in their attitudes. A new social class appeared: the middle class, the bourgeoisie.
Robert Owen (the New Lamarck Mills) and Josiah Wedgwood fought against slave trade and slavery.
Josiah Wedgwood cameo: “Am I not a man and a brother?”
III) Liberty in aesthetics and arts
a) Reflections on taste
Quite a number of 18th century philosophers considered that human beings have an inner sense of beauty, that is to say they considered that the sense of beauty is an in-born capacity which any human being has. Among them were such men as Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1671-1713, third Earl of Shaftesbury), and Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746).
We shall mainly deal with the latter, who published his Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony and Design in 1726. The main idea he maintains is that human beings are all endowed with a special inner sense capable of perceiving beauty, proportion and harmony. It is different from our external senses (sight, hearing, feeling). This inner sense also makes us able to perceive the beauty of general truths and of moral principles and actions. To put it differently this sense of beauty is also a moral sense. Hence the analogy which Hutcheson draws between beauty and virtue.
David Hume, another prominent 18th century philosopher, also agreed, in his essay entitled Of the Standard of Taste, published in 1757, that if people universally appreciate such works as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, it is necessarily because human beings share common standards of taste.
This new conception implies a certain number of things:
- First it implies that human beings are all the same and share common faculties (the same rights, the same perceptive capacities and thus the same tastes. We could say that it is a universalist conception of humanity, which is quite typical of the 18th century)