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The 17th century

England and Scotland were brought together under the Stuart monarchs following the death of Elizabeth (though they were not formally joined until the Act of Union 1707). Religious tensions persisted; the failed ‘Gunpowder Plot’ to blow up Parliament led to anti-Catholic riots in 1605. Charles I came into conflict with Parliament, and a Civil War followed (1642-45) between royalists and ‘Roundheads’, the Puritan Parliamentary forces. Charles was captured, put on trial and executed.
Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Parliamentary army, came to power during the ‘Commonwealth’. In 1655 he allowed Jews (who had been expelled in 1290) to live in England. Liberalism was uncharacteristic of his Puritan rule, however, and the national experiment with republicanism was not successful. In 1660 Charles II (son of Charles I) was restored to the throne.
Charles II produced no legitimate heirs and was succeeded by his Catholic brother James II. James was suspected of wanting to return England to Catholicism, and in 1688 he was driven from the country in the ‘Glorious Revolution’. The subsequent Bill of Rights Act (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701) excluded Catholics from the throne. The Toleration Act (1689) allowed Protestant Nonconformists to worship freely, but still excluded them from public office, and did not extend the same freedoms to Catholics or Unitarians.
British rule over Ireland was consolidated during the 17th century. Extensive immigration, particularly by Scottish Presbyterians, gave the northern counties a substantial Protestant population.

D 11 September 2012    ADavid Voas

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