Crib: Socio-economic background of the English bourgeois revolution. Causes, prerequisites, main stages of the English bourgeois revolution Political prerequisites for the English bourgeois revolution

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, the English bourgeois revolution of the 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. Generally agreeing 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, the fact that the Stuarts did not have a tradition of seeking support in the "middle classes" was of some importance, 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. From time to time, parliaments convened systematically denied appropriations to the king and made the provision of money dependent on all domestic 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, connected 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 repelled 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 be impossible 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. In order 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 Remonstrance began by pointing out the danger that hung over the kingdom, the source of which was a "malicious party" in its desire to change the religion and political system of 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 - acquisitiveness, respect for property, puritanical narrow-mindedness. One of the distinguished 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 was the strength of Cromwell, since the new nobility considered him theirs and subsequently obeyed his orders more willingly than the will of 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 the country's foreign policy.

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 "An Act for the better provision of subjects and for the prevention of 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 localities, 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 by the beginning of the XVIII century. Three important constitutional laws were adopted (the Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights, the Dispensation Act), which still constitute the written part of the English constitution and laid the foundation for the formation of a constitutional monarchy.

• contradictions between the emerging capitalist and the old feudal order;
• dissatisfaction with the policies of the Stuarts;
• contradictions between the Anglican Church and the ideology of Puritanism.

The main driving forces of the revolution: the urban lower classes and the peasantry, led by the new bourgeois nobility - gentry.

Cause of revolution: dissolution of the "Short Parliament" by Charles I.

Background of the English bourgeois revolution

The prerequisites for the English bourgeois revolution were economic and political crisis in England in the 17th century.

Economic crisis:

1. Fencing.
2. The introduction of new kings without the permission of Parliament.
3. king for the production of sale of certain goods within the country.
4. Illegal charges.
5. Monopoly trade.
6. Rising prices.
7. Disorder of trade and industry.
8. Increasing emigration.

Political crisis:

1. Change of the ruling dynasty.
2. Confrontation between king and parliament.
3. Embezzlement.
4. shortsighted foreign policy.
5. Marriage of Charles I to a Catholic.
6. Dissolution of Parliament by Charles I.
7. Persecution of the Puritans.
8. Tightening censorship.

The main stages of the bourgeois revolution in England

1. Civil wars. Change of forms of government (1640-1649).
2. Republican government (1650 - 1653).
3. Military dictatorship - Cromwell protectorate (1653-1658).
4. Restoration of the monarchy (1659 - 1660).

In the English bourgeois revolution, for the first time, the main patterns of development of the bourgeois revolutions of modern times were clearly manifested, which made it possible to call it the prototype of the Great French bourgeois revolution.

The main features of the bourgeois revolution due to a peculiar, but historically natural for England, the alignment of socio-political forces. The English bourgeoisie came out against the feudal monarchy, the feudal nobility and the ruling church not in alliance with the people, but in alliance with the "new nobility". The split of the English nobility and the transition of its greater, bourgeois part to the camp of the opposition made it possible for the English bourgeoisie, which was still insufficiently strong, to triumph over absolutism.
This union gave the English revolution an unfinished character and led to the limited socio-economic and political gains.

The preservation of the large landownership of the English landlords, the solution of the agrarian question without allocating land to the peasantry - the main indicator of the incompleteness of the English revolution in the economic sphere.

In the political sphere, the bourgeoisie had to share power with the new landed aristocracy, with the latter playing a decisive role. The influence of the aristocracy affected the formation in England of such a variety of bourgeois, constitutional monarchy, which, along with the representative body, retained feudal institutions, including strong royal power, the House of Lords, and the Privy Council. Followed in the XVIII and XIX centuries. the agrarian and industrial revolutions ultimately ensured the dominance of capitalist relations of production and the leadership of the industrial bourgeoisie in the exercise of political power. During this time, the semi-feudal, aristocratic political system of Britain slowly and gradually turned into a bourgeois-democratic one.

Political Currents During the Bourgeois Revolution in England

On the eve of and during the revolution, two camps were defined, representing opposing political and religious concepts, as well as different social interests:

• representatives of the "old", feudal nobility and the Anglican clergy (support of absolutism and the Anglican Church);
• the camp of opposition to the regime (the new nobility and the bourgeoisie under the general name "Puritans").

Opponents of absolutism in England advocated bourgeois transformations under the banner of "purification" of the Anglican Church, the completion of the Reformation and the creation of a new church independent of royal power. The religious shell of the socio-political demands of the bourgeoisie, many of which were purely secular in nature, was largely explained by the special role of the Anglican Church in defending the foundations of absolutism and in suppressing opposition by the church bureaucratic apparatus.

At the same time, the revolutionary camp was not united either socially or religiously. In the course of the revolution in the camp of the Puritans, three main currents were finally determined:

• Presbyterian (wing of the revolution, big bourgeoisie and top gentry);
• independents (middle and petty nobility, middle strata of the urban bourgeoisie);
• levellers.

Max Requirement presbyterian there was a restriction of royal arbitrariness and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with a strong power of the king. The religious and political program of the Presbyterians provided for the cleansing of the church from the remnants of Catholicism, its reform according to the Scottish model and the approval of presbyters from the most wealthy at the head of the church administrative districts. The Prosbyterians seized and held power during the period 1640-1648, which was accompanied first by a peaceful or "constitutional" development of the revolution, and then by the transition to civil war.

Independents, whose political leader was O. Cromwell, sought, at a minimum, the establishment of a limited, constitutional monarchy. Their program also provided for the recognition and proclamation of the inalienable rights and freedoms of subjects, primarily freedom of conscience (for Protestants) and freedom of speech. The Independents put forward the idea of ​​abolishing the centralized church and creating local religious communities independent of the administrative apparatus. The Independent Current was the most varied and heterogeneous in composition. The "Independent", radical, stage of the revolution (1649-1660) is associated with the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Republic (1649-1653), which then degenerated into a military dictatorship (1653-1659), which, in turn, led to to the restoration of the monarchy.

In the course of the revolution, the so-called levellers who began to enjoy the greatest support among artisans and peasants. In their manifesto "People's Agreement" (1647), the Levellers put forward the ideas of popular, universal equality, demanded the proclamation of a republic, the establishment of universal male suffrage, the return of fenced lands to the hands of the communities, and the reform of the complex and cumbersome system of "common law". The ideas of the Levellers occupied an important place in the further ideological and political struggle against the feudal system. At the same time, speaking in favor of immunity, the Levellers bypassed the main demand of the peasantry to abolish the copyhold and the power of the landlords.
The most radical part of the Levellers were diggers representing the poorest peasantry and the proletarian elements of the city and countryside. They demanded the abolition of private ownership of land and consumer goods. The socio-political views of the diggers were a kind of peasant utopian communism.

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KAZAN STATE UNIVERSITY

NEW STORY

Z A R U B E ZH N Y X S T R A N

Study guide for applicants

to higher education institutions

majoring in History

Kazan - 1995

FOREWORD

The study of modern history allows us to trace the main patterns of the economic, social, political and spiritual development of foreign countries from the middle of the 17th century to the mid-17th century. until the beginning of the 20th century. This period was characterized by numerous political and social revolutions, sharp clashes between different classes and parties, the emergence of an international labor movement, the first organized actions of the working class in England, France, Germany and other countries, the aggravation of interstate relations, which ultimately led to the First World War. Despite the controversial nature, in general, this is a period of progressive, progressive development of the countries of the West and East, the European and Asian continents. First of all, as a result of numerous national liberation movements and wars, the modern political map of Europe and America was formed. Scientific and technological progress proceeded at a rapid pace, as a result of which all the leading powers of the world completed in the 19th century. their industrial revolutions. At the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX centuries. the modern scientific and technological revolution begins, which radically changed the traditional way of life in the countries of the West and East. Finally, during this period, the national culture of European and Eastern peoples flourishes, world masterpieces in literature and art are created.

Perestroika in historical science, which began in our country in 1985, concerns the coverage of not only domestic, but also foreign history. Unfortunately, all currently available textbooks, teaching aids and scientific literature are largely outdated and do not meet modern requirements. They suffer excessively from ideological intolerance, political tendentiousness and unjustified authorial bias. Therefore, applicants need to be very careful when using materials from modern scientific and educational literature to avoid the traditional class-party approach to assessing historical events and political leaders to strive for a balanced, objective analysis of the past. First of all, this concerns the widespread view of social revolutions as "locomotives of history." More consonant with our time is the theme of the “price of the revolution”, which takes the Jacobin terror in the Great French Revolution beyond the framework of universal moral values. Lenin's doctrine of imperialism as the last stage in the development of capitalism is equally subject to revision. The very word "imperialism" must be returned to its original meaning - the imperial policy of the state. As for the world economy, in the late XIX - early XX centuries. She experienced rapid progressive development. Suffice it to say that the total volume of world industrial output and world trade tripled between 1870 and 1900. Finally, coverage of the international labor movement was characterized by traditional ideological bias. In accordance with modern requirements, it is necessary to avoid one-sided negative assessments of the teachings of P.Zh. Proudhon, H. Blanqui, F. Lassalle, M. Bakunin, J. Jaurès, E. Bernstein, K. Kautsky. In the socialist movement as a whole and in the Second International in particular, various trends should be distinguished: moderate reformist (democratic), Marxist and ultra-left (anarchist), between which there was a sharp and uncompromising struggle.

This textbook aims to help applicants find the right tone and take an objective position in the study of complex events in the world history of modern times. It is devoid of ideological bias and tendentiousness, avoids one-sided and subjectivist assessments of the past.

I. VICTORY AND ESTABLISHMENT OF CAPITALISM IN ENGLAND

THE ENGLISH BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE

XVII CENTURY

England on the eve of the revolution. Socio-economic prerequisites for the revolution.

Until the end of the XV century. England was in the position of an “agrarian appendage” and an economically backward outskirts of Europe. By the middle of the 17th century, while continuing to be an agricultural country (% of its 5 million people lived in the countryside and were engaged in the production of food and wool), the country made serious progress in development of industry and trade. Over a hundred years from 1540 to 1640, coal production increased from 200 thousand tons to 1.5 million tons (this accounted for 80% of European production), iron ore - 3 times, lead, tin, copper, salt - 6 -8 times. Overseas trade, which was conducted by famous campaigns - Moscow (founded in 1554), African (1654), Ostsee (1579), Levantine (1581), Guinean (1588), East India (1600) and others, for 1600- 1640 increased by 2 times. England has become the main supplier to the European market, not of wool, but of finished cloth. English merchants exported their goods on ships built in England itself. The creation of a merchant and navy, which defeated Philip II's "Invincible Armada" in 1588, prepared the basis for the development of a broad colonial expansion. The disintegration of medieval feudal relations and the emergence of new capitalist relations took place in England more intensively than in other European countries.

Shifts in the economic evolution of England in the 16th century. largely determined by the following processes:

- moving after the discovery in 1492 by X. Columbus of America trade routes to the Atlantic Ocean;

- the heyday of the woolen manufactory in the Netherlands, which caused a huge demand for wool. This demand stimulated the development of sheep breeding in England, gave impetus to the agrarian revolution;

- mass emigration of people persecuted in the countries of continental Europe for religious reasons, including those who had capital, possessed advanced technological experience, contributed to the creation in England itself of manufactories for the production of fine woolen fabrics, which subsequently conquered the European market;

- the development of cities, primarily London with its 200,000 population, increased the demand for food and raw materials for new industries and thereby stimulated the development of commodity-money relations, drawing almost the entire population into them. There were 800 cities and towns in the country that had markets. There was a division of labor and specialization of various regions;

- The influx of cheap gold and silver from America led to the so-called "price revolution", which resulted in the depreciation of wages and land rents with the growth of industrial profits. The outbreak of inflation made it profitable to invest in real estate, in the acquisition of land, the demand for which was constantly increasing;

- the reform movement of the 30-40s of the XV century. pushed to the market up to 1/4 of all cultivated land in the country, owned by the Catholic Church (secularization). As a result of sales and resales (speculation), part of this land, in addition to the courtiers, the “new nobles”, the urban bourgeoisie, was also taken over by the village rich, who constituted the social environment for the formation of capitalist farming;

- the deployment of an agrarian revolution, the basis of which was the forcible expropriation of the agricultural population, which in the 16th century. affected only part of the peasantry, and ended in XVIII V.

The social structure of English society at the beginning of the 17th century. The noted processes determined the prerequisites for the formation and appearance of social forces, the clash of which h emerged in the middle of the 17th century. into the bourgeois revolution.

Peasantry consisted of the following groups:

- yeomen - the most prosperous part, having an annual income of 300 to 500 pounds. senior, close in position to petty squires and gentlemen; a contemporary calls their number at 10 thousand people;

– freeholders: 80 thousand people; their lands made up about 20% of the holdings, close in form to private property;

- copyholders: for their holdings (accounted for 60% of all holdings) they paid the lord a fixed cash rent, paid tithes, sometimes carried corvee duties, etc .;

– leaseholders – small tenant holders (about 7% of holdings);

- Kotters (owners of the hut) - landless laborers and day laborers.

Ruined and driven off the land, the peasants turned into beggars-paupers - and constituted the stratum of society, at the expense of which the class of hired workers began to take shape.

The analysis shows that part of the peasantry was already suffering from capitalist exploitation (after all, as Thomas More wrote, “sheep, usually so meek ... have become so gluttonous and indomitable that they even eat people, ruin and devastate the fields ...”), in general, the peasantry was primarily interested in the destruction of feudal institutions and relations. It was the liberation of the copyhold from the fetters of feudal dependence that was the main condition for the preservation of the peasantry.

Nobility- the politically dominant class was heterogeneous. Compiling by the middle of the XVII century. about 2% of the population and owning 50% of the cultivated land (in addition, another 15% of this area was owned by the peers of England), it was divided into the new nobility and the feudal nobility according to the method of farming. The first differed not only sometimes in its origin (many new nobles - money people of cities - merchants, usurers who bought land), but also in the nature of their economy, which was adapted to the needs of the capitalist system: by exploiting day laborers, it received capitalist profit. An important part of the new nobility were gentry - small and medium nobles. The strong dissatisfaction of the new nobility was caused by the fact that, as vassals of the king, they had to bear feudal payments in his favor, as well as attempts by the royal government to prohibit the removal of peasants from the land in order to prevent the growth of vagrancy and crime (laws of 1534, 1593, etc.).

The feudal nobility preserved medieval agrarian practices on their estates, their incomes decreased with the decrease in feudal rents and depended to a greater extent on the position and positions at the royal court, which, in turn, found its support precisely in the feudal nobility. It is no coincidence that the payment of pensions since the time of Queen Elizabeth by 1640 had risen from £18,000 to £18,000. up to 120 thousand pounds Art. Contemporaries called these nobles "drones".

Bourgeoisie was also heterogeneous in composition. Its richest stratum was made up of the usurers and bankers of the City of London. They bought the right to collect taxes with great profit, bought monopolies from the state - the exclusive right to import or export various goods. The interests of this layer were closely connected with the royal court and the feudal aristocracy.

The main part of the English bourgeoisie - the owners of manufactories, workshops, medium and small traders. An obstacle to their success in the cities, in addition to the inability to compete with monopolists, was the preservation of the guild system, which conserved small-scale production.

City apprentices, artisan apprentices, day laborers, together with the cotters, made up the plebs of pre-revolutionary England. Formed from the peasants driven off the land in the process of fencing, it was accustomed to the discipline of hired capitalist labor through special legislation, which went down in history as bloody, terrorist.

In general, both in the countryside and in the city, the development of new relations was hindered by the feudal system of land ownership and the medieval way of industrial production.

The kings from the Stuart dynasty (Jacob I - 1603-1625 and Charles I from 1625) who ruled in England since 1603 pursued a policy in the interests of the landowning class. Under them, the relationship between the authorities and the bourgeoisie changes significantly, which became hated by the policy of regulation of production, the system of monopolies and patents, abuse of power, violation of laws, etc. As a result, a bourgeois-noble opposition arises in the English parliament.

Ideological prerequisites for the revolution. The Stuarts sought to establish a system of absolutist government. Forces rallied around the king, whose interests were rooted in feudal relations. They found ideological support in the English Church, which, after reforming, was able to preserve many of the organizational forms and rituals of Catholicism. Understanding the dependence of royal power and the church, James I declared: "There is no bishop - there is no king."

Forces hostile to absolutism demanded the completion of the reformation. There was a movement for a radical reorganization (purification) of the Anglican Church - puritanism(puritas - "clean"). His supporters demanded the replacement of appointed clergy by elected elders - presbyters, the simplification of rituals, the completion of the secularization of church lands. By the beginning of the 17th century. 2 currents of Puritanism were formed - Presbyterians advocated the destruction of the episcopate, but while maintaining unity in the new church, and independents, defending the independence and self-government of religious communities.

New political theories also arose, reflecting the interests and aspirations of various social forces. The ideologists of feudalism, including King James 1, developed the theory of the "divineness" of royal power. Absolute monarchy was considered the best form of political organization by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who based his arguments on the theory of natural law. People, - Hobbes taught, - in order to get rid of the state of "war of all against all", must give up all their natural rights in favor of the state, the sovereign.

In the 16th - the first half of the 17th century, the ideologists of Puritanism (J. Popet, John Milton, G. Parker, etc.) developed the idea of ​​a social contract between the king and the "people". They came to the conclusion that if the sovereign abuses power, then the people are also free from compliance with the contract and have the right to resist.

The ideas of popular sovereignty, natural human rights, and political equality were especially vigorously defended by the Levellers, i.e. equalizers (from eng. Levellers). The leader of this movement was John Lilburn (1618-1657), who argued: "The highest power is in the people." For the distribution of Puritan literature, Lilburn was imprisoned at the age of 20, kept in solitary confinement, chained, and only in May 1641 was released.

English absolutism under the Stuarts. The formation of a revolutionary situation. Deep dissatisfaction with the existing order permeated the entire English society. Peasant uprisings, workers' "riots", resistance to taxation, the activities of religious sects - all showed signs of a growing revolutionary situation. The reign of James I was the "prologue" of the revolution;

Violent conflicts already arose between kings and parliament. Under Charles I in 1628, the parliamentary opposition secured the adoption of an important constitutional act - the Petition for the Right, according to which no one could be arrested without a specific charge and could not be deprived of property without a court order. The king, having approved the petition, did not fulfill it, and in 1629 he dissolved parliament and did not convene it for 11 years (1629-1640).

During these years of non-parliamentary rule, a regime of feudal-absolutist reaction reigned in England. His inspirations were the King's "advisers" Earl Strafford and Archbishop Laud. The “Star Chamber” and the “High Commission” – the highest courts for political and religious affairs – have been launched in the country. Religious persecution increased the emigration of Puritans to North America. But despite the reprisals, including against the leaders of the parliamentary opposition J. Eliot, E. Cock and others, it was not possible to suppress the growth of discontent and indignation within the country. The struggle of the peasantry against the fencers has become a constant factor in social life.

In 1637, Squire John Hampden was tried, who refused to pay the ship tax introduced in 1635 without the consent of Parliament. The Hampden Affair was the signal for an open struggle against absolutism. In 1639-1640. the entire bourgeoisie followed the example of Hampden.

Meanwhile, Laud's ecclesiastical policy in Scotland, attempts to spread the English ecclesiastical order there, led in 1638 to the Anglo-Scottish war. In order to obtain subsidies for the conduct of this war, the king was forced to assemble a parliament in April 1640, which turned out to be intractable and was dissolved in May (short parliament). But the situation became more and more hopeless: Charles I and his advisers in November 1640 convened a new session of Parliament, which later became known as the Long Parliament (November 3, 1640-653). A revolution has begun in the country.

Periodization of the revolution. The English bourgeois revolution is divided into the following periods:

2. The first civil war (1642 - 1646);

3. The struggle to deepen the democratic content of the revolution (1646-1649);

4. Independent Republic (1649 - 1653);

5. Protectorate of O. Cromwell (1653 - 1658).

The initial, constitutional period of the revolution. Relying on the support of the masses, the Long Parliament takes important measures: the Star Chamber and the High Commission are destroyed, the collection of ship tax is prohibited, all monopoly patents and privileges are canceled, the bill "On the non-dissolution" of the existing parliament is adopted without its consent, attracted and condemned the favorite of the king, the "black tyrant" Strafford (May 1641; Laud, who was executed in 1645, shared his fate), were released from prisons victims of absolutist arbitrariness. But consisting of 9/10 of the landowners, the parliament, alarmed by the armed struggle of the peasants in the east against the fences, declares the inviolability of the fences erected before its convocation.

The process of deepening the revolution led to disagreements among parliamentarians, which was especially revealed during the discussion of the program document - the "Great Remonstrance". The document, revealing the abuses of the king, the reasons for the unfolding movement, setting out the program of transformations, was approved by a majority of only 10 votes. But it was an open challenge to royalty. In response, Charles I (he refused to accept the Remonstrance) in January 1642 tried to carry out a counter-revolutionary coup, arresting the leaders of the opposition. Thousands of people moved to London to support Parliament. The king, having lost power over the capital, hastily left for the North under the protection of the feudal lords. The "constitutional period" is over.

First Civil War. Domination of Presbyterians in Parliament. On August 22, 1642, when Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham, civil war broke out. Most of the aristocracy, the provincial nobility, took the side of the king. The parliament was supported by the new nobility, townspeople, commercial and industrial population, yeomanry, and freeholders. Belonging to one camp or another was determined by both religious and territorial demarcation. The royalists enjoyed the support of the counties of the north, west and southwest, i.e. economically backward regions of the country. The eastern and southern counties with London, the industrial districts of the center and north stood for Parliament. Opponents gave each other nicknames gentlemen(court) and roundheads.

In the unfolding hostilities until the summer of 1644, success accompanied the royalists. The Presbyterian command of Parliament's army fought the war indecisively. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), the leader of the English bourgeois revolution, emerged from among them. He was raised in a puritanical spirit in a gentry family. Due to the death of his father, he was unable to graduate from Cambridge University. In the 1930s, he almost left for America. He was elected to parliament, but did not show himself as a speaker there. Having become one of the commanders of the militia of the eastern counties, he made up his detachments of yeomen and artisans, devoted to Puritanism, "warriors of God", regularly paid them a salary, and established iron discipline in the army. It was these detachments, called "iron-sided", that played a decisive role in the first victory over the king's army in the summer of 1644 at Marston Moor. Based on the accumulated experience, Cromwell came up with a plan to reorganize the army. In December 1644, the Independents achieved the resignation of the entire old command, and in January 1645, the approval of the act on the "Army of a new model." The 22,000-strong "new model" army, created in a short time, defeated the royal troops several times, including in the decisive battle of Nesby on June 14, 1645, and by the end of 1646 ended the first civil war. Charles I secretly fled to the Scots (April 1646), but those for 400 thousand pounds. Art. handed it over to Parliament (February 1647).

While the civil war was going on, the parliament carried out reforms aimed at the partial elimination of the feudal system. The royal and episcopal lands, the possessions of the supporters of the king, were confiscated and put on sale in large plots. Therefore, only the rich of the City, the big bourgeois, noble officers of the parliamentary army could buy them. In February 1646, a law was passed abolishing the "knight's holding", freeing the nobles from the restrictions of feudal land ownership. The peasants, however, remained still in land dependence on the lords, the copyhold did not become peasant property. Thus, the bourgeois-noble agrarian program was implemented. The unresolved peasant agrarian program, the hardships of the war, dissatisfaction with the policy of the parliament led to mass demonstrations by the peasants, with their spearhead directed against enclosures. To protect against violence and robbery, both from the royal and parliamentary armies, the peasants organized the movement of "clobmen" - "clubmen", which engulfed South-West England from the end of 1644. In August 1645, the main forces of the rebels were defeated by Cromwell's detachments.

Struggle to deepen the revolution. Independents and Levellers (1647-1649). 1647 was a turning point: the stage began when the initiative passed from the Independents, who, as evidenced by their project for the future organization of England "Heads of Proposals", wanted to maintain limited royal power, the House of Lords, an electoral system based on property qualifications, to the one that took shape by spring the movement of the Levellers. Putting forward in their program document "People's Agreement" demands for the destruction of the monarchy, estate privileges, universal suffrage for men, reform of the court and law, the return of fenced lands, the Levellers had the support of the urban petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, relied on the soldiers of the parliamentary army. Up to 20 thousand activists rallied in their ranks.

In the context of the growing popularity of levellers. Cromwell and his supporters, seeking to seize the initiative, opposed the counter-revolutionary line of the Presbyterian leadership of Parliament. His army's march on London (August 1647) ended with the expulsion of the leaders of the Presbyterian Party from Parliament and the transfer of political leadership to the Independent Party.

In the autumn of 1647, sharp discussions unfolded between the Levellers and the Independents on the question of the fate of the monarchy, on the right to vote. The attempt of the Levellers to lead the army behind them, to raise an uprising of soldiers in defense of their demands, failed. "Grandes" - Cromwell's officers kept most of the regiments under their influence.

The royalists took advantage of the struggle in the parliamentary army; they unleashed a second civil war. In February J648, Scottish troops invaded England, and royalist riots broke out in Kent, Sessex, and Wales. Parliament was denied obedience by the navy. Charles Stuart escaped from the supervision of the army and fortified himself on the Isle of Wight. The outbreak of war forced the Independents to seek reconciliation with the Levellers in order to ensure the support of the masses for the army of Parliament. At the decisive Battle of Preston (August 31, 1648), the combined forces of the Scots and English royalists were defeated.

However, the Presbyterian majority in Parliament again started negotiations with the king about the conditions for his return to the throne. In response to these negotiations, the army re-entered London on December 2, 1648; Charles I was taken prisoner again. On December 6-7, a detachment of dragoons under the command of Colonel Pride expelled 143 Presbyterian supporters from the lower house. The Pride Purge was a veritable coup d'état that placed power in the hands of the Independents; the period of their domination began.

The masses of the people, the soldiers continued to demand the trial of the king. Parliament January 6, 1649, formed a court of 135 commissioners. After many days of trial, Charles I, as a "traitor and tyrant", was sentenced to death and on January 30, 1649 was beheaded. In February, the House of Lords was abolished. May 19, 1649 England was declared a Republic. In fact, a military dictatorship of the giants was established. Legislative power belonged to the unicameral parliament, which in reality represented the "rump". Long Parliament, and the executive - to the State Council. Lilburn called the Independent oligarchic republic "England's New Chains".

Independent Republic (1649–1653). The difficult economic conditions in England in 1649, famine, fuel crisis, unemployment, the need to maintain a 40,000-strong army caused discontent among the population. In May and September 1649, the Levellers tried again to raise uprisings of their supporters, but they were suppressed, the leaders of the Levellers were thrown into prison, and Lilburn was expelled from the country. The reason why the Levellers failed to achieve the realization of their bourgeois-democratic program was that they. fighting primarily for political rights, in fact, bypassed the agrarian question.

During the revolution, the program of the peasant anti-feudal coup was developed by the so-called true levellers, diggers(from eng. diggers - digger). In the interests of copyholders and kotters, their ideologist Gerard Winstanley in his pamphlets, including the New Law of Justice, he put forward demands for the elimination of the power of the lords over the land, the transfer of their land holdings to the peasants by abolishing copyhold, and providing the poor with vacant lands.

In the spring of 1649, a group of peasants led by Winstanley captured and began to cultivate the wasteland on the hill of St. George south of London. Their goal was, having dug up the boundaries, to arrange colonies for collective labor and hostel. Similar colonies arose during 1649-1651. and in other counties - Kent, Gloucestershire, Lancashire. By the end of 1651, they were all dispersed with the use of troops by the Independent government. The reasons for the defeat of the diggers were that they were not supported by the peasant proprietors; they did not have a leading center and political organization, they acted only by example and preaching, refusing to participate in the political struggle.

The crackdown on the democratic movement of the Levellers and Diggers strengthened Cromwell's authority among the bourgeoisie and gentry. The foreign policy of the republic also served the interests of the latter. In 1649-1652. the army was used to suppress the national liberation movement in Ireland, which began as early as 1641. During the war, tens of thousands of Irish were exterminated, the survivors were driven from the land. This land was used to pay debts to the bankers of the City and debts to the officers of the army. Bloody campaigns in Iceland, and then in Scotland (1650-1651), which was annexed to England in 1652, led to the degeneration of the “new model” army into an army of conquerors. The conclusion of Karl Marx that "the English Republic under Cromwell essentially crashed against Ireland" is fair.

During the years of the Independent Republic, the beginning of an active trade policy was laid. The "Navigation Acts" adopted in 1651 and 1652, which gave advantages to English merchants when transporting goods to England, led to a war with Holland, which in 1654 was forced to recognize navigation acts.

Protectorate regime(1653-1659) and restoration of the monarchy(1659-1660). The long parliament personified the supreme power and therefore it was precisely on it that the dissatisfaction of the people with anti-democratic policies was concentrated. Cromwell took advantage of this when, on April 20, 1653, he dispersed the "rump", and in December, the so-called Small Parliament that replaced it. In the second case, the big bourgeoisie and the new nobility sought to prevent a return to the democratic stage of the revolution, they were frightened by the attempt of the Small Parliament to embark on the path of social reforms. They saw Cromwell as a guarantor against royalist counter-revolution from above and from further deepening of the revolution from below. Council of officers under the new constitution - the so-called " control tool"- proclaimed O. Cromwell the lifelong "Lord Protector" (defender) of the republic. The regime of an open military dictatorship has come - Cromwell protectorate, supported by the army. The country was divided into 11 military districts headed by major generals. The established electoral qualification of 200l. Art. annual income disenfranchised even the middle bourgeoisie. Foreign policy continued to be expansionist. Jamaica was captured in the West Indies.

But even under the conditions of the military regime, peasant movements took place, sectarianism became more active, a catastrophic situation developed with finances: the state debt exceeded 2 million pounds. Art. Therefore, after the death of Cromwell (September 1658), supporters of the restoration of the monarchy prevailed in the ruling circles. General Monk, who seized power in the army, convened a new parliament and entered into negotiations with the son of the executed king, Charles II. The conditions for the restoration were worked out: pardoning the participants in civil wars on the side of parliament, recognition of the abolition of knighthood, the results of the sale of royalist land, a promise not to impose taxes without the consent of parliament, religious tolerance. This minimum of conquests suited the bourgeoisie and the new nobility. May 26, 1660 Charles II came to the throne: the monarchy was restored.

At the beginning of the 17th century, developing under favorable conditions, England looked in some respects a country much more bourgeois than feudal serfdom. Enclosures and dispossession of land managed to disintegrate the rural community and proletarianize a significant part of the peasantry. Industry and maritime trade achieved great success. In the century preceding the revolution, England increased the extraction of coal 14 times, the second - the extraction of iron ore, etc. Shipbuilding is developing widely. The main export item was no longer wool, but finished cloth. Large trading companies, organized according to capitalism, arose and quickly grew rich. It was no longer a rarity for enterprises where hundreds of employees worked under one roof. Omelchenko O.A. General History of State and Law. Textbook. In 2 volumes. TON - PRIOR, M., 2004..

However, the bourgeoisie was dissatisfied. It was weighed down by the typical feudal government control over the production of goods and their sale, the limitation of the number of apprentices and apprentices, the maintenance of the guild system, and the obstacles that were created for manufacturing production. The open extortion of money, which the government engaged in under the guise of arbitrary taxes, then with the help of new duties, or forced loans, caused constant irritation.

The system of government of the country becomes the subject of sharp criticism:

• - extrajudicial justice, concentrated in political tribunals;
• - constant violence against common law courts;
• - soldiers' quarters in the homes of private individuals;
• - the miserable state of the armed forces, especially the navy;
• - ignoring parliament;
• - abuses of the all-powerful and dishonest favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, etc.

Deep dissatisfaction with the existing order seized the English countryside, especially the copyholders, who made up at least half of the peasantry. By enclosing and arbitrarily increasing land rents, exorbitant payments collected when land is inherited, landowners either completely drove the peasants off the land, or turned them into sharecroppers working on someone else's land for part of the harvest. At the same time with the copyholders there were also farm laborers - cotters - the most humiliated and exploited part of the English peasantry.

The revolutionary army that overthrew the king and opened the way for the bourgeois development of England was predominantly a peasant army, an army of the "iron-sided". Signs of a revolutionary situation were found everywhere - in peasant uprisings and workers' "riots", in open resistance to taxation, in the activities of various religious sects that insisted on a break with the official church. The crisis situation was revealed with all its sharpness in the parliament. The opposition that has developed here is going on the offensive against the government. So, the first signs of the opposition to the crown ripening in parliament appeared in the last years of the reign of Elizabeth 1. In a full voice, this opposition declared itself already in the first parliament of its successor, James 1, where the core problem of the constitution turned out to be the subject of discussion - the boundaries of the prerogative, i.e. e. exclusive rights of the crown, and the privileges of Parliament. James 1 was inclined to consider parliament only as an auxiliary institution, which arose and functions by the grace of the king, who has absolute power of divine origin. The answer to these claims was the "Apology of the House of Commons" - a document drawn up by the House of Commons for the "reference" of the king - a stranger, quite unequivocally stating that the King of England is neither absolute nor independent of Parliament head of state, the constitutional structure of which is based on the recognition of Parliament the supreme body of the country, headed by the king, but by no means one king, acting independently of parliament. Resolutely rejecting the very principle of the divinity of royal power, the House of Commons emphasized that the power of a mortal king is neither divine nor individual.

In 1614 Parliament was dissolved before the deadline, four of its members were imprisoned. When reminded of the "rights of Parliament", the king replied that there were only favors that could be given and could be taken away. Stormy scenes accompany the parliamentary session of 1621. The king personally rips out a page of protest from the parliamentary protocols, cracking down on the leaders of the opposition.

The main contradictions between the policy of the king and the interests of the commercial and entrepreneurial strata of the proprietorial classes represented in parliament, which constituted opposition to this policy in the parliament of the commons, consisted in the question of the boundaries of the royal prerogative, around which there was a struggle in almost all parliaments of James 1 and was reduced in the field of domestic policy to to the following: does the king have the right to introduce new duties and compulsory taxes without the knowledge and consent of parliament and collect them? And in the realm of foreign policy, should the king "consult" Parliament before taking any step in international affairs?

The answer of the opposition was unequivocal: the supreme power does not belong to the king outside the parliament, but to the king in the parliament, i.e. supported by both chambers. James 1, on the contrary, in accordance with his doctrine of the absolute power of the king, considered it his "indisputable" right to do without the "advice" of parliament in both cases and, moreover, confirmed this doctrine in practice, without convening after the dissolution of parliament in 1611. until 1621. no parliament. It was essentially a new form of absolute monarchy for England, which imitated the "French model" of the history of the state and law of foreign countries. Textbook. Ed. O.A. Zhidkova and N.A. Krasheninnikova. NORMA - INFRA, M., 1999..

The parliamentary session of 1628 becomes especially memorable. As soon as it meets, the parliament adopts the “Petition on the Right”, containing the idea of ​​a bourgeois constitutional monarchy: no taxes without parliament, no arrests except by law, the abolition of all and any emergency courts. Having accepted the petition and first giving a positive answer to it, the king soon interrupted the session of parliament, motivating this act with the content of the Petition “unacceptable for the royal prerogative”.

Then in March 1629, in open defiance of the king, who ordered the adjournment of the parliamentary session, the lower house declared that anyone who would innovate in religion, who "induce to impose and collect" duties not approved by parliament, who would voluntarily pay or pay such duties , should be recognized as "a traitor to the liberties of England and an enemy of the fatherland." Without discussion, the chamber unanimously accepted these proposals, and its members left the meeting room. In response to this revolutionary action, Charles dissolves the parliament so that, as he hoped, not to collect it at all. In October, elections were held for a new parliament, and on November 3, 1640. its sessions were opened. This Parliament was destined to become Long. With the beginning of its meetings, in fact, a new chapter in English history began - the history of the Great Bourgeois Revolution.

The English Revolution developed in the form of a traditional confrontation between the King and Parliament. A significant part of the civil-legal program of the revolution was prepared by the parliamentary opposition as early as the 1920s. XVII century, as the economic and political crisis of absolutism worsened.

In the Petition of Right of 1628, a number of demands were formulated, dressed in the old feudal form, but already having a new, bourgeois content. After listing the abuses of the royal administration and referring to the Magna Carta, Parliament asked the king that: 1) no one should henceforth be forced to pay taxes and fees to the royal treasury "without the general consent given by an act of parliament"; 2) no person has been imprisoned for refusing to pay illegal taxes; 3) the army was not housed in residents' houses; 4) no persons were endowed with special powers that could serve

a pretext for putting subjects to death "against the laws and liberties of the country."

Thus, the main political issue of the revolution was reflected in the document - the rights of the king in relation to the life and property of his subjects.

In the parliament convened in 1640, called the Long (1640-1653), the Presbyterians occupied a dominant position.

The main features of the English bourgeois revolution are due to a peculiar, but historically natural for England, alignment of socio-political forces.

The English bourgeoisie came out against the feudal monarchy, the feudal nobility and the ruling church not in alliance with the people, but in alliance with the "new nobility".

This union gave the English revolution an unfinished character and led to the limited socio-economic and political gains.

On the eve of and during the revolution, two camps were defined, representing opposing political and religious concepts, as well as different social interests. Representatives of the "old", feudal nobility and the Anglican clergy were the backbone of absolutism. The camp of opposition to the regime united the new nobility and the bourgeoisie under the general name "Puritans".

In the course of the revolution in the camp of the Puritans, three main currents were finally defined: the Presbyterians, the Independents and the Levellers.

The Presbyterian movement, which united the big bourgeoisie and the top gentry, constituted the right wing of the revolution. Their ultimate demand was to limit royal arbitrariness and establish a constitutional monarchy with strong king power.

The Independents, whose political leader was O. Cromwell, were mainly representatives of the middle and petty nobility, the middle strata of the urban bourgeoisie. They sought, at a minimum, the establishment of a limited, constitutional monarchy. Their program also provided for the recognition and proclamation of the inalienable rights and freedoms of subjects, primarily freedom of conscience (for Protestants) and freedom of speech. Independents

put forward the idea of ​​abolishing the centralized church and creating local religious communities independent of the administrative apparatus.

In the course of the revolution, the so-called Levellers emerged from the Independent current and began to enjoy the greatest support among artisans and peasants. In their manifesto "People's Agreement" (1647), the Levellers put forward the ideas of popular sovereignty, universal equality, demanded the proclamation of a republic, the establishment of universal male suffrage

The most radical part of the Levellers were the Diggers, who represented the poorest peasantry and the proletarian elements of the city and countryside. They demanded the abolition of private ownership of land and consumer goods. The socio-political views of the diggers were a kind of peasant utopian communism.

The main stages of the revolution.

Constitutional or peaceful from 1640-1642

Peaceful confrontation between Parliament and the King The English Revolution developed in the form of a traditional confrontation between the King and Parliament.

First of all, at the initiative of the House of Commons, the main advisers of Charles I were condemned - Earl Strafford, Archbishop Laud. Thus, the right of parliament to impeach senior officials was approved. Further, according to the Triennial Act of February 16, 1641, parliament was to be convened at least once every three years, and if the king did not agree to do this, he could be convened by other persons (peers, sheriffs) or convene independently.

Finally, in July 1641, two acts were adopted that limited the powers of the Privy Council in the field of legal proceedings and provided for the destruction of the system of emergency tribunals,

above all the Star Chamber and the High Commission. A series of acts passed in the summer of 1641 proclaimed the inviolability of the property of subjects and deprived the king of the right to arbitrarily impose various fines. The program document of the revolution was the Great Remonstration, adopted on December 1, 1641. It contained, in particular, a new requirement that the king henceforth appoint only those officials whom parliament had reason to trust. The king refused to approve the Great Remonstrance.

The Acts of Parliament of 1641 were aimed at limiting the absolute power of the king and meant a transition to a certain kind of constitutional monarchy.

1642-1648 The period of civil wars.

The main activity of the king and parliament during this period was the organization of their own army. Parliament, which combined in its hands the legislative and executive powers in the controlled territory, issued a number of laws and ordinances providing for

reform of the existing military system. In 1642, Parliament several times approved the "Ordinance on the Militia" that was never signed by the king.

Already during the civil war, the Ordinance on the new model of 1645 was adopted by Parliament, which was directed to the formation of a standing army instead of the militia of individual counties. It had to be supported by the state. The rank and file was recruited from free

peasants and artisans. It was forbidden to combine membership in the House of Commons and command positions in the army

During the period of the first civil war, the Long Parliament carried out a number of other important reforms, which testified to the deepening of the revolution "under the control" of the Presbyterian-Independent elite.

In 1643, the episcopate was abolished and the Presbyterian structure of the church was introduced.

The end of the war and the capture of the king was accompanied by an intensification of the struggle in Parliament between the Presbyterians and the bulk of the Independents. The open action of the Presbyterians in support of the king led to a second civil war.

1649-1653 Independent Republic.

Political power passed into the hands of the Independents. On January 4, 1649, the House of Commons declared itself to be the bearer of the supreme power in England, the decrees of which have the force of law without the consent of the king and the House of Lords.

After the trial of the king and his execution at the end of March 1649, the royal title and the upper house were abolished. The constitutional consolidation of the republican form of government was completed by an act on May 19, 1649. It proclaimed the formation of a republic, and the "Representatives of the People in Parliament" were declared the supreme authority in the state. The State Council, which was responsible to the Parliament, became the supreme body of executive power. However, the actual leadership of it was carried out by a military council headed by Cromwell.

In the army, which consisted mainly of the middle peasantry and artisans, the influence of the Levellers continued to grow. Under these conditions, the leaders of the Independents, relying on the army elite, resorted to establishing a dictatorship regime, which was covered by the proclamation of a "protectorate".

1653-1660 Dictatorship or readership of Cromwell.

At the end of 1653, the Council of Officers prepared a draft act on a new form of government, called the Tool of Government. According to Art. 1 act, the highest legislative power in England, Scotland and Ireland was concentrated in the person of the Lord Protector and the people represented in Parliament.

The executive power in the state was entrusted to the Lord Protector and the State Council, the number of members of which could vary from 13 to 21. The Lord Protector was endowed with broad powers. He commanded the armed forces, with the consent of the majority of the council, he could declare war and make peace, appoint new members of the supreme executive body and officers appointed at the head of administrative districts. The main support of the protector remained the army. For its maintenance and to cover other expenses of the government, an annual tax was introduced, which could not be abolished or reduced by Parliament without the consent of the Lord Protector. Thus, the financial prerogatives of the Lord Protector are practically

skis became uncontrollable, like an absolute monarch. Art. 33 recognizes Oliver Cromwell as Lord for Life.