HIS 352                                                                                                                 Professor Adelson

The Seventeenth Century Background and the "Glorious Revolution"

   1. Some general geographical considerations
      A.    Tiny islands off the northwestern Eurasian landmass & coastlines
      B.    Small scale, great variety, temperate climate throughout
      C.    The highlands and lowlands--the line from the Exe & Tees rivers
      D.    The invaders: Picts, Frisians, Angles, Saxons, Danes, Normans
      E.    The Celtic peoples: Welsh; Scots (not Scotch); Irish; others
      F.    Great Britain (not England); Britons (not Britishers, not Brits)
   2. The seventeenth century as "a century of revolution" that made Britain less medieval and more modern constitutionally,       imperially, economically, socially, religiously, intellectually, culturally, and legally as Britain became more like Holland and less       like France in the course of the century.
      A.    Historiography
         1) The Whig interpretation--towards more political democracy
         2) The Marxist interpretation--rising middle class and class war
         3) Recent scholarly trends
      B.    Tudor Trends, 1485-1603
      C.    The Early Stuarts
         1) James I (1603-1625)
         2) Charles I (1625-1649)
      D.    Oliver Cromwell's experiment with militant republicanism, 1650s
      E.    The Restoration of the Crown and Church in 1660
         1) Charles II (1660-1685)
         2) James II (1685-1688)
   3. The Crisis of 1688 and the settlement of 1688-1689
      A.    James II reasserted monarchical power
      B.    James II's second marriage produced a son, risking Catholic succession
      C.    William and Mary landed, backed by Dutch, Germans, Protestants
      D.    James II fled to France, where he was championed by Louis XIV
      E.    New statutes about succession, parliamentary power, and civil rights
   4. William III (1689-1704) and his War (1689-1697)
      A.    The expanded navy
      B.    The new national debt and the Bank of England
      C.    Peace of Ryswick
   5. Queen Anne (1704-1714) and the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
         1) Continental battles and the Duke of Marlborough
         2) The naval and military build-up
         3) Peace of Utrecht
   6. Conclusion: perspective on Britain at the end of the seventeenth century.