4 - FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO THE RESTAURATION
Dopo Elisabetta I gli Stuart (1603-1714)
James VI of Scotland became King of England and Scotland James I (1603-1625; Stuart dynasty). He tried to rule without the Parliament (divine power of the King) Plot known as Gunpowder Plot (1605) Persecution of the Puritans: the Pilgrim Father sailed on board of Mayflower and landed in Massachusetts (1620) first colony in North America .
The English Civil War (1642) James’s successor, Charles I (1625-1649): wars in Spain and France. He borrowed money illegally Parliament intervenes : the Petition of Rights (only the Parliament can permit the king to ask for money) He dismissed the Parliament and ruled for 11 years 1640: Charles summons the Parliament because of the difficult relationships with Ireland and Scotland Long Parliament
The Parliament asks the King not to intervenes in military, religious and civil matters. Charles invades the House of Commons. The Civil War Begins: clergy and part of the gentry (Cavaliers) supported the King; farmers, merchants and middle class people supported the Parliament (Roundheads, for the cut of their hair ), Oliver Cromwell (Model Army) led and won the rebellion.
John Donne (1572 –1631)
One of the greatest Metaphysical poets Sonnets, religious and love poems, translation from Latin, songs, satires and sermons. Poetry: vibrant language and inventiveness in metaphors inspired by discoveries and explorations (conceits) Poems: Death not be proud, a valediction: Forbidding mourning T. S. Eliot, correlative objective (20°century)
The Commonweath
Oliver Cromwell established the Republic called Commonwealth. King Charles I was executed (1649) Cromwell re-established a strict moral code: closing of the theatres, punishment for drunkenness and licentiousness. No one succeeded him at his death.
John Milton (1608 –1674)
Poet, author, polemist, Puritan and supporter of the Commonwealth. The Paradise Lost (1667): epic poem about the fall of angels, Adam and Eva from Paradise.
After Cromwell’s death, the Parliament called back Charles II from France. He promised to respect the Commons’ decision about religious and constitutional matters. The plague in London (1665)
La Restaurazione 1660
T. Hobbes S. Pepys, J. Milton, J. Dryden, J. Locke. Science: J. Keplero, F. Bacon; G. Galileo, R. Descartes, I. Newton. Europe: theatre Lope de Vega Carpio(), Calderon DeLaBarca, Moliere. Philosophy: B. Pascal.
The Glorious Revolution (1688)
After Charles II, James II ascended the Throne. He tried to re-establish the Catholicism and the Parliament asked for an help William of Orange ; Mary's husband, James II’s daughter. The glorious Revolution started and finished in 1689. The Parliament deposed James and a William of Orange became King. It was a bloodless revolution.
Carta dei Diritti 1689
The Parliament invited William of Orange to sign the Bill of Rights to limit the monarchy’s powers. In 1714 the crown passed to the foreign dynasty of Hanover descendants of James I .
Samuel Pepys (1633 –1703) Naval administrator and Member of Parliament, the writer is famous for his diaries which cover about tow years , and which are one of the most representative sources of the Restoration period. They consist of personal revelation and the most important repots of events of the period such as the plague and the Fire of London and the Second Anglo-Ducth War.
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) poets, famous for his satirical lines and his translation of Homer’s works. The Rape of the Lock (1712), Heroic-comic narrative poem which satirizes about an irrelevant dispute comparing it with the epic world of the gods.