Oliver Cromwell and his Republic

The Parliamentarian army was led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell’s family originated from Wales. It began to rise during the reign of Henry VIII whose minister was Thomas Cromwell, the uncle of Oliver's great-great-grandfather. Oliver was born on April 25, 1599. He was educated in Huntington by Thomas Beard, a Puritan. Later he attended the Puritan Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, and studied law in London. After his marriage he returned to his estate in Huntington and became a farmer. In 1628-1629 he was a member of Parliament. He returned to Parliament in 1640, when the crisis between King and Parliament was at its height. Oliver raised a regiment of cavalry and began to fight on the Parliamentary side. He proved to be a talented commander. He created a New Model Army, the first regular military force from which the British army of today developed. Oliver was against negotiations with Charles I. He sided with the army against Parliament's attempt to renew talks with the king and defeated the Royalists. He encouraged that third part of Parliament which voted for the execution of Charles I for treason. The rest two-thirds of the MPs were forced to leave Parliament

Cromwell and his helpers formed the government, named the country a republic, and made himself Lord Protector. Britain was a republic in 1649-1660. Oliver Cromwell was a dictator who established a severe government supported by the army. He sent his soldiers to Ireland punish the Irish for killing 3000 Protestants in 1641. As the result about 6000 people were killed. Later Cromwell defeated a rebellion in Scot­land in a similar way.

Oliver Cromwell had disagreements with Parliament and in 1653 it resulted in its dissolution.

Oliver Cromwell died on September 3, 1658 and was buried in West­minster Abbey. He had named his son Richard as his successor, but Ri­chard was not a good leader and very soon the army commanders, Gen­eral George Monk in particular, took control of the country. The MPs voted for returning Charles I, the lawful heir to the British throne.

 

DO YOU KNOW THAT...

... Charles I was born a weak child. Nobody expected him to sur­vive. At the age of four he could not speak. When he was twelve his elder brother died, and Charles became the heir to the throne. He had to undergo a special programme of training, and soon he could speak several languages and was in a good physical form.

... James I wanted his son Charles I to marry a Spanish princess. Charles went to Spain to see the princess, but on his way home he fell in love with the French king's sister Henrietta Maria. When Charles I be­came king he sent for his future wife. Charles was happy in his family life.

... Oliver Cromwell was not popular with most people. He forbade alehouses, celebrations of Christmas and Easter, playing games on Sun­days and other entertainment which he thought was the display of Ca­tholicism.

 

The Restoration of the Monarchy

Charles II returned to England from the exile in 1651. Parliament allowed to rule and Charles promised not to punish his former op­ponents. Though some of them were arrested. Charles ordered to dig out the body of Oliver Cromwell and to hang it as that of a traito r, his head was put on a pole and placed above Westminster Hall, then his y was buried at the foot of the gallows.

The monarchy was restored, but since that time the king was never as powerful as he had been before the British Revolution.

Charles II had no lawful children, so the throne was inherited by his brother James.

James II was a Catholic and this fact always worried Parliament and all the Protestant population of Britain. He wanted to make Britain Catholic again. Parliament hoped that James rule would not be long, and two of his daughters, Mary and Anne, were Protestant. But on June 10, 1688 his wife Queen Mary of Modena gave birth to a son, who was proclaimed a Catholic heir to the throne. Parliament's hopes failed. In 1688 Parliament invited Mary, James’s daughter, and her husband William of Orange, the grandson of Charles I to invade Britain. William was the ruler of the Netherlands, but France tried to enlarge its territory by conquering the Netherlands. William needed Britain's help, so he agreed to save Britain from Catholicism. The British crown was offered to both Mary and William. The Glorious Revolution, as this event was named, ended in James's defeat.

William III and Mary II were crowned king and queen in 1689. They became monarchs not by the order of succession, but by the decision of Parliament. It meant that Parliament was stronger than the king or queen. In 1701 Parliament passed the Act of Settlement which stated that only a Protestant could inherit the crown of Britain. This law is in power up to now. The monarchy became constitutional. William and Mary did not have surviving children and after their death the crown passed to Mary's sister Anne, who was the last Stuart monarch.

 

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

I. Match the words and their definitions.

1. turbulent	a) (the crime of) great disloyalty to one's country, esp. by helping its enemies or by violent opposition to those in power;
2. divine	b) a person who lives in the land of, is protected by, and owes loyalty to a certain state or esp. royal ruler;
3. to dissolve	c) the wooden frame on which criminals used to be killed by hanging from a rope;
4. apprentice	d) someone who is disloyal, esp. to their country;
5. subject	e) to speak or say (a religious speech) in public;
6. regiment	f) to cause (an association, group, etc.) to end or break up;
7. treason	g) violent and disorderly; having a restless or uncontrolled quality;
8. traitor	h) a person who is under an agreement to work, for a number of years and usu. for low wages, for a person who is skilled in a trade, in order to learn that person's skill;
9. gallows	i) connected with or being God or a god;
10. to preach	j) a large military group, commanded by a colonel.

Guess the translation of these words.

 

II. Answer the questions.

1. Why were the Stuarts inheritors of the English crown?

2. What was James I like?

3. Why did James I quarrel with his Parliament?

4. What were the Puritans' ideas?

5. Why did the Civil War begin?

6. What kind of monarch was Charles I?

7. What do you know about Oliver Cromwell?

8. Was Cromwell's republic a success?

9. Was Cromwell right in his decision to execute Charles I?

10. What made Charles II return from the exile?

11. Why was James II removed from the throne by William and Mary of Orange?

12. How did the monarchy change to the end of the 17^th century?

 

 

III. Scrambled sentences.

a)

1. noticed the rights Kings King writing The divine about was of books.

2. were successful The Tudor than Monarchs Kings less the Stuart.

3. was majesty King of figure not great James a.

4. awkward was impediment had He small speech in and his an.

b)

1. Slarhce I saw cedentesn ot tahed.

2. Rivole Worlemcl saw a morfer remafr.

3. Mellwocr libuplyc peccated eth litte fo Dorl Rectoport fo a Tunedi Thonmealwocm

fo Glendan, Candsotl, Nerilad nad teh locosien.

4. Eh idd ton rade ot keta pu het litte fo Gink, sa ehert saw poniopitos ot tath ni het ymar.

 

IV. What do you know about the British holiday which is celebrated on the 5^th of November? Tell the class about it.

 

V. Fill in the blanks with the words given below.

It was no accident that the greatest British architect of the time, Christopher wren, was also Professor of (1)... at Oxford. In 1666, following a year of (2)... plague, a fire (3)... most of the city of (4).... Eighty seven churches, including the great medieval (5)... of St Paul, were destroyed. Wren was ordered to (6)... them in the modern (7)..., which h did with (8)....

When London was rebuilt, a new law made sure that all buildings were made of (9)... or stone. The jewel of the new city was the new cathedral, (10)... by Sir Christopher Wren, Almost every (11)... in the new city was also designed by Wren, or by his able (12)..., Nicholas Hawksmoor. (69) Although some buildings were pulled down and others built during the next 250 years, the city only changed (13)... in the rebuilding that followed the (14) … … …. After the (15)... of 1666, the richer citizens for the first time had (16)... supplied to their houses, through specially made wooden (17)....

Skill; cathedral; style; Astronomy; terrible; church; London; Second World War; assistant; brick; fire; water; pipes; rebuild; destroy; de­signed; significantly.

 

VI. True-false quiz.

1. James I was the first Stuart King of England.

2. James I was handsome.

3. Guy Fawkes was the person who invented gunpowder.

4. James I haled his parliament because it did not supply him with enough money.

5. The Civil War was the war between Parliament and King.

6. Charles I fled to France where he was living peacefully till the end of his life.

7. Oliver Cromwell was a former farmer.

8. Oliver Cromwell obtained the title of King.

9. Oliver Cromwell was executed by Charles IL

10. Parliament invited Charles II to rule over Britain.

11. The Great Fire of London followed the Great Plague in 1666.

12. James II was a convinced Protestant.

13. The Act of Settlement says that a king or a queen of Britain should be born only in Britain.

14. Sir Christopher Wren was a Professor of Astronomy at Oxford.

15. The last Stuart monarchs were William III and Mary II of Orange.

V. BRITAIN IN THE 18^th CENTURY

The House of Hanover

Queen Anne had seventeen children, but none of them outlived their mother. So she was succeeded by her German cousin George Louis who was the Elector of Hanover. George was the great-grandson of King James I. When he became king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714, he was 54, and he was the first Hanoverian king of Britain.

George I did not speak English, he talked to his ministers either in German or in French. He was more interested in the affairs of Hanover than of Britain. Actually, he did not like this foggy island.

George I was succeeded by his son George II in 1727. Like his father George II was more interested in Hanover than in Britain. He spoke English with a strong accent. He was the last British king who partici­pated in military conflicts personally. During his reign Britain was in­volved into the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). In 1745 the grandson of deposed James II, Charles, or "Bon­nie Prince Charlie" as he was called, organized a rebellion trying to over­throw George II. The king defeated Charles quickly and made him flee to the Continent.

King George III was the grandson of George II. He came to the throne in 1760. In his childhood he was of slow mental development, but he always tried to do his best. His wife Charlotte was a clever woman and she always helped her husband with advice. Though there was one serious mistake that George III made. He ordered to introduce heavy taxes in the British colonies in America, and it led to the famous rebel- lion called "the Boston Tea Party", which was followed by the Ameri­can War of Independence in 1775.

George IV became the actual ruler of Britain in 1811 when his fa­ther George in fell into insanity. He was crowned in 1820.

In 1830 George IV's brother William IV became the King of Great Britain and Ireland. He was already 64 years old. During his reign Parliament passed a number of important acts. In 1833 slavery was abolished within the British Empire. Children under nine years of age were not allowed to work at factories. The working hours of children under 13 and 18 were restricted to 48 and 68 per week. Since 1834 all paupers had to be sent into workhouses. Other acts concerned the rights of people to vote, the sanitary condition of towns, and other reforms.

 

Industrial Revolution

Enclosures (the process of pushing people off their lands and making their lands pastures for sheep, as the result of increased demand for wool) made a lot of people move from villages to towns. There they had to buy food and other things which they had always made themselves when they lived on their own land. The growth of town population caused the increased demand for food and clothes. Goods had to be produced quicker. The invention of various machines made "mass production" possible. Each machine made one simple operation, which caused: the "division of labour" among workers.

Meanwhile, the appearance of machines which made the process of production much quicker put many people out of work. The employers treated their workers severely paying them little money and providing them with very bad working conditions. Workers tried to protect themselves against powerful employers joining together into workers' societies. The government banned these unions and the unemployed began to break up the machines which had put them out of work. These peo­ple are known as Luddites (by the name of the first person to break up his machine). The government did not support the workers and passed an act which said that breaking of machinery was punishable by death.

The production of good iron and steel in large quantities needed more effective fuel than wood. Britain began to use coal and became the leading iron producer in Europe.

John Wilkinson built the largest ironworks in Britain. He built the first iron bridge over the River Severn in 1779. He made the first iron boats. Wilkinson improved Watt's steam engine using iron and steel for making its parts. He himself was buried in an iron coffin.

British cotton and woollen cloth was popular in Europe. So the proc­ess of its production had to be perfected. In 1764 a spinning machine was invented. In 1785 a weaving machine made the process of cloth- making quicker. One invention led to another and soon various machines could do the work of several people.

Josiah Wedgwood made Britain famous abroad by his high quality china goods. His factory in the Midlands produced fine quality plates, cups, vases and other china goods for home use and for export.

The transportation of these goods was also made cheaper. Many canals were dug between towns; new roads were built which made it quicker and easier to cover long distances by land and by water.

On the whole, industrial revolution caused great economic, social and technological changes in Britain.

 

The Napoleonic Wars

In 1789 the French dynasty of Bourbons was overthrown by Napo­leon. This powerful leader began to enlarge the territory of the French Empire by capturing lands in India and Africa. The British interests abroad often went apart with Napo­leon's. In 1793 France declared war on Britain. In 1802 Britain and France made peace after Nelson's victory over the French fleet on the Nile. So, the British took control of the Mediterranean.

War began again in 1803. This time Nelson showed his naval strength again. He beat Napoleon's fleet at Trafalgar, off the southern Spanish coast. Unfortunately, Nel­son was killed the battle. This victo­ry destroyed Napoleon's plans to conquer Britain.

After his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812 Napoleon was weak­ened. In April 1814 he abdicated as emperor. Napoleon was sent to the island of Elba from which he escaped in February 1815. Several months later the great emperor renewed his attempt to destroy the British Empire. This time the commander of the British fleet was Wellington, who was a brave man and talented leader. He showed no fear of Napoleon. The main battle took place at Waterloo, near Brussels (Belgium) in June 1815. Napoleon was defeated and ex­iled to the island of St Helena.

Britain showed the world that it was a powerful empire with a strong navy, developed industry and firm political line. Now its main task was to keep up being as strong as it had become by the end of the 18lh cen­tury.

 

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

I. Match the words and their definitions.

1. insanity	a) water in the state of a gas produced by boiling;
2. pauper	b) a piece of machinery with moving parts which changes power from steam, electricity, oil, etc., into movement;
3. to ban	c) to forbid, esp. by law;
4. fuel	d) a material that is used for producing heat or power by burning or by atomic means;
5. china	e) madness;
6. steam	f) a very poor person, esp. one who in former times received official help;
7. engine	g) a hard white substance made by baking fine clay at high temperatures.

Guess the translation of these words.

 

II. Answer the questions.

1. When and why did the Hanoverian dynasty of the British monarchs emerge?

2. What kind of rulers were the Hanoverian kings?

3. Why did Britain lose its colonies in America?

4. What reforms did William IV carry out?

5. Why did the population of towns grow in the 18ш century?

6. What do the terms "mass production" and "division of labour" mean?

7. What were the social, technological and economic changes caused by the Industrial Revolution in Britain?

8. Why did Britain and Napoleonic France find themselves in a military conflict in 1793?

9. What military heroes glorified Great Britain in the wars against Na­poleon?

 

III. Say what facts from this chapter have already been known to you. What information can you add to it?

 

IV. Quiz.

1) a place for the poor to live in when they had no employment _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2) an American rebel-city _ _ _ _ _ _

3) the inventor of steam engine _ _ _ _

4) the 18th century owner of a china factory _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

5) a man, the main producer of iron in Britain at the end of the 18^th century _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

6) a British admiral _ _ _ _ _ _

 

V. Scrambled sentences.

The sentences below can't make sense. That is because each sentence beginning has been combined with the ending of one of the other sentences. Recombine the sentences so that you have eight sentences that make sense.

1. After the Napoleonic Wars Britain added Cape Colony (South Africa), Ceylon and Guinea as well as a number of small provinces and poets looked for inspiration to nature.

2. But this newly enlarged great power was romantic and emotional.

3. The social and political changes in the world were published in 1798.

4. Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge produced two great but very different geniuses — Turner and Constable.

5. Landscape painting was succeeded by little respected George IV.

6. The old King, blind, insane, died in 1820 and involved a revolution in arts.

7. The works of Byron, Shelley and Keats were suffering from internal problems.

8. A brilliant galaxy of writers to Canada, Australia, and most of India.

 

VI. Many people of the 19^th century admired Napoleon for his strength, decisiveness and ideas. What do you think about him?

 

VII. Test yourself.

1. The last Stuart monarch was

a) Queen Anne

b) George I

c) James III.

 

2. The Stuart dynasty was succeeded by

a) the Tudor dynasty

b) the Hanoverian dynasty

c) the Windsor dynasty.

 

 

3. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland lasted for

a) 120 years

b) 35 years

c) 9 years.

 

4. At the beginning of the 18^th century the streets of London were

a) broad and tidy

b) narrow and muddy

c) narrow but clean.

 

5. In the 18^th century women were treated like

a) equals to men

b) children of larger growth

c) slaves.

 

6. John Wilkinson produced

a) china

b) cotton cloth

c) iron.

 

7. The British preferred to fight against Napoleon

a) in the air

b) at sea

c) on the land.

 

8. Nelson was

a) a general

b) a captain

c) an admiral.

 

9. Nelson was killed

a) at Trafalgar

b) at Waterloo

c) in Egypt.

 

10. Wellington defeated Napoleon at

a) Trafalgar

b) Waterloo

c) Copenhagen.

 

 

VI. VICTORIAN BRITAIN

Queen Victoria

(1837-1901)

Queen Victoria succeeded her uncle King William IV in 1837. At that time she was only 18. Her father was George lira son, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent. Her mother was a German princess, Victoria Mary Louis of Saxe-Coburg-Saarfeld. Victoria married a German prince, who was her cousin. His name was Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel. Queen Victoria got the surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha by her husband. Later King George V would change this German surname into the English one, Windsor.

Victoria and Albert were happy in their family life. They had nine children, four sons (Edward, Prince of Wales, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Leopold, Duke of Albany) and five daughters (Victoria, Alice, Helena, Louise and Beatrice).

Queen Victoria was devoted to her work. She was very responsible, wise, progressive and industrious. Though she had a period in her life when the British people thought that their queen forgot about them. It happened after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861 at the age of 42. Victoria's grief was so deep that she refused to appear in pub­lic. People began to wonder if they had a monarch at all. This was a dan­gerous situation, because many people in the country began to think that monarchy was dying and democracy was making its way to power. Victoria's advisers persuaded her to return to her work and to public life. Though it was very difficult for her, she did so. Nobody expected that she would become even more popular, than she had been before. People respected their queen and the whole royal family, who were an image of high morals and virtuous life.