Notes taken from Barry Coward's "A Stuart Age" to assist with the AQA A-Level History Stuart Breadth study period. Helped me to obtain an A grade in A-Level History.
Barry Coward
The Stuart Age
“What, however, did contribute to the political tensions...was the fact that James made no attempt to counter the image of
his court as decadent and corrupt.”
“Of all the political problems of his reign James I undoubtably dealt most successfully with the dangers of religious
nonconformity.”
“The 1614 addled parliament well deserves its nickname ‘the addled parliament’. It was dissolved on 7 June, having passed no
legislation and, more seriously for James, no subsidy.”
“It is no coincidence that England’s temporary involvement in the Thirty Years’ war in the 1920s was a crucial period in
England’s domestic political history.”
“Although during the first eighteen years of his reign James I was much more successful than he has often been represented
in preventing these tensions from erupting into major cases...political conflict was always just below the surface calm of life
in Jacobean England.”
“The accession of Charles I marks a definite turning point.”
“Charles also showed that he possessed none of his fathers’ political shrewdness or flexibility.”
“Charles’s accession signalled the involvement of England in war.”
“Charles’s accession also signalled an important religious change.”
“There were, of course, many reasons for the growing dissatisfaction with Charles’ personal government, but it is likely that
the Kings attachment to Laudianism made the greatest contribution to it.”
“One did not need to be a sophisticated theologian or ardent Puritan to recognise Laud as a threat.”
“It was the outbreak of rebellion in Scotland, for which Charles was largely responsible, that precipitated the collapse of the
personal rule.”
“Charles’s greatest blunder was in promoting Laudianism.”
“By 1640 the old constitution was still intact. Nor was it inevitable that it would break down as it did in 1641 and 1642.”
Whig view of the English Revolution: inevitable, a conscious effort of parliamentary leaders to create the new British
Constitution.
Marxist view of the English Revolution: inevitable, direct result of social and economic changes, effects did counter
intentions though.
Revisionist view of the English Revolution: Charles I’s ineptness and functional pressure of the events after 1640.
“Charles’s declaration of war by raising his standards at Nottingham on 22 August 1642 only made official the slide into civil
war which had been apparent for months.
“Religious zeal was as prominent at the climax of the English Revolution in 1649 as it was at its start in 1640.”
“The English Revolution - the purge of parliament in December 1648 and the trial and execution of the King in January 1649 -
was carried out by a tiny clique against the wishes of the vast majority in the country.”
“The history of the Republic confirms that only a limited political revolution had taken place in 1648-9, and one that was
reversed in 1660.”
“It was the Rump’s dilatory record on constitutional reform that led directly to its dissolution. As with many other matters,
the Rump talked a lot but did little.”
“Mainly, however, most people came to see the Rump as the only practicable government. There was little enthusiasm for
the return of the monarchy, and the only alternative to the Rump was the army.”
Blair Worden: “ideological schizophrenia”
Cromwell on Barebones: “the subversion of the laws and of all the liberties of this nation, the destruction of the Ministry, of
this nation, in a word the confusion of all things.”
“Cromwell’s most appealing and successful achievement was in the organization of religious life in England. During the
protectorate only a minimum of state control of religion was exercised.”
“Cromwell failed because, despite his genuine desire for ‘healing and settling’, he often gave priority to his aim of achieving a
Godly reformation and to succeed in that aim he needed the support of the army.”
“Restoring the monarchy was considered to be the only way of restoring stability.”
“The series of ad hoc decisions made in the early 1660s b the Convention and Cavalier parliaments, which are traditionally
called ‘The restoration settlement’, settled very little.”
“The declaration of Breda was a skilfully assembled package which contained something for every political faction in
England.”
On the Cabal: “it wrongly suggests that the five men were of equal political importance and were agreed on public policy.”
“There was no Popish Plot.”
Exclusion crisis: “The position of the Crown and the Tories was much stronger than that of the Whigs.”
Exclusion crisis: “Charles’ greatest asset was his financial strength which allowed him in 1681 to dispense with parliament.”
Chapter 11: “The Trend Towards Absolutism, 1681-88”
“The failure of James II’s pro-catholic policies was inevitable; but his downfall in 1688 was not.”
“In reality, James’s aims were much more moderate and limited than many contemporaries and later historians thought.”
“The prime aim of William of Orange throughout his life was to oppose French expansion in Europe.”
“The most important effect of the glorious revolution is that it brought a man whose man aims weren’t centred in England
but in Europe to the throne.”
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