Essay
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EuropeanReligiousWarfareSixteenth-SeventeenthCenturies.pptxEuropean Religious Warfare, Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries
An overview
Initial conflict in the wake of Luther’s 95 theses
1500s:
Swabian peasants’ revolt: against their economic oppression; brutally crushed by Protestant authorities with Luther’s full-throated support.
Anabaptist community in Munster, Germany: this community and its charismatic leader were harshly suppressed after turning to revolutionary violence (in stark contrast to the pacifism of most Anabaptists)
1555: Peace of Augsburg grants limited religious toleration (NOT religious liberty) and leads to the effective, more or less even division of Germany (which would not be a unified nation-state until 1871) into Catholic and Lutheran states.
1571: Victory of Catholic forces over Ottoman Turks at Lepanto, leading to the establishment of Our Lady of Lepanto/Victory (later Our Lady of the Rosary) as a Roman Catholic feast day in commemoration of this victory
1588: English forces, under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I, defeat King Philip’s Spanish ships known as the Armada; Spain will maintain its overseas empire for centuries afterward, but this moment marks a turning point leading ultimately to Britain becoming the world’s No. 1 imperial power
Thirty Years’ War
Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648): This highly destructive international conflict began with a revolt by Protestants in Prague, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), leading Protestant monarchs to support and Catholic monarchs to oppose the rebels
The war included Bohemian, Dutch, and French phases
Ended with the Treaty of Westphalia, which established the principle of the leader of each nation-state being entitled to choose the official religion of his/her realm; allows room for religious toleration (but NOT religious liberty) in some states
Further reading:
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture6c.html
English Civil War
The English Civil War began in the early 1640s, when Puritans (Calvinists who wanted to reform the Church of England by “purifying” it in a thoroughly Protestant direction, removing all Catholic elements) began to challenge the rule of King Charles I. This conflict becomes violent between the Roundheads (Puritan/Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell) and the Cavaliers (Royalists loyal to the Stuart dynasty).
1649: Puritans, having achieved ascendancy in Parliament, execute King Charles I; establish the Council of State as the leadership of the Commonwealth of England (including England, Wales, and Ireland)
1649: Charles I’s older son, Charles II, reaches an agreement with the Covenanters, a staunchly Protestant Scottish group, enabling him to take the throne of Scotland but not the thrones of England (which included Wales) and Ireland
1651: Puritan forces oust Charles II as King of Scots and annex Scotland for the Commonwealth
1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes the supreme leader of Britain with the title “Lord Protector,” replacing the collective leadership of the Council of State
1650s: Puritans force many changes on the British public, including the banning of the theater as immoral; strict regulation of other areas of personal conduct and entertainment, and even ban the celebration of Christmas, which they believed to be un-Biblical and infected with pagan elements.
1658: Oliver Cromwell dies in office; his son Richard Cromwell succeeds him as Lord Protector.
1659: Richard Cromwell forced to step down, ceding power to the Council of State
1660: Stuart Restoration – Charles II returns from exile and takes the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones, thereby ending the unpopular experiment in Puritan republicanism.
1640s-1660s: In addition to the Puritan, a number of more radical Protestant-leaning groups as well as political and social radicals make their presence felt during the English Civil War.
Key events following the Stuart Restoration
1662: Under Charles’s reign as King, the Church of England issues a revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer, which remains the official central text of the Church of England as of 2018 (though other liturgical books have been more widely used by English Anglicans since 1980); the 1662 Prayer Book also serves as the template for other national Anglican churches’ liturgical prayer books, including those of the Protestant Episcopal Church, or Episcopal Church USA, the American branch of the Anglican Communion
1670s: Charles II’s young brother and, since Charles had no legitimate children, his heir to the thrones, James, Duke of York, converts from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. James’s previous marriage to an Anglican woman (ending with her death) produced two daughters, Mary and Anne, both of whom remained members of the Church of England. James’s second marriage to a Roman Catholic woman was solemnized in the 1670s as well. Fearful of “Romanism” again becoming the state religion and the persecution of Protestants, many members of Parliament sought to strip James of his succession rights. To block this move, Charles refused to call Parliament into session for the last six years or so of his reign.
1685: Charles II dies, supposedly having converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed. James takes power as King James II of England and Ireland and King James VII of Scots.
1685-1688: British Anglican elites in Parliament become alarmed by James’s support for the ideology of royal absolutism and his friendship with the autocratic Catholic King Louis XIV of France. They also distrusted him because of his Roman Catholic faith, despite the fact that he made no attempt to impose Roman Catholicism on Britain and even accepted his ex officio role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Moreover, James’s opponents loathed his policies of religious toleration for both Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters.
1688: James’s son James Francis Edward Stuart is born and is baptized a Roman Catholic, leading to fears of the imposition of a Roman Catholic dynasty.
1688: In an event known as the “Glorious Revolution” because it initially included almost no violence, Parliament declares James to have abdicated after he and his family flee to France in December
1689: Parliament passes the English Bill of Rights and invites James’s daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange (also James’s nephew) to become the co-monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland, thereby establishing the authority of Parliament to appoint the monarchy. At the same time, Parliament excludes Roman Catholics and their spouses from the line of succession to the thrones.
British union and Jacobite resistance
1690: Supporters of James II (known as “Jacobites” from Jacobus, the Latin form of James) as the legitimate king fight the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, which ended with the victory of William and Mary’s forces.
1694: Mary dies; William becomes the sole monarch
1701: James II, still insisting that he remained the rightful king, dies. James II’s elder son, James Francis Edward Stuart, inherits his father’s royal claims. Jacobites refer to him as King James III & VIII. In later years, opponents of the Jacobites will call him the Old Pretender. Both James II and “James III” enjoy, for some time, the support of both France and the papacy.
1702: Following Jacobites’ unsuccessful appeals to the current king to designate James Francis Edward as his successor, William dies the day after he issued a writ of attainder against “James III,” stripping him of all his royal and noble titles. Mary’s sister Anne becomes Queen.
1707: Act of Union leads to the merging of the Kingdom of England (including Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland remains a separate kingdom, though in a personal union (through Anne) with the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1708: First Jacobite attempt to overthrow Anne and replace her with the younger James is defeated.
1714: Anne dies without any living legitimate children; the British and Irish thrones pass to the German royal family of Hanover, whose head becomes King George I. Despite ruling England, he does not speak English.
1715: First major Jacobite Rising against the Hanoverian British monarchy; defeated.
1719: Another Jacobite Rising launched and defeated by George I’s forces.
1727: George I dies; George II becomes king.
1743: The “Old Pretender” James appoints his older son, Charles Edward Stuart, as his regent. The Hanoverian side typically refers to Charles as the Young Pretender; Jacobites affectionately call him Bonnie Prince Charlie.
1745: Final and largest-scale Jacobite Rising begins under Bonnie Prince Charlie’s leadership.
1746: George II’s forces defeat the Jacobite forces at the Battle of Culloden, with heavy casualties on the Jacobite side. Culloden is still considered one of the most tragic episodes in Scottish history.
1746-1759: Charles continues to plot the overthrow of George II, but no further “risings” are carried out.
1747: Charles’s younger brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, becomes a Roman Catholic cardinal and later a priest and bishop. The Holy See allows Henry to publicly use the title “Cardinal Duke of York.”
1760: George II dies; George III becomes King of Great Britain and Ireland.
1766: James Francis Edward Stuart dies. The Papacy/Papal States gives up on the Jacobite cause and recognizes George III as the legitimate British king, enraging Bonnie Prince Charlie. Charlie declares himself King Charles III of England, Scotland, and Ireland and retains the support of diehard Jacobites.
1788: Charles Edward Stuart dies. Since Bonnie Prince Charlie had no legitimate children, the Jacobite succession claims pass on to his brother Henry, who changes his title to the “Cardinal called Duke of York” and, among his closest associates and supporters, refers to himself as King Henry IX & I.
1801: The Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In the interest of securing an alliance with France, King George III gives up the title “King of France,” which all English and, later, British monarchs had claimed since the late Middle Ages.
1807: Cardinal Stuart, now occupying the prestigious posts of Bishop of Ostia and Velletri and Dean of the College of Cardinals, dies, bringing the direct male Stuart line to the end. Subsequently, the Jacobite succession passes to a series of Continental European Catholic noble/royal families.
The current Jacobite “pretender” is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, head of the House of Wittelsbach (once the ruling family of Bavaria). Today’s Jacobites refer to him as King Francis II (of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France) as well as the rightful King of Bavaria. However, Franz himself has never attempted to claim any of these thrones.
Complicating the picture: Protestant Jacobites
The controversy over Jacobitism did not run along simple Catholic –vs.-Protestant lines. There were, in fact, many Protestant Jacobites, including Protestants who dissented from the Church of England.
Also, both the Catholic French monarchy and the Papacy (and Papal States) eventually withdrew their support for the Jacobite pretenders and accepted the Hanoverians as the rightful rulers of Britain and Ireland.
Religious issues aside, one of the major factors attracting people to the Jacobite cause has been support for the restoration of England and Scotland as separate kingdoms. Most Jacobites have also been “Legitimists,” meaning that they support the traditional norms governing hereditary royal succession and also that they believe that royal authority comes from God (the “divine right of kings”) rather than Parliament.
