3. Anti-Catholic sentiment, 1660-88

Question 1

After Restoration - signs of a renewed concern among some in other court and country factions w/ the threat of Catholic influence?

Answer 1

• 1666 - Great Fire - sparked rumours of Catholic agents at work
• War with Dutch generally popular - but the disasters that followed created a range of reactions
• While the Commons blamed and impeached Charles’ chief adviser, Claredon, others saw events as a judgement of God on the activities of a dissolute court and influence of Papists within it

Question 2

1667 - Louis XIV

Answer 2

• Invaded the Spanish Netherlands - launched an attack on the Dutch
• Fed a growing awareness in England that Catholic France was now a greater threat to English and Protestant independence than the Hapsburg in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain

Question 3

Duke of York conversion

Answer 3

• James converted to Catholicism - became public knowledge by 1669

Question 4

Who replaced Clarendon?

Answer 4

• Charles replaced him w/ a group of courtiers who included known Catholics, Clifford and Arlington

Question 5

Charles II - commitment to French alliance - concerns

Answer 5

• Caused grave concern - his receipt of subsidies from Louis raised questions about a desire to escape financial dependence on parliaments
• Most of Charles’ subjects were unaware of a secret clause in the Treaty of Dover of 1670 - Charles promised to announce his conversion to Catholicism as soon as it was safe and appropriate

Question 6

New Declaration of Indulgence

Reaction?

Answer 6

1672 - explicitly permitted Catholics to worship in private

Produced hostile reactions in parliament and across the Anglican establishment because:

• Of a dislike of the king’s claim to be able to dispense with the law, rather than any religious implications that the Declaration had
• the Catholic sympathies of both the king and his brother and heir were increasingly apparent

Question 7

Charles II’s motives with the Declaration of Indulgence?

Answer 7

Hard to assess
- No reason to doubt he opposed persecution - had an association w/ Latitudinarians like Lord Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1661 - therefore: probably sympathetic attitude towards dissent

Question 8

Lord Ashley

Answer 8

• Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1661
• Promoted to Lord Chancellor and created Earl of Shaftesbury
• After Charles was forced to withdraw the Declaration, his reservations regarding French alliance led to his dismissal in 1973 - began his career in opposition to royal policy
• Main reason for this: Charles’ decision to ally w/ the Anglican establishment

This, and the acceptance of the Test Act, excluding all but Anglicans from public office, indicates that, whatever his motives, they weren’t strong enough to persuade Charles to risk a repetition of his father’s fate

Question 9

From the time Charles II withdrew the Declaration of Indulgence, why had the fear of Catholicism and absolutism increased significantly?

Answer 9

• While Danby concluded a Dutch alliance and marriage between William and Mary, the elder daughter of the Duke of York, the Duke himself permitted to marry the Catholic, Mary of Modena (1673)
• Queen’s (Catherine of Braganza’s) childlessness became less and less likely to change - chance of James succeeding increased - who might well produce a Catholic son
• Danby built up control of parliament using royal patronage and French subsidies

Question 10

A letter from a Person of Quality to his Friends in the Country

Answer 10

• Pamphlet issued by Shaftesbury in 1675 - argued that Anglican bishops were promoting the persecution of Protestants and arbitrary govt under the guise of protecting the Church

Question 11

Whigs and Tories

Answer 11

• Political attitudes and beliefs beginning to take shape
• In that shape the Whigs appealed to the Protestant majority - occasionally tainted by association with dissent - while the Tories stood for Church and king, increasingly tainted by association with Catholic absolutism

Question 12

The Exclusion Crisis from 1679 to 1681 accompanied the hysteria of…

Answer 12

the Popish Plot, which started in 1678.

Question 13

Why was Charles II able to outmanoeuvre those calling for Danby to be impeached and James to be excluded from the throne?

Answer 13

• More astute politician than his father - played his cards w/ patience and skills - aided by French subsidies (could afford to dissolve parliament)
• English control of Scotland and Ireland - established after 1649 - strengthened by the Restoration - enabled him to focus on England
• Most importantly - memories of upheaval and Protestant extremism of 40s and 50s allowed him to paint Whigs as potential rebels and regicides

Question 14

How was the sense of central control of Charles II reinforced in 1683?

Answer 14

• After the Rye House Plot - gave Charles opportunity to focus on public fears of dissent and away from Catholics

Question 15

Second Stuart Absolutism

Answer 15

1682-86 - labelled by some historians as a ‘Second Stuart Absolutism’ - loyalty to the Church and king enabled the Triennial Act to be ignored - the corporations to be brought under Tory control and financial independence to be secured by French subsidies

Question 16

James II’s one aim after he came to the throne in 1685

Answer 16

• To ensure equality as citizens for his fellow Catholics by using his power as monarch
• Had no problem overriding existing laws/and or ignoring rights of parliament - took series of steps between 85 and 88 to achieve aims

Question 17

Did James want to extend royal power for his own sake?

Answer 17

• Less clear if this is the case - as is the extent to which he was genuine in opposing persecution of other faiths
• Friends w/ the Quaker William Penn - suggests he was sincere - but whether a Catholic monarchy would’ve maintained toleration is questionable

Question 18

Louis XIV - 1685

Answer 18

• Revoked Edict of Nantes - sent a stream of Protestant refugees - contributed significantly to James’s eventual failure

Question 19

James II’s policies

Answer 19

1686 - issued instructions to bishops forbidding preaching of anti-Catholic sermons, set up Court of Ecclesiastical Commission, reminiscent of the Prerogative Court of High Commission - had been abolished in 1641

When Bishop Compton of London - refused to suspend a cleric fo preaching such as sermon - he himself suspended by the Court

• He set a licensing office using his prerogative powers to sell permits to dissenters - exempting them from laws of the Clarendon Code

Question 20

Godden v Hales case

Answer 20

• Confirmed the king’s right to exempt individuals from the Test and Corporation Acts - which James then used to force Magdalen College, Oxford, to accept a Catholic President

Question 21

James II’s advisers

Answer 21

• Dismissed his Anglican advisers - the Earals of Clarendon and Rochester - replaced them w/ Earl of Sunderland and Judge Jeffreys

Authorised to question JPs and parliamentary candidates in campaign to pack the next parliament w/ members who would vote in favour of repealing the Clarendon Code acts

Question 22

James II - Declarations of Indulgence

Reaction?

Answer 22

1687 - allowed both Catholics and dissenters to worship freely

1688 - another Declaration - more explicit on rights of Catholics and allowing dissenters to without a specific licence - he ordered to be read from the pulpit of every parish church

7 bishops - including William Sancroft, Archbishop - petitioned against this order - they were arrested, tired and acquitted

Question 23

End of James II’s Reign

Answer 23

• June 1688 - Mary of Modena gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward - known as the Warming Pan Baby and later as the Old Pretender
• Birth caused 7 leading political figures - 3 Whigs, 3 Anglican lords and the Bishop of London - to write an appeal to William of Orange to invade England and forestall any further acts by the king