Parliament Limits The English Monarchy: Fill & Download for Free

What are you talking about? The Parliamentarians won the English Civil War and held onto power until Cromwell died which is when they reinstated the English monarchy by putting Charles 1st’s son (Charles the 2nd) on the throne.Essentially the Parliamentarians never gave up power though because even though we became a kingdom once again after a short-lived attempt of being a republic the new monarchy was less powerful. Parliament limited its power more than it did prior to the English Civil War.

They took Charles II’s return as an opportunity to limit the power of the monarchy. He had to make a deal to get the throne back. From that point on it was clear that the monarchy was in the gift of Parliament. It was the beginnings of constitutional monarchy. There was another big shift only 28 years later, when James II got kicked out for being a crypto-Catholic, and William III took over along with James’s daughter Mary. William had to sign away a whole lot of royal prerogatives in order to get the crown.It was a good move. Obviously Parliament alone could not prevent a military dictatorship under Cromwell, but Parliament and the Crown, each acting as a check on the other, could.

I have lived in both Britain and Europe and still like to consider this.As other Answers have said, an Englishman might see this question differently from a Scottish or Welsh person or someone from Northern Ireland. However:Why Should Britain Be Like Europe?Great Britain is an offshore island. At its narrowest point, the Straits of Dover, the English Channel isn’t very wide. However Britain is otherwise separated from the European Mainland by a fairly large expanse of water. That water barrier has reduced the possibilities of a successful European invasion of the island, at least since 1066 when the Normans forced all of England into one, centralized, state. A united, centrally-administered England has had sufficient resources to fend off invaders. They were able to fend off the Spanish armada and make it clear to Napoleon and the Nazis that an invasion was very unlikely to succeed. The Dutch staged successful raids on England but had nothing like the resources to invade and occupy the country.There tends to be an assumption that offshore islands should be a lot like the nearest continental land mass. This doesn’t seem to be true in some cases. I have lived in the Philippines. People insist on calling the country part of Asia but the majority Malay Filipinos are much more Pacific Islanders. Cuba is very close to the United States mainland but has remained culturally far closer to the countries of Central and South America. The island of Madagascar is offshore of Africa but has a unique culture based on a Polynesian language. Basically even a limited expanse of water goes a long way.The Normans, Trapped On an IslandIt is probably fair to say that the Normans saw a future for England as being part of their French territories and the French culture. However this didn’t work. After a few centuries the Normans were marginalized in France while the Paris-based kings created a standard French culture highly-centred on their royal court.Against their will the Normans found themselves becoming the English. They did not have enough population in Normandy to murder the Anglo-Saxons and replace them with Norman migrants. The Normans and the Anglo-Saxons began to fuse into one people.Unintentionally the Normans created a non-European culture in England. The fusion with Norman French made English a much less Germanic language and much more a unique melding of the Latin and Germanic language families.The Normans brutally crushed resistance but did not suppress English commerce and trade. They did not try to regulate everyday life in the strongly centralist way that some European countries did. England retained a business class. It was allowed to develop a legal system very different from those prevalent in Europe. The monarchs of England did not attempt to impose the Roman and civil law European systems on England. The Normanness and Frenchness of the English monarchy faded rather rapidly. The English monarchy that developed did not have a strong cultural project.Sail Away from EuropeIt is not uncommon for island people to see themselves as unique. By the time of Henry VIII England had become a separate cultural entity from the European countries.There was also another issue for the English. Compared to much of Europe, England was small, cold and rather poor. The Little Ice Age probably made this worse.The English had come to understand that a strong maritime presence was necessary to dissuade prospective European invaders. Particularly after the discovery of the New World the English were able to turn their maritime experience to exploration and trade, far afield from Europe. The English had nothing like the troop strength to defeat the monarchs of Paris and conquer and occupy all of France. However long-distance maritime travel could bring the English highly desirable goods from North America and elsewhere, furs, cod fish, tobacco, timber, etc.England’s limited land area and resources made settlement overseas attractive. (By contrast, with reference to Quebec, Cardinal Richelieu cautioned against emptying France to build New France.) The English focus was drawn away from Europe. In Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand the English and then the British created kindred countries, initially populated by British people, with a far stronger common identity than anything between Britain and anywhere in Europe. The British focus was elsewhere than Europe.Suppress Roman Catholicism and Its EuropeannessThe Protestant Reformation happened in a number of countries. Some of the English, Scots and Welsh motives for reformation had a considerable amount in common with those of Germany, Switzerland and the unsuccessful Huguenots.However there was an extra dimension. The English had come to see the Europeans as foreign. Roman Catholicism as a European cultural project to extend the legacy of the Western Roman Empire did not resonate so much.Above all the English monarchs wanted sovereignty. They had their own commercial goals to achieve. The Roman Catholic Church was a foreign interference. The Church did not help itself by plotting against Anglicanism and the monarchs who wanted to use it as a means to enforce their power.English and then Scottish religious traditions began to diverge from the European norm. The English and Scots did not want involvement in a multinational Protestant church such as Lutheranism. The English and Scots went their own religious way.The British Empire Was Not At All EuropeanThe British invested huge efforts in building their first and second empires. The people the British subjugated had nothing to do with Europe. Of course the relationship was one of subjugator and subjugated, but British interest in the peoples of its empire became rather strong. The cultures of India were a source of fascination. The British developed Arabism, a sincere expression of interest and sometimes admiration of the Arab Culture.The Germans Drove The British AwayIn the twentieth century the Germans took the initiative in threatening Britain with invasion twice in a short time period. They succeeded in strongly heightening the British feeling that Europe, above all, was an alien threat.The European Union Made Itself Unacceptable to BritainThe United Kingdom wanted to participate in trading relations with Europe. The Europeans wanted a cultural and federal project. Most British people didn’t.Brexit has been ascribed to reactionary, older, less-educated people. I don’t think this is fair. It does not appear that most British people want a stronger cultural bond with Europe or to surrender more sovereignty to the EU Parliament. The United Kingdom isn’t European.If anything greatly effective mass and social media have drawn Britain culture more closely together with the United States and the other former Dominions. Britain’s cultural focus is now even more elsewhere. An elite might identify with Europe but not too many others. Europe is not what most British people want.Martin Levine