The Restoration

The Protectorate failed because Richard Cromwell wasn’t able to keep the military officers under control
and he was not able to raise himself at his father’s level, so the Protectorate had success only thanks to
Oliver Cromwell. Also, the Protectorate failed because it had a very strict mentality which wasn’t liked
very much by the population of England. The Restoration was a way of saying that the Protectorate was
no longer needed and accepted, it wasn’t a solution anymore.

The good thing brought by the Protectorate was The Commonwealth of Britain. Also, the Protectorate
abolished The House of Lords and when the Restoration began we had only The House Of Commons.

People saw that the Puritans became very extremists and the military officers gained too much power.
Those officers became a sort of local absolutist leaders and Parliament came with a solution: to bring
back the monarchy which had been dissolved in 1660.

Parliament appealed to Charles ll, king Charles’ son, the one who had been killed by the will of the
people. Because of this thing the dynasty would have been restored. The same House of Commons that
had executed Charles l voted that Charles ll should become the new king. A delegation went to Paris
(after the execution of Charles, the royal family went to Paris) to ask Charles ll to become the king of
England but with several conditions: Charles ll would have to accept the parliamentary power (meaning
that the king and Parliament obtained equal power in the state). This system was called parliamentary
monarchy-monarchy and Parliament had to rule the country together and Parliament had to be
respected by the king.

Also, the king became again the head of The Anglican Church. Charles ll asked to have The House of
Lords again, which would have to work together with The house of Commons ; in order not to have the
power in the hands of one person of the hands of a small group it was agreed that they should have
elections and this thing presupposed voting. In 1661, for the first time in the history of England we had
parties: The Royalists, also known as The Tories and The Parliamentaries, also known as The Wigs. The
first elections in the history of England took place also in 1661 and The Tories won them. It was also
stipulated that the parties should have elections every four years and in 1665 The Wigs would win,
meaning that since we have both parties obtaining the power, the modern democracy entered in
England. Also we had the principle of the power which was found in the hands of several people, chosen
by the nation, using the vote of the nation. Also, The Council of State disappeared and in 1661, after
winning the first elections, The Tories formed a sort of government and the leader of The Tories became
a sort of prime-minister (actually the function was called Lord Chanceller).

It seemed that Charles ll was more tolerant than his father even if he had made his own mistakes (in
several cases he was quite stubborn and he liked to spend money, to live in a luxurious way and to have
many women). The new elected king had an important power of organisation, which helped The
Restoration.

Charles ll was declared a constitutional king of England, ruling according to the principles of Magna
Carta. He was declared king on 23.04.1660, the day of Saint George, a spiritual day showing the
importance of The Restoration but also the trust the even The Anglican Church gave to the new king.
Also we can figure out that The Restoration was a miracle. Another important thing was that Charles ll
never looked for revenge against Parliament which had killed his father.

The Tories reduced taxes, they recreated the administration and what was bad was that The Tories
started persecuting the Puritans to show that they did not like the Puritanism at all. The persecutions
were so cruel that many of the Puritans were forced to emigrate to America. This turned America into a
territory ruled by the Puritans.

In 1662 we had the adoption of a new Act of Uniformity which officially restored The Anglican Church,
The Common Prayer Book and King James’ Bible. We had the return to the period before The English
Civil War and England greeted a democratic age.

Referring to the economy, The Tories decreased taxes and they decided that the accounting books of
the king were in the hands of Parliament-Parliament controlled the way in which the king spend his
money.

Military matters. The New Model Army was abolished it was replaced by a very powerful military force,
The Life Guards (they were a force of protection, meant to protect the king of any attempt to his life).
The king himself had the wright to nominate The Life Guards, he was also head of the army, which was
much smaller than The New Model Army, In order to keep the king away from the temptation of the
power.

The Royal Navy was restored to its former positions before the War (it had again two parts, a military
one and a commercial one). The commercial links restarted, all the countries recognized the English
kingdom. England received again reaches from the colonies, it started to prosper and the monarchy was
respected in Scotland and Ireland.

Charles ll had the wisdom to pardon all the past events against the crown.

In that period we had 2 great bad events which led in their final to good things: the Great Plague (1665)
and the Great Fire of London (1666).

The Great Plague was a very terrible disease and it had been caused because of the poor hygiene
conditions. It was more frequent in the countries with access to the sea and the infested rats
transmitted it. It was the last great epidemics and hurt England. London was also specially affected
because it is a harbour. Charles ll did not catch it.

1666- in London broke out a great fire. The houses in London were made of wood and this is why the
fire spread very easily. The fire lasted for three days and it destroyed several important historic buildings
which later on would be built again, made of stone. The good thing brought by the fire was that it
destroyed all the effects of the plague. Also, since it had stone buildings, England became more modern.

Also we had an opening towards the culture which had been supported by the politics and the good
economy. We had the reopening of the theatres, Shakespeare was played again and Defoe and Swift
could start their activity. People started to enjoy life and we had a more modern perspective showing
that The Protectorate was old-fashioned.

XVlll- people started believing that they must live happily, joyfully, enjoying life with all its aspects. The
newspaper were created, the wigs started to be worn in those times, the clothes became more and
more expensive and the art of conversation gained a great importance. Beautiful gardens were created
in the cities and also labyrinths. Later on we would have the Romanticism but for the moment we had
this pleasure of living in England.

With The Restoration, the democracy appeared in England and placed this country much ahead in
comparison with the other countries.

This is something in the nature of the English: to be very practical people, pragmatic, people who are
conquerors. They are really a model of development.