Asiento The right to supply African slaves to the Spanish colonies of the New World, secured for Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 (see Utrecht, Treaty of).Assizes Court held twice a year in a major town as part of a regular circuit of assize judges with jurisdiction over felonies.
Attainder, bill of Statute which declares the party in question “attainted” of treason, without a formal trial. Those attainted lost their lives, titles, lands, and goods.
Babington Plot Plot engineered in 1586 by Anthony Babington, page to Mary Queen of Scots, to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne. Discovered by Secretary Walsingham’s spy system, he waited to see if Mary would incriminate herself. She did so, leading to her trial and execution.
Baptists Protestants who believed in baptism only by adult choice, thus vitiating any notion of a national Church. In England, often called Anabaptists (“re-baptizers”), but only as a term of abuse to associate them with continental radicals. During the seventeenth century, divided between Particular Baptists who were strict Calvinists believing in a Church restricted to the elect, and General Baptists who believed in the potential for universal salvation.
Calvinists Protestant followers of John Calvin who believed that God has predestined all humans to be saved (the elect) or damned (reprobates). Most members of the Church of England prior to 1630, and all Puritans, were Calvinists.
Cavaliers Cant name for Royalists during the Civil Wars, derived from the Spanish caballero or horseman. It was originally a pejorative name for the courtly gallants, often of magnificent appearance but little money, who rallied to the king’s side.
Cavalier Code See Clarendon Code.
Chantry A chapel, often a side-chapel in a church, set aside for prayers for the dead in Purgatory, often endowed by the deceased. Dissolved by the Crown in 1547.
Clarendon Code Popular name for the set of statutes passed by the Cavalier Parliament to establish the monopoly of the Church of England and outlaw Dissent after the Restoration (see Conventicle Act, Corporation Act, Five Mile Act, Licensing Act, Uniformity, Act of, 1662). Its effect was to make Dissenters second-class citizens.
Conventicle Act, 1664 Statute which forbade meetings of more than five people for illegal (i.e., Dissenting) worship on pain of fines and exile for a third offense. Lapsed in 1667; replaced by another Conventicle Act in 1670.
Copyhold Form of land tenure less secure than freehold but more so than leasehold. Copyholders held land on terms set out in a copy of the manor roll. Copyholders could often transfer the holding to their descendants even though they did not technically own the land. Prevalent at the beginning of the early modern period, rare at its end because capitalist landlords and market forces worked to eliminate it.
Corporation Act, 1661 Statute which gave Crown-appointed commissioners the right to expel and replace members of town corporations thought to be of questionable loyalty to the Restoration in Church and State.
Corporation The mayor, aldermen, and/or other governors of a city or borough as laid out in its charter, granted by the Crown.
Covenant, National, 1638 and Covenant, Solemn League and, 1643 Both were at once agreements and oaths whose takers agreed to act together militarily to resist episcopalian influence and achieve religious reform. First signed in 1638 by the leaders of Scottish society to defend the Presbyterian Church government and its Calvinist theology against the Anglicizing tendencies of Charles I (see Presbyterians). The English Parliamentarians in 1643 agreed to a similar Solemn League and Covenant, by which the Scottish Covenanters supplied their army in return for £30,000 a month and a promise to establish Presbyterianism in England. This agreement made possible the crushing parliamentary victory at Marston Moor, 1644.
Declarations of Indulgence, 1672, 1687, 1688 Royal proclamations suspending (see Suspending power) the laws against both recusants (Catholics) and Dissenters. Not supported by many Dissenters because of their fear of Catholics, and fiercely opposed by Anglicans.
Deists Those who, in the wake of the scientific revolution and Enlightenment, ceased to believe that God intervenes in worldly occurrences. Rather, they conceived of a “watchmaker God” who set the universe running according to unalterable natural laws. Suspicious of Scripture and dogma as infallible guides for behavior, preferring the exercise of reason.
Demesne The part of a manor reserved for the landlord’s crops and other uses, farmed for him by his tenants.
Diggers Agrarian communists who emerged following the Civil Wars. They believed that the Bible did not sanction private property. Their brief attempts at communes at St. George’s Hill, Surrey and elsewhere, ca. 1649-50, were broken by bad weather, government repression, and local hostility.
Dispensing power The customary, but increasingly controversial, right of English kings to dispense with the law in individual cases. Its use died out after the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9.
Dissenters Protestants, usually theological Puritans, who rejected or were expelled from the Church of England after the Restoration (see Clarendon Code). Dissenters were persecuted until the passage of the Toleration Act in 1689, after which those who accepted the Trinity could worship openly if they kept the doors of their meeting houses unlocked. Major groups included the Presybterians, Independents, Baptists, and Quakers.
Enclosure Process whereby landowners ceased arable (crop) farming and turned their lands over to pastoral, usually sheep, farming. This was thought to involve not only the enclosing of land by fences but the eviction of the tenant farmers who had worked it. In fact, historical research indicates that its motivations and effects varied considerably from place to place.
Excise Sales tax, first introduced in 1643, often on necessities - like beer.
Exclusion Crisis The crisis over the succession which occurred 1678-81. The issue was whether James, duke of York, a Catholic, should be allowed to succeed his brother Charles II. This raised the larger constitutional issue of whether Parliament had the power to alter the succession. The crisis, which was borne of the supposed discovery of a Popish Plot to overthrow Charles and put James on the throne, precipitated three elections and led to the rise of the first two political parties in England. Whigs opposed the duke’s succession, proposing that Parliament name a Protestant instead; Tories favored it.
Five Mile Act, 1665 Statute barring any nonconforming minister from coming within 5 miles of a town in which he had served.Forced loan Extraparliamentary levy, occasionally resorted to by the Tudors, which came to be seen as simple extortion under Charles I.
Grammar school An endowed primary school with a classical curriculum, usually patronized by the middling orders.
Gunpowder Plot Catholic plot organized in 1605 by Robert Catesby to blow up King James I and both houses of Parliament at the state opening on November 5. The plot was uncovered and one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, caught red-handed with the explosives. The conspirators were executed and anti-Catholic legislation toughened.
Heretic One who publicly denied principal doctrines of the established Church. The Act for Burning Heretics of 1401 decreed burning at the stake in punishment. This was most famously imposed on the Protestant “heretics” under Mary.
Impositions Additional or higher Customs duties on imported goods “imposed” without parliamentary consent.
Independents Those who, during and after the Civil Wars, believed that individual congregations should be allowed to decide on forms of worship and discipline within a loose national Church. Many favored a more aggressive war strategy during the Civil Wars and more radical solutions to social problems afterwards. Eventually evolved into Con- gregationalists.
Jacobites Supporters of the exiled King James II and his son, the titular James III, known to his opponents as the Pretender. Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745 failed to restore the Catholic Stuarts.
Junto From the Spanish junta (council), the group of five Whig politicians who acted in concert to lead the party and, often, the government between 1690
and 1715: Thomas, Lord Wharton, John, Lord Somers, Charles Montagu, Lord (later earl of) Halifax, Edward Russell, earl of Orford, and Charles Spencer, earl of Sunderland.
Justice of the peace (JP) An unpaid officer of the Crown in the localities, usually a gentleman, who acted as a magistrate, sitting in judgment over (usually) noncapital felonies; regulating markets and prices; maintaining roads; and supervising the Poor Law, among many other responsibilities. The mainstay of county government.
Kett’s Rebellion Rebellion led by Robert Kett in East Anglia in 1549 in response to hard economic times. The rebels demanded lower rents and entry fines, the inviolability of common lands, and a greater say in the selection of local officials. After the duke of Somerset hesitated, its ruthless suppression by the earl of Warwick helped catapult him to power.
Latitudinarians Late seventeenth-century and, especially, early eighteenth-century Churchmen (many Whig bishops) who sought an inclusive Church of England accommodating a variety of beliefs, including those consistent with reason and the new science.
Legate A papal representative on a temporary or more permanent mission (e.g., Thomas Wolsey) within a country.
Levellers Radicals, including members of the army from 1647, who demanded freedom of conscience, near universal manhood suffrage, law reform, and “the sovereignty of the people.” A Leveller constitution, The Agreement of the People, was debated at Putney in October 1647, but the Commonwealth eventually suppressed the movement.
Licensing Act, 1662 Statute which limited the number of master printers in England to 20 with a few additional journeyman printers. All publications were required to carry the name of the author and printer and be approved by a licenser of the press, with powers to search out unauthorized presses and publication. Expired 1679; renewed 1685-95.
Lollards Lollardy (a word of uncertain derivation) was a set of beliefs associated with John Wyclif, an Oxford-based theologian of the fourteenth century. Dismayed at what they saw as the growing corruption of the Church and its distance from ordinary people, Lollards emphasized the importance of Scripture (which they translated into English) and deemphasized that of ritual and hierarchy. Originally encouraged by some in government as a counterweight to papal power, Lollards were persecuted virtually out of existence after an abortive rebellion in 1414. They anticipated, but were not around to contribute to, the Reformation.
Long Parliament The Parliament summoned in the autumn of 1640, which sat in one form or another to December 1648, at which point a purge of its more moderate members formed the Rump Parliament that governed the Commonwealth until 1653 (see Pride’s Purge). First the Rump and then the whole of the Long Parliament were recalled during the period of instability prior to the Restoration, 1659-60.
Lord lieutenant From the late Tudor period on, an unpaid government official responsible for order in an entire county, usually the most prominent peer in that county. His duty was to maintain order, keep an eye out for disaffection, and raise the militia when called upon.
Manor The estate of a landlord, usually originally held by feudal tenure.
Mumming Play-acting, usually associated with Church festivals like Christmas, New Year’s, etc., in which participants represent religious or mythological figures.
National Covenant See Covenant, National, 1638.
Navigation Acts, 1651, 1660, 1663 Parliamentary legislation which required that goods shipped to and from the English colonies in America be transported in English vessels through English ports. These measures precipitated several trade wars with the Dutch, but eventually helped to ensure England’s commercial supremacy. After the Act of Union of 1707 (see Union, Acts of), these terms applied to Great Britain as a whole.
Nonconformists See Dissenters.
Nonjurors Anglican clergymen who refused to take the oaths of allegiance to William III and Mary II.
Northern Rebellion Revolt in 1569 that started out as a plot by the duke of Norfolk to marry Mary Queen of Scots and replace William Cecil in Elizabeth’s councils. When he hesitated, the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland raised the North for Catholicism and marched south to Durham. The rebellion lost steam and was suppressed brutally.
Occasional conformity The practice by officeholding Dissenters of receiving communion at Anglican services in order to qualify under the Test Act. The Tories attempted legislation to ban the practice repeatedly under Anne. They succeeded in securing a statute in 1711, only to see it repealed in 1719.
Overbury Scandal The scandal which emerged in 1615 when it became apparent that, two years before, Frances Howard, countess of Somerset, had plotted the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London. She did so to stop him from revealing embarrassing personal information which might have endangered her marriage to James I’s current favorite, the duke of Somerset. Both she and the duke fell from favor and were imprisoned, but later pardoned.
Pale The small area around Dublin in which direct English rule was effective in Ireland.
Parliamentary Presbyterians see Presbyterians.
Petition of Right 1628 Legislation guaranteeing that no subject could be forced to pay a tax not voted by Parliament, imprisoned without charge, have soldiers billeted upon his house, or be subject to martial law. Charles I agreed to it with great reluctance in order to secure five new subsidies (taxes).
Pilgrimage of Grace Uprisings in the North in 1536-7. Ostensibly in reaction to Henry
Poor Laws, 1536, 1563, 1572, 1598, 1601, 1662 Statutes designed to provide relief for the “deserving” poor, i.e., those who could not work because of gender, age, or illness, out of taxes - the poor rate - collected and distributed on a parish-by-parish basis. Some of these laws also had punitive provisions for “sturdy beggars,” i.e., those who would not work. The 1598 act was the basis for poor relief for 200 years. That of 1662 allowed parishes to send itinerant poor back to their parishes of origin.
Popish Plot Generically, refers to the widespread belief in seventeenth century England that the pope and the Catholic powers were working, possibly with the assistance of the Stuarts and the Irish, to overthrow the Protestant religious settlement and the English constitution. When used specifically, refers to the accusation, fabricated in 1678 by Titus Oates and others, that Catholics, specifically the Jesuit order, were plotting with the papacy and France to overthrow Charles II, place James, Duke of York on the throne and repeal the laws against Catholics. The resulting widespread panic led to the judicial murder of a number of prominent Catholics and the Exclusion Crisis.
Poynings’s Law, 1494 Named for Sir Edward Poynings, lord deputy of Ireland 1494-6, this statute of the Irish Parliament gave the English Privy Council the right to approve the summoning and legislation of that Parliament. Statutes passed by the English Parliament applied to Ireland.
Praemunire, Statutes of, 1353, 1365, 1393 Statutes which prohibited English subjects from acknowledging papal jurisdiction in certain cases.
Prerogative Royal discretionary power.
Presbyterians Theological Calvinists who, in sixteenth-century Scotland, established a Church government (the Kirk) in which doctrine and practice were determined by a hierarchy of synods culminating in a general assembly; or those in England who favored such a form of Church government. Parliamentary Presbyterians wanted to apply a version of this model to England during and after the Civil Wars (see Puritans). They tended to be among the more conservative Puritans, favoring an accommodation with the king prior to 1649, and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.
Pride’s Purge On December 6, 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride and his troops, under orders from the Council of the Army, purged those remaining members of the Long Parliament who wished to continue negotiations with the king. Their removal paved the way for the trial and execution of Charl
es I by the remnant, known as the Rump Parliament.
Proclamation Royal decree (similar to the modern presidential executive order) which does not carry quite the same force as statute law.
Prophesyings Meetings of Protestant clergy and some laymen intended to improve preaching and apply Biblical texts to everyday life. Elizabethan Puritans and most bishops approved of them, but the queen did not and suppressed them as potentially disruptive and seditious.
Public school Original term for an endowed grammar school, has come to be associated with the wealthiest and most exclusive examples, such as Eton, Harrow, and Winchester. Offering a curriculum emphasizing the Latin classics, public schools have long been famous as the training grounds for England’s elite.
Purgatory Roman Catholic belief that, at death, souls who are not damned but not of sufficient perfection to merit Heaven go to this place of punishment to become so. Catholics believe that the prayers of the faithful and the indulgences granted by the Church for good deeds in life are efficacious in reducing the amount of time a soul spends there. The sale of indulgences provoked Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers to question whether any good works by sinful man could affect salvation (thus questioning the very existence of Purgatory).
Puritans Protestants who sought the continued reform of the Church of England after its establishment in 1559-63. Puritans tended to be Calvinists, favoring plain Church ritual consistent with Scriptural injunction. Many, though not all, favored a Presbyterian form of Church government. After a brief moment in the sun following the Civil Wars, most were driven out of the Church of England by the Clarendon Code and so are known after the Restoration as Dissenters.
Quakers Large religious sect emerging out of the toleration following the Civil Wars. They believed that each human being possessed God’s inner light in equal measure, regardless of gender or social rank. This inclined them, notoriously, to flout gender roles, denounce professional clergy, deny deference to social superiors, refuse to swear oaths, and “quake” with their inner light at services. Harshly suppressed at the Restoration, they became more quietist.
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