England is the largest and most developed of all the three political divisions. Area: more than 130,000 square kilometers which takes up nearly 60% of the whole island. Population: 47million(85%). Its importance is so great that some foreigners just say “England” when they mean Britain.
b. Result― Charles II was welcomed back to the restored English throne and the Republic came to an end.
c. The king cooperated with the Parliament and religiously he favored toleration to a certain extent. Things went on quite smoothly during his reign.
James II
King of England, Scots, Ireland from 1685, he was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Many of his subjects distrusted his religious policies and autocratic专制的 tendencies, leading a group of them to depose废除 him in the in 1688. The English Parliament forced James to have abdicated 退位 on Dec.11, 1688.
He was replaced not by his Roman Catholic son, James Francis Edward, but by his Protestant daughter and son-in-law, who became in 1689. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns, but failed, and he returned to France, living out the rest of his life there.
James is best known for his belief in absolute monarchy君主专制政体 and his attempts to create religious liberty for his subjects. Both of these went against the wishes of the English Parliament and of most of his subjects.
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The Glorious Revolution光荣革命 (1688)
In 1685 Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother James II. James, brought up in exile in Europe, was a Catholic. He hoped to rule without giving up his personal religious vies (竞争). But England was no more tolerant of a Catholic king in 1688 than 40 years ago. So the English politicians rejected James II, and appealed to a Protestant king, William III (James II’s son-in-law), to invade and take the English throne. William landed in England in 1688. The takeover was relatively smooth, with no bloodshed, nor any execution of the king. This was known as the Glorious Revolution.
a. Cause― Upon Charles II’s death, his successor, James II (his brother), attempted to be an absolute monarch, to ignore Parliament, and to revive Catholicism in England.
b. Results―
1) A Bill of Rights was drawn up, which clearly spelled out the powers of the people through Parliament and prohibited absolutism on the part of future monarchs, declared that in the future all kings and queens of England would be members of the Church of England.
2) James II was dethroned, and the Dutch-born William III and his wife, Mary (James II’s daughter), were invited by Parliament to become king and queen of England. It was called Glorious Revolution of 1688 or White Revolution, because it caused no bloodshed. The English king, instead of controlling Parliament, had to receive his crown from Parliament. This marked the real beginning of the constitutional