THE RESTORATION AT BREAKING POINTThe Popish Plot and the

Exclusion Crisis, c. 1674-1681

Politics in the later 1670s

• 1. 1674-1678: the king’s chief minister, the Earl of Danby, uses royal patronage and state offices to win over members of Parliament to royal policies and objectives. Danby’s and Charles II’s goal is to transform Parliament into a pliant “rubber stamp” for the king’s policies. These efforts are opposed by many and viewed as the “corruption” of the legislature.

• 2. 1675-1680: Tory and Whig political divisions begin to emerge.

Politics in the later 1670s, continued

• 3. During the 1670s, the “Anglican-Royalist consensus” was replaced by conflict between three rival political forces:

• 3.1. the Tories: they favor a traditional state – that is, a strong monarchy advised and to some degree limited by Parliament (along the traditional medieval and Tudor lines) – and the religious monopoly of the Church of England (including the persecution of Protestant Dissenters and Roman Catholics).

• 3.2. Charles II and the royal absolutists: they favor a modern/modernizing state run by an absolute monarchy – with either a pliant Parliament or no Parliament at all – and some form of religious toleration.

• 3.3. the Whigs: they favor a modern/modernizing state run by Parliament as well as religious toleration and pluralism.

The Popish Plot

• 1. 1678: the outbreak of the Popish Plot. Titus Oates testifies to a widespread Catholic plot to murder Charles II, to place his brother James on the throne, and to re-Catholicize England by force.

• 2. There are two types of anti-popery in Restoration England: 1.) there is anti-popery as religious and social prejudice; and 2.) there is anti-popery as anti-clericalism and as political critique of absolutist monarchy/royal despotism.

Newspapers and pamphlets were filled with depictions of the supposed Popish Plot

The Exclusion Crisis

• 1. 1679: the king’s lead minister, the Earl of Danby, is impeached.

• 2. 1679: the Cavalier Parliament is dissolved and the Exclusion Crisis begins.

• 3. 1679-1681: new Whig-influenced parliaments are elected; multiple attempts are made by Parliament to exclude the Roman Catholic James, Duke of York, from the succession to the throne (with the Exclusion Bill); and the political divisions between Tories and Whigs are consolidated.

• 4. 1679-1681: the Whig Party, with the Earl of Shaftesbury at its head, organizes mass mobilizations and attempts to rally public opinion in order to pass the Exclusion Bill. John Locke, Shaftesbury’s secretary, writes (but does not publish) the Second Treatise of Government.

The Earl of Shaftesbury, leader of the Whigs, and his secretary, John Locke

The Exclusion Crisis, continued

• 5. 1679: James, Duke of York, goes to Scotland to avoid the political turmoil in England.

• 6. 1681: the popular fear over the Popish Plot subsides and many people begin to fear that England is on the brink of another revolution. Has 1641 come again? Will this lead to another 1649?

• 7. 1681: the House of Lords rejects the Exclusion Bill and Charles II dissolves Parliament. The Tory reaction begins and lasts until 1685.