La Restaurazione, il primo XVIII secolo e la letteratura pre-Romantica

Political and social background (1660 - 1785)

✓ → 1660: After the Civil War, the end of the Commonwealth and the abdication of Richard Cromwell, we have the restoration of the monarchy, with Charles II Stuart. Another thing is restored: the Anglican Church. It’s a period of relative stability and order => which is only apparent! (There are still a lot of conflicts)

✓ → 1662: Anglican “Book of Common Prayer”

✓ → 1673: “The Test Act” - People who professed other religions were discriminated. Only individuals who professed the Anglican religion could participate in public life.

✓ → Charles II wasn’t very hostile to the Catholics. Because of his Catholic sympathy, there rose a hostility: King VS Parliament (it didn’t want a Catholic king)

✓ → “Exclusion Bill” by Parliament: there cannot be a Catholic king after Charles. So, James, Charles’s brother, will be excluded.

✓ → 1681: King Charles dissolves the Parliament

✓ Tories (pro-monarch) VS Whigs (→ they were mainly part of the middle class, which was becoming more and more powerful. They were pro-Parliament). They agreed on one thing: they did not want a Catholic king.

✓ → 1685: James took the throne (even if he wasn’t loved) and suspends the “Test Act”

✓ → → 1688-1689: Glorious Revolution - James is deposed and exiled to France. He’s succeeded by his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William D’Orange (William III). This is the beginning of the “Constitutional Monarchy” (king in Parliament)

✓ More and more power to Whigs (mercantile middle class, often dissenters) vs Tories (Anglican landowners)

✓ → 1702 – 1714: Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch

✓ → “Act of Settlement” - It decided that after Anne there must be a change. Queen Anne, as the last Stuart, is replaced by the Hanover (Protestant) dynasty through Sophie, James I’s granddaughter and Anne’s cousin.

✓ → → 1707: Act of Union - It established that the Parliament of Scotland and England are united => the beginning of Great Britain (= Scotland + England + Wales). Some Scots didn’t accept this very willingly, others did because, from an economic perspective, Scotland became wealthier.

The Hanoverians (Georgian Age)

• 1714 – 1727: George I (Sophia’s son) + Prime Minister = Robert Walpole (Whig)
• 1727 – 1760: George II
• 1760 – 1820: George III (from 1811 to ’20: Regency due to the madness of King George; someone ruled for him during this time)

✓ → England’s colonial expansion in America followed the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14)

✓ There were Scottish people who wanted the Stuart dynasty to come back (because it was a Scottish dynasty). They were the Jacobites (supporters in Scotland of James II’s grandson). => 1746 The Battle of Culloden, to bring back the Stuart dynasty. The Jacobites were defeated by the English. This battle marks the end of the hope for a return of the Stuarts.

✓ → 1763: End of the “Seven Years’ War” vs France. Result = colonial acquisition of India, Canada, Louisiana.