In Europe in the 17th century, capitalism and feudal absolutism developed simultaneously.

Facing the sea, Britain actively carried out foreign trade and promoted the rapid development of domestic shipbuilding, woolen weaving, coal mining, ironmaking and other industries. British new cloth is light in quality, bright in color and low in price, and sells well in Europe.

The rapid development of the woolen textile industry has caused a substantial increase in wool prices. In order to make a profit, some nobles and gentry carried out land enclosure movement.

The Tudors protected the emerging bourgeoisie, which they hoped would make the country strong.

In 1588, Britain defeated the Spanish Empire's Armada and became one of the great powers in Europe.

In 1603, Elizabeth I died. Elizabeth had no heirs, and according to the law of succession, the throne passed to her great-nephew, King James Stuart of Scotland, known as James I. The reign of the Stuart dynasty began.

James I was a typical feudal autocratic monarch. Advocate the theory of divine right of kings. He sought to escape the constraints of English law and Parliament.

James I and his queen spent money like water and lived an extremely luxurious life. To repay his debts, he sold his titles, imposed new import taxes, and sold off royal lands in large quantities.

The British Parliament is divided into two houses

Only Parliament has the power to levy taxes. King James I had a bitter conflict with Parliament over taxation.

In 1625, James I died, and his son Charles succeeded to the throne as Charles I. Inherited his father's idea of ​​divine right of kings.

From 1625 to 1630, war broke out between Britain, Spain, and France. Charles I used this as an excuse to force the country to borrow money. In fact, he levied land tax and property tax on property owners. The bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy reacted strongly.

In 1627, five knights were arrested and imprisoned without a jury trial for refusing to pay the loan money, causing even greater anger across the country.

In 1628, Parliament passed the "Petition of Rights", condemning the king's violations of the law and infringement of people's rights, and demanding restrictions on royal power.

In March 1629, Charles I forcibly dissolved Parliament. Speaker Finch was about to leave his seat and adjourn the meeting, but was pinned down on his seat by angry members. Three resolutions were passed in a row by acclamation, calling on the people to refuse to pay illegal taxes without parliamentary consent, and declaring voluntary taxpayers as traitors and enemies of the people. The struggle between the bourgeoisie and the royal power intensified.

From 1629 to 1640, it was called the period of the king's personal rule.

In 1635, Charles I imposed a shipping tax on the whole country, causing trouble again. The ship tax was originally a temporary tax levied on coastal cities during wars, but Charles I wanted to extend it to the entire country as a fixed tax.

In 1637, Buckinghamshire squire Hampton deliberately refused to pay the 20 shilling ship tax in order to argue in court. This ignited people's anger and triggered a large-scale tax resistance movement across the country.

In terms of religion, the Stuart dynasty supported the state religion and enforced religious unity.

In the second half of the 16th century, radical religious reform factions emerged in England. They demanded the elimination of Catholic remnants of the state religion and the establishment of an evangelical church without priests and sacramental ceremonies, which was called Puritanism by people at the time.

The bourgeoisie supported Puritanism, while the king opposed Puritanism, believing that it threatened to subvert the order of the church and state.

In 1633, Charles I appointed Laud, a tough Anglican, as archbishop, and brutally persecuted those who did not respect the Anglican religion. The contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the royal power further intensified.

There was a rebellion in Scotland. In order to raise military expenses, Charles I was forced to reconvene Parliament in November 1640.

But Parliament refused to discuss the new tax and held the king and his advisers accountable for their abuse of power during the unparliamentary period. They called for the death of Archbishop Laud and the king's political adviser Strafford.

Parliament once again became the center of leadership against feudal autocratic rule. In January 1642, Charles I went north to York. In August, a crusade against Parliament was announced, and civil war broke out.

Britain split in two

In the early days of the civil war, the royalist troops won successive victories and threatened London. Cromwell appeared and the war situation turned for the better.

In July 1644, Cromwell defeated the royal army at Marston Moor and won the title of Ironclad Army.

In December of the same year, Parliament reorganized the army at Cromwell's request. The reorganized parliamentary army was called the New Model Army, with Cromwell as deputy commander-in-chief and wielding actual power.

On June 14, 1645, the New Model Army destroyed the main force of the Royal Army at the Battle of Naseby, laying the foundation for victory in the civil war.

In December 1648, Cromwell drove away the members who advocated negotiations with the king, and the parliament was called the Rump Parliament. In January of the following year, the Rump Parliament sentenced Charles I to death.

The death of Charles I shocked Europe. Catholics in Ireland and royalists in Scotland rebelled, the Russian tsar expelled the British envoys, and France and the Netherlands took hostilities.

Cromwell personally led an army on an expedition to Ireland and Scotland, and completed the conquest and merger in 1652 and 1654 respectively.

In 1651, Britain promulgated navigation regulations against the Netherlands, triggering the Anglo-Dutch War. The Netherlands was defeated and sued for peace. A contract was signed in 1654, the Netherlands recognized the navigation regulations, and Britain established its dominance at sea.

After the king's execution, the House of Lords was abolished and Britain was declared a republic. Hostility between the remaining parliament and the army grew. Cromwell forcefully dissolved the Rump Parliament in April 1653.

In order to maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie, Cromwell embarked on the road of military dictatorship. At the end of 1653, he was declared Lord Protector. The country is divided into 11 military regions, which are placed under the command of Army major generals who directly take orders from him.

Cromwell died of illness on September 3, 1658, and his son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector. Richard lacked Cromwell's prestige and courage and was unable to control the political situation.

In February 1660, Monk, the commander of the Scottish garrison, overthrew the Protectorate and restored Parliament. In order to restore order and stability, Parliament decided to welcome back the king.

In May 1660, Charles I's son, Charles II, returned to the country and ascended the throne after making promises such as amnesty to revolutionaries who participated in the civil war. However, not long after Charles II came to the throne, the bourgeoisie and the royal power clashed again. The root of this conflict was religious issues.

The British bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy particularly hated Roman Catholicism, firstly because the burning of Protestants and the Spanish invasion were all related to Catholicism. The second reason is that the new nobles' land mainly comes from church real estate and they are worried about losing their land.

Charles II's religious attitudes were ambiguous. His brother James was an avowed Catholic. The seriousness of the problem is that Charles has no heir. According to the law of succession, James will inherit the throne after Charles's death.

In 1679, some members of Parliament proposed an exclusion bill, demanding that James' right to inherit the throne be revoked.

Two parties formed: those who supported the bill were called the Whigs, and those who opposed the bill were called the Tories.

The exclusion bill failed to pass parliament. James successfully succeeded to the throne in 1685 and was called James II.

James II violated the religious law prohibiting Catholics from holding public office and appointed Catholics to important positions in the army, government departments, and universities. This was followed by the Declaration of Religious Tolerance, which was intended to legalize Catholicism in Britain.

James II was childless and old, and the Tories believed that after his death, his Protestant daughter Mary would succeed to the throne.

In June 1688, James had a son when he was old, and he was baptized and the youngest son became a Catholic. The Tories, allied with the Whigs, plotted to overthrow James II.

In order to avoid the social unrest that had occurred during the civil war, they sought to solve problems through coups rather than revolutions. They invited Mary and William of Holland to return to defend religion, liberty, and property.

In November 1688, William led an army of more than 10,000 people to land at Tor Bay and headed straight for London. James II rebelled against his relatives and fled to France.

The following year, the upper and lower houses of the British Parliament held plenary meetings and urged William and Mary to rule Britain together. At the same time, Parliament proposed the Declaration of Rights.

After William accepted these conditions, he assumed the throne of England as William III. The Declaration of Rights was later discussed and passed by Parliament and became the official law "Bill of Rights".

The coup of 1688 was almost bloodless, preserved the achievements of the British Revolution, and was called the Glorious Revolution.

After experiencing two stages of revolution in 1640 and 1688, Britain not only got rid of feudal autocratic rule, but also established a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary power greater than royal power, which effectively promoted the development of British capitalism.