Historical Perspective

Setting The Scene…

None of what follows is essential reading to understand the background to the events in Lord’s Legacy as the story is told with all that is needed. But it can, perhaps, bring some perspective to have a grasp of the wider canvas upon which the events are painted. 

Please be aware that history is infinitely more nuanced than any brief and broad-brushed summary can ever hope to encompass. I have opted to emphasise those points most salient to Lord’s Legacy. It is also impossible to start anywhere and not leave much unexplained as everything has its antecedents. In addition, oversimplification invariably means a degree of inaccuracy in fine detail.

Wars of Religion

The first half of the 17th Century saw almost all of Europe caught up in warfare. Although often presented as wars of religion – between Catholic and Protestant powers – they were not always that well delineated. Catholic France fought with the Protestants and Protestant Saxony stood with the Catholic emperor. They can, perhaps, also be viewed as a struggle between the might of the Habsburgs and the emerging powers such as the French, the Dutch and the English, with religious differences being a major motivation. These wars were brutal.

Habsburg Hegemony

At this time, Habsburg domination was at its height. They ruled in person (or by proxy) a swathe of Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. Their domain included Spain, the German princedoms in the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Hungary, The Netherlands (Belgium), parts of Italy and of course the New World of South America, with its wealth of gold.

An Austrian family by origin, they were renowned for growing their lands by marriage rather than war. Indeed, a century before the Habsburgs had thought to bring England too under their sway by marrying the Spanish heir to the throne, Philip, to the English Queen Mary. But although she had a phantom pregnancy, no child was born of their union and so that project failed.

Philip’s father had been both Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, but by abdicating the Empire to his brother, he split the House of Habsburg, so Spain and the Empire were no longer bound as closely as they had been.

Eighty Years’ War 1568-1648

When the northern (Protestant) Netherlands revolted against their Spanish (Catholic) rulers in 1568 and became the United Provinces, it was the start of eighty years of continual warfare. Encouraged by their success, German Protestant princes of the Empire began to make their own stand. 

Thirty Years’ War 1618-1648

One such was Frederick V, Elector Palatine, the leading Protestant prince in the Empire, who was married to the daughter of the English King James. He had been brought up as a Protestant but in a court where the influx of ideas from Rosicrucianism had a strong influence. The Protestant nobles in Bohemia (a country the Habsburgs saw as their own although – like the Empire itself – it was technically elective) rebelled. They offered the young Elector Palatine the crown of Bohemia. He saw it as a divine mandate and accepted. 

Elector Frederick and his wife, the English princess Elizabeth, were removed by force from Bohemia in 1620, at the Battle of White Mountain outside Prague a year after they took the crown. They also lost their Palatinate lands and had to live in exile in the United Provinces.

The Thirty Years’ War was one of the most brutal and deadly wars ever. Around half a million soldiers died in combat and up to a further 10 million men, women and children died from the disease and famine it brought in its wake.

It has been estimated that 20% of the population of Europe perished in it and in places entire cities, towns and villages were wiped from the map. The worst example being the Protestant city of Magdeburg where maybe 25,000 people died in 1631. Before it was done, the Thirty Years War had pulled in most surrounding nations, including Denmark, Sweden and France.

And what of England?

England had managed to avoid being pulled in too deeply. King James had tried hard to avoid war by seeking to marry his son to a Spanish princess and secure his daughter’s lands and peace in Europe in return. But that plan fell apart and his son, who became King Charles in 1625, took a French wife. Most support from England was in the form of subsidies to support the protestant armies, or volunteer soldiers to fill their ranks. 

King Charles would have done more, perhaps, but to do so he would have had to summon a parliament in order to raise money and he had found them too demanding and ungovernable in the early years of his reign. Unlike other European nations, the English Parliament felt it had ancient rights to remonstrate and demand. Parliament was not averse to funding a war against the Catholic Habsburgs, but it wanted its grievances addressed first. The king, however, believed he was appointed by God and so not answerable to those who were, after all, his subjects.

The Bishops Wars 1639 – 1641

It was this religious impulse which led ultimately to civil war and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (and one princedom as Wales was not immune). Charles, as king of Scotland, felt his subjects there with their puritanical, anti-episcopalian, Presbyterian church, were misguided in their worship. So in 1637, he tried to impose a new, high church, Book of Common Prayer on his Scottish subjects.

They objected and refused, defeating the force Charles sent against them. Twice (the second time the king broke a truce). They then invaded northern England and the Scottish army occupied Northumberland and County Durham for almost a year, causing much damage and distress as occupying armies always will, before the Treaty of London in August 1641 arranged their withdrawal and guaranteed their religious rights.

The Long Parliament 1640 – 1660

The trouble was in order to pay off the occupation force and free those of his people effectively being held hostage, Charles had to call a parliament. Once it was called it refused to be prorogued. They passed laws making it illegal for the king to raise any taxes without their approval and for the king to dissolve parliament without its consent. It was an unprecedented power grab.

Irish Confederate Wars 1641 -1653

Meanwhile, in Ireland, there had been a rebellion. Rooted in many causes, from fear that the Scots might invade, to resentment at the forced Protestant plantation. The resulting uprising, led by Felim O’Neill, was conducted in the king’s name. It was feared by many in England that the King would bring an Irish Catholic army over to suppress English dissent.

The Birds Have Flown – January 1642

This did nothing to help matters in London. Tensions grew ever worse and the king’s powers were increasingly undermined. His close councillors and favourites were hated for the power and influence they wielded. Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud, were brought down. Strafford was executed and Laud was imprisoned. 

Fearing his unpopular Catholic wife might be the next target, and having failed in an attempt to arrest the Parlimentarian leaders in the House of Commons itself, Charles fled London.

The First English Civil War – August 1642

Through the summer of 1642, whilst still negotiating with Parliament, Charles went about the country to rally support. In Yorkshire he tried to seize Hull with its store of weaponry but was refused entry by the governor Sir John Hotham. He was joined by his nephews Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice – sons of his sister Elizabeth, the exiled Queen of Bohemia and Electress Palatine – both of whom had seen military action and set about recruiting and training with vigour.

On 22 August 1642, he raised his standard in Nottingham, summoning all men loyal to the crown to join him. 

Two weeks later, Gideon Lennox walked into an alehouse in County Durham…