Debating the English Civil War
The English Civil War raised fundamental questions about political rights and responsibilities. Many of these are addressed in the two excerpts below. The first comes from a lengthy debate held within the General Council of Cromwell's army in October of 1647 The second is taken from the speech given by King Charles, moments before his execution in 1649.
The Army Debates, 1647
Olonel Rainsborough: Really, I think that the poorest man that is in England has a life to live as the greatest man, and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government, and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that government that he has not had a voice to put himself under. . . insomuch that I should doubt whether I was an Englishman or not, that should doubt of these things.
General Ireton: Give me leave to tell you, that if you make this the rule, I think you must fly for refuge to an absolute natural right, and you must deny all civil right, and I am sure it will come to that in the consequence. . . . For my part, I think it is no right at all. I think that no person has a right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom, and in determining or choosing those that shall determine what laws we shall be ruled by here, no person has a right to this that has not a permanent fixed interest in this kingdom, and those persons together are properly the represented of this kingdom who, taken together, and consequently are to make up the representers of this kingdom. . . .
We talk of birthright. Truly, birthright there is. . . . [ M]en may justly have by birthright, by their very being born in England, that we should not seclude them out of England. That we should not refuse to give them air and place and ground, and the freedom of the highways and other things, to live amongst us, not any man that is born here, though he in birth or by his birth there come nothing at all that is part of the permanent interest of this kingdom to him. That I think is due to a man by birth. But that by a man's being born here he shall have a share in that power that shall dispose of the lands here, and of all things here, I do not think it is a sufficient ground.
Source: David Wootton, ed., Divine Right and Democracy: An Anthology of Political Writing in Stuart England (New York: 1986), pp. 286-87 (language modernized).
As inferiors. The crisis of kingship in England thus led to a substantial increase in the African slave trade and a sharpening of social and economic divisions in the English colonies. This is yet another indication of Europe’s inseparable relationship with the Atlantic world.
THE PROBLEM OF DOUBT AND THE ART OF BEING HUMAN
On the first day of November in 1611, a new play by William Shakespeare premiered in London, at the royal court. The Tempest takes place on a remote island, where an exiled duke from the Italian city-state of Milan has used his magical arts to subjugate the island’s inhabitants. This plot drew on widespread reports from the new European colonies of the Atlantic, especially the Caribbean, where slaves were called Caribans and where (it was rumored) cannibalism flourished— hence the name Shakespeare chose for the play’s rebellious slave Caliban, who seeks to revenge himself on the magician Prospero, his oppressive master. When reminded that he owes his knowledge of the English language to the civilizing influence of Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, Caliban retorts, “You taught me language, and my profit on’t / Is, I know how to curse.”
According to Caliban, the benefits of a European education could not outweigh the evils of colonization—and
Charles I on the Scaffold, 1649
Think it is my duty, to God first, and to my country, for to clear myself both as an honest man, a good king, and a good Christian.
I shall begin first with my innocence. In truth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this, for all the world knows that I never did begin a war with the two Houses of Parliament, and I call God to witness, to whom I must shortly make an account, that I never did intend to incroach upon their privileges. . . .
As for the people-truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody whatsoever. But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government those laws by which their lives and goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in government. That is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things, and therefore, until they do that-I mean that you do put the people in that liberty as I say-certainly they will never enjoy themselves.
Sirs, it was for this that now I am come here. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here. And therefore I tell you (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the martyr of the people.
Source: Brian Tierney, Donald Kagan, and L. Pearce Williams, eds., Great Issues in Western Civilization (New York: 1967), pp. 46-47.
Questions for Analysis
1. What fundamental issues are at stake in both of these excerpts? How do the debaters within the parliamentary army (first excerpt) define "natural" and "civil" rights?
2. How does Charles defend his position? What is his theory of kingship, and how does it compare to that of Cardinal Richelieu's (page 475)? How does it conflict with the ideas expressed in the army's debate?
3. I t is interesting that none of the participants in these debates seems to have recognized the implications their arguments might have for the political rights of women. Why would that have been the case?
Could, in fact, be used to resist it. Shakespeare’s audience was thus confronted with a spectacle of their own colonial ambitions gone awry, as well as with a number of other contemporary problems, including the perils of civil war, the struggle for political legitimacy, the fear of sorcery, and the availability of exotic commodities.
The doubt and uncertainty caused by Europe’s extension into the Atlantic world were primary themes and motivators of this era’s creative arts, which both documented and critiqued contemporary trends while emphasizing the redemptive qualities of human suffering and compassion. Another example of this artistic response is the novel Don Quixote, which its author, Miguel de Cervantes (sehr-VAHN-tehs, 1547-1616), composed largely in prison. It recounts the adventures of an idealistic Spanish gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha, who becomes deranged by his constant reading of chivalric romances and sets out to have delusional adventures of his own. His sidekick, Sancho Panza, is his exact opposite: a plain, practical man content with modest bodily pleasures. Together, they represent different facets of human nature. On the one hand, Don Quixote is a devastating satire of Spain’s decline. On the other, it is a sincere celebration of the human capacity for optimism and goodness.
Throughout the long century between 1550 and 1660, Europeans confronted a world in which all that they had once taken for granted was cast into confusion. Vast continents had been discovered, populated by millions of people whose very existence challenged Western civilizations’
World History
