There is no history textbook without "Glorious Revolution". Not only in history, but in political economy textbooks.
Parliament and the Law
The Glorious Revolution is not as complicated as the Puritan Revolution.
Recently, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Glorious Revolution have often been combined into the "British Revolution," but the roots of both revolutions are religious issues and parliamentary and ancestral issues.
Japan clearly adopted parliamentary politics from the time of the Meiji Restoration, but in Britain, the history from the ancient Roman Empire has adopted the parliamentary system from its inception, and the length of the tradition is different. I can say. Therefore, we are not familiar with the parliamentary politics, and it can be said that we are still attracting the government consciousness of the Edo period.
Traditionally in Britain, taxation was not possible without parliamentary approval.
Britain and other medieval European nations do not have a standing army, and in England there was a tradition of convening parliaments and taxing them during the war and forming an army based on them.
The Stewart family, the royal family after the death of Queen Elizabeth, does not follow such a traditional ancestral law, and has a policy of adhering to the divine right of kings and disregarding the parliament for generations. I have adopted it.
The Stewart family has been Scottish royalty for generations, and it is no wonder that they do not uphold the traditional politics of England, but these actions have led to parliamentary opposition, eventually causing the Puritan Revolution and the unprecedented execution of the king. Will cause.
However, when Oliver Cromwell, who came to power, died, Congress welcomed Charles I's son Charles II as King of England.
Charles II was said to be the "king of laziness," but he did well with Congress in the sense that he reigned but did not rule.
Still, it was the problem of his younger brother James' successor that he couldn't do well.
After the execution of Charles I, his family went into exile in France. This is because Charles I's wife Henrietta Maria was the sister of King XIII of France. At this time Charles II and his younger brother James were converted to Catholicism.
The cautious Charles II hid this. The religious revolution caused by Martin Luther in the mid-16th century created Protestants against Catholicism, and King Henry VIII of England, who was originally rebellious against the Pope, took this opportunity to escape the rule of the Pope and become his own British country. He founded the church and made it headed by the King of England.
Charles II had no children with his wife. He had more than 10 children with his mistress, but the heir to the throne became his younger brother James because he had no children with his wife.
This will lead to a great debate that divides England into two, which is called the "exclusion crisis of succession to the throne".
Simply put, depending on whether or not James was recognized as King of England, the sect that accepted it was called the Tories, and the sect that did not recognize it was called the Whigs, and England was completely divided into two.
By the way, these two parties are called the world's first political parties, and the two-party system will be inherited by the United States as it is.
In the end, Charles II died without a conclusion, and his younger brother James was appointed King of England and King of Scotland as James II.
Monmouth Rebellion and James II's Rebellion
As soon as James II took office, Marquis Monmouth rebelled in Scotland. Marquis Mosman was a child of Charles II and was a so-called illegitimate child.
James II organized a royal army to quickly subdue Marquis Mosman and not disband his army. Moreover, against the backdrop of the power of his army, he dismissed more than half of the lord-lieutenants, about 3/4 of the justice of the peace, and more than 1,200 members of the Diet, and instead took his breathing Catholics.
At this stage, Congress connects with James II's sister Mary and her husband, Prince of Orange-Nassau Willem.
Glorious Revolution
When Willem, Prince of Orange, landed in England, James II quickly fled to Ireland. It is unheard of for the king to flee, but due to this, the parliament declared the throne vacant, saying, "The king broke the basic law and left the country himself." Willem became King of England as William III.
James II, who fled to Ireland, is associated with his cousin Louis XIV, and William III decides to go on an Irish expedition to avenge it, and the Williamite War begins.
The two armies clash at the Battle of the Boyne, but William III wins. By the way, it seems that James II abandoned his still-fighting soldiers at this time and quickly went into exile in France. In history, no king has been so irresponsible and merciless.
This political change was called the Glory Revolution because of the lack of blood in England, and in Japan it was translated as the Glorious Revolution.
However, the politics of these have not changed at all, and since blood has flowed outside England, there have been some doubts about whether such a name is appropriate in recent years.
Bill of Rights
It may be this Bill of Rights that may be term number 1 that you can write but do not understand.
The Bill of Rights is an abbreviation, and its official name is "An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown." ". This is too long to write in a test.
The content is as the official name, and the content is as follows
- Prohibition of exemption / suspension of enforcement of law without the consent of the parliament
- Taxation without parliamentary consent, prohibition of standing army in peacetime
- Freedom of parliamentary elections, freedom of speech within parliament, guarantee of the right to petition of the people
- Convening a parliament
- Right to petition of the people, immunity of members in parliament, regulations on personal freedom
- Excluding Catholics from the successor to the throne
Simply put, the main points of taxation are to convene a parliament and obtain its approval, not to have an absolute monarchy like France and Austria, and that Catholics cannot become kings.
The major difference between English law and Japanese law is the "constitution".
In Japan, the "Constitution of Japan", which is a component as of 2019, is the only and absolute constitution.
This is because the "Revolution" from the inside called the Meiji Restoration created the "Meiji Constitution", and the "Revolution" from the outside was created by losing in World War II. Was invalidated and the "Constitution of Japan" was promulgated.
There is no such political change in Britain. Therefore, both the Magna Carta (Great Charter) in the time of King John and this Bill of Rights are still valid, and they are the so-called constitutions.
Such a constitution is sometimes called an unwritten constitution or an unwritten constitution in legal terms.
Impact of the Glorious Revolution
As a result, the king became a form of "reigning but not governing", and in England, an absolute monarchy like France and Austria was not born. Perhaps because of this, the British royal family still exists as of 2019.
In addition, Britain and the Netherlands improved rapidly, and the ratio of troops between the two armies was determined in the agreement between the two countries.
The Dutch:British ratio was 5:3 for the Army and 3:5 for the Navy, giving the Royal Navy an edge over the Dutch Navy and rapidly weakening its position as a maritime nation.
It can be said that the Royal Navy was superior to Spain in the Battle of Armada and superior to the Netherlands in the Glorious Revolution.
And that will bring glory to the British Empire.
Thinking about the Glorious Revolution
What is a "revolution" when thinking about the Glorious Revolution? You will end up thinking about that.
This also leads to the question of whether the Meiji Restoration was a revolution.
The world's three major revolutions are said to be the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, and the Glorious Revolution.
However, the contents of the previous two and the Glorious Revolution are very different.
The American Revolutionary War was, so to speak, a break from the royal government and a parliamentary system. The same is true for the French Revolution, where the execution of the king caused France to shift to a parliamentary system, and what is different from the American Revolutionary War is that in France, a person named Napoleon jumped over the king and became emperor.
After that, France repeated the restoration of the royal government and the parliamentary government, and after the February Revolution, it completely shifted to the parliamentary system.
Yes, the revolution is to overturn the politics in this way.
Given that the word "Revolution" was coined from "revolve," which means to turn, the term "revolution" should only be used in the overthrow of politics.
However, I personally think that the Meiji Restoration is a revolution, and the Glorious Revolution is not a revolution.
Looking only at the results, the Stewart family continued to assume the kingship before and after the Glorious Revolution, and externally, the ratio of the Navy to the Netherlands was fixed. This is very significant in the sense that the national power of the Netherlands will decline, but it can be said that it has little impact on foreign countries.
However, when viewed in British history, its influence was so great that it created the concept of a constitutional monarchy, a series of political parties from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and eventually a cabinet.
This means that the parliament has had power since the destruction of ancient Rome, and it can be said that it was a truly revolutionary event.