Development of Western
Thought & the Rise of
Democratic Ideals
• Democratic Development in England:
The Glorious Revolution
• Essential Question: How does the
Glorious Revolution contribute to modern
Ideas of democracy?
Essential Questions:
• How have people worked to gain
individual rights and liberties?
• Why are individual liberties essential for
citizens?
• What dramatic principles have
developed over time?
• How does a government gain the
legitimate right to rule?
Please Analyze the following
Picture…
Feudalism
• Provided a sense of security in the face
of social and political turmoil
Divine Right of Kings
• Power comes directly from God
• Accountable to God not citizens
• Absolute monarchs
English Common Law
• Established By Henry II 1154
• King could not write new laws, but had
to follow accepted customs
• Henry II found ways to expand customs
into laws
• Legal system based on custom & court
rulings
• Standardized laws and punishments
Magna Carta 1215
• Forced king John to accept
• Protections for the common man
– Freedom from arrest, imprisonment
– Due Process
– Nobles had certain rights—later extended
to all English citizens
– Monarchs had to obey the laws
Parliament
• Great Council
• Nobles & Clergy met at the House of
Lords
• Knights & Middle-Class citizens met at
the House of Commons
• Could approve new taxes—checked
and limited the power of the monarch
The Tudors
Tudor Dynasty 1485-1603
• Had good relations with Parliament
• Henry VIII broke with the Catholic
Church-Established the Church of
England
• Elizabeth I died in 1603 without an heir
The Stuarts
James I
Charles I
• Stuarts were the Scottish relatives of
the Tudors
• James I agreed to rule according to
English laws and customs but behaved
like absolute monarch
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•
•
•
Clashed with Parliament
Sent them home in 1611 & 1614
Charles I becomes king
1640-1653-Charles I summoned
Parliament and they revolted
• Demanded the execution of the King’s
chief ministers
• Charles sent troops to Parliament
The English Civil War
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•
•
•
1642-1649
Between Charles I & Parliament
Wealthy nobles support the King
Rural landowners, manufactures,
Puritan clergy support Parliament
• Oliver Cromwell’s army defeated the
King
Cromwell
• Parliament set up a court to try the king
• King was executed as a traitor
• First time a sitting monarch had been
tried and executed by his own people
The Commonwealth
• House of Commons abolished the
Monarchy the House of Lords, and the
Church of England
• Declared England a Republic
• Oliver Cromwell is in charge and installs
a military dictatorship
Puritan Rule
• Exiled Catholics
• Cromwell dies in 1658
• 1660 a newly elected Parliament
restored the monarchy by inviting
Charles’s son to rule
The Stuarts Again
Charles II
Charles II
• Absolute Monarch
• Had Catholic sympathies
• Accepted the Petition of Right &
effectively dealt with Parliament
James II
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•
•
•
Inherited the throne in 1685
Flaunted his Catholic faith
Ignored Parliament and Laws
English Protestants fear James II will
restore the Catholic Church
William & Mary
• 1688 Parliament invited James’s
Protestant daughter Mary & her Dutch
husband William III of Orange to
become rulers of England
• As they arrive James II fled to France
• This is know as a bloodless or glorious
revolution
Significance
• Limited Monarchy: Constitution or
legislative body limits the monarchs
power.
• Destroyed divine right theory
• King serves by the grace of Parliament
not God
The English Bill of Rights
• The king or queen could not cancel laws or impose
taxes unless Parliament agreed.
• Free elections
• No excessive fines
• No cruel punishments
• Habeas Corpus
• Right to bring complaints in front of the king or queen
• Parliament meet frequently
• Government would be based on laws and the rights of
its citizens, not the authority of a single ruler