The

Cavaliers
&
Puritans
17th Century
(1625 – 1700)
 Turmoil
Religious & Political
Queen Elizabeth dies 1603
King James 1603-1625
King Charles 1625-1649
Oliver Cromwell 1642 - 1660
King Charles II 1660 - 1685
“GLORIOUS REVOLUTION”
The Controversy
Royal family are Anglican
(Catholic sympathizers)
WHILE
Common people are
Protestant sympathizers
Divine Right
of Kings
King is Head of
Church & State
 King James
Not a picture of health…

-- crippling arthritis
-- weak limbs
-- colic (digestion problems)
-- gout
-- difficulty walking
-- tongue problems

After numerous attempts on his

life, he required constant care.

Invented British flag -- combined England's red cross of

St. George with Scotland's white cross of St. Andrew.
 Religious
Non-Conformity
Puritans/Separatists
Congregationists/Presbyterians
Church government styles
congregation vs. bishop
liturgical vs. non-liturgical
 King James &
the Non-conformists
“I shall make them
conform themselves
or I will harry them
out of the land, or
else…do worse.”
King Charles
 Angers Parliament
 Angers Puritans
 Private arrests, trials
 Catholicize worship (High
Church)
 Last straw - Presbyterian
Scots & the new liturgy!
 CIVIL WAR
 Roundheads = Puritans
 Cavaliers = Royal Loyalists
 Council of State - backed by revolutionary
officers
 Cromwell assumes control as “Lord
Protector of the Commonwealth”

The Bloody Revolution!

King Charles beheaded
in 1649!
Cromwell’s Rule
Puritan strictness
Military power
Suppression of
theatre
& other frivolous
activities
Tyrant/dictator
The Restoration
 Cromwell’s death
dooms Puritan rule
 Parliament asks King
Charles II back from
exile in Holland
 People revolted vs.
Puritan strictness
Hatred of Cromwell
Charles II
 Catholic sympathizer
 Repressive religious
measures
 Allied to Catholic
France
 Discontent grows vs.
monarchy
James II
 Catholic sympathizer
 appoints Catholics to
influential govt &
military posts
 Vatican reps in court
 religious persecution
of Scottish Protestants
 Glorious Revolution
(Bloodless Revolution)
 William of Orange
(Protestant)
 Mary (James II’s
daughter)
 Parliament asks
them to rule in
place of James II
 New limited monarchy
London grows to 600,000!
Historic Events
Great Plague
in London
1665
-------------
68,000
die!
Historic Events

Great Fire of London - 1666

(Christopher Wren - rebuilder)
 Cavalier Poets
-- Lovelace, Suckling, Herrick --
 Anglican
 supporters of the King
 topics of wine, women, war
& love
 simple & easy to understand
 avoided religious topics
 witty & satirical
“Tribe of Ben”
 Metaphysical Poets
-- Donne, Herbert, later Herrick --
 Protestant
 Not happy with the King
 religious & philosophical topics
 challenging, demanding, symbolic
 metaphysical conceits – unusual
metaphors
17th Century
Poetry
 John Milton
 Paradise Lost (over 10,000 lines)
 Puritan look at fall into sin
 “justify the ways of God to man”
 great English classic
17th Century Poetry
 John Dryden
 Poet laureate of Charles II
 Neoclassic style (odes &
satires)
 literary criticism
 essayist - “father of
modern prose”
 translator
 debater
17th Century Drama
 Ben Jonson
 Comedies
- Satiric Comedy
- Tragicomedy
- Comedy of Manners
 Puritans close theater
 Actresses acceptable by
end of century
He was not of an age, but for all time.
-- To the Memory of Shakespeare
17th Century Prose
 Scientific writing
 Hobbes & Locke –
Philosophical writing
 Izaak Walton –
The Compleat Angler
 John Dryden –
Literary criticism
 Samuel Pepys –
The Diary (in code)
 John Bunyan –
The Pilgrim’s Progress
 King James Bible
John Bunyan
Our Father which in heaven art,
Thy name be always hallowed;
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done;
Thy heavenly path be followed
By us on earth as 'tis with thee,
We humbly pray;
And let our bread us given be,
From day to day.
Forgive our debts as we forgive
Those that to us indebted are:
Into temptation lead us not,
But save us from the wicked snare.
The kingdom's thine, the power too,
We thee adore;
The glory also shall be thine
For evermore.
 Bunyan’s
Pilgrim’s Progress
 Written in prison
 Main character is Christian

 Allegory of Christian Life

 “Last great Christian
classic”
 Samuel Pepys –
Diary Writer
June 15th

The Duke of Yorke not yet come

to town. The town grows very
sickly, and people to be afeared
of it - there dying this last wek of
the plague 112, from 43 the week
before - whereof, one in
Fanchurch-street and one in
Broadstreete by the Treasurer's
office.
 Watch for . . .
 Spelling becoming set (1st dictionaries)
 Satire - moral writing to expose evil

 Heroic couplet in poetry

 Rise of comedies
 Shakespeare considered “rough,
uncultured” - not often performed