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HIST 251: Early Modern England

Lecture 22 - An Unsettled Settlement: The Restoration Era, 1660-1688. In this lecture Professor Wrightson discusses the Restoration settlement of 1660 and the reigns of Charles II and James II. He highlights the manner in which tensions between the crown and the political nation slowly escalated during Charles's reign (as a result of his attempts to grant religious toleration, unpopular wars against the Dutch and diplomatic alliances with France). Charles showed himself to be a shrewd politician and managed to contain these tensions, but the situation became increasingly fraught after the alleged "Popish Plot" precipitated the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81 and the emergence of the Whig and Tory parties. Charles faced down the threat to his authority successfully. However, he was succeeded in 1685 by his openly Catholic brother James II, who proved politically inept and unable to build on Charles' success. Fears of James' catholicizing and absolutist intentions erupted in 1688 in the Glorious Revolution, when the Dutch leader William of Orange (husband of James' daughter Mary) was invited to intervene, leading in James' flight abroad and the offer of the crown to William and Mary. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 22 - An Unsettled Settlement: The Restoration Era, 1660-1688

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Restoration: Convention Parliament
[00:04:42] 2. Cavalier Parliament
[00:09:10] 3. Charles II
[00:20:38] 4. The Exclusion Crisis
[00:33:02] 5. James II

References
Lecture 22 - An Unsettled Settlement: The Restoration Era, 1660-1688
Instructor: Professor Keith E. Wrightson. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - General Introduction
Lecture 02 - "The Tree of Commonwealth": The Social Order in the Sixteenth Century
Lecture 03 - Households: Structures, Priorities, Strategies, Roles
Lecture 04 - Communities: Key Institutions and Relationships
Lecture 05 - "Countries" and Nation: Social and Economic Networks and the Urban System
Lecture 06 - The Structures of Power
Lecture 07 - Late Medieval Religion and Its Critics
Lecture 08 - Reformation and Division, 1530-1558
Lecture 09 - "Commodity" and "Commonweal": Economic and Social Problems, 1520-1560
Lecture 10 - The Elizabethan Confessional State: Conformity, Papists and Puritans
Lecture 11 - The Elizabethan "Monarchical Republic": Political Participation
Lecture 12 - Economic Expansion, 1560-1640
Lecture 13 - A Polarizing Society, 1560-1640
Lecture 14 - Witchcraft and Magic
Lecture 15 - Crime and the Law
Lecture 16 - Popular Protest
Lecture 17 - Education and Literacy
Lecture 18 - Street Wars of Religion: Puritans and Arminians
Lecture 19 - Crown and Political Nation, 1604-1640
Lecture 20 - Constitutional Revolution and Civil War, 1640-1646
Lecture 21 - Regicide and Republic, 1647-1660
Lecture 22 - An Unsettled Settlement: The Restoration Era, 1660-1688
Lecture 23 - England, Britain, and the World: Economic Development, 1660-1720
Lecture 24 - Refashioning the State, 1688-1714
Lecture 25 - Concluding Discussion and Advice on Examination