Exclusion Bill
Encyclopedia
The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1678 through 1681 in the reign of Charles II of England
. The Exclusion Bill sought to exclude the king's brother and heir presumptive
, James, Duke of York
, from the thrones of England
, Scotland
and Ireland
because he was Roman Catholic. The Tories
were opposed to this exclusion while the "Country Party", who were soon to become known as the Whigs, supported it.
In 1673, when he refused to take the oath prescribed by the new Test Act
, it became publicly known that the Duke of York was a Roman Catholic. His secretary, Edward Colman
, had been named by Titus Oates
during the Popish Plot
(1678) as a conspirator to subvert the kingdom. Members of the Anglican
English establishment could see that in France
a Catholic king was ruling in an absolutist way, and a movement gathered strength to avoid such a form of monarchy from developing in England, as many feared it would if James were to succeed his brother Charles
, who had no legitimate
children. Sir Henry Capel summarized the general feeling of the country when he said in a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons of England
on 27 April 1679:
The occasion which brought these sentiments to a head was the impeachment
of Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby
, as a scapegoat
for a scandal by which Louis XIV
bought the neutrality of Charles's government with an outright bribe. Charles dissolved the Cavalier Parliament
, but the new Parliament
which assembled on 6 March 1679 was even more hostile to the king and to his unfortunate minister than the outgoing one had been, and Danby was committed to the Tower of London
.
On 15 May 1679, the supporters of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
, introduced the Exclusion bill in the Commons
with the intention of excluding James from the succession to the throne
. A fringe group there began to support the claim to the throne of Charles's illegitimate — but Protestant — son, the Duke of Monmouth
. As it seemed likely that the bill would pass in the House of Commons, Charles exercised his Royal prerogative
to dissolve Parliament. Successive Parliaments attempted to pass such a bill, and were likewise dissolved. The "Petitioners", those who backed a series of petitions to Charles to call Parliament together in order to complete the passage of the Exclusion Bill, became known as the Whigs, while the Court party, or the "Abhorrers
" in the political cant of the hour, meaning those who found the Exclusion Bill abhorrent, would develop into the Tories.
Shaftesbury's party, beginning to be known as the Whigs
, involved the whole country in a mass movement, primarily by keeping alive the fears raised by the Popish Plot
. Every November, on the anniversary of Elizabeth I's
accession, they organised huge processions in London in which the Pope
was burnt in effigy. The King's supporters (the Tories
) were able to muster their own propaganda
in the form of memories of the tyrannical regime of the Commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell
and its many austerities. Despite two failed attempts to reestablish Parliament and pass the bill, the King succeeded in labelling the Whigs as subversives and as closet nonconformists. By 1681, in the course of the Exclusion Bill Parliament
, the mass movement had died down, and the bill was defeated when it was sent to the House of Lords
.
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. The Exclusion Bill sought to exclude the king's brother and heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
, James, Duke of York
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, from the thrones of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
, Scotland
Kingdom of Scotland
The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...
and Ireland
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland refers to the country of Ireland in the period between the proclamation of Henry VIII as King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 and the Act of Union in 1800. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171...
because he was Roman Catholic. The Tories
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
were opposed to this exclusion while the "Country Party", who were soon to become known as the Whigs, supported it.
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...
, it became publicly known that the Duke of York was a Roman Catholic. His secretary, Edward Colman
Edward Colman
Edward Colman or Coleman was an English Catholic courtier under Charles II of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on a treason charge, having been implicated by Titus Oates in his false accusations concerning a Popish Plot...
, had been named by Titus Oates
Titus Oates
Titus Oates was an English perjurer who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.-Early life:...
during the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
(1678) as a conspirator to subvert the kingdom. Members of the Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
English establishment could see that in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
a Catholic king was ruling in an absolutist way, and a movement gathered strength to avoid such a form of monarchy from developing in England, as many feared it would if James were to succeed his brother Charles
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, who had no legitimate
Legitimacy (law)
At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...
children. Sir Henry Capel summarized the general feeling of the country when he said in a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons of England
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
on 27 April 1679:
The occasion which brought these sentiments to a head was the impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
of Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby
Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds
Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, KG , English statesman , served in a variety of offices under Kings Charles II and William III of England.-Early life, 1632–1674:The son of Sir Edward Osborne, Bart., of Kiveton, Yorkshire, Thomas Osborne...
, as a scapegoat
Scapegoat
Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
for a scandal by which Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
bought the neutrality of Charles's government with an outright bribe. Charles dissolved the Cavalier Parliament
Cavalier Parliament
The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter century reign of Charles II of England...
, but the new Parliament
Habeas Corpus Parliament
The Habeas Corpus Parliament, also known as the First Exclusion Parliament, was a short-lived English Parliament which assembled on 6 March 1679 during the reign of Charles II of England, the third parliament of the King's reign. It is named after the Habeas Corpus Act, which it enacted in May,...
which assembled on 6 March 1679 was even more hostile to the king and to his unfortunate minister than the outgoing one had been, and Danby was committed to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
.
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC , known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1631, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1631 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1672, was a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles...
, introduced the Exclusion bill in the Commons
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
with the intention of excluding James from the succession to the throne
Succession to the British Throne
Succession to the British throne is governed both by common law and statute. Under common law the crown is currently passed on by male-preference primogeniture. In other words, succession passes first to an individual's sons, in order of birth, and subsequently to daughters, again in order of birth....
. A fringe group there began to support the claim to the throne of Charles's illegitimate — but Protestant — son, the Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...
. As it seemed likely that the bill would pass in the House of Commons, Charles exercised his Royal prerogative
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and...
to dissolve Parliament. Successive Parliaments attempted to pass such a bill, and were likewise dissolved. The "Petitioners", those who backed a series of petitions to Charles to call Parliament together in order to complete the passage of the Exclusion Bill, became known as the Whigs, while the Court party, or the "Abhorrers
Abhorrers
Abhorrers, the name given in 1679 to the persons who expressed their abhorrence at the action of those who had signed petitions urging King Charles II of England to assemble Parliament....
" in the political cant of the hour, meaning those who found the Exclusion Bill abhorrent, would develop into the Tories.
Shaftesbury's party, beginning to be known as the Whigs
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
, involved the whole country in a mass movement, primarily by keeping alive the fears raised by the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
. Every November, on the anniversary of Elizabeth I's
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
accession, they organised huge processions in London in which the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
was burnt in effigy. The King's supporters (the Tories
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
) were able to muster their own propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
in the form of memories of the tyrannical regime of the Commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
and its many austerities. Despite two failed attempts to reestablish Parliament and pass the bill, the King succeeded in labelling the Whigs as subversives and as closet nonconformists. By 1681, in the course of the Exclusion Bill Parliament
Exclusion Bill Parliament
The Exclusion Bill Parliament was a Parliament of England during the reign of Charles II of England, named after the long saga of the Exclusion Bill...
, the mass movement had died down, and the bill was defeated when it was sent to the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.