 |
|
Reply
| | From:  JackPoynter (Original Message) | Sent: 4/26/2008 5:09 AM |
Hello, my name is Jack Poynter. I live in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. I am not an academic, but I am intensely interested in certain periods of history. As far as this forum is concerned, I'm interested in the time period 1529 or so to 1642 or so, those being the years during which preconditions and precipitants of the English Civil War took place; the English Civil War has fallout from those days until this. I wish to learn as much as I can about why the English Civil War was fought; I'm interested in what actually happened during the war only as far as it goes to show the bitterness of the war. This is what I think so far; I am not wedded to these ideas, and if better ones present themselves I will be most pleased: - Henry VIII wanted to establish himself as a monarch on the continental plan typified by the Louis'.
- To that end, he institutued the English Reformation as a land grab to enrich himself, and used the money to begin create a new nobility beholden only to himself, as opposed to the great feudal nobles of the English south and west.
- Most of the money was frittered away on a continental war in France, leaving Henry's plans in regard to the nobles only partly implemented, thereby setting up unresolved and ongoing friction between the new and old sets of nobles.
- It also left Henry's heirs, including Elizabeth I, with a badly divided court. Elizabeth I used these divisions to play off one set against the other and keep herself in power, further exacerbating the differences.
- (Points one - four are due to Kevin Phillips' The Cousins' Wars.)
- Dutch economic and cultural encroachment in East Anglia further deepened differences between East Anglia and the southwest of England. Calvinist religious ideas took deep hold in East Anglia due to Dutch influence, and helped strengthen the Puritan movement.
- (Point six is more or less my own invention; there are some circumstancial proofs of this.)
- Under Charles I and Bishop Laud, the persecution of the Puritans gave rise to the Great Migration to New England, and the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (as opposed to the Separatist / Brownist movement which went over on the Mayflower, and was a separate venture entirely.)
- By 1642, the divisions between Royalists and Parliament had come to a head, resulting in the English Revolution, the return of many Puritans to England to fight, the victory of Cromwell and Parliament, the hanging of Laud and the beheading of Charles I, and a repressive military dictatorship in England.
Here are the books I've read on the subject: - The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642, Lawrence Stone
- The Cousins' Wars, Kevin Phillips
- Albion's Seed, David Hackett Fischer
- By the Sword Divided: Eyewitness Accounts of the English Civil War, ed. John Adair
- Various overviews and standard histories, including The Outline of History, H.G. Wells.
An idea of which threads to investigate on this forum would be appreciated. Recommendations of other books I might look at would be appreciated. Comments from those familiar with the period would be appreciated. Actually, questions and comments from any of you about any of this would be appreciated. Thank you for allowing me to join you. JP |
|
 First
Previous
2-6 of 6
Next
Last
|
Reply
| | | From: MarkGB5 | Sent: 4/26/2008 9:54 AM |
That pretty much sums it up perfectly, although the East Anglia theory is new to me. I live a few miles from the site of one of the lesser battles of the English Civil War, Hopton Heath 1643. The Royalists won, but their commander, the Earl of Northampton was killed and his body taken by the defeated Parliamentarians as they retreated. The bitterness continued after the battle when the Parliamentarians refused to hand over the Earl's body until the Royalists returned their captured cannon. No deal was made, so the Parliamentarians carried the Earl's body with them for nearly three months before it was buried in a vault in All Saints Church, Derby. |
|
Reply
| |
With regard to East Anglia, Fischer in Albion's Seed says that the bulk of the migration from East Anglia to Massachusetts Bay took place from towns within a 60 mile radius of Haverhill. (p31). This area includes much of the area that in 1643 was defined as the Eastern Association - Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire, plus parts of Bedfordshire and Kent. Many towns along the channel show 16th-17th century Dutch influence in architecture. (ref a bazillion [there's a scholarly term for you!  ] websites describing these town.) In the period pictures of the Puritans and Pilgrims in America, their dress is Dutch Dress. The East Anglians were referred to as engels (pronounced yongels) by the southern and western English during the 17th century; this Dutch term was a derisive name given by the west of England. It is one of the ways in which the term Yankee might have been derived. Like many derisive terms, it was taken over by the derided and made their own. This is again due to Albion's Seed. It is worth noting, I think, that Edward Pollard refers to the Yankees of New England as "regicides", writing between 1861-1866 in The Southern History of the War. Pollard was the editor of the Ricmond Examiner during the American Civil War, and wrote the History from dispatches in essentially real time. When he railed against New England, his words were coming from the heart, and directly from the memory and mood of the time. That's what I've got on Dutch influence helping to precipitate the English Revolution. JP |
|
Reply
| |
BTW, I descend in direct line from Simon Everitt, who married into the Turner family in 1666 down south of Norfolk, Virginia, in Isle of Wight County. His grandson, Thomas Everett, named one of his children "Femby", which I believe refers to Ashby-cum-Femby in East Anglia. The Everitts were Puritans who settled with many of their brethren in Isle of Wight and surrounding Counties and drove Royal Governor William Berkeley of Virginia nuts with their dissent from the Church of England. The name "Everett" is derived from ebeorhart, meaning "heart like a wild boar", and is related to the German name Eberhart. Many towns in that area begin with "eve-", all of which refer to the boar. (e.g. Evesham.) Freya, a Teutonic / Scandinavian god, was depicted as riding into battle on the back of a boar. The point of the wedge in a Norse attacking formation, which consisted of their two most powerful warriors with battle axes, was used to break hole in the defending battle line, was called the hrani, or "boar's snout". The edges of the formation was called the "boar's shoulders," and was used to widen the hole opened by the hrani. All of this taken together leads me to the belief that that area of Lincolnshire was a center of a boar cult. Anybody know if that is the case? JP |
|
Reply
| |
The Cat, the Rat, & Lovell our Dog Rule all England under the Hog Richard IIIs device was a boar as well....he was born at Fotheringhay but became a Yorkshireman. Tis right next door to Lincolnshire so you never know  |
|
|
First
Previous
2-6 of 6
Next
Last
|
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Return to General