The Last of the Stuarts

1689-1714

Role of the Monarch

• Chief Executive

• Limits: – Parliament controls money– No absolutism– No standing army

Monarch’s Authority

• Commander in Chief

• Civil List

• Ministers

British vs. U.S. Systems

• Executive

• Legislative Cooperation

• Commanders in Chief

• Appointed Judges

• Veto in theory

Scrofula

Henry IV of France bestowing the King’s Touch

Population in 1700

• 5.5 Million (England and Wales)

• Army: 70,000

• Navy: 50,000

The Party System

• Whigs vs. Tories

• Elections every three years

Whigs

• Agree with Revolution Settlement

• Tolerate Religious Dissenters

• War with France a good thing

• Wealthy

• Religion a formality

Tories

• Support King’s power

• C of E only true Church

• Flirted with Jacobitism

Party Label

• Issues limited

• Court vs. Country

• “Loyal Opposition” not yet accepted

Ireland and Scotland

Battle of the Boyne

Act of Union (1707)

• Common Parliament– 45 Scottish, 513 English MPs– 16 Scottish, 190 English Peers

• Common weights and measures

• Common Taxation

• No Tariff Barriers

Differences

• Scots keep legal system

• Presbyterian Church

Dynastic Succession

• Sophia, Electress of Hanover

• Prince George

• Act of Settlement (1701)

• King George I