Starting point (Religion as politics)

Résumé du document

In 1670 Charles II signed the secret Treaty of Dover, the first of a series with France whereby he became a pensioner, albeit a modest one, of Louis XIV and, in the words of the treaty sought jointly 'to humble the pride of The States General' (the Netherlands). Few in 1670 could have foreseen that within twenty years, France was to become Britain's enemy in a power struggle lasting over a century. The secret part was to be toleration for Catholics and the announcement of his own conversion. No one was able to explain precisely the king's motives for this and even Louis XIV had reservations. Charles was in fact not to convert until his deathbed.

Such a foreign policy ran counter to an increasingly anti French sentiment and a hostility to the flaunting of Catholicism at court, both by the queen, the king's mistress, and some of his ministers. Parliament viewed all of this with increasing suspicion. In 1672, as a step on the path to alleviating the position of Catholics, the king issued a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending the penal laws, including the notorious Clarendon Code against all non-¬Anglicans, allowing Catholics to hold services in private and Protestant dissenters to worship in places under license. So strong was the reaction of the Anglican Royalists in the Cavalier Parliament that when they met in the following year they threatened to curtail the royal finances. The king was forced to withdraw the Declaration.

Parliament then went on to pass the Test Act, which laid down that everyone holding any form of public office should swear loyalty to the Established Church and affirm their abhorrence of Catholicism. The effect of that was not only an exodus of Catholics from office but the revelation that the king's brother, James, Duke of York, was a convert. As Charles's wife, the Portuguese Catholic Catherine of Braganza, had failed to produce a child, James was the heir to the throne. Although Catholics formed only 1% of the population, fear distorted that into a popular belief that what had been going on at court was part of some international plot whereby the country would be converted, if need be by force of arms, and a French style rule introduced.

And it was this atmosphere of hot-house intrigue which provided the fruitful ground upon which those who concocted what was called the Popish Plot built. Such a plot never existed outside the mind of its inventor, a devious and deceitful ex Anglican cleric called Titus Oates. The political consequences of his fantasy were to be appalling, for they awoke in the English consciousness all of the irrational fear of Catholicism which stretched back to the burnings of Mary's reign, on through the Armada and the Gunpowder Plot, to the fears of Rome engendered by the dealings of the court of the king's father.

Oates worked in tandem with another disreputable cleric, Israel Tonge, and together they fabricated the details of a plot which included firing the City of London, England being invaded by French and Irish forces (who would put to the sword anyone who refused to convert), and the murder of the king so that his Catholic brother might take over. The plotters claimed the whole scheme was financed by the pope and engineered under the auspices of the Jesuits.

Extraits

[...] In 1953 Britain still had of the world's manufacturing production, only slightly less than in 1939. By the close of the 1950s the world's other economics were beginning to move up the league table. West Germany passed Britain in the 1960s, France and Japan in the 1970s. By 1980 Britain only held of world manufacture and figured as sixth in the world's league of manufacturing nations. Although that decline was arrested for a time in the eighties, by the close of that decade it had moved one further step downwards to seventh place below Italy. [...]

[...] By March 1688 some 1,200 people had been removed from office and replaced by Catholics and Dissenters. There was, however, still no sign of public resistance. What the king would have read as acquiescence was, in fact, alienation. That meant that if there was a challenge of some kind, whoever made it could rely on the passivity of the majority, who would not rise in the king's defense. Obedience and non-resistance to the crown was part of the creed of the Tories. And James had lost their support. [...]

[...] On 15 May 1756 war was declared on France. Its initial phase went badly, the French taking Minorca. Then the conflict spread to the Continent when Frederick the Great of Prussia began what was to be known as the Seven Years' War by invading Saxony. The war continued to go badly, so much so that the king was ultimately forced to bring Pitt into the administration. With characteristic arrogance, Pitt would only agree to this on condition that both Newcastle and Fox were excluded from office. [...]

[...] It was a huge turning point. Members of the Commonwealth were henceforth not to be susceptible to British guidance. It alienated the Arab states in the Middle cast, turned Nasser into a world figure, and allowed Russia to extend its influence into Egypt. It also imposed a strain on British relations with the United States. The French, co-partners in the enterprise, regarded the British with withering contempt. Even after such a major disaster it is astonishing that successive governments continued to behave as though Britain still had world status. [...]

[...] Collectively, their bark was worse than their bite. Few, in fact, were ever prosecuted and even fewer found guilty. By 1795, however, these radical movements had been easily suppressed and driven underground. The war not only lasted a long time but also its geographical extent was unparalleled, embracing Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. England was seriously threatened with invasion several times and indeed at one point the conquest of the country came at the head of the French agenda. [...]