2009+Class+Notes+and+Resources

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English Society in the 17th Century

We had a wordle...but it got deleted or something...

Our question for the English Society section of the chapter was: What was the most important benefit of the new forms of communications, and how did it affect religious beliefs. The general response was that the printing press created difficulties for the church to maintain power. It was easier for people to spread information farther and faster, so the church could no longer abuse their powers.

Wordle of The Fight with Parliament media type="custom" key="4967569"

Well, the results are in. Most people had the same, or at least very similar responses to the question "Do you think there is any defence for or reasoning in favor of an absolute ruler(or Divine Right of Kings, or King Charles)? Whatever your answer is, please explain it-and try to look at it objectively." With no exceptions, everybody says that they would certainly prefer to live in a democracy than a monarchy, especially with a king like Charles. However, that part wasn't answering the question. While nobody defended King Charles' actions, many people mentioned how that in an idealistic world an absolute monarchy or dictatorship would be a great form of government, because there would be little or no red tape, and things could be done well and efficiently. To sum it up the many paragraphs of what was said, this is in stark contrast to modern democracy, which is weighed down by bureaucracy, corruption, and tangeld decision-making procedures. However, this is where the word "idealistic" comes in. If a King is intelligent, merciful, worldly, and in general enlightened, he(or she) would be a great ruler, and this would be a good idea way to run the country. However, while there are the rare Kings or Queens that can be described like that, history has shown us that there will almost certainly not be a succession of these rulers.

Link to the Discussion page-The Fight with Parliament

[|Wordle] of The Early Stuarts Discussion Page

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**How do you think the Parliament should have reacted to the re-establishment of the Divine Rights of Kings?** This was the question originally asked in our discussion. From this we received many answers and opinions, but mainly what was being said was that the Parliament should have made more of a try at regaining the power that they had lost. Even though the Parliament itself was "corrupt", it would still voice the opinions of many people, instead of one suprem​e ruler that decides on anything he wants because no one has any say in it. There was also talk of turning the people of England against their ruler to assist the Parliament in taking back its power.

**If you were a member of parliament, what would you say to the king to sway him to not remove the parliament from the law making portion of the legal decision? ** ​This was our follow up question in our disscussion. The main thing that was said was that to try to convince the king not to dissolve parliament because people liked the parliament and doesn`t like the idea of absolute power. If it worked they would overthrow the king. If not I guess parliament would have raised an army like before

Our question, for the Civil War and the Triumph of Parliament sections in the chapter, was “had King Charles I won the fight against Parliament, how do you think our society would be today?” As a general consensus, people seem to agree that even if King Charles had won, life would likely be almost the exact same as it now is, since someone would soon after have protested again, and Parliament would have developed as it did when Charles was overthrown. However, culture may have been slightly different, and a few years behind what today’s society is. Democracy would still be in earlier stages, and not as widespread. If, by chance however, King Charles had won, and monarchy had prevailed through any further protests, then the world would probably be several hundred years behind where it is today, and wouldn’t progress as it has; technological advancements, including medicine, hygiene, and transportation, would not have occurred to the same degree. ~Rebecca, Raiya, Nick, Veronica, and Jonathan : )

The Early Stuarts... In a nutshell.