However, Gladstone did have unsuccessful legislation in Ireland, with the 1870 Irish land act, and the 1873 Irish universities bill. Both of these were fundamentally trying to be liberal, but had very illiberal factors to them such as not allowing students in his new university to study theology, philosophy and modern history. These reforms didn’t receive the same popularity or support as the disestablishment of the Irish church. Overall, you would probably argue that Gladstone was a success in Ireland, as his biggest and most controversial piece of legislation, yet it still managed to be very successful and appealed to the Irish people and the non-conformists whereas it scared off the Anglicans. Gladstone also introduced the removal of unjustified privilege, as he described
Henry also needed to control the nobility because if he didn’t, or only managed to control a minority, he could have a revolution, and Nobles, together, had a lot more money and power than the king himself. Firstly he gave the Earl of Surrey his lands back, bits at a time to ensure his loyalty, while having him as a key figurehead in the north to stop rebellions, since the north largely supported Richard and Henry needed to find a way of controlling them. Also Henry didn’t get rid of all the Yorkist nobles in the council, only those who thought against him. He did this so that he wouldn’t have a full scale Yorkist rebellion on his hands, but he couldn’t have people who wanted him dead and had fought against him on his council. As well as this, Henry needed to be effective at getting England onto a secure financial footing.
With each level of this hierarchy had its own leader. For example the sheriffs managed the shires under the Earls. This system shows that there was a very clear peaking order in pre- conquest England; this would have made the country a lot easier to manage because each division of land had a local lord to manage it. However, the power of the Earls was one of the issues that this system had. When the Earls combined their power it was enough to overpower the King, this meant that if they worked together they would be able to overcome him without an issue at all.
Since Elizabeth wanted to distance herself from the largely unpopular Mary Tudor, she chose her own 19 man Privy Council, made up of people she trusted and quite crucially none of them were hard core Catholics. William Cecil or baron Burghley as he was later referred as was perhaps the most important council member, he was a very astute politician and almost like a father figure to Elizabeth, this trust earned him the job of secretary of state. Cecil was hard working, incredibly loyal to England and to Elizabeth and crucially did not only get the job because he knew Elizabeth; he knew how government worked and what he needed to do to effectively run a big part of country. He was never afraid to tell Elizabeth when he thought she was wrong which of course would frustrate her at the time but she always valued his opinions, most people in Tudor England would just agree and go along with whatever the monarch said so to have such a loyal and smart
His death posed the question of who was to succeed him, and while Charles II ultimately returned, alternative leaders attempted to govern first. To answer the question this essay must analyse the situation under Cromwell and the events that followed to ascertain whether the Commonwealth could have survived, or whether the power vacuum could only have been filled by the monarchy. In the civil war Parliament fought to preserve the ‘ancient constitution’[1] of King, Lords and Commons. Parliament made generous offers to the king, such as the ‘Heads of Proposals’ drawn up by Cromwell and army officers. Charles would have kept his crown and most of his power and be assured of the retention of bishops.
First of all we’ll look at Harald Godwinson. He had a strong claim to the throne because he was a blood relative of Edwards. He also had experience of power and he was very popular with the English. But when Edwards died Godwinson was expected to mourn his dead relative, instead he rushed to fight for the throne, instead of respecting his loss he was rude and disrespectful in his race for power and people were not happy with this. This section is all about Harald Godwinson!
In theory the whole Kingdom was the kings estate, including his home farms, were the royal demesne. The earls wouldn't have liked this, as they were supposedly in control of their earldoms, but theoretically their earldoms belonged to the king still. This could have caused disagreements between the Earls and the king as the Earls may not have felt powerful enough, as the king ruled all. Also there was a Geld which was tax on land, this had to be paid by everybody - including the Earls! All payments went towards the king, this would've also made the Earls not feel powerful enough, especially Harold Godwin who was seen as the most powerful man in England, but theoretically he wasn’t.
This appeased the peasants, so that they would not revolt again and another revolution wouldn’t occure. However, the 1st and 2nd Duma did not help reform. The 1st Duma only lasted 73 days before the Tsar dissolved it using his powers under the fundamental law. The 2nd Duma only lasted 3 months but under the guidance of Stolypin, this Duma managed to pass important land reform. The 2nd Duma sharply criticised the army which angered the Tsar and his supporters.
Oliver Cromwell rose to power by being a member of Parliament. Although he was merely a Gentleman farmer, he was wealthy enough to become an MP. He achieved a more important role when he was asked to help parliament fight the King. The main reasons for civil war braking out were King Charles I being stubborn and selfish. For example, he re-introduced Ship tax, and believed in Divine Right.
However, as the war went on, the king’s money dwindled away, and Parliament raised taxes, therefore they had more money than the king. London was probably the most important place in the whole battle, without this, the parliamentarians probably wouldn’t have won. London had a large population and they mostly supported parliament. It was also an extremely wealthy place compared to the areas that the king owned (Wales, Cornwall and Northern England). London kept the parliamentarians supplied with soldiers and weapons for the entire war, and if the king took control of it, Parliament would certainly have lost.