The Parliament that assembled 3 November 1640 was fundamentally hostile to Charles I. Candidates associated with the court had been defeated, and almost everyone elected was aggrieved at some aspect of Charles' policies. Parliament had been assembled only because Charles needed money to pay the Scots army. To ensure that it was not dissolved as soon as the Scots army disbanded, Parliament forced Charles to sign an Act (10 May 1641) agreeing that this Parliament would not be dissolved without its own consent. The threat of the Scottish army was also used to persuade the King to consent to the Triennial Act (15 February 1641).
How accurate is it to say that Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck were both serious threats to Henry VIII's security? Henry became king in 1485 after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. His claim to the throne was weak and he took the crown at a time noblemen were constantly challenging the King's position. In view of these factors, it was no surprise for Henry’s position to be challenged. Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck both posed a threat to Henry's security for several reasons; mainly due to their explicit timing and foreign support.
England for a long time had been told to hate Catholics and when James came from Scotland and became king he decided to marry Henrietta Maria, a Catholic, the people became unhappy because they did not know if their heir would be Protestant or Catholic. In 1625 England became involved in expensive foreign wars - with the Austrian Empire then in 1627 a war against France. This meant that Charles was very short of money and so he forced rich people to lend it to him. In 1628 Charles asked Parliament to let him raise custom duties on wines and many other goods. The MPs were not happy with the forced loans and foreign wars so they presented Charles with the Petition of Rights which was just parliament saying that Charles cannot raise custom duties without parliaments permission.
How far can Oliver Cromwell’s death be seen as the key in bringing about the Restoration? Oliver Cromwell was the dominant figure of the Interregnum. His death then was one of the key events in bringing about the restoration of the monarchy. The question must be whether his death made restoration inevitable, or whether it created the situation which made feasible, if not guaranteed. His death posed the question of who was to succeed him, and while Charles II ultimately returned, alternative leaders attempted to govern first.
Possibly the greatest vulnerability was 'the weakness within' - the constitution gave the President, the states and the military too much control, whilst proportional voting meant that the Reichstag was separated and weak. There was no single party in complete control and parties had to join together to form a government. However, each party had different goals which caused in-fighting and instability making it difficult for the Reichstag, with its many changes in power, to govern effectively. This was reflected in 376 political assassinations up to 1923. From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people.
He believed he had the support of the English Parliament. Mark Kishlansky states that where previous requests for money and army were pressing, as in the 1620’s, the situation after the First Bishops War was one of “genuine emergency,” and parliament knew this. Parliament was arguing that an invasion of England was not as important as attacks on the freedom of its citizens (Kishlansky, 1997: 140). Kishlansky has highlighted how important the events of the First Bishops War was, Charles was backed into a corner by parliament due to the events in Scotland. David Smith says that it was clear that some members of both houses sympathised with the covenanters and wished to defeat the supply of money in order to encourage a resistance, (Smith, 1998: p111) highlighting that there was a
A Modest Proposal by Jonathon Swift is a satirical essay written in 1729. It was written in protest of the English treatment of the Catholic people of Ireland. Swift explains and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by the much more powerful, England. The Catholic people had many restrictions put on them. A few of these restrictions are as follows: the Catholics were not allowed to vote, they couldn’t marry a Protestant, they couldn’t attend Trinity College, they weren’t able to obtain orphans, they couldn’t be in the military or even own firearms and they weren’t able to buy land unless they had less than a thirty year lease.
The Roman Empire’s major reason in why it failed politically is that the Empire was never able to find an effective way to pick the proceeding emperor resulting in the empire having crazy, profligate emperors. Because of this, the military stepped in, complicating things even more than they were before. The military would try to sell the throne to the highest bidder. This meant that the throne did not go to a person who could truly run the Empire, but went to a crazy, profligate man who just wanted to party and live an extravagant life. Meanwhile, in China they were suffering from similar political issues.
This proves the political instability of Germany in this period as they were the largest party in the Reichstag but still refused to cooperate. This need for the parties to agree cause germanys politics to become unstable yet again because they were unable to agree of unemployment benefits and foreign policy. This led the voter moving to more extremist parties like the KPD who had 10.6% of the vote in 1923. The election of president Hindenburg did not have a positive effect as he was very anti socialists, resulting in him excluding the SPD from the coalition despite their majority and including the DNVP to limit the coverage of the political spectrum in the hope his policies would pass quicker. In terms of economic development, the Dawes and the Young plan definitely helped develop and rebuild Germany’s economy, however there are other factors which counteracted them, making them less effective.
Was the League of Nations a failure? The League of Nations is thought to be a failure by many, because of hard irony and limitation on military might. The League accomplished very little in stopping wars and conflicts while having very little power. Often they just shook fists at ruthless, evil dictators such as Germany’s Adolf Hitler and his conquests, without intervening. Another Major flaw was that “the country, whose president, Woodrow Wilson, had dreamt up the idea of the League - America -, refused to join it.” The league’s most powerful militaries Britain and France not only suffered casualties, but also economically as they were greatly in debt to the United States.