After
more than four decades on the throne, Elizabeth
I died in 1603. James VI of Scotland succeeded
her, becoming James I and establishing
the Stuart dynasty. Unlike Elizabeth
I, who managed a "mixed" government
of Monarch, Lords, and Commons, James I
advocated the divine rights of the kings
as God's deputies and fathers of their
people. By comparison with Elizabeth's,
James's court was disorderly, indecorous,
and in constant financial crisis. At court,
same-sex expressions of love suffused with
eroticism were common, inspiring rumors
of homosexual activities. Religion became
a means of maintaining social and political
order, and King James sponsored an English
translation of the Christian version of
the Bible. James I was succeeded by Charles
I, who ruled with consistency and inflexibility.
He dissolved Parliament on three occasions,
governing through a much-hated cabinet
council. Charles I married the French princess
Henrietta Maria, who promoted a conversion
back to Catholicism. The appointment of
William Laud as the archbishop of Canterbury
allowed for the rapid growth of a high-Anglican
faction within the church whose ceremony,
ritual, and doctrine more closely resembled
Roman Catholicism.
The court
was an important site of literary activity. Queen
Anne helped give prominence and a distinctive
form to the masque, traditionally presented
at Christmastide. The customary end to
court masques included the masquers unmasking
themselves and dancing with the other courtiers,
symbolizing the fusion of the ideal world
and the Stuart court. Beyond
the court, noble families patronized poets
and playwrights. The interrelated
Sidneys at Penshurst and Herberts at Wilton
were particularly prominent in patronage.
The church also promoted writing. London
became an important center for civic entertainments,
bookselling, and theater. Major playwrights
of the period include William Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, and Samuel Webster; Ben Jonson,
along with John Donne and George Herbert,
was also a major poet. The Jacobean era
saw the publication of works by female
authors, such as Dorothy Leigh, Rachel
Speght, Aemilia Lanyer, Lady Mary Wroth,
and Elizabeth Cary (Lady Falkland).
Convened
in 1640, the "Long Parliament" inspired
a revolution and the king's execution. The
Parliament's objects, however, were
to abolish extra-legal taxes and courts,
secure and expand its rights in the face
of the king's absolutism, bring to
trial the king's hated ministers, Strafford
and Laud, rein in the bishop's power,
and remain in session until they themselves
agreed to disband. Charles I was beheaded
on 27 January 1649, accused of being a "Tyrant,
Traitor, Murderer, and Public Enemy." The
Scots and Irish immediately declared his
exiled son as Charles II and gathered armies
to invade England. Charles II, however,
did not arrive in England until 1660. In
the interim, Oliver Cromwell had served
as Protector under England's first
written constitution.
One of the first acts of
Parliament after 1642 was the abolishment
of public sports and staged plays, which
were considered unsuitable to the tumultuous
period. Although London theaters were closed,
dramatic literature continued to be published.
Cavalier poets, often living in exile, wrote
volumes of poetry celebrating royalist culture,
courtly ideals of the good life, and loyalty
to the king, emphasizing themes of carpe
diem, friendship, hospitality, and retirement.
Thomas Hobbes, living in exile in Paris,
wrote his materialist philosophy and psychology,
critique of language, and Leviathan,
his analysis and defense of absolute and
indivisible sovereignty based on social contract. The
omnipotent prose genre of the revolutionary
era was the polemic tract, addressing all
aspects of religious, social, and political
controversies.