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Summary “The religious settlement imposed by Charles II on his Restoration failed to solve the religious problems of the previous 20 years” Assess the validity of this view.
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“The religious settlement imposed by Charles II on his Restoration failed to solve the religiousproblems of the previous 20 years” Assess the validity of this view.
Charles II religious settlement during his restoration failed to solve the religious problems of the past
twenty years as these settlements did not decrease the presence of Dissenters and Catholics in
England like intended. However, it was not Charles fault that these problems were not solved as he
was notoriously sympathetic to the Catholics and some Dissenters, instead it was Parliament who
failed to solve the religious problems of the past twenty years as they were not able to decrease the
number or Dissenters (most notably Quakers), and were not sympathetic to the Catholics suffering
under Cromwell; and instead focused on once again popularising the Church of England (which
following the interregnum, did not longer reflect society like it had been intended.)
Charles II’s religious settlements failed to solve the religious problems in which the Catholics had
endured during the interregnum. Although English Catholics were not treated extensively different to
how they had been violently seen since the introduction of the Church of England in the 16th century,
Catholics in Ireland had faced violent brutality as a consequence of their support of Charles Staurt
following the abolishment of the Monarchy in 1649. Charles Stuart's popularity in Ireland undoubtedly
being creditable to his Irish connections. Oliver Cromwell created religious problems for the Catholics
in 1649, when he landed in Ireland with 10,000 troops and the intention of making as many Catholics
suffer as he could. In the nine months that Cromwell was in Ireland, he had created bloody sieges in
Wexford and Drogheda which killed more than 10,000 Catholics.On his restoration, Charles II
immediately showed a great tolerance to the Catholics, in which led the public to speculate whether or
not he was himself a proxy Catholic. In 1662, Charles II first showed his support for solving the
religious problems of the past twenty years when he showed immense interest and support for a bill
which would have allowed Catholic priests to register with a secretary of state, however this bill was
not passed by the Commons due to an unwillingness to tolerate Catholics. In the year 1664, Charles
refused to renew the Conventional Act which as a result, would allow Catholics to meet freely and
worship together. This action would have solved some of the religious problems caused since 1649s
as Catholicism would suggestively no longer be illegal like it had been since the introduction of the
Church of England, however, in 1668, Charles was refused a subsidy of £300,000 unless the
Conventional Act was reintroduced. The allowance of Catholics to worship together would have
solved the religious problems as the Catholics would have been treated with humanity in which they
were not offered by Oliver Cromwell, and the legalisation of worship would have somewhat helped to
stabilise the country as the idea of Catholicism would no longer need to be criminalised. Therefore,
although Charles II attempted to solve the religious problems which had occurred in the past twenty
years by providing a greater tolerance and humanity to Catholics, Parliament allowed these problems
to be solved by manipulating Charles to continue to criminalise Catholicism through the renewal of the
Conventional Act. If the act had been dismissed completely, the Church of England could have been
broadened like Charles II desired to include Catholicism, however, arguably this would not have
further destabilised the country due to the Anglcians and Church of England's hatred of Catholicism.
Therefore, if the religious settlements imposed by Charles had been successful in solving the Catholic
religious problems, further religious problems would have become apparent as religious stability could
have only been achieved with one main religion, not two. SImilarly, if the Church of England had been
broadened to include Catholics, it would have only created further divisions and conflict between the
Protestants and Catholics.
With the abolishment of the Monarchy, religious problems had begun to occur when, under Oliver
Cromwell, the church became politicised, which as a result created a political instability as it prompted
the rise of Quakers in the 1650s. Unlike the Catholics, Charles II was not tolerant towards the
Dissenters as he understood the threat of their popularity as in 1660, roughly 300,000 English citizens
identified as dissenters. Charles attempted to deal with the threat of Dissenters in his religious
settlement when in 1665 following the Second Dutch War, he introduced the Five Miles Act. The Five
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