Exclusion Crisis

Period of intense political struggle 1679 – 1681 for the succession to the English throne

In the late 1670s, the issue of royal succession raised public concerns and anxieties. Charles II, although fathering many illegitimate children, had produced no legitimate heirs. According to the laws of primogeniture and dynasty, the crown was then to pass to Charles’s younger brother James, Duke of York (the later James II).

However, James was a converted Catholic, which had already been publicly known since 1673. His religious denomination provoked the widespread fear among people that once king, James would introduce a Catholic absolutist monarchy modelled on the French system under Louis XIV. These fears and apprehensions led to the attempts to prevent James from succeeding to the English throne, commonly known as the Exclusion crisis.

The beginning of the actual crisis is usually dated back to 1678, when Titus Oates fabricated the so-called Popish Plot. In September 1678, Oates, a former Jesuit novice who had converted to the Catholic faith in 1677, unveiled a supposed Jesuit conspiracy to overthrow the Protestant establishment and to assassinate Charles II. According to Oates, the French were about to invade England via Ireland and place James on the throne. Evidence supporting Oates’s claim was soon discovered, and the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (the magistrate before whom Oates had presented his allegations) gave further credibility to the plot, and led to another wave of mass hysteria throughout the country, fuelled by a deep-seated fear of ‘popery and arbitrary government’ (which was associated with tyranny) in Stuart England.

In the three parliaments called between 1679 and 1681 discontented Whigs (led by the Earl of Shaftesbury) tried to use their majority in the House of Commons to promote measures excluding James from succession to the throne. However, all their bills were defeated. Either by the House of Lords or by the king using his royal prerogatives. Eventually, Charles II dissolved the so-called Oxford Parliament 28 March, 1681. Parliament was not summoned until 1685, after Charles' death. Charles’s resolute position was strengthened by an agreement with France, by which the king received £385,000 over three years (over which he could dispose without having to summon Parliament for taxes). The exclusionist movement itself lost many of its supporters as fears of a new civil war increased because of the radical tactics (mass petitions, demonstrations) that were used. Moreover, the refusal of Charles II to summon Parliament took away its platform.

The exclusionists’ campaign against James highlighted the conflict between crown and Parliament since the 1660s. It can be seen as a radical move by Parliament to dictate royal succession which contrasts with conventional assumptions about the divine nature of monarchical rule. In hindsight, many arguments and discourses of the Glorious Revolution can be detected in the discussions during the Exclusion crisis.

Sources:

Cannon, John Ashton (ed.). The Oxford Companion to British History. Oxford: University Press, 1997.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/glorious_revolution_01.shtml