Chapter The Restoration Settlement of Age of Dryden by History

replaced with men loyal to the Parliamentary cause. As the King appointed only county officials and magistrates, at the Restoration and into the 1660s a number of these 'disaffected' men remained in office. In short, the legislation the Long Parliament passed in 1641 with the assent of Charles I was confirmed, and those involved in the Civil War with the exception of the Regicides [1] (11 were executed) were granted pardons. Church and Crown lands, and those of Royalists the Interregnum regime had confiscated, were restored; however, lands sold to pay Cromwellian taxation demands were not restored. The Crown was granted ordinary revenue of £1.2 million per annum, which proved inadequate given the extravagance of Court, until the trade boom of the 1670s and 1680s increased its yield. The Anglican Church was fully restored, and the series of statutes collectively known as the Clarendon Code [2] persecuted Dissenters.

[1. Regicides: those who had assented to or taken part in the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649. At the Restoration Royalists were determined on reprisals against those who were guilty of regicide. The remains of Cromwell, Henry Ireton and Bradshaw (the 'judge' of the trial) were exhumed and formally executed - Cromwell's head was impaled on a stake outside Parliament. Thirteen living Regicides were executed.

2. Clarendon Code, 1660-65: a set of statues passed by Charles II's Cavalier Parliament that were collectively named after the King's chief minister Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. However this is misleading as Clarendon disapproved of much of the legislation. In essence the Clarendon Code re-established the Anglican hegemony in the Church of England and brought to an end the religious toleration that had marked the Cromwellian era. The Corporation Act (1661) compelled government officials in towns across the country to take Anglican communion, swear an oath of allegiance to the Church of England and the supremacy of the crown as head of the Church, and to reject the Solemn League and Covenant (1643). The Act of Uniformity (1662) re-imposed a revised Book of Common Prayer and The Thirty- Nine Articles - as a result around one tenth of the clergy resigned their positions as they were opposed to the provisions of the Act. This had the desired effect the Cavalier Parliament had hoped for - a widespread purgation of the Church of non-Anglican clergymen. The Conventicle Acts (1664 and 1670) suppressed Dissenting congregations (or conventicles). Lastly the Five Mile Act (1665) stipulated nonconformist ministers were not to return within five miles of their former parishes and towns unless they took the oath of non-resistance.]

The dismissal and attempted impeachment of Clarendon in 1667 is important as it made way for the next generation of political figures to emerge in government, marking the end of the Restoration era. The impeachment case against Clarendon, though completely separate from his dismissal, marked the beginnings of a new era that was concerned with different issues and political alignments than those of 1660-67.