Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again,
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Wordsworth, "Sonnet on Milton"


HISTORICAL OUTLINE. The period from the accession of Charles I in
1625 to the Revolution of 1688 was filled with a mighty struggle
over the question whether king or Commons should be supreme in
England. On this question the English people were divided into two
main parties. On one side were the Royalists, or Cavaliers, who
upheld the monarch with his theory of the divine right of kings; on
the other were the Puritans, or Independents, who stood for the
rights of the individual man and for the liberties of Parliament
and people. The latter party was at first very small; it had
appeared in the days of Langland and Wyclif, and had been
persecuted by Elizabeth; but persecution served only to increase
its numbers and determination. Though the Puritans were never a
majority in England, they soon ruled the land with a firmness it
had not known since the days of William the Conqueror. They were
primarily men of conscience, and no institution can stand before
strong men whose conscience says the institution is wrong. That is
why the degenerate theaters were not reformed but abolished; that
is why the theory of the divine right of kings was shattered as by
a thunderbolt when King Charles was sent to the block for treason
against his country.

The struggle reached a climax in the Civil War of 1642, which ended