Struggle And Compromise--On The Settlement Pattern Of Constitutional Conflict Of England In The 17th Century

The British people established constitutionalism though almost one hundred year' s grope in the 17th century. England became the originate land of constitutional system. Their experience and lesson deserve us to absorb and refer to. This paper will make a study of the settlement pattern of constitutional conflict of England in the 17th century with interdisciplinary method.The traditional historical research in our country on the conflict between the parliament and the king in this time was always under the direction of class struggle theory. And because of the influence of ultra-left trend of thought, the traditional opinion always emphasized the importance and necessity of struggle while ignored the significance and value of compromise, even belittled it .We regard that constitution was the theme of England of in the 17th century . The main task of that time was to overthrow the dictatorship and to establish the constitutionalism .The proper compromise as well as struggle was necessary to complete this task.From 1603,the House of Stuart had been putting absolute autocratic monarchy into practice disregard of English political tradition and the situation, which was opposed by the parliament . The Kings stifled the parliament and even dissolved the parliament frequently, Charles I even practiced personal rule. Then the constitutional conflict broke out. In the early 1640' s the parliament which was dormant for eleven years set off a new upsurge of reform against the king .The parliament asked to establish constitutionalism .But the King never gave up .The conflict between thembecame acute .The parliament also tried several times to make compromise ,but Charles refused to make any substantial concession from the beginning to the end .Which made the conflict more acute. At last the civil war broke out. From 1642 to 1649, the parliament had been fighting against the king and won the war at last. During the war time, the separatists and presbyterians who wanted to establish constitutional monarchy under their own theory tried to make compromise with Charles I .But the king was still incorrigibly obstinate , and restored to all schemes to overthrow the parliament . The king' s antagonism and the internal dissension of the parliament at last led England to the Republic pattern.However the Republic did not solve any constitutional problem but become centralized step by step . It was separatists' dictatorship under the cloak of republicanism .At that time constitutional monarchy could be possible because of the parliament effort. But Cromwell refused to give up the power, he stifled the democratic power and the opposition faction in the parliament .He ruled England relying on the army .The non-compromise led the constitutional revolution into dilemma. Twenty years of wars and blooded rule did not solve the conflict but made people remember the past times. After Cromwell' s death, the king' s rule was restored by many social powers. Because the parliament was over compromise and the deep division between the presbyerian and the republican, and there was no specific requirement to restrict the monarchy or effective regulars to maintain the balance between the parliament and the king, the pattern of restoration settlement failed .In the middle of"1680' s James II tried to restore Catholicism, which made the opposition powers in the parliament to combine entirely. They invited William, Prince of Orange , to safeguard England , and drove James II away .Then William and Mary were proclaimed King William III and Queen Mary II after accepting the Declaration ofRight . The constitutional monarchy accorded with the situation of England was established by struggle, compromise and game from different political powers .The principle of parliamental sovereignty and legality was established through the constitution and effective system by the parliament . That was the pattern of "the Glorious Revolution" .Therefore, the excessive struggle and the over compromise went to extremes .The problem wasn' t settled fundam...