Stuart Restoration

For most of history, wine degradation owing to spoilage resulted in its depreciating value over time.

By contrast, a new type of claret that did not spoil rapidly... and improved temporarily, became prized in English culture in the post-Restoration era.

So this is the period where Samuel Pepys recorded tasting Aubreyant wine in 1666, and where the Court of King Charles II, starting by being volumes of Bordeaux, right?

That's right.

During a few years the evils inseparable from military government were, in some degree, mitigated by the wisdom and magnanimity of the great man who held the supreme command.

But when the sword which he had wielded, with energy indeed, but with energy always guided by good sense and generally tempered by good nature, had passed two captains who possessed neither his abilities nor his virtues it seemed too probable that order and liberty would perish in one ignominious ruin that ruin was happily averted It had been too much, the practice of writers zealous for freedom to represent the Restoration as a disastrous event, and to condemn the folly or baseness of that convention, which recalled the royal family without exacting new securities against maladministration.

Those who hold this language do not comprehend the real nature of the crisis which followed the deposition of Richard Cromwell.

England was in imminent danger of falling under the tyranny of a succession of small men raised up and pulled down by military caprice.

George Fox had raised a tempest of derision by proclaiming that it was a violation of Christian sincerity to designate a single person by a plural pronoun, and that it was an idolatrous homage to Janus and Woden to talk about January and Wednesday.

His doctrine, a few years later, was embraced by some eminent men, and rose greatly in the public estimation.

But at the time of the Restoration, the Quakers were popularly regarded as the most despicable of fanatics.

By the Puritans, they were treated with severity here, and were persecuted to the death in New England.

What exactly is a medieval pie? Because

we should say we're looking really, because of the age of Ludlow Castle, we're going to focus on sort of the medieval era through to what we would call the Restoration Era, so sort of late 17th century, when Charles II comes back from the throne.

There weren't thrones

left.

On this account, his family estate of Minturn was burdened by Parliament with a fine so heavy that he could not possibly pay it, and his estate was sequestrated.

At the Restoration, there seemed a hope of more prosperous days for Winston Churchill.

His estate of Minturn was given back to him, and he was soon after knighted.

He was returned to Parliament and received some trifling appointments about court.

He amused himself with the pursuit of literature and published a work called Dewi Britannica, a ridiculous panegyric on royalty.

But though regarded with favor by Charles II on account of his persistent loyalty, Sir Winston Churchill remained in needy circumstances and had not much money to spend on the education of his children.

Before the Restoration, John, his eldest surviving son, had been taught by his father and a neighboring clergyman.

Afterwards, when his father came to London, he was for a short time a scholar at St. Paul's School, where, however, he did not stay long enough to get any literary training, and remained all his life entirely wanting in book learning.

So they are prepared to fight for this.

James, you know, before James's accession, there is no standing army during the Restoration.

So William doesn't have that much to fear, but he does want to show up with overwhelming force in case James decides to make a stand.

And actually, it turns out really useful because almost all the troops he uses to invade England in 1688 go over with him to Ireland in 1689 and 90 in order to ensure that he can beat James over there.

And it was very difficult to stop for a variety of reasons that we might go into.

So just a quick comment you asked about Baptists and the Restoration and how many of them would have reacted towards it.

I don't have at all a comprehensive knowledge of this, but I think it's interesting how many of them were actually fifth monarchists and had some pretty goofy millennial views.

And so for them, I think they were, to be honest, just trying to compute that what they thought maybe would have happened in Cromwell's Protectorate didn't.

Um, but, um, so you got these different denominations, these factions, you know, they, they're, they don't agree with each other necessarily, but, um, they, uh, um, for a while they're kind of running, uh, roughshod, uh, over the whole country during the interregnum when Cromwell is, um, is in power, and they think they've won.

And then comes the Restoration, and it's even worse than it was before, in a way, because after the Restoration, there's serious efforts to actually roll back to Catholicism.

So a lot of those people are just like, OK, I'm out of here.

You know, I'm going to go to New England.