Unit 5: The Restoration and Eighteenth Century

1660-1800

Unit 5: Restoration and Eighteenth Century• Restoration History

In 1660 Charles II was restored to the English throne bringing many French courtiers who mocked at the Puritan virtues and helped to plunge England into a spiral of moral decay.

Two great tragedies befell England during the reign of Charles II. The bubonic plague killed around 150,000 people from 1603-1665. In 1666, the Great Fire of London raged for three days.

Succeeding the decadent Charles II was his tyrannical Catholic brother James II who was deposed from the throne by Parliament.

William of Orange and Mary initiated the Glorious Revolution, or Bloodless Revolution, when they signed the English Bill of Rights ensuring freedom from tyrannical monarchs.

Unit 5: Restoration and Eighteenth Century

• Eighteenth Century History Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, took the throne in 1702. Parliament appointed George of Hanover (great grandson of James

I) to rule in 1714. George I-IV ruled England until 1830. Many more important changes began in the eighteenth century.

In 1707 the United Kingdom was formed joining England, Scotland, and Wales.

New inventions sparked the Industrial Revolution. The empire expanded into Canada, the West Indies, Africa, and India. The American colonies fought for and won their independence in 1776. The Bloody French Revolution raged from 1787-1799.

Unit 5: Restoration and Eighteenth Century• Philosophy

Heavily influenced by the philosophers of the French Revolution, Voltaire and Diderot, England found herself trusting in man’s reason as the supreme source of truth, thereby, giving this historical era the title the Age of Reason. John Locke, asserting the predominance of man’s reason over the Bible, was the foremost philosopher of the age.

In this age of decadence, the people found themselves primarily concerned with fashion, architecture, and manners, but morally decayed. Church was just a ritual and an opportunity for more displays of vanity. The people were little more than “whited sepulchers.”

The London coffeehouses were a significant institution to society forming an inexpensive place for people to gather together to discuss politics, literature, and fashion.

Lights in the darkness: Matthew Henry, William Law, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, William Wilberforce, Robert Raikes, John Howard, and William Carey.

Unit 5: Restoration and Eighteenth Century• Literature

Restoration: Dryden* Theaters reopened and were worse than before. The incident

drama portrayed characters defiant toward ethical laws.* Most of the literature of the era was influenced by French

literature (Molière’s satirical drama), philosophy, and culture largely because of Charles II’s French court.

Eighteenth Century * Age of Pope: Neoclassical imitation of the polished Greek and

Roman literary styles* Age of Johnson: Age of Prose* New Genres: journalism, prose satire (Swift), and the novel* The novel was born and became the most enduring popular

genre of modern times. Samuel Richardson’s Pamela or Virtue Rewarded was the first official novel.

Pre-Romantics* Pre-Romantic poets were a group of poets who foreshadowed the

return to lyric poetry in the Romantic Era. Cowper, Gray, Goldsmith, Burn, and Blake