From the Protestant Reformation to the American Revolution

Our recent discussions in homeschool history have been connecting facts and events.  It’s been quite fun to hear the kids give me a detailed explanation connecting the Seven Years War to the American Revolution.  They don’t completely understand these facts but they’re starting to draw connections.  I’ve been having fun drawing connections from the Protestant Reformation to the American Revolution.

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1.  October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door.

When Martin Luther nailed that to the door, it rocked the world.  This is one of a handful of dates I require my kids to memorize, that is how significant it is.  When Martin Luther nailed it to the door, he was saying it is okay to question authority.  Prior to this the Pope’s word was law.  Kings ruled by divine right (well except in England who was somewhat of a special case and consistently doesn’t follow the trends).

Suddenly people were questioning what rights the king had and what responsibilities he had.  Did they have the right to read the Bible for themselves, or was that something only priests could do?  The world was changing.

 

2.  King Henry VIII became Protestant.

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the Pope had granted Henry’s first request for divorce.  Prior to that, he was a zealous defender of the Catholic faith, even going so far as to write several treatises anonymously decrying Martin Luther.  But, that’s not what happened.

So, he created a church that was kind of Protestant, but not really.  And he got his divorce, actually, he got several and a few divorce by death, but that’s beside the point right here.

 

3.  King James published the Bible in English.

Actually, there was an earlier English Bible, but it was created by William Tyndale and he made King Henry VIII mad, so there was no way England was ever going to use that Bible.  Even though the King James translation is mostly based off of it.  Suddenly everyone could read the Bible themselves.  It wasn’t for just the most learned of all, it was for everyone.  From the plowman in the field to the nobleman in his castle.  They all could read it now.  This led to……

 

4.  The Puritans and the Separatists try to reform the Church of England.

These are two separate groups.  Think of the Puritans as trying to purify and make the Church of England more holy.  Think of the Separatists as throwing the baby out with the bathwater and declaring you can’t save the Church of England.  Parts of both groups immigrate to America to set up a good church.  Colonies start to be founded with [gasp] religious freedom.  Who would have thought you could do that?  Though most do still have some form of compulsory church attendance, but that is more because most news is delivered through the church.  This is where we get Thanksgiving from.

 

5.  Charles 1 of England tries to tax his kingdom without the consent of Parliament.

 

Which leads to the great and loud cry of “No taxation without representation!”  Actually, that had already been well established, but Charles was attempting an end run on Parliament, and they were having none of it.  After hearing the lesson from The Mystery of History 3* my kids universally declared Charles to be an idiot.  Having listened through the Revolutions Podcast on the English Civil War I rather have to agree with them.  Parliament kept trying to come up with a compromise and he kept kicking them in the teeth.  In the end, they practically begged him to say he was sorry and be king again, but he wouldn’t.  But this is getting ahead of the story.

 

6.  England gets in a Civil War.

 

Actually, it gets in several Civil Wars.  What we now refer to as the English Civil War is actually a series of several smaller wars taking place over about 20 years.  What’s more confusing to me is it’s not called a Revolution.  The French Revolution has essentially the same result over a slightly longer period of time, yet it gets called a Revolution.  This is one of those great mysteries of history.  Maybe it’s because the English really did keep it a mostly internal affair.  Though I think that’s more because the other kingdoms were so scared this idea of rebellion spreading they didn’t want to get involved.

But this Civil War said we do not need a king, and England was really big on this whole representative government thing.

6b.  England kills their king.

 

Seriously, they did everything in their power not to do this, and yet Charles still got himself killed.  But at this time we already had several American colonies founded, at one point Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protectorate himself, considered moving to America if the Civil War didn’t go well.  The colonies were watching all of this and taking notes.

In addition, because England had their own worries they basically said to the colonies “Take care of yourself, we’ll see you in a few decades, don’t die.”  The colonies got used to solving all of their problems on their own.  In addition, it took several months for news to travel back and forth so it’s not like England could really make major decisions for them.

This is really a sub-point of 6, but I wanted to expand it a little bit more.  Also, it really did seem like Charles was trying to get himself killed.

**This probably could be a whole series of posts just by itself…..**

 

6c. The Lord Protectorate, Sir Oliver Cromwell tries his best not to be declared king and pretty much fails.

 

So, Oliver Cromwell.  He ended up in control of the Civil War at the end.  He also seriously botched many parts of it, to this day he is reviled in Ireland and Scotland for his butchery.  But, he tried his best to set up a representative government with an elected (by a few select people, I mean the illiterate masses shouldn’t vote, I mean they can’t read) leader called the Lord Protector.  But every time he kept trying that the Parliament kept messing up his carefully scripted rules and were trying to turn England into a monarchy of sorts.

Well, Oliver died, and his son took over, but his son was an absolute pratt, like idiot on a whole new level of idiocy, they invite in Charles’ son, who still thinks he can go back to the days of absolute monarch, which did not work.  He gets kicked out, and after a few more false starts they bring in William and Mary of Orange, and with much negotiation on both sides bring in a new monarchy.  So, when people tell you Britain has been around for thousands of years, try hard not to laugh in their face because this particular government is not significantly older than the United States.  The idea of Britain has been around that long, its current incarnation has not.

7.  Meanwhile over in Europe, we’re going to fast-forward a few years and there’s a new war, the Seven Years War.

Remember this war because all by itself it is responsible for being a cause of at least 5 different revolutions.  Britain had been allied with Austria, but this war Austria turned to France (Britain’s rival) and Russia to help them against Prussia.  So Britain said, “Oh yeah, you’re going to join with FRANCE!  Well, I’ll join with Prussia and a whole list of other people to take you down!”  This war spills over into North America and becomes the French and Indian war.  Britain wins and takes all of the French lands in North America along with a whole other list of stuff that deserves its’ own post once the kids and I have finished studying this time.  We finished studying it, and the Seven Years War is a doozy of a war.

Britain also got a large amount of debt from this war.

 

8.  Britain says, “We fought this war to protect you, so you should pay for it.”

They proceed to pass a whole series of taxes on the colonies designed to recoup some of their costs.

 

9.  The colonists say, “We are not going to pay these taxes.  If you recall kind sir, about 100 years ago you fought over this same principle.”

No really, they said it just like that.  Or maybe they said it more like “If this be treason make the most of it,” and many other famous statements.  We now head into a five-year period with the British crown sounding a lot like King Charles saying “I can pass whatever tax I want,” and parliament saying “No taxation without representation.”  Or the Pope saying “You have to follow the laws I set,” and King Henry VIII saying “I don’t want to.”

 

10.  Fast forward 10 years and the Continental Congress says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…”

This sounds rather like a certain German monk who nailed a status update to the church door almost 500 years ago.

 

linked up to Top Ten Tuesday

 

Some ideas mentioned in that massive run from the Protestant Reformation to the American Revolution