THE SIXTEEN NINETIES
Tim Khan
February 19, 2018
In
the 1690s, Britain’s colonies in North America were still figuring out their
identity. The main event characterizing this period of history for Europe was
the Nine Years’ War, which took place on North America as King William’s War. Other
important events included the Salem witch trials, the reissuing of the
Massachusetts charter, and the writings of John Locke.
The
monarchs on the British Isles throughout this time were William III and Mary
II. Mary was a Protestant daughter of the Catholic King James II, and her
husband William of Orange was a Stadtholder
or ruler from the Netherlands. They became king and queen in 1688 when the
Glorious Revolution deposed her father. They ruled England (plus Wales),
Scotland, and Ireland together until December 1694, when Queen Mary died from
smallpox. King William then reigned alone until his own death in 1702. (Since they
had no children, Mary’s sister would later succeed William as Queen Anne II.)
The
Whigs and Tories composed the two main political parties in Britain at this
time. They argued originally in the 1670s and 1680s over whether or not to
support James II and his Catholic kingship, but did not significantly fight in
the 1690s under William and Mary. The two separated again under Queen Anne II
after William died.[1]
By May 1697 the English ministry was made up entirely of Whig members.[2]
Europe
The
Nine Years’ War, also called the War of the League of Augsburg, lasted from
1688 to 1697. France fought a coalition of her enemies called the Grand
Alliance, led by the Holy Roman Empire. France’s king Louis XIV declared war on
his first cousin the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I in September 1688. Over the
next two years, other nations joined by declaring war or by having war declared
against them. Eventually the Netherlands, Spain, and the small Duchy of Savoy
were also involved.[3]
James II also became an ally of Louis XIV. (Both men were Catholic monarchs who
believed in the divine right of kings, and James fled to France when William
and Mary arrived in England.) King Louis armed James, who then went to Ireland
in 1689.[4]
In
Ireland, supporters of James II called “Jacobites” rebelled against the rule of
William and Mary. (James is the English version of the Greek and Hebrew name
Jacob.) William came to Ireland in 1690 and succeeded in crushing the rebellion
the following year.[5]
Key battles occurred at Londonderry and Enniskillen in the north, where Catholics
unsuccessfully attacked Protestant defenses; and at Boyne, Galway, and
Limerick, where King William’s forces won victories. After losing at Boyne,
James again fled to France.
The
English philosopher John Locke wrote three important political theory documents
during this time. In An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding (1690), he argued against Descartes that “ideas were
not innate to the human mind but that the mind was a blank slate that acquired
ideas as the product of sensory experience, which was not always accurate.” In
his Two Treatises of Government (1690),
he argued “against the divine right of kings,” because he believed men have
natural rights including life, liberty, and property in the state of nature, before
any king is present. In his Letter
Concerning Toleration (1689-92), he argued “that religion was a matter to
be decided by individuals” and that churches should be “voluntary associations.”
Although his writings did not immediately become popular in America, they would
later have a profound impact on political philosophy and the separation of
church and state.[6]
In
eastern Europe during this decade, the Ottoman Empire was fighting three wars
against European foes: the Hapsburg-Ottoman War (1683-1699), the Polish-Ottoman
War (1683-1699), and the Russo-Turkish War (1686-1700).[7] For the purposes of this
project, these wars are not of great importance: it is good to recognize, however,
that Europe felt the presence of another religion and theocracy at this time.
New
England
In
North America, King William’s War continued the trend of Louis’ Catholic forces
fighting the Protestant British. It started in February 1690 when the French
and their Indian allies started fighting British colonists at Schenectady, New
York.[8] It ended in September
1697, just one week before the entire Nine Years’ War ended. The British
colonists fared very badly in the war: their attacks on French forts were
“hastily assembled and poorly planned,” New England’s debt rose after no
victories (and therefore so did its taxes), and one thousand men died leaving
behind orphans and widows.[9]
Two other
important events in New England during this time were the gaining of a new
charter and the Salem witch trials. The Massachusetts Bay Company had
originally been granted a royal charter in 1629. In 1683 King James decided to
change things. He nullified the charter, and in 1686 sent Sir Edmund Andros as
the governor of the new Dominion of New England. Andros was not accountable to
any elected body of New Englanders and acted unfairly. This prompted Boston
pastor Increase Mather to go to London in 1688 and lobby for his people. By the
early 1690s Mather had come to be considered “the leading voice of American
Puritanism.”[10]
Mather
returned in 1692 to Massachusetts to find the Salem witch trials unfolding.
This event mars the memory of the 1690s in New England. Authorities in the town
of Salem arrested people under suspicion of being witches. These people had supposedly
made a covenant or pact with the devil.[11] At a time before the
redefined separation of church and state, when covenant theology thrived in
Massachusetts, such charges constituted a heinous and wicked crime. The accused
seemed to have betrayed their families and communities with this demonic pact.
According to Marsden, “by Edwards’ time witchcraft and the preternatural had
almost disappeared from clerical attention.”[12]
Bibliography
Andrea, Alfred J.
World History Encyclopedia. Volumes 12 and 13. Edited by Dane A. Morrison and Alexander Mikaberidze. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011.
Hall, Michael G. “Mather, Increase.” American National Biography. Volume 14.
Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C.
Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Marsden, George M. Jonathan
Edwards: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
New
Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., s.v. “Whig and
Tory.” Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica,
2007.
Ranlet, Philip. “A Safe Haven for Witches? Colonial
New York’s Politics and Relations with New
England in the 1690s.” New York History
90, no. 1/2 (2009), 37-57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23185096.
Stout, Harry S. The
New England Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Williams, Neville.
Chronology of World History. Second edition, volume II. Oxford: Helicon Publishing Ltd., 1999.
[1] New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th
ed.,s.v. “Whig and Tory” (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007), 620-621.
[2] Neville Williams,
Chronology of World History, second
edition, volume II (Oxford: Helicon Publishing Ltd., 1999), 484.
[3] Ibid., 464.
[4] Ibid., 465-467.
[5] Ibid., 470-473.
[6] Alfred J. Andrea,
World History Encyclopedia, volume 12,
ed. Dane A. Morrison and Alexander Mikaberidze (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO,
LLC, 2011), 432-433.
[7] Ibid., volume 13,
649.
[8] Ibid., 470.
[9] Harry S. Stout, The New England Soul (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2012), 120.
[10] Michael G. Hall, “Mather,
Increase” in American National Biography,
volume 14, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999), 686-687.
[11] George M. Marsden,
Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2003), 68.
[12] Ibid., 69.