The Augustan age

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Lingue
Download:	159
Data:	11.01.2001
Numero di pagine:	1
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

The Augustan age
The Historical context: The first two-third of the eighteenth century was a period of a relative stability and prosperity. In this period the monarchy lost the power in favour of Parliament. In 1688 James II was removed from the throne of England in a Glorious revolt. William Orange had married one of James’s daughters, Mary, was invited by the Parliament to succed to the throne, but before that he accepted the crown he had to sign the The Bill of Rights which limited the power of monarchy. In 1707 with the Act of Union the power of Parliament were extended because the Scottish Parliament was united to the English one. In 1714 Anne, Mary’s sister, was dead and so the crown passed from the Stuarts to the House of Hannover. The new King was George I°, but he didn’t speak English. In this period the great important figure was the Prime minister; there was two importants political parts: the Whigs and the Tories that consolidated their position and alternated in government. The first Prime minister was Robert Walpole that based his policy on mercantile expansion.
The social context: Now England was a commercial country because there was a progress of industry, of agricolture and there was also the internal political stability, the towns increased in size. This commercial expansion was good for the merchant class infact this class in this period had the power, but the noble class remained esclused by the power. The merchant class was culturless so the man of marchant class was married with the daughters noble.