Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Olivey, and this is a really old book that's absolutely enormous.

But enough of that, we are nearly ready to finish our enquiry.

We've got one lesson left, which is today's lesson.

And in order to complete our answer, you will just need a couple of things.

Can you make sure you got a pen and some paper to write with? And the other thing is, can you make sure you're in a reasonably quiet space so you can just do some really good focus work? I can't wait to see the answers you're going to produce at the end of this.

You have to draw the knowledge you've gained together and write something really interesting about the kind of changes brought about by the 'Glorious Revolution'.

So enough time for me stalling, let's get started.

Okay, so the title for today's lesson is Banking, Union and Gin.

And this is less than four of our four lesson enquiry, how revolutionary was the 'Glorious Revolution'? But before we can answer our big question at the end of today's lesson, we need to do two things.

The first is that we need to recap the story so far, and then once we've done that, we need to look at some of these longterm consequences of the 'Glorious Revolution', which I think I've mentioned a few times before.

So, first things first, let's go over the story so far.

The story begins with Charles the second becoming King in 1660, and marking the restoration of the monarchy.

However, this was not a very stable time for England because things like the great Fire of London and Titus Oates and his Popish Plot made people very nervous about Catholics trying to take over the country.

And it seemed like all their fears had come true when James the second became King in 1685, suddenly the majority Protestant population in England was terrified that they were going to be ruled by Catholic King.

And when he had a son, people really panicked.

So in June 1688, the seven bishops invited a foreign Prince to invade England, and he did.

William of Orange landed on the 5th of November, 1688 with 20,000 ships, now of be impossible, he landed with 20,000 men and 500 ships.

And very soon, within a matter of months, James had fled the country.

And in April 1689, William and Mary were crowned as joint monarchs, but that was not the end of the 'Glorious Revolution' or William's rise to power, 'cause very soon, he faced a war in Ireland.

And this was a war between William and James that began with the Siege of Derry, and James eventually fled Ireland after the draw at the Battle of the Boyne, and his forces were finally defeated at the Battle of Aughrim, and the Treaty of Limerick ended these wars.

And even though it promised Irish Catholic landholders, that if they swore an oath of loyalty, they could keep their land, in reality, much of their land was taken as a result of the 'Glorious Revolution'.

And then we went to Scotland and we saw that because of the Scottish clan system, William was rather nervous that he was going to struggle to keep control of the country.

So he told them all to swear an oath of loyalty to him by the 31st of December, 1691.

And when the leader of the McDonald clan from Glencoe was a day late to sign this oath, the members of his clan were massacred by Williamite soldiers, 38 plus people were killed in the snow in February 1692.

Okay, now based on the story we've just listened to, why have some historians argued that 1688, 89 was not a 'glorious' revolution? It was not a 'glorious' revolution, it's not peaceful, it was not nice, it's not a good thing.

These are your options, pick two.

Okay, let's find out which two you could have picked.

The historians have argued that 1688 to 89 was not a 'glorious' revolution because of the Glencoe Massacre, because of the war in Ireland.

Those are two really sort of brutal episodes that really make the idea that this was a peaceful revolution seem rather suspicious.

So, coming back to our enquiry question then, of how revolutionary was the 'Glorious Revolution'? And we realised last lesson that we would need to look not only at the 'Glorious Revolution' itself, but also at the things that came after it, to be able to really answer this question.

And that is what we're going to do now.

Now the first thing I'd like you to write down in your piece of paper is this heading of the financial revolution.

So I'll just let you pause the video to write that down now.

Good, okay, now to you understand what I mean by financial revolution, you just have to know first the word financial refers to money, finance, finance to sort of about getting money and having enough money to do the things you want to do.

Now, the thing William really wanted money for was a really expensive war that he was fighting in Europe called The Nine Years War.

And he really needed money to be able to fight and win this war with Louis, the 14th of France.

And so, in 1694, he created something called the Bank of England, which still exists today.

And he created this bank so that it could lend him money to buy troops and cannons and muskets and musket balls and ships to fight his Nine Years War.

Now, the Bank of England is incredibly important because it's what allows governments to borrow money.

And it was what allowed England to become a very rich country.

Now, interestingly, quite a lot of the money to found the Bank of England, around 10% actually came from people who were immigrants to England.

They were called a group called the French Huguenots, who had fled France because they were Protestants.

France was a mainly Catholic country, and these French Huguenots were being massacred and treated really badly in France.

This is the famous painting, it was called 'The St.

Bartholomew's Day Massacre'.

And they put in around 10% of the money needed to found this Bank of England.

Now, the bank of England made Britain a very rich country, but some of the money that Britain was making at this time also came from other sources, and it's important to recognise these.

We mentioned before that James second had been involved in setting up the Royal Africa Company, which was a company that traded in slaves, Africans.

And one of the sort of consequences of the 'Glorious Revolution' to do with finance and money that people often overlook is that the Royal Africa Company's monopoly over the slave trade was actually abolished in 1698.

And this meant that other companies could be involved, and this really led to the huge growth of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 18th century.

So it's kind of an indirect consequence perhaps there, but a very important on, and Walmart had obviously horrific consequences for many people, millions of people.

Okay, so, why was the Bank of England founded? Pause the video now and pick the right option.

Okay, it was number one to fund William's forces in the Nine Years War.

Well done if you've got that one right.

Okay, so if we're thinking about our question of how revolutionary was the 'Glorious Revolution'? We now know then about this idea of financial revolution being sparked off by William becoming King.

With all kinds of consequences, the Bank of England being founded and also changes to how the slave trade operated.

Now, second longer term change we're going to look at with the 'Glorious Revolution is something called the Act of Union.

So again, if you write that heading down on your piece of paper, pause the video now to do that.

Good, so the Act of Union is the story of how Scotland lost its independence because Scotland had traditionally been an independent country from England, and this was the case all the way up until 1707.

Another reason why Scotland was united with England is quite complicated, and to understand why we need to go, not to Scotland at all, but to somewhere called the Isthmus of Panama, which is in South America, because between 1698 and 1700, Scotland spent a huge amount of money trying to found a colony on the Isthmus of Panama.

This was called the Darien Scheme.

The only problem was the isthmus of Panama was a pretty rubbish place to try and start a colony because it was controlled heavily by the Spanish, it didn't want to help Scottish, the land there was very marshy and bulky, so it was very hard to grow things.

There was nothing particularly valuable there.

And perhaps worst of all, there was a great deal of diseases there, in this sort of swamp that killed most of the settlers, and the colony was a complete failure.

And this bankrupted Scotland, and the Scottish government asked William, if they could have some money for it, "Please, can we have some money?" And William said, "No, you can't." So this left the Scottish government with a problem because they needed some money to be able to keep operating as a country.

And so William successor, a lady called Queen Anne was actually the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702 to 1707.

But then after the Scottish parliament agreed to something called the Act of Union and became the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

So this united the kingdoms of England and Scotland under one crown.

Now some Scottish people were very unhappy about this, and some, I suppose, still are.

The poet, Robert Burns wrote that the Scottish parliament had really sort of betrayed Scotland.

He said Scotland had been bought and sold for English Gold.

He was really very upset about this.

Now, pause the video here.

Why did the Scottish parliament agree to the Act of Union in 1707? Why would they do this? Because they voted themselves out of existence.

I don't know if I've mentioned that, they voted their own parliament to sort of stop existing.

Okay, pick the right option, pause the video now.

Okay, it is because the Darien Scheme bankrupted Scotland, so they needed money.

They needed to unite with England again.

Okay, and again, how revolutionary was the 'Glorious Revolution'? Would you say it was more revolutionary than the Act of Union? Third longterm change we're going to look at, it's quite a quick one, but I just included this because I think it's interesting.

And it's something called the Gin Craze.

Now in England, before William became King, the thing that most people drank was beer.

And they did this because beer was very weak at that time, it didn't make people too drunk and it was much safer to drink than water because the water, a lot of it, if you've got it from a well, it was likely to contain lots of germs that would make you ill.

But William wanted people to stop drinking beer and stop drinking French brandy, and instead wanted them to drink gin.

The only problem was William made it so cheap to buy and to drink gin, that lots of people started drinking far too much.

And this led to a huge social problem called the Gin Craze.

And by the middle of the 18th century, people really wanted this to stop.

This is William Hogarth's drawing of Gin Lane, where he did it, sort of try to show all of the social problems that were caused by this craze for drinking gin.

He said that, meant buildings were falling down, it meant people were arguing and behaving like animals.

Look, that man's knowing a bone, and people are dying, and it meant mothers were neglecting their children.

So given that gin was so dangerous, why did English people start drinking gin after 1688? Pick the right one.

Okay, it is number three.

It was because gin was seen as a good Protestant drink.

So they were encouraged to brew it and to drink it.

Okay, finally then, what might you say about the gin craze as some sort of unintended revolutionary consequence of the 'Glorious Revolution'? I don't know, it certainly might warrant bringing in there somewhere.

And what I'd like you to do is pause the video, read the slides in the next page and answer the comprehension questions, and resume the video once you're finished.

Okay, let's go through the answers.

Question one, why was the Bank of England founded in 1694? Great answer is to fund the Nine Years War, but a better answer would be, the Bank of England was founded in 1694 to support William's efforts to win the Nine Years War against Louis, the 14th of France.

Question two, why did the Scottish parliament signed the Act of Union in 1707? The correct answer would be because they were bankrupt, but a better answer would be, the failed Darien Scheme bankrupted Scotland.

After this colony failed, its parliament voted itself out of existence in 1707.

Burns said that Scotland was 'bought and sold for English Gold'.

Question three, why did English people start drinking large quantities of gin after 1688? The correct answer is because gin was seen as a Protestant drink.

The better answer is William the third, encouraged people to drink gin because he wanted them to stop buying French brandy.

Cheap gin soon led to huge social problems. So we're now ready to start thinking about answering our enquiry question, and what I've done on this next page is I've just sort of thought about giving you like some sort of template that I think we could work with 'cause this question could really be answered with two paragraphs, I think.

In paragraph one, you could talk about reasons why the 'Glorious Revolution' was a revolutionary development.

I've just put a few things you could mention, but there are loads more, you can mention William's huge invasion force and you can mention the 'Bill of Rights' and the 'Toleration Act'.

And then for paragraph two, I've put reasons why the 'Glorious Revolution' was just one of many other revolutionary developments from 1660 to 1707.

And you could mention the anti-Catholic fears of the restoration.

You can mention the Act of Union of 1707, and there are many other points you could bring in that too.

Now, if you feel confident that you could write a good answer to this essay, you can now pause the video and use this template to write one and then compare it to the answer that I've written, which I'm about to read through.

If you really want a little bit of extra help, and you're like actually missed out of there, I just want to say an example of this before I try and write one, you could then watch on, listen to me read through my module answer and then have a go at writing one, and then maybe go back and compare it, whichever works for you.

Okay, you ready to write? Pause now, if not, let's see how I answered this question.

How revolutionary was the 'Glorious Revolution'? The political changes of 1688 to 89 revolutionised England.

William arrived in England with 20,000 troops and 500 ships in November 1688.

Yet William took power with minimal violence in England.

Moreover, the 'Bill of Rights', which prevented monarchs from raising taxes without Parliament's agreement limited his power.

Beyond England, the bloodshed in Ireland and Scotland was certainly revolutionary.

Land and power was taken from Irish Catholics after 1691.

And the power of the Scottish clans was reduced after 1692.

Violence beyond England makes 1688 to 89 seem anything but 'glorious'.

The 'Glorious Revolution' was not, however, the only revolutionary development that took place in Britain from 1660 to 1707, the restoration of the monarchy did not lead to a period of peace and prosperity, fears of Popish Plots were widespread because of the Fire of London and Titus Outes' lies.

Decades later, the Act of Union of 1707 transformed the relationship between England and Scotland.

The idea that 1688 to 89 was exceptional, even providential is really a product of Williamite Propaganda.

William certainly wanted his invasion to be seen as a 'Glorious Revolution'.

The reality is messier.

Okay, well done, we've reached the end of our enquiry.

You can now answer this question.

You now have an opinion as to how revolutionary, the 'Glorious Revolution' was.

And more importantly, that opinion is now backed up by knowing loads of stuff about it, which is really impressive, so well done.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or care to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

Well done for all your hard work, I really enjoy teaching you.