Seventeenth-century politics in England, Scotland, and Ireland were a mess, and, at times, a bloody mess. The previous century heralded the Protestant Reformation, which created a schism in the Catholic Church. Protestantism endured its own schisms. Differing views between the Episcopalians (England), Presbyterians (Scotland) resulted in conflict—conflict revolving around the idea of the divine right of kings.
James VI of Scotland (and later I of England) was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who endured imprisonment and an unsightly execution. Unlike his mother, who had been Catholic, James was Protestant (like his cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of King Henry VIII). His reign in Scotland began in 1567 at one year old. He reigned over the country for 36 years before becoming king of England in 1603. His reign over both Scotland and England would last until his death in 1625.
Charles I and Civil War
Upon the death of James I, his son Charles I became king. His reign was plagued by civil wars with Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England―wars waged due to religious and governmental disputes. Charles I’s Royalists were defeated and, in 1649, King Charles I was executed. His death resulted in the short-lived English republic (Commonwealth of England) from 1649–1660, known as the Interregnum.Although Adm. Sir William Penn fought for the Parliamentarians during the Civil War, history suggests he may have quietly supported the king. Shortly before the monarch’s execution, the admiral’s son, William Penn, was born. After the British Civil Wars concluded with an invasion into Ireland by the Oliver Cromwell-led Parliamentarians, who defeated the supporters of the king’s son, Charles II was forced into exile.
A Witness to Religious Persecution
The admiral’s son, William, grew up in a wealthy household, although his early years were often uncertain, as his father was arrested twice and imprisoned once for consorting with Royalists. Although the government changed hands several times, religious persecution from Protestant groups continued. The young Penn suffered this persecution personally when he was 18 and kicked out of Christ Church College, Oxford for his nonconformist views. He finished his education in France, then returned to London to study law. Due to his father’s connections, he became closely acquainted with Charles II’s royal court.
Five years after his expulsion from Oxford, Penn joined the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers. The group was persecuted for their spiritual views, and Penn himself was jailed on four different occasions. In 1669, during his time as a prisoner in the Tower of London, he wrote “No Cross, No Crown,” which encouraged discipleship with Jesus Christ and rejected what he viewed as England’s excessively secular lifestyle.
When his father died in 1670, Penn inherited the family’s estates in England and Ireland. With this windfall of prestige, wealth, and land accumulation, Penn became a consistent visitor to Charles II’s court. His relationship with the king and the king’s brother, James, Duke of York (who would become King James II), blossomed.
Finding Religious Freedom in America
More than 60 years before Adm. Penn’s death, a group of English Protestants, known as “Puritans” and “separatists,” would make their way to America to seek religious freedom. By this time, North America had areas claimed by the Dutch Republic and the kingdoms of England, France, and Spain.Religious tolerance in the New World, however, had begun to deteriorate. New England Puritans wished to break “the very neck of Schism and vile opinions.” Between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers had been executed. Virginia, the first English colony, established anti-Quaker laws in 1659.
Roger Williams, a former Puritan minister and exiled member of the Massachusetts colony who founded the Providence Plantations (later to be Rhode Island), warned against the ongoing religious strife within the Protestant community, undoubtedly recalling the history of England:
“God requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be inacted and inforced in any civill state; which inforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civill Warre, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.”
A Tract Called ‘Pensylvania’
It was during this week in history, on March 4, 1681, that King Charles II “hath been graciously pleased to give and grant unto me William Penn, by the name of William Penn, Esquire, son and heir of Sir William Penn, deceased, and to my heirs and assigns forever, all that tract of land, or Province, called Pensylvania, in America.”This land grant covered 45,000 square miles. (He would acquire land the following year that would eventually become Delaware). With the land grant in his possession, Penn quickly went to work forming its governmental charter to establish a governor, provincial council, and general assembly elected by the “freemen of the said province.”
On May 5, 1682, Penn issued “the frame of the government of the province of Pensilvania” to enshrine “the divine right of government beyond exception, and that for two ends: first, to terrify evil doers: secondly, to cherish those that do well.”
Freedom Secured
Pennsylvania would ensure that anyone “living in this province, who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and eternal God, to be the Creator … and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall, in no ways, be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion, or practice.”By the time the first charter was issued in 1682, the city of Philadelphia was under construction. Penn’s work toward religious, and ultimately political freedom, would literally lay the groundwork for what would become the hotbed of the American Revolution. Less than 60 years after Penn’s death in 1718, the Americans would begin their war against Great Britain for what began as a demand for equal representation in England’s parliament to a fight for independence.
Before the 18th century was over, Penn’s Pennsylvania became home to the First and Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitutional Convention, which would result in the “world’s longest surviving written charter of government.”
