Prior to the revolution that was to have taken place in 1848. Great Britain was already affected by a few revolutions in the prior centuries causing a political shakeup, long before Western Europe had it's own. Doesn't mean Britain was not on the verge of a revolution and a violent one at that. Today, we'll be exploring them in depth today. We'll be making slight comparisons to the differences in the countries that had also participated in 1848 to Great Britain as well.

English Civil war

During the the English Civil War that took place during the the 1640s and early 1650's. Outright civil war came to England, with a royalist army headquartered in Oxford fighting a Parliamentary Army headquartered roughly 50 or so  miles away from London.  Suddenly, it became possible to think all sorts of things that had previously been unthinkable. The king of England at the time, Charles I of England, whom was called "the divinely mandated representative of God on earth," after all, and yet here he was being defied against by the parliament. Which some liked to think of itself as a representation of the "will of the people". Upon closer examination, most people could not actually take part within elections due to restrictions listed below:

1) Gender. Only men over the age of 21 were allowed to vote

2)Property. In order to vote, an individual had to own property over a certain value.

3)Location. Small rural boroughs were able to elect more MPs than much larger towns and counties.

Historians throughout the ages, such as  Harry Elmer Barnes argued in his 1947 Survey of Western Civilisation, that Parliament represented the interests of the commercial or mercantile middle class — the bourgeoisie. However, others as well as myself know better and are more inclined to suspect the truth possibly lies closer to historic writings by the lines of  H.G. Wells, writing in 1920, that Parliament represented the interests of the "private property owner," both the owners of the great hereditary estates who sat in the House of Lords and the businessmen and professionals who sat in the House of Commons.

 

Only the audience will get to defining the terms, behind the private property owner or the bourgeoisie. Although one thing is for sure that this open defiance of the king, employing force of arms, flew in the face of everything everyone had always been taught. Leading to a change in the thought processes of the Englishman earlier than most other countries in the Western world at the time. Murray Rothbard of the Austrian School, described the the civil war "as stimulating radical thinking about politics". I would argue very much so that he is right. To support his argument, you can look at the political party that had come of age during the civil war called the Levellers, almost identical to the party formed out of the French civil war almost 200 year later called  Party of order or  Rue de Poitiers and even the Charists. These movements are based upon the principles of ie Freedom, Individual Sovereignty and Equality before the law. (yes even for peasants)

 John Lilburne or among friends, commonly known as Freeborn John. This gentlemen was one of the well known representative of this political movement "The Levellers". On July 19, 1645, Lilburne was imprisoned for criticising the Speaker of the House of Commons refusing to answer questions and demanded to know the charges against him. “I have as true a right to all the privileges that do belong to a free man as the greatest man in England,” he insisted. He was sent back to Newgate prison. John therefore wrote  "England's Birthright Justified" (1645). He believed laws should be written in English so everybody could read them. He insisted that a trial would be proper only when formal charges are filed, when they refer to known laws and when the defendant can confront the accuser and have an adequate opportunity to present a defence. He denounced the government-granted monopoly on preaching. He attacked government-granted business monopolies. John Lilburne's constitutional work during 1649 set the basis for the basic right contained in the Fifth amendment in the U.S. Constitution. 

It can be argued that Britain managed to achieve 2 out of 5 objectives during this subsequent civil war in the 1640s.

1)  widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership  - The overthrow of a royal despot and transforming the country into a constitutional monarchy.

2)  demands for more participation in government and democracy - Monarchy has less of a heavy hand and reduced power and the middle class gained more power through increased parliamentary power as seen by 

3)  demands for freedom of press, 

4) the demands of the working class 

5)  the upsurge of nationalism   

These demands by the people were yet to be achieved until much later on as you will find out going forward.

The most important revolution in England dubbed the Glorious Revolution that effectively made parliament, the gentry and the elevated mercantile elite argued by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations dominant in the country's politics. In comparison in continental Europe absolutist regimes that favored royal despotism and the higher nobility ruled with an iron fist as you'll read about below.

The Glorious Revolution

This revolution is dubbed the glorious revolution as it allowed for King James II, whom at the time was coming down particularly harshly upon the people of the time.  James, had disregarded Englishman rights for his personal gains within the country at the time.

King James II, who had become king of England and Ireland in 1685. He had taken over as reign as heir to he throne after his brother's death in 1685. King Charles II had converted to  Catholicism upon his deathbed but due to having any children of his own and having no legitimate heir to thrown it is passed over. Initially little opposition  developed to the King's accession, and there were widespread reports of public rejoicing at the succession. King James II not wanting to waste time hastened  quickly to the coronation, and was crowned with his wife at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1685.

The king had only been in office for a period of  2-3 months before the first rebellion had taken place within the country. A rebellion was started by  Duke of Monmouth, James' nephew in southern England another rebellion in Scotland led by Archibald Campbell, the Earl of Argyll. Argyll and Monmouth both began their expeditions from Holland where James's nephew and son-in-law, William of Orange, had neglected to detain them or put a stop to their recruitment efforts. Both rebellions had been successfully crushed with Argyll first and Archibald Campbell thereafter. Campbell was sent to The Tower of London on June 15 1685 and executed swiftly in trials known as the Bloody Assizes

where most where killed and plenty more Hung, Drawn and Quartered to set a example against rebellion. This event foreshadowed James' end to be in 1685 and draw suspicion towards the dutch's ulterior  motives......... Not to long after the subsequent rebellions took place, Fearful James had grown caution and thus to protect himself for further uprisings he'd increased the number of men within the standing army and had given Roman Catholics control over several regiments without succumbing to the Test Act and actually attempted to control the city of London with the army.

Parliament which was once supported had expressed outrage over the events that transpired had plotted to remove James but was indeed removed themselves after being prorogued by the King himself in November 1685, never to meet again under his reign.

 James allowed Catholics to occupy the highest offices of the Kingdoms, and received at his court the papal nuncio, Ferdinando d'Adda, the first representative from Rome to London since the reign of Mary I.  In May 1686, James was seeking to obtain a ruling from the English common-law courts showing his power to dispense with Acts of Parliament was legal. He dismissed judges who disagreed with him on this matter, as well as the Solicitor General Heneage Finch. A famous case regarding the dispensing of Parliament called Godden v. Hales affirmed the Kings power after  eleven out of the twelve judges ruled in favour.  In 1687, James issued the Declaration of Indulgence, also known as the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, in which he used his dispensing power to negate the effect of laws punishing Catholics and Protestant dissenters. This abuse of power by the King especially by a king so early on within his reign, will more than certainly end with his removal just a few short years later as this starkly reminded the British of what they wanted to give up only a mere 40 years ago.

William of Orange took over the country as part of the uprising  and instituted a Constitutional Monarchy and after approaching parliament and requesting to have control. The same year William of Orange had invaded, he'd instituted the Bill of Rights 1688.

From the rebellion and subsequent uprising that took place. We can see that Englishmen had gained even more rights and had even less reason to participate in the Year of Revolution that was to follow.  The Bill of Rights lays down limits on the powers of the monarch and sets out the rights of Parliament, including the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, and freedom of speech in Parliament. 

1)  widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership  - The overthrow of a royal despot and transforming the country into a constitutional monarchy.

2)  demands for more participation in government and democracy - Monarchy has less of a heavy hand and reduced power and the middle class gained more power through increased parliamentary power.

3)  demands for freedom of press - With the recently introduced Bill of Rights 1689

4) the demands of the working class 

5)  the upsurge of nationalism - Some argue that the Revolution is based upon a Nationalist Movement in the country at that time.

 6)   the regrouping of the classes based on the royalty, aristocracy, army, church and peasants. (or class warfare) - The Newly appointed King of England was to never to have any power on the scale that it has been in the years prior.

The remaining demand(s) by the Citizens of the country i would argue was developed around the time the world had effectively had it's revolution

Social Unrest during the 19th century 

Even though Britain had emerged Victorious from vicious fighting during the Napoleonic Wars.  Serious longstanding changes had taken place and the countries finances appeared in poor standing, going through serious changes due to the burden of the long and costly wars. The population boom at that time seriously crowded the country by the standards of the time. (and to a lesser extent Ireland) Great Britain and Ireland went from about 10,000,000 in 1750 to 30,000,000 in 1850. The biggest issue of course was the unequal spread of the growth. For example old population centers of England traditionally lay in the south, yet now due to the industrial revolution and the rising importance of coal and iron resources, the new population centers had to emerge in the northern parts of the country. Almost out of nowhere entire cities where built from the ground up. where in 1785 there were only 3 cities with more then 50 000 inhabitants outside of London in the entire area of England & Scotland but 75 years later this number had risen to 31. These new urban developments weren't a very fun to live in as they were the industrial towns of the era, blackened with the heavy soot of the coal age (adding that climate in northern parts of the country sunny to begin with ). In these cities, workers were living in terrible conditions being cramped together with entire families in only a single room. People worked 14 hours a day for little pay and had little free time, holidays being scarce.

 The emergence of this new idea of Radicalism had started to emerge in Britain. In the 1820's the Philosophical Radicals (whom proudly applied the name themselves) took up the cause that men like the English Jacobinsk of Thomas Paine had once taken up long before all things radical had been discredited by the French wars. They followed in the teachings of a Jeremy Bentham and "professed to deduce the right form of institutions from the fundamental traits of human nature and psychology. They impatiently waved aside all arguments based on history, usage or custom. They went to the root of things" ('Radical' being derived from the Latin word for 'root'). They demanded a vehement and instant reform of parliament, they were against the Church of England, against the squirearchy and against the peerage and many of them were against the monarchy as well.

Britain like many other countries that participated in the Napoleonic wars, fell into a industrial depression thus aggravating the problems of the working class. Radicalism  thus had a new breeding ground. Real Wages had fallen and many people had lost work altogether and rising prices of bread from the ensuing agricultural depression. 

 Riots had broken out in London in 1816, the Prince Regent's carriage was attacked, the government suspended the Habeas Corpus and began to persecute agitators often resuming to entrapment along the way. In Birmingham for example an outraged crowd elected a mock member of Parliament and in Manchester in 1819 no less then 80 000 people protested in St. Peter's Fields in a demonstration demanding universal male suffrage, annual elections of the ouse of Commons & the revoking of the Corn Laws, which had caused Wheat prices to spike. The deemonstrators in Manchester behaved orderly and without violence and yet the army was sent and opened fire again them, killing 11 & wounding 400 of which 113 were women. The massacre was dubbed the Peterloo Massacre, in remembrance of the battle of Waterloo. The government was in a panic and quickly pushed through the Six Acts in 1819, which were aimed at outlawing opposing literature, heavily taxed newspapers, made it possible to search private houses for arms and greatly limited the possibility of public meetings. As reactions always have a counter action, this had prompted a group of revolutionaries called the Spencean Philanthropists, a group taking their name from the British radical speaker Thomas Spence, to assassinate the Cabinet in 1820, the so-called Cato Street Conspiracy.

At this moment in time in history Britain was controlled by the Tories and more precisely the Liberal Tories, a new generation that stepped forward in the 1820's. The Liberal Tories were receptive to the needs of many groups, especially the mercantile elite and they set about liberalizing trade and reforming the old Navigation Acts. However there were 2 things they couldn't touch for very important reasons: 

1)they could not touch the Corn Laws as this protected the rent rolls of the gentlemen of England.

2) they could not touch the House of Commons as its existing structure was what ensured their leadership, and they simply expected the other classes to look upon them as natural leaders. 

The House of Commons had become increasingly unrepresentative. No new boroughs London had been created since 1688. However, the populace was soaring and new centers of population had sprung up everywhere. This led to the famous representative problems of the boroughs. Prior to 1830 a rather large amount of reform bills had been presented to the House of Commons but none had passed....  So in the wake of the revolution in Paris in 1830 the minority party, the Whigs, raised the issue once again with the Liberal Tories but turned up. Eventually Whig Cabinet to come into power and this cabinet once again presented a reform bill. The Commons rejected it. The Whig ministry resigned. The Tories now refused to form a new cabinet as they feared public violence. The Whigs again formed a cabinet and again presented their reform bill. This time the Commons accepted it but the House of Lords rejected it. The whole country felt the consequences as the public was outraged by the stubbornness of the leading political class detached from reality of the needs of the Common Man. Crowds had begun to gather in London, an angry rioters controlled Cities such as Bristol for several days. A Derby jail was sacked and in Nottingham the castle was set alight.

The delaying the passage of the reform bill could cause outright revolution. This argument by Whigs enabled them to get the support of the King William IV , as promised  would create enough new peers to change the majority in the House of Lords. The House of Lords upon hearing this news yielded to the Whig Cabinet and their reform bill rather then being changed. In 1832 the Reform Bill became law.  The House of Commons - thus the boroughs - were reformed in the tradition of the English/medieval system, not like on the continent following the principle of representation by voters, in Britain they stuck by the system of representation by boroughs and counties. No attempt was thus made to create equal electoral districts, but at least some of the vices of the old system were alleviated and a careful redistribution of the boroughs was enacted. All in all 143 new seats became available and these went to the new emergent industrial towns, with these also came a new empowered middle class.  The Corn laws which had affectively been repealed in 1846. 

However, there were a group of individuals called Chartists did not believe any could could be achieved through evolutionary reform thus thought it could only be achieved through revolution and violence. On 10th April 1848 about 150,000 Charists marched on London giving in a petition to parliament containing about 2,000,000 signatures. (the petition is in relation to their demands listed below) There was no real police force in Britain and the British government were so afraid of these Chartists that they deputized 25,000 property owners living within London, who came armed with hunting rifles and barricaded the Financial center of the city.

the Chartists developed the 'Peoples Charter of 1838' which demanded:

-vote for every man twenty-one years old

-secret ballot

-No property qualification

-Payment of members of parliament

-Equal constituencies

-Annual parliaments to prevent bribery and intimidation

Chartists even carried their own  flag presenting the colours of the civil war era Leveller movement 

1)  widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership  - The overthrow of a royal despot and transforming the country into a constitutional monarchy.

2)  demands for more participation in government and democracy - Monarchy has less of a heavy hand and reduced power and the middle class gained more power through increased parliamentary power  turning the country into a constitutional monarchy

3)  demands for freedom of press - With the recently introduced Bill of Rights 1689

4) the demands of the working class - Until the reform act, population centres around the country that had no representative in comparison to rural areas. 

5)  the upsurge of nationalism - Some argue that the Revolution is based upon a Nationalist Movement in the country at that time.

 6)   the regrouping of the classes based on the royalty, aristocracy, army, church and peasants. (or class warfare) - The Newly appointed King of England was to never to have any power on the scale that it has been in the years prior.

~

It can only be argued that British narrowly missed the train their french brothers had undertaken during the same time frame to become executed. However, i can't help but think it changed the thinking of the politicians (slightly) at the time and taking the country on a different course but only just.

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