A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe by Gordon Kerr

1658, he was officially designated Lord Protector of England. On Cromwell’s death, however, the Stuarts were restoredin the shape of the former king’s son, Charles II (ruled 1660–85). When Charles died, his brother, James II (ruled 1685–88) rapidly displayed that he had learned nothing from the problems encountered by their father. Indeed, he espoused the Catholic cause and even showed signs of wanting to reign as absolutely. It proved too much for the English who deposed James in a bloodless coup – the GloriousRevolution – and offered the throne to the Protestant Dutch aristocrat, William of Orange (ruled 1689–1702), James’s son-in-law. In 1689, William and his wife, Mary (ruled 1689–94), became King and Queen of Great Britain after their acceptance of a Bill of Rights that, amongst other things, made the monarch subservient to the law of the land. Britain’s future as a constitutional monarchy was secureand a model was created for the rest of Europe.
Baroque Culture and Science
    The conclusions of the Council of Trent had penetrated deep into society. Amongst the areas given special attention by the cardinals were the arts. The brilliance of the High Renaissance had given way in the sixteenth century to the witty, intellectual style that became known as Mannerism. The Council of Trent, however,called for representational art that could be understood by the uneducated, illiterate masses and not just an educated elite. A generation later, that style, later to be described as ‘Baroque’, blossomed exuberantly across Europe.
    Baroque artists rejected the cool restraint of neoclassicism as displayed in the Renaissance and championed a dramatic and expressive sensuousness. Artistic effectssuch as trompe l’oeil and chiaroscuro delighted the viewer as did the grandiose quality of Baroque works of art, whether in the discipline of sculpture, of painting or of architecture. The magnificent naturalism of Caravaggio (1571–1610) or Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) gave painting new impetus for the first time since Raphael with technical innovation and staggering emotional impact. Artistsacross Europe also developed the style in their own way – Diego Velasquez (1599–1660) in Spain, Pieter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) in Antwerp and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) and Jan Vermeer (1632–75) in the Netherlands.
    Literature, too, was given new life. In Spain, Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) published Don Quixote . Meanwhile in England, William Shakespeare (1564–1616),was creating the greatest works in the history of English literature.
    Perhaps the most vivid manifestation of Baroque style was in architecture. Dramatically exuberant buildings were built, designed to demonstrate power and control and ultimately to create awe in the eye of the beholder. St Peter’s Square in Rome designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) and the Piazza Navona by FrancescoBorromini (1599–1667) in the same city provide stunningly grandiloquent examples of the architecture of the time and their influence can be seen in buildings across Europe.
    The Baroque period also engendered a critical scientific revolution that at last left behind the medieval view of the world. The mathematician, Johann Kepler (1571–1630), developed the groundbreaking heliocentric view of theuniverse shown in the work of Copernicus, concluding that not only the earth but also the other planets revolved around the sun. The Italian Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) showed that movement obeyed mathematical laws and demonstrated empirically that Copernicus was correct. Isaac Newton (1642–1727), working in England, developed laws of gravitation while William Harvey (1578–1657) made invaluablediscoveries about the circulation of the blood. In France, meanwhile, the great thinker, René Descartes (1596–1650), challenged absolutism with his rationalist view of the world, as discussed in his Discours de la Méthode . This