Rise of Parliament

In the seventeenth century, the political power of the Parliament in England, and the Monarchy in France increased greatly. These conditions were inspired by three major changes: the aftermath ofthe reformation, the need for an increased governmental financing, andthe reorganizing of central governments. These three points were eachresolved in a different way in both England and in France. The first major point which eventually increased political power wasthe aftermath of the Protestant reformation. In England, after the establishmentof the separate Anglican church of England there were manyprotestant groups left in England still in conflict. These groups alltried to push and pull parliament in their favor -- which ultimatelymade it so that nothing could be done. These conflicts even cameto the point of bloody civil wars and suffering on both sides of thefighting. Parliament ultimately decided to stop these wars by creatingreligious Act of Toleration (1689) for the non-conformist protestants. For many people, this caused more unity in England and increasedpower. In France, the decision was made to unify the country throughthe establishment of a single religious authority, the Catholic Church.The king of France became the heart of this policy, whichgave him control of religion when this went into effect. The next major point was the increase in need for governmental financing. In England, taxing had become under the control of Parliament.In addition to this, the cost of running a government in generalhad gone up and the country needed more money. Because the kingdidn't have as much power to tax as he pleases, the government couldmake a firm and accurate taxation of the people. In France, the priceof government had also gone up. However, here the was a monarchy anda king with great control over the government. Using his control ofthe economy, a strong "Mercantilism" system was used