11 - Factions, Country peers and the ‘Whig’ party

Summary

The development of political parties was one of the most significant features of Charles II's reign. The Court and Country parties of the 1670s have been regarded as the ancestors of the late seventeenth-century Tory and Whig parties. Most historians have almost exclusively focused on the emergence of parties in the House of Commons during Danby's ministry and the succession crisis period of 1679-81. Yet from 1675 proceedings in the Lords were increasingly influenced by the ‘Court’ and ‘Country’ parties. The purpose of this and the next chapter is to place the traditional Commons-centred view of party in perspective by analysing the development of factions and parties in the upper House from the Restoration to the Oxford Parliament.

What constituted a political party in the second half of the seventeenth century and how was it distinct from a faction? The terms ‘party’ and ‘faction’ had almost identical meanings in the seventeenth century. Both words were employed in a derogatory sense to describe a group of men intent upon using mischievous and even unscrupulous methods to achieve private and self-interested ends. Throughout this study the term ‘faction’ is used to denote a fluid group whose aims were essentially of a private or self-interested nature. The two small groups of lords and MPs nominally led by the earl of Bristol and the duke of Buckingham in the 1660s can best be described as ‘factions’, for they possessed a fluid membership and sought personal gain through the acquisition of court offices.