30. Time to party

In the course of Charles II's reign, we saw governments fall and an opposition beginning to emerge. The result was the formation of two distinct groups, the Whigs and Tories, the former looking for limited royal power, the other more strongly royalist. Neither was keen on Catholics, but the Whigs were rather more intent on protecting the country against what they saw as Papist plotting to overthrow the Protestant regime.

It was in its early days, and it wasn't yet the party political system we know but perhaps don't love, but this was the beginning of its emergence.

Illustration: A Solemn Mock Procession of the Pope, an engraving based on Stephen College, showing an event organised by Whigs in 1680, with effigies of the Pope, Cardinals, and other Catholic ecclesiastics, carried through the streets of London to be burned on bonfires.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License