Keaton...week one. history narrations.

"In the late 1600's, there was an eruption of events happening in England and America.  In England, William of Orange became king.  Though fair and patient as a monarch, he favored the Dutch and looked down on England.  The Scottish did not want WIlliam as their king, so they rebelled.  As a result, William of Orange had them killed by Englishmen, though it did not happen the way he wanted.  The English pretended to make friends with the Scotts, and then turned against them one night, killing them by the score.

Just slightly before this, in American there had been a squall between the people and former King James II.  King James wanted to unite New England, while the Americans pleaded for the seperate states.  Soon the Americans had their way.  King James ran from the throne and hid in France.   However, New England became unstable and witchcraft became more present in the colonies.  Two young hysterical girls in Salem, Massachusetts began falsely accusing many innocent people of witchcraft.  This led to the Salem Witch Trials.

Many poor and innocent people were falsely accused and hanged because of children who enjoyed having power over them.  This went on for awhile until President Increase Mather of Harvard saw and realized the serious mistake of the General Court.  He then persuaded them to stop listening to accusations and to set the prisoners free. 

England, in the meantime, was trying to settle disputes about William of Orange.  The Tories wanted to end his reign and put Queen Mary, his wife, on the throne since she was part of the Stuart family and William was not.  Parliament listened, and it was decided that William and Mary would share the throne of England as husband and wife." New King William had decided that he wanted to wage war on Ireland, to force the people into submission. But as he and his army fought there, England was being invaded by the French. Fortunately, England was able to protect herself and after William defeated the Irish, he returned to England. After a short period of time, he decided that he wanted to fight against France again. Now some of his most powerful men, Marlbourgh, Godolphin, Halifax, etc., were secretly befriending former Catholic King James now living in France. In the meatime, America was blossoming and blooming into a learned country. This was the result of skilled men such as Increase Mather and his son, Cotton Mather. Cotton was born in 1663. As he grew into a man, he hoped to become President of Harvard or leader to the New England intellectual and religious community. Unfortunately, he had set the bar too high for himself. Cotton Mather was not able to accomlish his lifelong goal, but he did succeed in writing what is now considered the first great work of literature in America--"The Magnalia Christi Americana." Even though Mather was not able to achieve his dreams, his life had a large impact on the foundation of the New World.