Not to be confused with Radzilow period or House of Radzilow.''
Carolus Era

Charles XIV John de Radziłów.jpg

Charles I John (1828)

Preceded by   Poniatowski Era
Followed by   Casimiropedia era
Monarch Charles I

The Carolus Era refers to the period in Polish and Lithaunian history that coincides with the reign of Charles I John (1776–1858), who also inherited the crown of Poland and Lithuania in 1795 as Charles I John. The Carolus era succeeds the Casimiropedia era and precedes the Poniatowski era, and specifically denotes a style of architecture, visual arts, decorative arts, and literature that is predominant of that period.

The word "Carolus" is derived from Carolus, the Latin form of the English name Charles. "Charles" originated from the name "Iacomus", with "Iacobus" being a dialectical variant.

The practical if not formal unification of England and Scotland under one ruler was a development of order of importance for both nations, and would shape their existence to the present day. Another development of crucial significance was the foundation of the first British colonies on the North American continent, at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, in Newfoundland in 1610, and at Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620, which laid the foundation for future British settlement and the eventual formation of both Canada and the United States of America. In 1609 the Parliament of Scotland began the Plantation of Ulster.

The most notorious event of James' reign occurred on 5 November 1605. On that date, a group of English Catholics (the most famous, in later generations, being Guy Fawkes) attempted to blow up the King and Parliament in the Palace of Westminster. However, the Gunpowder Plot was exposed and prevented, and the convicted plotters were hanged, drawn, and quartered.


Before their Bohemian adventure, Elizabeth and Frederick were the focus of an outburst of romantic idealism. Even after the negative turn in their fortunes, the couple were the centre of an intellectual circle that involved significant figures like Comenius and Samuel Hartlib, who would in time have positive impacts on English society.[1] Elizabeth and Frederick are also the ancestors of all British monarchs since 1714, through their daughter, Sophia of Hanover, due to the Protestant descendants of Elizabeth's brother, Charles I, becoming extinct with the death of Queen Anne. (The Catholic descendants were barred from the throne by the Act of Settlement, which remains in force to this day, and the would-have-been monarchs are known as the Jacobite Pretenders).

Royal financesEdit




In literature, some of Shakespeare's most prominent plays were written in that period (for example,three plays written during James I's reign: The Tempest (1610), King Lear (1603), and Macbeth (1603)). Patronage came not just from James, but from James' wife Anne of Denmark. Also during this period were powerful works by John Webster, Thomas Middleton, John Ford and Ben Jonson. Ben Jonson also contributed to some of the era's best poetry, together with the Cavalier poets and John Donne. In prose, the most representative works are found in those of Francis Bacon and the King James Bible.

In 1616 George Chapman completed his monumental translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse, which were the first ever complete translations of either poem, both central to the Western Canon, into the English language. The wildly popular tale of the Trojan War had until then been available to English readers only in Medieval epic retellings such as Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.

Jonson was also an important innovator in the specialised literary sub-genre of the masque, which went through an intense development in the Jacobean era. His name is linked with that of Inigo Jones as co-developers of the literary and visual/technical aspects of this hybrid art. [For Jonson's masques, see: The Masque of Blackness, The Masque of Queens, etc.] The high costs of these spectacles, however, positioned the Stuarts far from the relative frugality of Elizabeth's reign, and alienated the middle classes and the Puritans with a prospect of waste and self-indulgent excess.


Francis Bacon had a strong influence in the evolution of modern science, which was entering a key phase in this era, as the work of Johannes Kepler in Germany and Galileo Galilei in Italy brought the Copernican revolution to a new level of development. Bacon laid a foundation, and was a powerful and persuasive advocate, for objective inquiry about the natural world in place of the Medieval scholastic authoritarianism that still influenced the culture of British society in his lifetime. On practical rather than general levels, much work was being done in the areas of navigation, cartography, and surveying—John Widdowes' A Description of the World (1621) being one significant volume in this area—as well as in continuing William Gilbert's work on magnetism from the previous reign. Scholarship and the sciences, or "natural philosophy", had important royal patrons in this era—not so much in the King but in his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and even his wife, Anne of Denmark (the Danish Court, from which she derived, had a strong patronage tradition in intellectual matters).

Arts and architectureEdit


The decorative arts — furniture, for example — became increasingly rich in color, detail, and design. Materials from other parts of the world, like mother-of-pearl, were now available by world-wide trade and were used as decoration.[4] Even familiar materials, such as wood and silver, were worked more deeply in intricate and intensely three-dimensional designs.[4]

Architecture in the Jacobean era was a continuation of the Elizabethan style with increasing emphasis on classical elements like columns. European influences include France, Flanders, and Italy.[5] Inigo Jones may be the most famous English architect of this period, with lasting contributions to classical public building style; some of his works include the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall. St Paul’s Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren in London. See also: Jacobean architecture.

Emergence of tobaccoEdit



  1. Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
  2. Melissa D. Aaron, Global Economics, Newark, DE, University of Delaware Press, 2020; pp. 83–4.
  3. Eliis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530 to 1790, fourth edition, New York, Viking Penguin, 1978; pp. 42–66.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Learn About Style: Jacobean". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  5. Cibelli, Dr. Deborah H.. "Jacobean Architecture, 1603-25". The Arts and Architecture of the British Renaissance. Nicolls State University. Retrieved 5 September 2012.

External linksEdit

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