Title: Surrender to Parliament
Source: Library of Virginia
More informationOn March 12, 1652, Virginia
governor Sir William
Berkeley and the governor's
Council agreed to a negotiated surrender to the forces sent out by the
Commonwealth government of England under the authority of the English Parliament. By
capitulating, Virginia relinquished its status as a royal colony and ceased its
formal support of the Stuart royal family. The surrender came after the colony
endured an embargo and a blockade, both ordered by the Commonwealth government of
England. The colonial government negotiated relatively favorable terms for its
surrender, although Berkeley was forced to step down as governor. Virginia would return to royal
colony status in 1660 with the Restoration.
On January 30, 1649, Parliament, victorious in the English Civil Wars, executed King Charles I for high treason, and later established a Commonwealth government to replace the monarchy. Once this news crossed the Atlantic, four English colonies—Virginia, Barbados, Bermuda, and Antigua—responded by declaring their allegiance to the Stuarts, proclaiming Charles II king and denying the authority of the newly established government. (Maryland's acting governor, Thomas Greene, also proclaimed Charles II, but his declaration was not considered the colony's official position.) Virginia and Barbados, the oldest English colonies in the Atlantic, were the only two to offer sustained opposition to the new regime.
![Title: King Charles II
Source: Virginia Historical Society
[1991.63]](http://web3.encyclopediavirginia.org/resourcespace/filestore/2/7/6_b79c879a895f0f2/276thm_261366aa9d770ee.jpg?v=2011-11-14+14%3A48%3A50 "Title: King Charles II
Source: Virginia Historical Society
[1991.63]")
Title: King Charles II
Source: Virginia Historical Society
[1991.63]
More informationIn October 1649, during the first legislative
session since Charles I's death, the House of Burgesses enacted laws punishing those who publicly supported the
regicide or refused to acknowledge Charles II as king. Virginia's motivations for
opposing the Commonwealth were manifold: first, longtime governor Sir William
Berkeley was an aggressive supporter of Charles I. Berkeley's loyalty ran so deep
that he had continued to enforce the king's views on religious conformity even as
Charles I awaited trial (and even when Berkeley's policies contradicted those
dictated by Parliament). Another factor was free trade: Virginia planters enjoyed a robust commercial
relationship with the Dutch,
and considered free trade to be critical to their economic survival; under the
Commonwealth government, the colony would be allowed to trade only with ships from
England and its colonies. Finally, the Virginia elite, influenced by Berkeley, feared
that Parliament would challenge existing land grants. In essence, Virginia's
declaration of loyalty to Charles II was also an attempt to preserve the prosperity
and security that the colony had enjoyed under his father's rule.
The Commonwealth government retaliated in August 1650 by placing an embargo on trade with the rebelling colonies and calling in their royal charters. In the autumn of 1651, the Commonwealth responded with force, sending one fleet of thirteen ships to Barbados under Sir George Ayscue and another fleet of fifteen ships to Virginia under Captain Robert Denis. Ayscue sailed first, and the Virginia fleet—or the four ships that survived shipwreck on the stormy voyage—did not arrive until December and early January, about the time that the Barbadians were relinquishing the king's cause.
Title: Sir William Berkeley
Source: the Library of Virginia
More informationThe commissioners dispatched to negotiate the
colony's surrender sent a summons to Berkeley and his council on January 19;
according to the commissioners' report, Virginia authorities disbanded 1,000 to 1,200
soldiers in arms in James
City before they convened to consider a treaty. The internal dynamics of
Virginia's decision to surrender are unknown, as records are sparse and much of the
information that survives was written with a polemical purpose. Certainly Berkeley,
his council, and the House of Burgesses considered Charles II's recent defeat at
Worcester, which eliminated any hope of his conquering England, and Barbados's recent
surrender, which left Virginia as the sole royalist holdout.
The surrender was agreed upon March 12, 1652. The Virginians negotiated excellent
terms: indemnity (forgiveness for any past action) and recognition of all existing
land grants and boundaries; free trade (in direct violation of Parliament's new
policy, the Navigation Act of
1651); and permission to keep in use the otherwise outlawed Book of Common Prayer for
one year. 
Title: The Booke of
Common prayer
Source: University of Virginia Special
Collections
More informationThe commissioners also granted
Berkeley or his agent permission to travel to the court of the exile Charles II—to be
referred to now as Charles Stuart—to explain the capitulation. The commissioners were
flexible on the terms of the surrender. The fact that no blood had been shed in the
conflict likely played a part in their leniency, but so too did the commissioners'
overriding goal: to integrate Virginia into the new Commonwealth government.
Two of the three commissioners—William Claiborne and Richard Bennett—were from Virginia, where they remained to oversee the colony's transition. Berkeley was asked to step down as governor and leave the colony, but his exile was never enforced and he retired to his Green Spring estate nearby. The General Assembly chose Bennett as Berkeley's replacement, and later elected Claiborne senior member of the governor's Council and secretary of the colony. Berkeley would return to the office in March 1660, just two months before England restored Charles II to the throne.
First published: August 1, 2011 | Last modified: January 18, 2012
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