Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia Cavaliers were royalist supporters (known as Cavaliers) in the Royal Colony of Virginia at various times during the era of the English Civil War and the Stuart Restoration in the mid-17th century. Historical background After a severe struggle with the Crown, the Virginia Company was deprived of its charter in 1624. The chief cause of this was that the Puritan element, which formed the backbone of the opposition in Parliament, had also gained the ascendency in the Virginia Company. Furthermore King James did not like the action of the company a few years earlier in extending representative government to the colonists. The result was the loss of the charter. The Virginia Colony became a royal colony and so it continued until the Revolutionary War. But the change had little effect on the colony, for King Charles I was so occupied with troubles at home that he gave less attention to the government of Virginia than the company had done, and popular government continued to flourish. Of the 6,000 people who had come from England before 1625, only one fifth remained alive, but this number was rapidly augmented by immigration. Governor George Yeardley died in 1627, and John Harvey, a man of little ability or character, became governor. Harvey kept the Virginians in turmoil for some years, but the colony was so firmly established that his influence did not greatly affect its prosperity. The longest rule of one man in its colonial history was that of Governor William Berkeley, who became governor of Virginia in 1642 and continued to hold the office until 1677, with the exception of a few years under the commonwealth. Berkeley was a rough, outspoken man with much common sense but with a hot temper and a narrow mind. He was a Cavalier of the extreme type, and during the first period of his governorship he spent much of his energy in persecuting the Puritans, many of whom found refuge in Maryland.