Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 87, Inglorious Andros. Remember that this is a listener-supported podcast. If you want to support the show, why not consider signing up for the membership feed? In addition to a backlog of episodes, we are currently going through a biography of Napoleon,

which I am very much enjoying. You can sign up by going to the website, The History of

Podcast.com, and clicking on the PayPal subscription button. In our last episode, we covered the

foundation of the Dominion of New England.

During the mid-17th century, the English colonies of the Americas had mostly been left to their own devices.

The restored monarchy of Charles II and James II wanted to stop this.

In particular, the rebellious nature of Massachusetts,

and in October 1684, the royal charter was annulled.

The colony was to be replaced with a larger administrative unit,

modelled on the vice-royalty of New Spain, known as the Dominion of New

England. It would contain Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,

East Jersey, and West Jersey. In December 1686, the former governor of New York, Sir Edmund Andross, was made governor of the Dominion.

While there would be advantages to such a union, such as a stable Indian policy, we closed the episode by talking about why the dominion of New England seemed doomed to fail.

The deposed oligarchy of New England were extremely hostile to their replacement.

Each colony already had its own unique identity, and the area was simply too big for one man to govern.

After that recap, it's time to watch it all fall apart.

Now, while Andros was guaranteed to alienate the leadership of the colonies at some point,

he managed to achieve it with remarkable speed. The oligarchs had a number of grievances, which they took issue with,

but one which caused particular offence was, as I'm sure you can imagine, given the nature of

most New England colonies, religious policy. While Andros was directed to grant religious toleration to all Protestants,

he favoured the Anglicans. For example, he forced the congregation lists to allow Anglicans to use

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