King James VI and I and His English Parliaments: The Trevelyan Lectures Delivered at the University of Cambridge 1995

ISBN-13: 9780198205067 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 288 str.

Conrad Russell; Richard Cust; Andrew Thrush

Opis

King James VI and I and his English Parliaments is a posthumously published work by Conrad Russell, the foremost historian of his generation working on early Stuart parliaments, and is based on the Trevelyan lectures which he delivered at the University of Cambridge. It provides a chronological narrative of the early English Parliaments of James VI and I, covering in detail the four sessions of the 1604-1610 Parliament and the Addled Parliament of 1614, with a final chapter looking towards the parliaments of the 1620s.
The narrative demonstrates that two problems in particular dominated these sessions: the financial problems of the Crown, and the pursuit of a formal Union between England and Scotland. These were a continuous source of division and disagreement, and neither was satisfactorily resolved. It also highlights important subsidiary issues, notably the clashes between James and his judges over the status of the Common Law and the relatively muted tensions over religion. Detailed consideration is given throughout to the character and style of James' kingship.
This book can be read alongside the same author's Parliaments and English Politics, 1621-1629 (Oxford, 1979) and The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637-1642 (Oxford, 1992) to provide the first continuous narrative of parliamentary proceedings from the accession of James to the outbreak of Civil War since the massive work of S. R Gardiner. Drawing on the much wider range of sources available to modern historians, in particular the full range of parliamentary diaries, it offers the most up-to-date analysis we have of conflict between Crown and Parliament during a turbulent phase of British History.

Recenzje

Scholars of early seventeenth-century England owe Richard Cust and Andrew Thrush a great debt of gratitude for sensitively editing this manuscript and bringing it to publication.

O autorze

Conrad Russell, formerly Professor of British History at Kings College, London (d. 2004), was the foremost scholar of his generation working on the history of early Stuart parliaments and politics. As Earl Russell, sitting in the House of Lords, he was also a distinguished parliamentarian in his own right, acting as Liberal Democrat spokesman on social security and author of An Intelligent Person's Guide to Liberalism. Richard Cust, a former student of Conrad Russell, is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Birmingham and the author of numerous books and articles on early Stuart history, including a recent biography of Charles I. He has also helped to edit a festschrift for Russell entitled Politics, Religion and Popularity. Early Stuart Essays for Conrad Russell (Cambridge University Press, 2002). Dr Andrew Thrush, a former student of Russell, is Section Editor of the History of Parliament. He has published a number of important articles on the parliaments and politics of James's reign, as well as several studies of the Caroline navy. He is currently bringing to completion his editing of the multi-volume History of Parliament 1604-1629.