This book tells the story of the English Reformation from the viewpoint of ordinary people and their parishes. It discusses official policy and policymakers, as well as local bishops and priests, but the emphasis is on the laity in all its diversity, not just Catholic or Protestant. The book shows that while some individuals and parishes may have welcomed the new religion, people generally resisted change and then gradually created their own idiosyncratic sets of beliefs and practices.

This is the first comprehensive account of the development of the ideas on gender of Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) among his English followers. It traces the changes in thought on gender and sexuality in such esoteric traditions as alchemy, Hermeticism and the Cabala. The book argues that Behmenist thought in these areas is a neglected aspect of the revision in the moral status of women during the early modern period, contributing significantly to the rise of the Romantic notion of womanhood and "Victorian" sexual ideology.

This is the first full study in fifty years of the author of the most celebrated political tract of the early years of the English Civil War, Observations upon Some of His Majesties Late Answers and Expresses. Professor Mendle situates each of Parker's significant tracts in its polemical, intellectual, and political context. He also views Parker's literary work in the light of his career as privado, or intimate advisor, to leading figures of the parliamentary leadership. Parker emerges as a fierce opponent of clerical pretension, a strikingly brutal critic of the common law mind, and a...

This book examines gender relations in Shakespeare's England by looking at women's involvement in lawsuits in the largest courts in the land. It describes women's rights in theory and in practice, considers depictions of women in court scenes in plays, and analyzes the language and tactics women and their lawyers employed in pleadings. The book also reveals how many women went to law, how active they were, the discrimination they suffered, and the importance of the life cycle of marriage in determining their legal fortunes.

This book offers a fundamental critique of conventional views of sixteenth-century Irish history that have stressed the centrality of colonization and military confrontation. It argues that reform rather than conquest was the aim of Tudor policy-makers, but shows that the immense difficulties faced by the reformers in pursuing their objectives forced them to make administrative innovations that ultimately contradicted and undermined their original policy.

The concept of kingship as Charles I understood it was challenged by the Covenanters in a struggle of protest over the government of Scotland. Although many aspects of this episode have received historical attention, Charles's own role has not hitherto been investigated in detail. Using a large body of newly available evidence, Dr Donald here attempts to redress the balance, and in doing so offers a substantially new perspective on the Scottish troubles in the crisis years of 1637 41. This study sheds light on the processes whereby Charles, with counsel and yet often in spite of it, tried to...

This book discusses the origins, impact and aftermath of the Civil War in Warwickshire, examining administration, religion and politics in their social context. The focus is mainly on the landed elite, but the importance of relationships between members of the elite and their social inferiors is also stressed. Early chapters discuss the economic and social character of Warwickshire; a middle section examines the onset of the Civil War in 1642; and finally there is a discussion of the economic impact of the war and the administrative, political and religious changes of the 1640s and 1650s,...

This book tells the story of the English Reformation from the viewpoint of ordinary people and their parishes. It discusses official policy and policymakers, as well as local bishops and priests, but the emphasis is on the laity in all its diversity, not just Catholic or Protestant. The book shows that while some individuals and parishes may have welcomed the new religion, people generally resisted change and then gradually created their own idiosyncratic sets of beliefs and practices.

This is the first history and analysis of the intelligence and espionage activities of the regime of Charles II (1660 85). It is concerned with the mechanics, activities and philosophy of the intelligence system which developed under the auspices of the office of the Secretary of State and which emerged in the face of the problems of conspiracy and international politics. It examines the development of intelligence networks on a local and international level, the use made of the Post Office, codes and ciphers, and the employment of spies, informers and assassins. The careers of a number of...

Thomas Starkey (c. 1495 1538) was the most Italianate Englishman of his generation. This book places Starkey into new and more appropriate contexts, both biographical and intellectual, taking him out of others in which he does not belong, from displaced Roundhead to follower of Marsilio of Padua. Beginning with his native Cheshire, it traces his career through Oxford, Padua, Paris, Avignon, Padua again, and finally England, where he spent the last four years of his life trying to fulfil his ambition to serve the commonweal. Most of Starkey's career revolved around his patron Reginald Pole,...