Few rulers have impressed themselves so forcefully on the memory and imagination of their people as Queen Elizabeth I. 'Elizabethan England' was, in a very real sense, Elizabeth's England, and the country she left behind when she died was a kingdom that had won a commanding position among the great powers of Europe. This book, first published in The Oxford History of England covers all aspects of the reign of Elizabeth, encompassing social and cultural history as well as political and economic. Among the principal issues it deals with are the Religious Settlement, England's relations with...

Mr. Godfrey Davies's volume The Early Stuarts covers the period from the accession of James 1 to the Restoration of 1660. It is based on his own researches and on an outstandingly wide and detailed knowledge of the sources. Since its first publication it has held the field as a standard textbook. Shortly before his death in 1957 the author completed his revision of the second edition. The text incorporates the results of much new work and the bibliography is brought up to date; but the main features of the book are preserved.

First published in 1936, this now-classic volume spans a time of rapid and far-reaching change in England--from Gladstone's first ministry, through the great contest with Disraeli, the Home Rule debate, the establishment of the Labour moverment, the Boer War, and the Liberal reforms of 1909-10, to the end of an era marked by the catastrophe of 1914. With stimulating analyses of social and economic developments as well as domestic and foreign policy, Ensor's account serves as a superb introduction to the period it covers and offers insight into the world of the 1930s in which it was...

This classic volume in the renowned Oxford History of England series examines the birth of a nation-state from the death throes of the Middle Ages in North-West Europe. John D. Mackie describes the establishment of a stable monarchy by the very competent Henry VII, examines the means employed by him, and considers how far his monarchy can be described as "new." He also discusses the machinery by which the royal power was exercised and traces the effect of the concentration of lay and eccleciastical authority in the person of Wolsey, whose soaring ambition helped make possible the...

The Whig Supremacy 1714-1760

A general survey of the achievements - and failures - of the English people over half a century between the victory of Waterloo and the first administration of Gladstone.

The fourteenth century in England was a turbulent, complex age: two of the century's monarchs were murdered by rivals, nearly half the population of England was wiped out by the Black Death and the Great Famine, and many more died in conflict with Scotland and in The Hundred Years War against France. During this time, the Great Schism divided the church which led to the establishment of the papacy in Avignon and an unpopular poll-tax provided the spark which ignited the Peasants' Revolt. Yet it was also a period of developments in parliamentary, administrative, and legal system, and one which...

The Reign of George III: 1760-1815

The sixth volume in the acclaimed Oxford History of England, this is an authoritative account of a violent and turbulent period which saw the fall and rise of four royal houses.
E. F. Jacob examines the impact of the Hundred Years' War and inadequate financial and administrative machinery on the failure of the Lancastrians, and shows that the War of the Roses were less a unique struggle between defined parties than a typical effort by a noble house to maintain and improve its position by the exercise of patronage and influence in a society that was rapidly undergoing change. He also...

During ten of the 31 years between 1914 and 1945 the English people were involved in world wars; for 19 of the years they lived in the shadow of mass unemployment. These themes and the politics which sprang from them shape the narrative of this book.