In 1603 King James I ascended the throne to become the first King of a united England and Scotland. There followed a period of increasing religious and political discord, culminating in the English Civil War. The Early Stuart Kings, 1603-1642 explores these complex events and the roles of the key personalities of the time - James I and VI, Charles I, Buckingham, Stratford and Laud.

This collection of essays adopts a novel, interdisciplinary approach to a diverse group of texts composed in London during the Renaissance. Eight literary scholars and eight historians from two continents have been paired to write companion essays on each text. This original method opens up rich insights into London's social, political, and cultural life which would have eluded members of either discipline working in isolation. 'Theatrical' is taken to be a very flexible term, and is applied to the civic rituals and public spectacles of the capital (for example, the execution of King Charles...

This volume provides a detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate the book also examines both...

"Constitutional Royalism" is one of the most familiar yet least often examined of all the political labels found in the historiography of the English Revolution. This book fills a gap by investigating the leading Constitutional royalists who rallied to King Charles I in 1642 while consistently urging him to reach an "accommodation" with Parliament. These royalists' early careers reveal that a commitment to the rule of law and a relative lack of "godly" zeal were the characteristic predictors of Constitutional royalism in the Civil War. Such attitudes explain why many of them criticized the...

This book brings together eight of the most influential recent articles on Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum.

• Brings together seminal articles on Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum.
  
• Illuminates the personality of Cromwell and his achievements.
  
• Includes treatments of Ireland and Scotland alongside discussion of England.
  
• Editorial material introduces students to the historiographical issues.

This volume provides a detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate the book also examines both...

What was it like to live under the English Republic and, later, Cromwell's Protectorate, if one supported the defeated Stuarts and yearned for the day when Charles II would once again set foot in England? This book tells the story of the traumatic decade of the 1650s (or, 'the Interregnum', from the Latin meaning 'between the reign of the kings') from the vantage point of those who lost the Civil Wars. It describes how these men and women negotiated the difficult choices they faced: to compromise, collaborate, or resist.
It brings together essays by established and emerging historians and...

Much ink has been spent on accounts of the English Civil Wars of the mid-seventeenth century, yet royalism has been largely neglected. This volume of essays by leading scholars in the field seeks to fill that significant gap in our understanding by focusing on those who took up arms for the king. The royalists described were not reactionary, absolutist extremists but pragmatic, moderate men who were not so different in temperament or background from the vast majority of those who decided to side with, or were forced by circumstances to side with, Parliament and its army. The essays force us...