Traditionally historians have argued that the court of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was factional, divided among competing subjects who were manipulated by their Queen. This book provides a different account: of councilors who were united by two connected dangers, namely Catholic opposition to Protestant England and Elizabeth's refusal to marry or to settle England's succession. Working from the papers of the Queen's secretary, William Cecil, the author has set this crisis in the context of events in Scotland, Ireland and mainland Europe, and has explored fully the long-term political impact of...

This book explores the enforcement of the English Reformation in the heartland of English Ireland during the sixteenth century. Focusing on the diocese of Dublin - the central ecclesiastical unit of the Pale - James Murray explains why the various initiatives undertaken by the reforming archbishops of Dublin, and several of the Tudor viceroys, to secure the allegiance of the indigenous community to the established Church ultimately failed. Led by its clergy, the Pale's loyal colonial community ultimately rejected the Reformation and Protestantism because it perceived them to be irreconcilable...

From its outset in the 1650s, the Quaker movement made extensive use of the printing press in spreading its message. This book explores how and why early Quaker leaders used printed tracts in their campaign. It reveals how the tracts were produced, distributed and read, as well as their role in the Quakers' dynamic campaign for religious and political liberty under the republican rule of Oliver Cromwell.

This study traces the transition of treason from a personal crime against a monarch to a more modern crime against the impersonal state. Prior to the Civil Wars of the 1640s, English jurists construed the law of treason largely as a personal crime against the monarch. The book reveals how the events of the 1640s challenged pre-existing interpretations and led to a revised understanding of treason as a crime committed against "the state" as an impersonal entity.

This book focuses on the "after-life" of historical texts in the period between the arrival of printing in England and the early eighteenth century. Whereas previous studies of historical writing during this period have focused on their authors and on their style or methodology, this work examines the social forces that controlled what was written, and the impact of readers and publishers on authors. The intent is to situate the study of history books within the current literature on the history of the book and the history of print culture.

This book explores the culture of conformity to the Church of England and its liturgy in the period after the Reformation and before the outbreak of the Civil War. It provides a necessary corrective to our view of religion in that period through a serious exploration of the laypeople who conformed, out of conviction, to the Book of Common Prayer. These "prayer book Protestants" formed a significant part of the spectrum of society in Tudor and Stuart England, yet until now they have remained an almost completely uninvestigated group.

Drawing upon vivid court records and newspaper advertisements, this study challenges traditional views of married life in eighteenth-century England. It reveals husbands' and wives' expectations and experiences of marriage to expose the extent of co-dependency between spouses. The book, therefore, presents a new picture of power in marriage and the household. It also demonstrates how attitudes towards adultery and domestic violence evolved during this period, influenced by profound shifts in cultural attitudes about sexuality and violence.

The last years of Henry VIII's life, 1539-47, have conventionally been seen as a time when the king persecuted Protestants. This book argues that Henry's policies were much more ambiguous; that he continued to give support to Protestantism and that many accordingly also remained loyal to him. It also examines why the Protestants eventually adopted a more radical, oppositional stance, and argues that English Protestantism's eventual identity was determined during these years.

Examining aspects of law, history, art, drama and literature, this study represents an original interpretation of a hidden culture: the arcane world of the early modern legal community, and its attempts to restrict governmental power during the period 1558 to 1660. Based at the Inns of Court in London, the legal profession regulated every aspect of its members' lives--dress, consumption, education, worship, entertainment, and even their dwellings--to represent the order of an ideal commonwealth, which it offered as a model for the government of the English State.

This comprehensive study of political and religious conflicts examines the challenge to Restoration institutions by Protestant dissent in the London of Charles II's reign. It presents liberty of conscience as the greatest political issue of the Restoration and explains how the contest between dissenters and Anglicans contributed to the development of parties in 1679-83 that unsettled the nation.