This is a collection of essays about major aspects of the "English Revolution" of the mid-seventeenth century. It examines how it was fought (soldiers), how it was defended and argued over (writers), and how it was shaped and how it failed (statesmen). The essays are written by both established and younger scholars of the period in honor of Austyn Woolrych, founding Professor of History at the University of Lancaster and the author of many influential books and articles.

The Rump Parliament was brought to power in 1648 by Pride's Purge and forcibly dissolved by Oliver Cromwell in 1653. This book is a detailed account of the intervening years. Dr Worden concentrates particularly on the Rump's policies in the contentious fields of legal, religious and electoral reform; its attempts to live down its revolutionary origins, to disown its more radical supporters, to conciliate those Puritans alienated by the purge and the King's death, and to re-create the Roundhead party of the 1640s. He examines the Rump's struggles for survival in the face of the Royalist threat...

In this book the pre-eminent history of Cromwellian England takes a fresh approach to the literary biography of the two great poets of the Puritan Revolution, John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Blair Worden reconstructs the political contexts within which Milton and Marvell wrote, and reassesses their writings against the background of volatile and dramatic changes of public mood and circumstance. Two figures are shown to have been prominent in their minds. First there is Oliver Cromwell, on whose character and decisions the future of the Puritan Revolution and of the nation rested, and whose...

In this book a pre-eminent historian of Cromwellian England takes a fresh approach to the literary biography of the two great poets of the Puritan Revolution, John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Blair Worden reconstructs the political contexts within which Milton and Marvell wrote, and reassesses their writings against the background of volatile and dramatic changes of public mood and circumstance. Two figures are shown to have been prominent in their minds. First there is Oliver Cromwell, on whose character and decisions the future of the Puritan Revolution and of the nation rested, and whose...

The Puritan Revolution escaped the control of its creators. The parliamentarians who went to war with Charles I in 1642 did not want or expect the fundamental changes that would follow seven years later: the trial and execution of the king, the abolition of the House of Lords, and the creation of the only republic in English history. There were startling and unexpected developments, too, in religion and ideas: the spread of unorthodox doctrines; the attainment of a wide measure of liberty of conscience; and new thinking about the moral and intellectual bases of politics and society....

Written around 1580, Philip Sidney's 'Arcadia' is a romance, a love story, a work of wit and enchantment set in an ancient and mythical land. But, as Blair Worden now startlingly reveals, it is also a grave and urgent commentary on Elizabethan politics. Under the protective guise of pastoral fiction, Sidney produced a searching reflection on the misgovernment of Elizabeth I and on the failings of monarchy as a system of government. Blair Worden reconstructs the dramatic events admidst which the 'Arcadia' was composed and shows for the first time how profound is their presence in it. The...