The first major study of party conflict in England over the later Stuart period from the reign of Charles II to its culmination under Anne. Tim Harris shows how the party configuration of subsequent British politics emerged in these crucial years. He deals not only with high politics and with the organisation of the new parties, but also with the ideological roots of party strife.

A gripping new account of one of the most important and exciting periods of British and Irish history: the reign of the first two Stuart kings, from 1567 to the outbreak of civil war in 1642 - and why ultimately all three of their kingdoms were to rise in rebellion against Stuart rule.

Both James VI and I and his son Charles I were reforming monarchs, who endeavoured to bolster the authority of the crown and bring the churches in their separate kingdoms into closer harmony with one another. Many of James's initiatives proved controversial - his promotion of the plantation of Ulster, his...