Revolutionary England, 1642-1702

Introduction

The 17th century is one of the most important periods in England’s history, eliciting highly charged and often ideologically driven debates among scholars. The story of England, as it was told during the 19th century, was central in defining British identity and creating a national myth, known as Whig history, of triumphant progress toward liberty. Not surprisingly, the 20th century revised this history in accordance with contemporary ideologies that included communism, while the 1970s witnessed a further revisionist turn when Conrad Russell, most notably, asserted the contingent nature of the causes leading to the war, in response to the traditional position that emphasized long-term events originating in a division between the crown and an oppositional parliament. This position has, unsurprisingly, been amended in recent years. Meanwhile, another shift has extended the midcentury upheavals to include the “Three Kingdoms” approach, which decenters England in its readings and incorporates Scotland and Ireland into the larger turmoil. But the 17th century was not simply about the Civil War and Interregnum dominated by Cromwell; the Restoration itself was also determined by the events that preceded it, with continuities as well as the more obvious cultural and political shifts blurring the demarcating historical line. And in some respects, the revolution of 1688 served as a culminating answer to the questions raised but never fully resolved by issues earlier in the century. Whether the revolution of 1688 was truly significant or not—and it was certainly once thought to be the crowning achievement of liberty and rights—has itself provoked debate, with James II’s “absolutism” or William III’s victory convincingly modified by historians. So many debates abound, and so many figures are subject to different readings, that it is difficult to fix this period into any stable meaning without lending it heavy qualifications. As a result, it is revealing that an increasingly common subgenre in the field consists of books solely devoted not to the history of these revolutionary years, but to the debates about it—just as the names of historians such as Gardiner, Hill, Stone, or Russell have become inextricably a part of the historical narrative as well. Such debates will continue as long as the 17th century resists clear interpretation—a testament to the dramatic complexity of the time, and to the historians who continue to interpret it.

Textbooks

A number of excellent textbooks exist on the Stuart period, with Coward 2003 providing the most extensive and focused coverage, and Bucholz and Key 2004 a more basic overview that extends back to the beginning of the Tudor era. Kishlansky 1997 is a significant overview, particularly strong on political history, by one of the best historians of the period, while Smith 1997 brings forward an encompassing narrative that traces England’s development as a broader nation-state.

Bucholz, Robert, and Newton Key. Early Modern England 1485–1714. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
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An excellent narrative and analytical approach that incorporates social, economic, religious, and cultural as well as political history.
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Coward, Barry. The Stuart Age: A History of England, 1603–1714. 3d ed. London: Longman, 2003.
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The best recent textbook on the Stuart age, utilizing the latest scholarship and focusing on the economy, society, and politics as well as the Civil War and its aftermath. Very useful bibliographic essay at the end, and relatively good coverage of Scotland and Ireland.
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Kishlansky, Mark. A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603–1714. London: Penguin, 1997.
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A clear and well-written political narrative designed for the student and nonspecialist, extending from the reign of James I through Anne and tracing developments in the institution of the monarchy and also including the parallel histories of Scotland and Ireland.
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Smith, Alan G. R. The Emergence of a Nation State, 1529–1660. 2d ed. London and New York: Longman, 1997.
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One of the best surveys of England, beginning with the Reformation and continuing through the English Civil War, with useful introductions to the historiographical debates, and excellent maps, glossaries, and bibliography.
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Reference Resources

Encyclopedic and reference material on the period is fairly extensive. Coward 2003 represents one of the better introductions to the period, with essays on different topics written by leading authorities; Matthew and Harrison 2004—also available online—provides good recent assessments of the subjects and personalities involved. Fritze, et al. 1996 presents an effective guide to significant aspects of the period, as does Fryde 1996 with regard to its major personalities. The abundance of material now available online has revolutionized the scholarship of early modern England, with Early England Books Online (EEBO) allowing students and specialists to search a huge array of primary sources in their original, unedited format. Meanwhile, the parliamentary and ecclesiastical records made available through British History Online has also allowed scholars to peruse documents previously viewable in bulky and aged volumes. Students should be aware that these sites can be incomplete and problematic, but as an introduction to the records, they are indispensable.

British HistoryOnline.
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A digital library that covers the early modern as well as medieval periods in Britain, created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust. The inclusion of the State Papers is particularly important, but other nonpolitical areas are also covered.
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Coward, Barry, ed. A Companion to Stuart Britain. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
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An excellent introduction to the period, its series of chapters written by leading specialists offering perspectives on the events at hand as well as the most recent scholarship. Gender relations, popular protest, print culture, crime, architecture, the rise of the fiscal state, political thought, and religion are all covered.
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Early English Books Online.
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Available only to subscribing institutions, this invaluable and searchable resource contains an exhaustive collection of primary sources from the early modern period, appearing in both their original facsimile form as well as many transcriptions.
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Fritze, Ronald, William B. Robison, and Walter Sutton, eds. Historical Dictionary of Stuart England. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.
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A comprehensive guide to various aspects of Stuart Britain, with 320 entries on such subjects as the army and navy, economic and population developments, local government and officials, the Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights, the Civil Wars and Glorious Revolution, the theory of divine right, and women. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are also included.
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Fryde, E. B., ed. Handbook of British Chronology. 3d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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Produced by the Royal Historical Society, this useful guide provides detailed chronological information on monarchs, dukes, marquesses, and earls, as well as parliaments, officers of state and archbishops and bishops from the Anglo-Saxon period up through 1985.
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Matthew, C. G., and Brian Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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An invaluable resource in researching individuals in Tudor and Stuart England from the prominent to the most obscure. Available online (by subscription) and in print, this sixty-volume, recently revised work also contains illustrations and helpful bibliographic information in each contribution.
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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
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A subscription service, this resource, long a standard, contains nearly 57,000 entries, with nearly 70 percent updated from the old, classic edition. Includes illustrations.
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Wroughton, John, ed. The Longman Companion to the Stuart Age, 1603–1714. London and New York: Longman, 1997.
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A dictionary of more than two hundred specialist terms in addition to detailed chronologies related to domestic and foreign affairs, military developments, colonial matters, offices of state, and other information. Scotland and Ireland merit lengthy treatment.
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Bibliographies

The field of early modern England is constantly being rewritten, but the Bibliography of British and Irish History (also available online, by subscription) provides the most up-to-date material published each year. For older sources, including primary sources, Morrill 1980 provides the best critical and annotated survey of the recent scholarship, with Davies and Keeler 1970 offering an older but massive series of listings, and Sachse 1971 a smaller version, compiled up to 1971.

Bibliography of British and Irish History.
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An indispensible guide to books and articles published each year, divided by period and topic, with a good index.
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Davies, Godfrey, and Mary Frear Keeler, eds. Bibliography of British History: Stuart Period, 1603–1714. 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970.
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Issued under the direction of the Royal Historical Society and the American Historical Association, this enormous bibliography ranges across all aspects of the period and provides good coverage of the scholarship up to 1970.
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Morrill, John. Seventeenth-Century Britain, 1603–1714. Critical Bibliographies in Modern History 2. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1980.
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A very useful guide divided into sections covering government and politics, and constitutional, ecclesiastical, economic, cultural, and social history, with an emphasis on the latest research up to 1980. Critical and descriptive comments, including introductions, accompany the books and articles.
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Sachse, William L. Restoration England, 1660–1689. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1971.
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A small bibliographical guide sponsored by the Conference of British Studies that encompasses the scholarship on various aspects of the era, with brief notes and accessible layout.
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Primary Source Collections

Primary source collections are extensive, if extremely bulky and at times problematic editorially; many are now available online. The following is a basic selected list, with Public Records Office 1939–1986 providing various records of administration and other governmental transactions, and the Journals of the House of Commons another set of official documents. Douglas, et al. 1953–1977 offers the most extensive collection of primary documents, while Kenyon 1986 presents a smaller though comprehensive sample.

Douglas, David C., et al., eds. English Historical Documents. Vols. 4–10. New York: Oxford University Press, 1953–1977.
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One of the more ambitious and comprehensive collections of primary documents, published over the course of twenty-five years. Each volume contains about one thousand pages of material, with the early modern period receiving extensive coverage.
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Journals of the House of Commons. Vols. 1–12. (2MS). London: History of Parliament Trust, 1802–.
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Covering the period from 1547 through 1699, volumes 1 through 12 are essential for students researching parliamentary history; also available at British History online.
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Kenyon, John P., ed. The Stuart Constitution: Documents and Commentary. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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A well-chosen collection of documents, including local material, and with good commentary offering historical perspective.
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Public Records Office. Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Records Office. London: Public Records Office, 1939–1986.
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An invaluable source of records for the administrative, social, and political aspects of the early modern period, revealing information not only about government but also about patronage, culture, foreign policy, and land transactions and claims.
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Journals

Journals providing coverage of the 17th century are plentiful, though with the exception of The Seventeenth Century, all encompass a wider historical purview as well. Past and Present has been a rich forum for some of the more heated debates of the 20th century, including the “storm over the gentry” issue and questions of court and country in leading to the civil war; Historical Research and Historical Journal have also included important contributions provoking debate among historians, in addition to ongoing scholarly contributions. English Historical Review is one of the oldest and most august journals, while Transactions of the Royal Historical Society has provided excellent overviews of political institutions and other topics by leading scholars such as G. R. Elton and G. E. Aylmer. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History is the leading periodical covering church and religious history, and students should also consult the Journal of British Studies (which incorporates the now defunct Albion) for its articles on British history of the 17th century and beyond.

English Historical Review (1886–).
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Contains studies of British and world history with very useful “Notes and Documents” articles as well as debates on early modern themes and an annual summary of the periodical literature published.
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Historical Journal (1958–).
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An important journal that includes British history; especially strong on launching significant articles by younger as well as established authors.
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Historical Research (1923–).
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British and world history from the Middle Ages through the present, with many articles on early modern England written by established experts as well as emerging scholars.
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Journal of British Studies (1961–).
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The official publication of the North American Conference of British Studies (and also incorporating the former Albion), this journal draws on all aspects of British culture and history from the Middle Ages through the present, with special strengths in religious, cultural, and social history.
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Journal of Ecclesiastical History (1950–).
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Publishes on all aspects of the Christian church throughout history and across national lines, with nearly every issue containing at least one entry regarding early modern religion in England.
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Past and Present (1952–).
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Oxford University Press’s journal covering all aspects of world and British history, with lively debates and responses among historians. Past articles have been particularly important for scholarly contributions and controversies regarding the 17th century and the Civil War.
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The Seventeenth Century (2005–).
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An interdisciplinary journal that emphasizes original research covering political and economic history, social history, literature, theology, philosophy, colonial history, natural sciences, music, and the visual arts. Book reviews and historiographical surveys are also emphasized.
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (1872–).
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Publishing for more than 130 years, this annual Cambridge University Press volume presents work from new and established scholars on all facets of British history, with some very helpful overviews of the current state of scholarship, or important multipart contributions (by G. R. Elton on governmental institutions in the Tudor period, for example).
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The Civil War (1642–1649)

The English Revolution, or Civil War, has been labeled “that Mount Everest of British history”—an apt description for a seemingly insurmountable object of study that resists efforts of conquest, or ultimate and final interpretation. Generations of scholars, beginning with the great Whig historian S. G. Gardiner, lay claim to understanding it, only to be followed by “revisionists” and now “post-revisionists”; each time the confident efforts to understand its causes, its course, and its consequences become challenged by succeeding generations, leaving an increasingly tangled historiographical path. The following sections attempt to provide an overview of the classic works as well as more recent reassessments.

Origins and Causes, Revisionism and Post-revisionism

Stone 1972 represents a traditional view regarding the causes leading to war, while the “revisionism” of such a stance is represented by Russell 1973 and Russell 1991, as well as some essays in Tomlinson 1983. Ashton 1989 also argues with traditional readings of the causes, including the role of court and country, while Hughes 1991 and Cogswell 1989, labeled “post-revisionist,” question the assumptions of the revisionists to trace a deeper conflict through time. Scott 2000 presents one of the best recent studies of the causes, extending his analysis to the larger European context, as well as the conflicts in the later years of the 17th century.

Ashton, Robert. The English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution, 1603–1649. 2d ed. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.
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A good analytical and thematic narrative of the decades leading up to the war, with fresh insights on local and central politics, the militia, and other aspects of the period. Ashton takes issue with a clear divide between court and country and other historiographical debates, and is particularly insightful on the question of parliamentary resistance.
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Cogswell, Thomas. The Blessed Revolution: English Politics and the Coming of War, 1621–1624. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
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A significant “post-revisionist” work that questions Conrad Russell and others in arguing against an impotent 1620s parliament and in favor of an emerging ideological divide in the parliament and among the people during the 1620s. The parliament of 1624 in particular is examined in great detail.
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Hughes, Ann. The Causes of the English Civil War. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
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A “post-revisionist” reading of the causes leading to the Civil War, arguing for its long historical roots, the political and religious conflicts that fed into actual practical strife, and the necessary role of Scotland and Ireland in the drama that unfolded in England. Not only high politics but larger cultural and social change and “broader, long-term structures” are emphasized.
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Russell, Conrad. The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637–42. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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A classic of revisionism, focusing on the five years preceding the outbreak of the war. Central to these years was Charles’s mismanagement of the three kingdoms in terms of the church and war in Scotland. The result was a number of short-term crises that led to a larger upheaval, and not an upheaval that had its origins in the previous decades of the Stuart reigns.
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Russell, Conrad, ed. The Origins of the English Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1973.
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A series of articles that contributes to an understanding of the Civil War’s origins beginning in approximately 1625 and ending in 1640, and exploring central and local governance, royal finance and parliament, Puritanism and Arminianism, and other topics.
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Scott, Jonathan. England’s Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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A significant study that examines the historical processes that contributed to and persisted in England’s midcentury instabilities and that attempted to contain those instabilities afterwards. Particularly important is Scott’s placing the crises within a larger European context, and his account of Restoration issues of 1678–1683 and 1688 in relation to the events before.
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Stone, Lawrence. The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529–1642. London: Routledge, 1972.
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A somewhat traditional account of the causes of the war in terms of its tracing the conflict to long-term origins, particularly in the social sphere. One “precondition” for Stone consists of the weakness of the Tudor state in its lack of a standing army or local bureaucracy, forcing it into an alliance with the gentry that would break down in the 1640s.
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Tomlinson, Howard, ed. Before the English Civil War. New York: St. Martin’s, 1983.
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Designed to acquaint readers with the debates on the early Stuart period up to that point, this collection offers up contributions from leading historians on ecclesiastical history, the nature of parliamentary debates, the personal rule of Charles (by Kevin Sharpe), financial and administrative developments, and the process that led to discontent in the Stuart regime by 1640.
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Aspects of the War

The following are classic works by leading historians of the war, with Gaunt 2000 consisting of an anthology of important articles written by the most significant historians of the period. Morrill 1982 also contains important essays by different scholars, with Morrill 1993 presenting the best of the author’s own work. Hill 1980 represents an older history, though useful for the perspectives it reveals. More recently, some scholars, including Aylmer 1986, acknowledge the revisionists even as they refute their arguments, while Adamson 1990 provides a much-needed analysis of the baronial context, and Fletcher 1981 and others integrate local history into their larger narratives.

Adamson, J. S. A. “The Baronial Context of the English Civil War.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser. 40 (1990): 93–120.
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An important essay that addresses the “preoccupation with medieval precedent” on the part of the aristocratic leadership in the Civil War, and the attempt to find historically justified “solutions” to the problem of Charles’s “evil counsels.”
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Aylmer, G. E. Rebellion or Revolution? England, 1640–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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A classic text providing a short history of the period as well as a review of the existing historiographical literature. According to Aylmer, in an anti-revisionist stance, the conflict of the midcentury was more than a rebellion, instead constituting, “if only temporarily and partially,” a middle-class and Puritan revolution.
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Fletcher, Anthony. The Outbreak of the English Civil War. London: Edward Arnold, 1981.
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An excellent narrative and analytical history of the developments leading up to the war, with a balance between national and local perspectives and sources. The Long Parliament is explored in great detail, with the Commons receiving most attention; while not a revisionist in his approach, Fletcher tends to discard long-term causes and espouse contingency when it comes to explaining the factors that led to the wars.
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Gaunt, Peter, ed. The English Civil War: The Essential Readings. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
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A salutary collection of some of the most important articles written since 1972, each capturing essential interpretive approaches to the war and its causes. Authors include John Morrill, Brian Manning, and David Underdown on defining the revolution; Conrad Russell with three revisionist articles; and Martyn Bennett, Derek Hirst, and others on the course of the war. Articles on the consequences of the war are also included.
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Hill, Christopher. The Century of Revolution. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1980.
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A classic if somewhat dated narrative history of the century, elucidating the connections among politics, religion, and economics in the upheavals at midcentury. Themes covering the other decades are also pursued, and include trade liberalization, economic growth, the notion of sovereignty, the financial system, and developments in science.
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Morrill, John. The Nature of the English Revolution. London: Longman, 1993.
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An anthology of previously published essays by the author, this work contributes to the debate regarding the Civil War, particularly in its local, religious, and three kingdoms aspects. Included is Morrill’s valuable essay on Cromwell’s early life, as well as the question of order and the Church of England during the years of conflict.
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Morrill, John, ed. Reactions to the English Civil War, 1642–1649. London: Macmillan, 1982.
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A collection of very good and largely revisionist essays that address responses to and contemporary explanations of the events that led to war and the execution of the king. Contributors include Anthony Fletcher on the local dimension, Ronald Hutton on the royalist war effort (and ultimately war aversion), and Robert Ashton on the impact of the war on the population.
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The Celtic Dimension and the Three Kingdoms

No history of the civil war can be written anymore without acknowledging the fact that it was a conflict not within one kingdom but among (and also within) three kingdoms. The “New British History,” which was ushered in by Pocock 1975, as well as in Conrad Russell’s emphasis on Charles and his mismanagement of Scottish affairs, contributed in part to the new reading of the events. The problems in this approach reside in the sheer scope of narrating and analyzing the parallel yet interconnected histories of the three realms; nevertheless, Scott 2004 and Gentles 2007 successfully manage the integration. Macinnes 2005 and Scott 2004 bring in valuable analyses of the different contexts that drove each kingdom in its internal and external conflicts, while the collection of essays in Ó Siochrú 2001 provides an excellent Irish perspective. Stevenson 1973 represents a contribution by one of the leading scholars of Scotland, and Young 1997 focuses on the non-English aspects of the wars themselves.

Gentles, Ian. The English Revolution and the Wars in the Three Kingdoms, 1638–1652. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007.
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A huge and scholarly work that ranges across the kingdoms, in addition to examining Parliament, Independents, the New Model Army, the Solemn League and Covenant, and the conquests of Ireland and Scotland from 1649 through the early 1650s.
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Macinnes, Allan I. The British Revolution, 1629–1660. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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An impressive recent analysis of the civil wars in their larger British-archipelagic as well as world context, bringing in military, political, intellectual, fiscal, economic, and diplomatic history. Though it is a synthesis, the work is also original in its use of the Scottish archives, and its discussion of the different conceptions, imperial or federal, of the British state by the Stuarts and Scottish figures such as George Buchanan, respectively.
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Ó Siochrú, Micheál. Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s. Dublin: Four Courts, 2001.
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A gathering of essays on Ireland in the 1640s, surveying the existing literature on the subject, support for the Irish confederation, its ideological ethos, military history, and the Marquis of Ormond.
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Pocock, J. G. A. “The New British History: A Plea for a New Subject.” Journal of Modern History 47 (1975): 601–621.
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A seminal article that makes the case for a revived use of “Britain” or “British history” to “denote the plural history of a group of cultures situated along an Anglo-Celtic frontier and marked by an increasing English and cultural domination.” These “pluralities,” Pocock writes, should include the Atlantic archipelago as well as Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
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Scott, David. Politics and War in the Three Stuart Kingdoms, 1637–1649. British History in Perspective. New York: Macmillan, 2004.
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A skillful exploration of the political and military history of the wars across the three kingdoms, particularly strong on Ireland. Fresh engagements with existing interpretations pervade the work as Scott argues for the second civil war as the “War of the Engagement,” constituting “a shrewd political gamble” on Charles’s part, and the collapse of the Presbyterian rather than the Independent party in 1648.
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Stevenson, David. The Scottish Revolution: The Triumph of the Covenanters. Edinburgh: John Donald, 1973.
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A fine narrative analysis of the Scottish upheavals of 1637 and after by the leading historian of the period; the political rather than religious motivation behind the conflict with England is emphasized, particularly regarding the demand for a Scottish parliament independent of royal control.
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Young, John R. The Celtic Dimensions of the British Civil Wars. Edinburgh: John Donald, 1997.
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Based on the proceedings of a conference, this valuable group of essays, with an introduction by John Morrill, examines the “non-English aspects of the British civil wars,” with a focus on the distinctiveness of each of the kingdoms during the wars, as well as Charles’s role in attempting to manage them before the conflict erupted.
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War and the Localities

Historians of the midcentury “county community” have been heavily criticized in recent years for, among other things, going too far in ascribing an autonomous insularity to local people who were unconcerned with national issues. The following sample works are useful, however, in terms of their close look at the local responses of the people, particularly in the 1630s and after, with Everitt 1966 focusing on Kent, Fletcher 1975 on Sussex, Holmes 1980 on Lincolnshire, and Hughes 1987 on Warwickshire. Morrill 1999 provides a larger picture of events as they played themselves out across the provinces.

Everitt, Alan M. The Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion, 1640–60. Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press, 1966.
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An older study that stresses the local dimension of the wars in an important county, with its theme centering on the “victory of the nation-state of England over the county-state of Kent,” particularly under the guise of the New Model Army and the Protectorate. The gentry families of the county are also examined in depth.
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Fletcher, Anthony. A County Community in Peace and War: Sussex, 1600–60. New York: Longman, 1975.
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A richly rendered local history based upon extensive archival research and examining the disruptions caused to the province by the conflict from the 1630s through the war, and the responses by the people. The social life of the gentry, and social conditions especially, are also explored in their own right.
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Holmes, Clives. Seventeenth-century Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire, UK: History of Lincolnshire Committee, 1980.
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Traces the fortunes and challenges facing Lincolnshire across the century, taking on revisionist positions in the process, and effectively exploring the relations between the province and London, through the “brokerage” of the gentry. The institutions and administration of Lincolnshire are examined, as is the fate of the county during the wars and after.
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Hughes, Ann. Politics, Society, and Civil War in Warwickshire, 1620–1660. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987.
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A deft local study that examines the administrative and judicial powers within the province, the county’s social composition, the activities of 288 gentry families, the general religious allegiances, and the formation of parliamentary county committees in the war.
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Morrill, John. Revolt in the Provinces: The People of England and the Tragedies of War, 1630–1660. 2d ed. London: Longman, 1999.
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An indispensable and updated study of the impact of the conflict in the provinces among ordinary men and women, covering counties, towns and villages across England. Opposition to both royalist and parliamentarian causes is traced, as is the breakdown of peace in the localities as they gave themselves over to factionalism and the pressures of war.
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The Military and the Experience of the War

In addition to the seminal studies in Gentles 1992 and Gentles 1998, Bennett 2000 and Carlton 1992 have added greatly to our understanding of the wars themselves in their use of social history and the “new military history,” which allows them to examine how soldiers as well as average men, women, and children experienced the war on the ground. Donagan 2008 is one of the better recent additions, coming in the wake of a number of extremely significant articles written over the years, focusing on honor, codes of conduct, and other subjects. Hutton 1999 explores the royalist war effort, while Kishlansky 1979, a classic study, examines the political dimensions of the New Model Army. Finally, Ohlmeyer and Kenyon 1998 provides a valuable collection of essays elucidating the broader, three-kingdom scope of the war.

Bennett, Martyn. The Civil Wars Experienced: Britain and Ireland, 1638–1661. New York: Routledge, 2000.
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A fine study that focuses on the civil wars from the soldiers’ and civilians’ as well as localities’ points of view, drawing on a range of primary sources and extending across Scotland and Ireland as well as England. Useful maps are included.
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Carlton, Charles. Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1636–1651. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
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An intimate and powerful look at the men and women affected by the wars, not only officers and troops but also prisoners and victims of atrocity. Ranges over the three kingdoms and provides a clear picture of the wars’ horrors, including its plunders and pillages, its battlefield realities, and treatment of women, children, and the Irish.
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Donagan, Barbara. War in England, 1642–1649. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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A recent assessment of the war utilizing a vast array of sources, including pamphlet frontispieces, sermons, and soldiers’ manuals, and approaching the war from a cultural and social perspective. Codes of conduct and legal frameworks of fighting are also discussed, and the approach to war between royalist and parliamentary armies are contrasted.
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Gentles, Ian. The New Model Army in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1645–1653. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
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Within this major and unsurpassed study of the New Model Army, Gentles gives a thorough account of Cromwell’s military leadership while also presenting the lieutenant general as religiously sincere and thoroughly committed to the revolutionary program (which included the execution of Charles). A skillful treatment as well of Cromwell’s evolution from soldier to political figure, particularly in the waning months of the Rump Parliament.
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Gentles, Ian, ed. Soldiers, Writers, and Statesmen of the English Revolution, 1646–1659. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
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Encompassing political, military, and intellectual history, this excellent collection includes case studies of individuals such as the independent Robert Scawen and the royalist George Digby, as well as other examinations of the war effort such as care for the wounded and the significance of banners. Local studies are also set against intellectual histories examining the notion of sovereignty in Hobbes and Harrington, or Locke and the influence of Leveller ideas.
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Hutton, Ronald. The Royalist War Effort, 1642–1646. 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1999.
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A valuable and engaging study of the army of the losing side, exploring its organization, logistical planning, and leadership as well as its local contexts. Incorporates revisionist positions in its larger analysis, and includes an updated introduction in the second edition.
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Kishlansky, Mark. The Rise of the New Model Army. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
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A significant revisionist work that argues against the radicalism of the New Model Army and disputes claims that Parliament in the early years was divided into clear ideological groups. The political career of the army is examined at length, including its discontent over matters of petitioning.
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Ohlmeyer, Jane, and John Kenyon, eds. The British and Irish Civil Wars: A Military History of Scotland, Ireland, and England, 1638–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
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This collection of essays provides an indispensable survey of the wars of the three kingdoms, tracing the conflicts from the 1640s on, with special emphasis placed on the formidable and subduing armies of Cromwell. Special attention should be paid to Edward Furgol’s important essay on Scotland, and Ohlmeyer’s on Ireland.
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Parliament in the Later 1640s and the Execution of the King

Worden 1977 and Underdown 1971 remain the definitive studies of the Rump Parliament and Pride’s Purge, respectively, while Mendle 2001 fruitfully extends the Putney Debates into a larger context of print culture and rhetorical analysis. Woodhouse 1951 is the best collection of the debates themselves. Peacey 2001 is also a significant contribution in applying recent approaches and interpretations to a well-documented event.

Mendle, Michael, ed. The Putney Debates of 1647: The Army, the Levellers, and the English State. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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Based on a conference marking the 250th anniversary of the debates, this rich collection by leading historians places the debates within a historical and historiographical context, examining their transmission in print, the role of the army, the Levellers, and Ireton, and the language of the exchanges. An enlightening coda by J. G. A. Pocock is included.
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Peacey, Jason, ed. The Regicides and the Execution of Charles I. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
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A significant collection of essays that examines the trial and execution of Charles, emphasizing the contingent nature of the events, the political background of the trial, the British and European context, the legal theory behind the prosecution of the king, the reaction of the Levellers, and the propagandistic literature surrounding it.
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Underdown, David. Pride’s Purge: Politics in the Puritan Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
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A seminal account of the purging of Parliament in 1648 and the deeper political and religious issues at work in the event itself as well as the larger civil war conflict. Includes a fine integration of the center and the localities in the developments at hand, and argues that the Parliament that emerged represented an attempt to maintain some degree of continuity with the church and state of before.
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Woodhouse, A. S. P. Puritanism and Liberty. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
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An older edited collection of the Putney Debates that emphasizes their ideas, through editing and commentary, through the prism of religious freedom, toleration, and liberty of conscience. See, however, William Lamont’s critique of Mendle 2001.
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Worden, Blair. The Rump Parliament, 1648–53. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
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With Underdown 1971, this work stands as the definitive account of the legislature, narrating the politics of a body whose sovereignty was always, in the end, dependent on the graces of the army. Neither a revolutionary nor truly reforming body, the Rump was dominated by moderates seeking to preserve the social order. Particularly good on Cromwell’s role in its dissolution in 1653.
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The Levellers

Earlier historians held a number of attitudes toward the Levellers, with some describing how “modern” and “forward-looking” they were, and others in the 1930s co-opting them as members of the “Left” (Marxists found the Leveller resistance to centralization and its “backward” regard for the village community disappointing, however). Since 1960, a more realistic appraisal of Levellers on their own terms has been reached, as well as a different understanding about the meaning of “radicalism” in general. Aylmer 1975 provides a good introduction and collection of primary sources, as does Wolfe 1944 in terms of the manifestos. Sharp 2000 also provides a comprehensive collection of documents, with useful introductions, and Baker 2009 a more recent assessment of Cromwell’s own relationship with the movement.

Aylmer, G. E., ed. The Levellers in the English Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1975.
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A useful introductory essay and collection of primary source documents by Levellers on the subject of Parliament and the army, political realities of the times, and Cromwell himself.
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Baker, Philip. “‘A Despicable Contemptible Generation of Men’? Cromwell and the Levellers.” In Oliver Cromwell: New Perspectives. Edited by Patrick Little, 90–114. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
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An up-to-date treatment of Cromwell’s relationship with the Levellers in the 1640s, arguing for his continued and even sympathetic alliance with them up until their program threatened army unity in 1649.
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Sharp, Andrew, ed. The English Levellers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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A useful collection of thirteen writings by the Levellers, introducing some of their key ideas and the points of debate with which they engaged. John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Richard Overton, and extracts from the Putney Debates are included, as are short biographies.
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Wolfe, Don M., ed. Leveller Manifestoes of the Puritan Revolution. New York and London: Thomas Nelson, 1944.
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A collection of Leveller writings that emphasizes the years 1647 and 1648 and argues in a 100-page introduction for their role in a larger social movement whose discontent rested in the economic sphere of perceived injustice. With class separating them from the Independents, according to Wolfe, their quest for reform increasingly assumed a secular rather than religious premise.
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Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell—his character as well as his tenure in power—left a complex and elusive legacy that continues to receive an enormous amount of scholarly attention. Biographies have proliferated, and the debate over “hero or villain” continues apace, with more recent treatments, at least the Anglocentric ones, now assessing him in somewhat favorable terms, as in Gaunt 2004. The following works attempt to cover, however incompletely, the extent and range of his career. Firth 1953 represents the classic traditional account, while Hill 1990 emphasizes Cromwell as a Puritan man of property and Sherwood 1997 his royalist aspirations; Morrill 1990 and Worden 1985, in two extremely important essays, stress Cromwell’s early career and the role of providence in his outlook, respectively. Finally, in more general treatments, Coward 1991 provides an effective political biography, while Little 2009 assesses different episodes of Cromwell’s life and career.

Coward, Barry. Oliver Cromwell. London and New York: Longman, 1991.
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Not a biography but a study of Cromwell “as a political figure and of the historical problems associated with his exercise of power,” this short book is a valuable contribution that incorporates relatively recent historiographical approaches to revise previous assumptions about Cromwell’s role and consistency in the arena of politics during the 1640s and 1650s.
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Firth, C. H. Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.
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With S. R. Gardiner, Firth stands as the classic Victorian and early-20th-century interpreter of Cromwell, presenting him as a man of complex yet ultimately admirable character, and an agent of liberalism and toleration. Though dated, it still contains much useful information for the student.
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Gaunt, Peter. Oliver Cromwell. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
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An outstanding and accessible biography that emphasizes the “inherent decency of the man and his regime,” and one who “consistently made the pursuit of liberty his main goal.”
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Hill, Christopher. God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution. Rev. ed. London: Penguin, 1990.
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Somewhat dated biographical study, but important for the historian behind it. Hill argues for Cromwell as the “saviour of propertied society,” in a conflict where Puritanism masked the decline of the old feudal world and the emergence of “men of property who regarded themselves as the natural rulers of the counties and cities.”
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Little, Patrick, ed. Oliver Cromwell: New Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
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An excellent current overview of different episodes of Cromwell’s life and rule rather than his career as a whole. In not taking Cromwell at his own words, many of the contributors emphasize his actual ruthlessness and cunning as a politician.
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Morrill, John. “The Making of Oliver Cromwell.” In Cromwell and the English Revolution. Edited by John Morrill, 19–48. London and New York: Longman, 1990.
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Essential for any study of Cromwell’s formative years, this article utilizes new archival material to trace the man’s early life and its shaping influences. The youthful Cromwell is presented as unsure of his social status, somewhat down on his luck financially, and relatively late to an evangelical awakening.
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Sherwood, Roy Edward. Oliver Cromwell: King in All But Name. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1997.
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Focusing on his Protectorate years, Sherwood argues that Cromwell embraced quasi-royalist trappings, as evidenced by the ceremony and symbols that pervaded his two installations, his reception of ambassadors, and the marriages of his daughters (as well as his funeral). Sherwood further claims, not altogether convincingly, that Cromwell was on the point of accepting the crown, despite his words to the contrary.
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Worden, Blair. “Oliver Cromwell and the Sin of Achan.” In History, Society, and the Churches: Essays in Honour of Owen Chadwick. Edited by Derek Beales and Geoffrey Best, 125–145. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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Worden examines the centrality of providence in Cromwell’s motivations as well as his self-justifications, focusing on its invocation through key episodes in his career. Particularly interesting is Worden’s eloquent analysis of Cromwell’s refusal of the crown in 1657—“perhaps the most important (and perhaps the most disastrous) decision he made as Protector.”
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Commonwealth and Protectorate

As Barry Coward has written, scholarship on the Protectorate has flourished in recent years after lying relatively fallow in the wake of the Civil War revisionism of the 1970s and 1980s, which treated the 1650s as a period of conservatism and retrenchment, “a monarchy in all but name.” New conclusions have been reached, for example, concerning the nature of the government during the Protectorate, the character of Cromwell’s (and his son Richard’s) rule, and the impact of the regime on Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Much of the recent scholarship focuses on the role of the council in determining matters of state, arguing that it limited Cromwell’s actual exercise of power. Blair Worden, however, has most notably disputed this claim, asserting that Cromwell was very much in charge, but able to present himself as a removed presence from the more unpopular decisions of the regime. Woolrych 1982 and Coward 2002 continue as the definitive treatments of the era, with Hutton 2000 a more concise study, and the essays in Aylmer 1972 and Roots 1998 providing a good introduction. Barber 1998 traces the ideologies and justifications behind regicide, and Kelsey 1997 the political culture of the Interregnum. For a collection of the most important articles on the period, see Smith 2003.

Aylmer, G. E., ed. The Interregnum: The Quest for Settlement, 1646–1660. London: Macmillan, 1972.
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An important volume of eight essays by leading historians of the period, covering all aspects of Cromwell’s rule.
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Barber, Sarah. Regicide and Republicanism: Politics and Ethics in the English Revolution, 1646–1659. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
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An illuminating and original study that traces the origins of regicidal thought as well as the republicanism that followed the death of Charles, with neither philosophy necessarily connected to the other. Particularly interesting is the manner in which Barber traces the increasing target of regicide from the office of the king to the man himself; the diversity as well as contradictions of regicidal thought and republicanism are also incisively examined.
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Coward, Barry. The Cromwellian Protectorate. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002.
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Revising the accepted notion of the Protectorate as a conservative “retreat from revolution,” this leading scholar of the period examines a regime that attempted to settle divisions and tensions “rooted in the existence of conflicting aspirations for the future of the British Isles.” The best recent study of the subject.
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Hutton, Ronald. The British Republic, 1649–1660. 2d ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
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A short and readable synthesis incorporating recent scholarship on the subject and examining the religious, political, military, diplomatic, and intellectual currents of the age. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are also covered in this volume, as is provincial society.
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Kelsey, Sean. Inventing a Republic: The Political Culture of the English Commonwealth. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
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A good consideration of the politics, “court,” and culture of the parliamentary republic, including spectacles, icons, the Great Seal and arms of the Commonwealth, and the local context of the period. Civic-military relations, the reasons behind the dissolution of the Rump, and the indigenous nature of English republicanism also constitute some primary themes of the book.
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Roots, Ivan. “Into Another Mould”: Aspects of the Interregnum. 2d ed. Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 1998.
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Many aspects of the 1650s and of Cromwell’s role during that decade—union and disunion in the British Isles, Welsh politics and religion, local government reform, the Protectorate parliaments and army politics—are explored in this significant collection of essays.
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Smith, David L., ed. Cromwell and the Interregnum. Blackwell Essential Readings in History. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
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A highly useful compendium of the most important recent articles on Cromwell during the Interregnum, bringing in Scotland and Ireland as well as England.
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Woolrych, Austin Herbert. Commonwealth to Protectorate. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
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An important work that traces England’s transition from being a republic to a mixed government, with particular emphasis placed on Barebone’s parliament and the crisis of 1653, and the larger tensions between “radical millenarian Puritanism” and “moderate constitutionalism.”
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Cromwellian Governance and Parliaments

The government and parliaments of the Interregnum have not received as much attention as they merit, but important studies exist. Ashley 1972 presents a detailed older study, while Durston 2001 looks at the rule of the major generals, and Worden 1985 examines Cromwell’s choice to refuse the crown. Little and Smith 2007 is an excellent recent study of the parliaments, with Trevor-Roper 1973 remaining one of the most important contributions to the field.

Ashley, Maurice. Financial and Commercial Policy under the Commonwealth and Protectorate. 2d ed. London: Frank Cass, 1972.
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A detailed and at times technical study that treats commercial and financial programs, public finance, taxation policy, trade, and public debt in the 1650s. According to Ashley, the larger economic vision that guided policy during the Commonwealth and Protectorate centered on self-sufficiency, or on the notion “that a country must be self-supporting and ever ready for war.”
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Durston, Christopher. Cromwell’s Major Generals: Godly Government during the English Revolution. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2001.
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The somewhat neglected study of Cromwell’s major generals receives the first extensive, book-length treatment by Durston, who confirms previous assumptions about them as an important yet unpopular force during the 1650s. Expected to enforce security as well as godliness, they ultimately failed in the task, with a ruthless Cromwell himself colluding in their downfall by displaying no support for them, even though they had faithfully served his ostensible aims.
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Little, Patrick, and David L. Smith. Parliaments and Politics during the Cromwellian Protectorate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511496042Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An in-depth examination of the protectoral parliaments that argues in favor of Cromwell’s active involvement at the same time those parliaments struggled for self-definition against the reality of a strong executive authority. Essentially experimental exercises, parliaments in the 1650s, as the authors demonstrate, attempted to navigate questions of taxation or control of the militia within the confines of political instability and the looming figure of Cromwell himself.
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Trevor-Roper, H. R. “Oliver Cromwell and His Parliaments.” In Cromwell: A Profile. Edited by Ivan A. Roots, 91–135. London: Macmillan, 1973.
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Seminal article that examines Cromwell’s parliamentary career, as well as his unsuccessful parliaments, beginning with the Long Parliament, which he purged, and his two Protectorate parliaments, also purged (and dissolved). Though attached to the parliamentary ideal, Cromwell in practice, according to Trevor-Roper, never truly “studied the necessary rules of the game,” thus facing parliaments that he “failed either to pack, to control, or to understand.”
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Worden, Blair. “Oliver Cromwell and the Sin of Achan.” In History, Society, and the Churches: Essays in Honour of Owen Chadwick. Edited by Derek Beales and Geoffrey Best, 125–145. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
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Worden examines the centrality of providence in Cromwell’s motivations as well as his self-justifications, focusing on its invocation through key episodes in his career. Particularly interesting is Worden’s eloquent analysis of Cromwell’s refusal of the crown in 1657—“perhaps the most important (and perhaps the most disastrous) decision he made as Protector.”
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Religious Radicalism

The subject of midcentury radical groups underwent a renewed analysis in the 1970s with such works as Capp 1972; while Hill 1984 remains a classic, recent reassessments such as Burgess 2007 either push religion (as opposed to politics or economics) back to the center of the groups’ motivations, or even question the meaning of radicalism—an anachronistic term—itself. The essays in McGregor 1984 provide a good overview, as does the study by Dow 1985. Davis 1986 explores one group, the Ranters, while McDowell 2003 offers a convincing reconsideration of the motives and ideas that drove the “radical imagination” of the decades.

Burgess, Glenn. “Radicalism in the English Revolution.” In English Radicalism, 1550–1850. Edited by Glenn Burgess and Matthew Festenstein, 62–86. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511495762.004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An excellent survey of where the study of 17th-century English radicalism currently stands, as well as a trenchant analysis of the problems in deploying the term “radicalism,” the origins and explanations for radical outbursts, and an insightful rereading of the Levellers.
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Capp, Bernard. The Fifth Monarchy Men. London: Faber, 1972.
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The best work on the radical group committed to millenarian and apocalyptic designs, Capp’s work also touches on its relationship with Cromwell during the key years of the Protectorate.
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Davis, James C. Fear, Myth, and History: The Ranters and the Historians. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
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An important work that deconstructs the Ranter myth, arguing that the Ranters’ importance was highly exaggerated, if they really existed as a group at all, and explaining why they, or “the sensation” they represented, had to be “invented” by later historians.
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Dow, F. D. Radicalism in the English Revolution, 1640–1660. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.
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A concise and useful overview of radical ideas and popular religion in the midcentury, and—tangentially—Cromwell’s relationship with them.
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Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution, 1649–1660. London: Penguin, 1984.
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Still the classic text on radical political groups and religious sects during the 1650s, Hill’s volume explains the political, social, and economic causes for the flourishing of radical ideas during Cromwell’s reign, and their adherents’ rejection of Cromwell and the army by 1654.
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McDowell, Nicholas, ed. The English Radical Imagination: Culture, Religion, and Revolution, 1630–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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An exploration of the primarily literary dimensions of radical thought, this book ranges from the Ranters to the Quakers and Levellers, raising questions concerning the relationship between elite and popular manifestations of radicalism, or the “orthodox intellectual and literary culture of early modern England and the development and expression of heterodox belief in the mid-17th century.”
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McGregor, J. F., and Barry Reay, eds. Radical Religion in the English Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon, 1984.
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An important volume of essays that places religious motivation at the center of the radical impulse, exploring individuals and ideas that fell (sometimes problematically) under the label of Quaker, Baptist, Seeker, or Ranter. The reasons for these groups’ ultimate failure (or reconfiguration) are also examined throughout.
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England in Ireland and Scotland

The English conquest and governance of Ireland and Scotland, beginning in 1649, would have long-lasting effects not only on the “Celtic” kingdoms but also on England itself. Though the formative period of empire, first exercised in Ireland, had been in effect since the Elizabethan age, the 1650s witnessed a new turn in administering English policy, leading to the Protestant Ascendancy and affecting English rule for the next two centuries. Scotland presented another case (and another set of difficulties) for England, though formal union would not come until 1707. Ó Siochrú 2008 discusses both the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland and its aftermath, with Wheeler 1999 providing another account of the years up to 1653; Barnard 2000 is a classic work that focuses on Ireland up to 1660. Dow 1979 offers a detailed treatment of the situation in Scotland, though it tends toward Anglocentrism and overlooks the important role of economics as well as Scottish society and identity; Spurlock 2007 is a more recent treatment that focuses in large part on religious policies.

Barnard, T. C. Cromwellian Ireland: English Government and Reform in Ireland, 1649–1660. Oxford: Clarendon, 2000.
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First published in 1975, this classic work draws on a range of surviving sources to examine English policy in Ireland during the Interregnum and conveys the somewhat inconclusive results of conquest as well as divisions among Protestant groups and individual actors that existed during the 1650s.
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Dow, F. D. Cromwellian Scotland, 1561–1660. Edinburgh: John Donald, 1979.
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An older yet still useful and detailed administrative history recounting English rule in Scotland from 1651 through 1660. After examining the conquest itself, Dow emphasizes the establishment of English rule over affairs of justice and taxation, viewing it in a largely positive light.
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Ó Siochrú, Micheál. God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland. London: Faber, 2008.
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A detailed and well-researched recent examination of Cromwell that emphasizes the military conquest of Ireland, based in large part on the Irish Catholic rebellion of 1641 and its perceived atrocities against Protestants. The massacres at Drogheda and Wexford are given extensive analysis, as well as the policies imposed on Ireland after the campaigns.
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Spurlock, R. Scott. Cromwell and Scotland: Conquest and Religion, 1650–1660. Edinburgh: John Donald, 2007.
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A nuanced treatment of English religious policies that attempted to foster unity among the sectaries, Independents, and Presbyterians up north, with often successful results.
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Wheeler, James Scott. Cromwell in Ireland. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
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Wheeler seeks to describe what he considers the long twelve-year war that began with the uprising of 1641, continued with the conflict between the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny and the English regimes, and ended in 1653, with Henry Ireton and Edmund Ludlow “finishing” the work of Cromwell, three years after he himself had departed.
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The Restoration

Until relatively recently, the Restoration was, as Tim Harris has written, an “undeveloped field of inquiry,” at least compared to the earlier part of the century. This has changed dramatically since the 1980s, perhaps—as Harris again puts it—owing to “the successive Tory administrations of the 1980s and 1990s,” which dovetailed with the “reactionary nature of the Restoration and the large number of sex scandals involving those in the higher echelons of government.” The work of Harris 2006 and others succeeds in probing deep issues of the political culture, literature, and religion of the period; as a result of their contributions, new research findings and approaches continue to make the Restoration one of the more exciting fields of English historiography. One of the most effective histories of the period remains Hutton 1985, while Jones 1978 is an older survey that extends through the end of the century. The essays in Jones 1979 also examine general political governance and administration in the period, while Houston and Pincus 2001 presents a varied picture of politics and culture in Charles’s reign, and Keeble 2002 examines the literary context as well as print culture.

Harris, Tim. Restoration: Charles II and His Kingdoms, 1660–1685. London: Penguin, 2006.
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A valuable British perspective is given in this volume on Charles II’s “triple restoration,” with Charles himself pointing out that even if James, his successor, were deposed from the English throne, he would still maintain the Irish and Scottish ones. The role of mass petitioning and the circulation of pamphlets in political life, as well as public opinion in general, are especially strong.
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Houston, Alan, and Steve Pincus, eds. A Nation Transformed: England after the Restoration. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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A collection of essays that challenges the claims for the continuity of the Restoration with previous decades and instead argues for the period’s fundamental change in the realm of politics and culture. Notions of “reasons of state” are also examined, in addition to print culture, individual writers, and religious radicals.
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Hutton, Ronald. The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658–1667. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
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Still one of the best narrative treatments of the Restoration in England and Wales, vividly capturing key moments of the era as well as analyzing more scholarly questions regarding the local gentry, parliamentary opposition, provincial society, the court and kingship, government policy, and religion.
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Jones, James Rees. Country and Court, 1658–1714. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.
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One of the best textbooks on the later Stuart and Williamite age, this work deftly surveys Restoration politics, focusing on events more than ideas, particularly in their practical guise. Administration, finance, and foreign policy are also treated.
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Jones, James Rees, ed. The Restored Monarchy, 1660–1688. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1979.
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An introduction and eight essays that explore various aspects of Charles II’s and James II’s reigns, including the law and constitution, Parliament, finance and administration, trade and shipping, and the church. The New Science is also discussed.
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Keeble, N. H. The Restoration: England in the 1660s. History of Early Modern England. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
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Focusing solely on the 1660s, this work is valuable not for its analysis of high politics but for its readings of the contemporary literature, including Milton and Bunyan, as well as its discussion of print culture and government control.
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Politics and Political Culture

Though the following works frequently deal in high politics, many have incorporated social history in describing the active processes by which pressure was exerted from below, or politics itself was a dynamic, contested, and negotiated field of action. In terms of the restoration settlement, however, the consensus is that not very much changed, with many of the old, intractable problems remaining to bedevil the monarchy. Ogg 1934 remains the standard text for the political history of the period, with Haley 1985, Harris 1993, and Miller 2000 providing more recent examinations incorporating other questions concerning political interactions and culture, and Knights 2004 discussing issues centering on the public sphere. Condren 1990 effectively dissects the work and context of Andrew Marvell, with Scott 2002 examining the age through the perspective of the radical Algernon Sidney.

Condren, Conal. “Andrew Marvell as Polemicist: His Account of the Growth of Popery, and Arbitrary Government.” In The Political Identity of Andrew Marvell. Edited by Conal Condren and A. D. Cousins, 157–187. Aldershot, UK: Scolar, 1990.
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Provides an excellent political context for Marvell’s work, and accounts for his passionately held political and religious views against the “protective disingenuousness” of his rhetorical style.
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Haley, Kenneth H. D. Politics in the Reign of Charles II. New York: Blackwell, 1985.
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An analysis of the court and parliament as well as the people, and the interactions among them during the reign of Charles II.
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Harris, Tim. Politics under the Later Stuarts: Party Conflict in a Divided Society, 1660–1714. Harlow, UK: Longman, 1993.
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An excellent examination of Restoration party politics based on extensive research and extending beyond 1688; Harris argues, among other things, for continuities between the “Cavaliers” of the 1660s and the Tories of the 1680s, and convincingly claims that the country/court divide in later parties was more fluid than assumed. Particularly good on Charles II’s reign.
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Knights, Mark. Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain: Partisanship and Political Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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A rich interdisciplinary examination of the public sphere and the interactions between elite and popular politics in Restoration England. Knights argues that this period was a continuation of the revolution earlier in the century, with the public now standing as a political arbiter in an emerging representative society.
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Miller, John. After the Civil Wars: English Politics and Government in the Reign of Charles II. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2000.
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An excellent account of politics and political change in a transitional moment, particularly regarding central and local politics. Miller portrays the political atmosphere of the time as one of tentativeness, uncertainty, and fluidity, despite real points of difference, which hardened after 1672. Personal, familial, and regional influences on political choices are also emphasized.
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Ogg, David. England in the Reign of Charles II. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1934.
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The standard (though dated) text for Charles II’s reign, examining at length the economic, social, and political developments of the age, with detailed accounts including the development of the navy and colonies, war and financial policy, the Restoration Settlement and the Popish Plot, the commercial challenges presented by the Dutch, and the evolution of the Anglican Church.
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Scott, Jonathan. Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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The second volume in an outstanding intellectual biography of Sidney the “radical” and the last six years of his life, including the political crises that shaped his life and his composition of the Discourses Concerning Government, which led to his execution for treason. Major reassessments of the years and crises of Charles II’s reign are convincingly argued throughout.
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Seaward, Paul. The Cavalier Parliament and the Reconstruction of the Old Regime. New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
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A detailed and penetrating study of the politics of Westminster and the legislation that restored monarchical power in England. Concludes that the Restoration did not settle very much, leaving unresolved many of the old questions.
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Religion

More research needs to be conducted in the field of the Restoration church, though the essays in Harris, et al. 1990 increasingly emphasize that religious (as well as political) consensus was not attained in the Restoration, with many of the old problems remaining unsolved. Meanwhile, the exploration by Greaves 1996 of radicals under the restored regime emphasizes their very real threat to the regime, and asserts that they even contributed to the revolution of 1688. Spurr 1991 is an excellent overview of the Restoration church, while Miller 1973 remains required reading for issues of popery during the reign.

Greaves, Richard. Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660–1663. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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With Greaves’s other works, this study argues for the threat posed by the radicals during the Restoration; taking as evidence the seditious words supposedly uttered by such radicals, Greaves describes “a strong undercurrent of deep-rooted hostility to monarchy in general and the Stuarts in particular” during the 1660s.
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Harris, Tim, Ronald Paul Seward, and Mark Goldie, eds. The Politics of Religion in Restoration England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.
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An important revisionist collection of essays that successfully attempts to rewrite existing assumptions about politics and religion in the Restoration era. Articles include Harris’s illuminating introduction that seeks continuities rather than ruptures in terms of the language of religion; Jonathan Scott’s fresh look at the Popish Plot; and Mark Goldie on the ideologies of episcopal authority.
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Miller, John. Popery and Politics in England, 1660–88. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
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An essential work arguing for the continued importance of religion after 1660, particularly in terms of perceptions of Catholics and the Protestant image of popery with the prospect of James II’s kingship. Also examined is the machinery of persecution and the penal laws, the Restoration Settlement, and the French alliance.
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Spurr, John. The Restoration Church of England, 1646–1689. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
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A comprehensive and deeply researched work arguing for the “invention” of Anglicanism between the 1640s and 1680s, but especially during the restoration years. Examines how the church was reconstructed after 1660, the implications in terms of a wider religious unity, the imposition of doctrine, disciplines, and ecclesiology, and the establishment of a generally stable structure, at least superficially, until the Glorious Revolution disrupted its unity.
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James II and the Exclusion Crisis

Historians have long been interested in the Exclusion Crisis for the questions it raised regarding the succession to the crown, as well as its apparent role in giving rise to a system of “parties.” These issues serve to link it to the Glorious Revolution, even if the interpretation comes at the expense of understanding the controversy in its own terms, which belonged more to the 17th century than to the 18th. The works cited in this section follow the older as well as newer model of understanding, with Jones 1961 representing a traditional account of the emergence of the Whig party and Haley 1968 offering an admiring portrait of Shaftesbury. By the same token, the Kenyon 1958 biography of Sunderland is critical if necessary reading. Ogg 1955 is also a standard if dated study. In addition, the Speck 2002 and Miller 2000 biographies also reflect a dramatic changeover toward seeing James II in a more positive light. Finally, Ashcraft 1986 is useful in examining the career of Locke, and the essays in McElligott 2006 explore the period through the lens of the Puritan Roger Morrice.

Ashcraft, Richard. Revolutionary Politics and John Locke’s “Two Treatises of Government.” Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
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A significant account of Locke’s political career from the later 1660s onward, including his writings during the Exclusion Controversy, and providing a generally well-wrought political contextualization of the Two Treatises.
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Haley, Kenneth H. D. The First Earl of Shaftesbury. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968.
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An admiring biography of what Haley considers a “good” Whig who only wished to limit the prerogative power of the king. Religious liberty and parliamentary government were the principles that guided Shaftesbury—according to Haley—which James obstructed. A very detailed account of the Exclusion Crisis.
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Jones, James Rees. The First Whigs: The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.
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A searching (and somewhat triumphalist) study of the origins and inception of a modern political party, including its early practices and organization. For Jones, the Whigs, in the three parliaments he covers and under the leadership of Shaftesbury, “possessed and required organization in both Parliament and country, effective discipline, and a wide popular appeal stimulated and maintained by a large propaganda machine.”
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Kenyon, John P. Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland. London: Longman, 1958.
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A classic biography that treats the elusive Sunderland critically, ascribing his rise not to public-spiritedness but to a quest for power, and his success to “force of personality, overweening self confidence, and black bad temper.” In addition to his role in the Exclusion Crisis, Sunderland’s service to three kings is described at length, with his good qualities including “an appreciation of England’s key position in the European system… which was years ahead of its time.”
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McElligott, Jason, ed. Fear, Exclusion, and Revolution: Roger Morrice and Britain in the 1680s. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006.
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A comprehensive collection of essays that pivot around the Puritan minister Roger Morrice (or Maurice) and his Entring Book, a detailed account of the times. Studies on religion, politics, and culture include examinations of the Reformation and “arbitrary government,” James’s toleration of dissenters, the literature of the Exclusion Crisis, and women and the Whig struggle.
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Miller, John. James II. 3d ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.
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An important reassessment of James II, arguing that the misunderstood king’s main concern was to secure religious liberty and civil equality for Catholics. As he puts it, “Any ‘absolutist’ methods… were essentially means to that end.” A good inclusion of the Continental and Irish diplomatic context of his reign, as well as the religious and political issues at work.
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Ogg, David. England in the Reigns of James II and William III. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955.
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Ogg continues the (Whiggish) narrative begun with England in the reign of Charles II by combining analytical and descriptive approaches to the economic and social institutions of the age. James is treated as wholly tyrannical—a view since revised by historians; particularly incisive is Ogg’s analysis of William III’s compliant yet also tense relations with Parliament.
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Speck, W. A. James II. New York: Longman, 2002.
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An accessible biography that portrays the king as taking his own initiative, particularly in religious and persecutory policies. James’s role in Ireland, Scotland, and North America is also examined at length.
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The Glorious Revolution

Recent works on the Glorious Revolution have, on the one hand, more forcefully sought to place the events within their larger European and British and Irish contexts; on another level, revisionists such as the contributors in Jones 1992 have tended to downplay the revolution’s significance (as well as James’s absolutism), only to be answered by “neo-Whigs” such as the writers represented in Schwoerer 1992, as well as Speck 1988, who reassert its importance. Prall 1985 is a well-written traditional account, while Cruickshanks 2000 provides the student with a good recent narrative, and De Krey 2007 also offers recent perspectives on the Restoration as well as revolution. The essays in Israel 1991, which also assert the events of 1688 as a turning point, place the revolution in its larger European context.

Cruickshanks, Eveline. The Glorious Revolution. British History in Perspective. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
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Intended for the student and incorporating recent scholarship, this volume places the Glorious Revolution within its wider European context and argues that the events of 1688 were not about James’s “absolutism” (which, according to the revisionist position, was something of a myth) but about William’s own international ambitions. Good discussion of the military aspects of the invasion, as well as what Cruickshanks paints as the rather negative aftermath of the revolution.
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De Krey, Gary S. Restoration and Revolution in Britain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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A good recent textbook emphasizing the three-kingdoms approach to developments in the later Stuart period up through 1688. Argues that the Restoration constituted the beginning of modern politics and a rejuvenated public sphere, while 1688 was a turning point both economically and ideologically in British history.
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Israel, Jonathan I., ed. The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and its World Impact. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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A collection of essays that argues with the revisionist position lessening the absolutist tendencies (or perceptions thereof) of James II, and moves back toward the traditional position regarding 1688 as a decisive turning point. Fresh perspectives are offered on the international and larger British context. Includes essays by Blair Worden and a useful historiographical essay by John Morrill.
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Jones, James Rees, ed. Liberty Secured? Britain Before and After 1688. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.
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A collection of nine essays that addresses the various meanings of liberty and what class most benefited from them. Most contributions are revisionist in their argument that the revolution was insignificant or even irrelevant, though in Jones’s words it “created a governmental system and political culture that was able in a number of pragmatic and intermittent responses… to adapt to changes of a magnitude that had never been experienced before.”
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Prall, Stuart. The Bloodless Revolution. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.
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A well-written study of the events of 1688, especially strong on the constitutional background, as well as the legal system and political parties. The approach is distinctly London-centered and national, as opposed to local, and though the revolution was not quite bloodless as far as Ireland was concerned, this is nevertheless an excellent introduction to the complexity of the revolution.
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Schwoerer, Lois, ed. The Revolution of 1688–89: Changing Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
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A “neo-Whig” account of the revolution, exploring the political significance of the events, even if it was largely negative and conservative in nature. Ireland and Scotland are examined in light of the settlement, and court culture and the theater are explored in terms of the popular response. A comprehensive collection that captures all aspects of the revolution, with a fine introduction by Schwoerer on the meaning of the succession of William and Mary.
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Speck, W. A. Reluctant Revolutionaries: Englishmen and the Revolution of 1688. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
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A painstaking chronological, thematic, and analytical study, based on extensive archival work, that reexamines traditional interpretations of and causes behind the events of 1688. Speck seeks to recover the importance of the revolution as a decisive moment, just as he insists, with the traditional view, that “the nature of the English constitution was at the heart of the political struggles of the 17th century.”
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William III and Anne: 1689–1714

As W. A. Speck has written, the reign of William has long seemed “impenetrable” to historians, primarily because it was “complex and difficult to explain.” The primary concerns centered upon the nature of the political division between Whig and Tory, and whether politics under William—and later, Anne—were dominated by principle, party, or personality.

Politics, Factions, and Party

The nature of party and its emergence in the wake of the Glorious Revolution have received extensive attention, though Marshall 1999 also asserts the importance of politics at court, as contributive of the larger political culture. Hoppit 2000 provides an enormous survey of the period as a whole, with Rose 1999 serving as a more limited overview and the essays in Holmes 1969 representing an older interpretation of William’s reign. Kenyon 1977 is a classic account of the intellectual history, and Plumb 1967 is also a seminal if dated work that established the debate over political stability at the turn of the century.

Holmes, Geoffrey, ed. Britain after the Glorious Revolution. New York: St. Martin’s, 1969.
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A collection of ten essays on the subject of William’s reign, foreign policy, the period after 1688, the role of party, the conflict between landed and moneyed interests, and tensions within the church. T. C. Smout also delves into the Scottish parliament from the perspective of hostility toward union. The period as a whole is depicted as turbulent, resulting from William’s policies as well as from other political developments.
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Hoppit, Julian. A Land of Liberty? England, 1689–1727. New Oxford History of England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
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A huge introductory survey that tracks the transformations in the wake of the revolution of 1688, including war with Ireland, the union with Scotland, the financial revolution, and international relations. Politics, religion, and culture are also treated in addition to agriculture, science, and other key facets of the period.
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Kenyon, John P. Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party, 1689–1720. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
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A classic intellectual history of political expression and thought in the post-revolutionary era, arguing that the revolution was not understood by contemporaries in the same manner that it would be by future generations, particularly when Whigs and Tories came to deny any resistance in 1688. The dominant political figures and their ideas are examined in depth, particularly in terms of their diversity.
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Marshall, Alan. The Age of Faction: Court Politics 1660–1702. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press 1999.
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A good survey of later Stuart England through the reign of William, focusing in the latter part of the book on politics at court, including William’s own aversion to ceremony and distrust of the English politicians and courtiers around him.
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Plumb, J. H. The Growth of Political Stability in England. London: Macmillan, 1967.
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Based on his Ford Lectures, this classic work attributes the “growth of stability” in England to the development of an oligarchy, the emergence of a single-party government, and growing executive powers. For Plumb, the Glorious Revolution, however, obstructed this process, with the years 1688–1714 marked by instability.
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Rose, Craig. England in the 1690s: Revolution, Religion, and War. History of Early Modern England. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
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A very good study of a complex decade, including analysis of war, the Church of England, and the “godly” reformation in a decade that Rose places within the context of the 17th century rather than the 18th century.
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