Britain in Revolution: 1625-1660

Front Cover
OUP Oxford, Nov 14, 2002 - History - 842 pages
This is the definitive history of the English Civil War, set in its full historical context from the accession of Charles I to the Restoration of Charles II. These were the most turbulent years of British history and their reverberations have been felt down the centuries. Throughout the middle decades of the seventeenth century England, Scotland, and Ireland were convulsed by political upheaval and wracked by rebellion and civil war. The Stuart monarchy was in abeyance for twenty years in all three kingdoms, and Charles I famously met his death on the scaffold. Austin Woolrych breathes life back into the story of these years, the sweep of his prose buttressed by the authority of a lifetime's scholarship. He captures the drama and the passion, the momentum of events and the force of contingency. He brilliantly interweaves the history of the three kingdoms and their peoples, gripping the reader with the fast-paced yet always balanced story.
 

Contents

King Charless Inheritance I Three Kingdoms Three Peoples
9
King Charless Inheritance II The Matter of Religion
32
The New Reign
49
Storm over Scotland
85
The Bishops Wars
115
War in Three Kingdoms 16401646
153
Climacteric I a Posture of Defence
155
Three Kingdoms in Crisis
189
The Commonwealth in Crisis
502
A Story of My Own Weakness and Folly?
537
Cromwells Protectorate 16531658
561
A New Order in Three Nations
563
The First Phase of Cromwellian Rule
580
A Single Person and a Parliament
601
Cavaliers in Arms Swordsmen in the Saddle
616
King or Constable?
638

The Blast of War
234
The Conflict Widens
268
Towards a Resolution
296
Towards a Kingless Britain 16461649
333
Between Two Wars
335
Climacteric II not a mere Mercenary Army
366
The Second Civil War
402
Quest for a Settlement
434
The Commonwealth 16491653
459
The Commonwealth at War
461
The Protectorate in Scotland Ireland and Europe
664
Unfinished Business
684
The Collapse of the Good Old Cause 16581660
705
The Overthrow of the Protectorate
707
The Commonwealth Restored
727
The Monarchy Restored
757
Epilogue
780
Index
801
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