England's Troubles
Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context

A broad interpretation of the events and beliefs of seventeenth-century England, first published in 2000.

Jonathan Scott (Author)

9780521423342, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 May 2000

560 pages
23 x 15.3 x 3.5 cm, 0.89 kg

' … a provocative and very valuable book, which tackles a large subject and sets the complicated history of Britain and Europe in the seventeenth century in a fresh and clear framework. … England's Troubles should stimulate readers to reexamine the challenges presented to them by events in their own times and by the institutions that the past has bequeathed to them.' Royal Stuart Review

In this path-breaking study, first published in 2000, Jonathan Scott argues that seventeenth-century English history was shaped by three processes. The first was destructive: that experience of political instability which contemporaries called 'our troubles'. The second was creative: its spectacular intellectual consequence in the English revolution. The third was reconstructive: the long restoration voyage toward safe haven from these terrifying storms. Driving the troubles were fears and passions animated by European religious and political developments. The result registered the impact upon fragile institutions of powerful beliefs. One feature of this analysis is its relationship of the history of events to that of ideas. Another is its consideration of these processes across the century as a whole. The most important is its restoration of this extraordinary English experience to its European context.

Preface
Introduction: experience other than our own
1. The shape of the seventeenth century
Part I. England's Troubles, 1618–89: Political Instability: 2. Taking contemporary belief seriously
3. The unreformed polity
4. Reformation politics (1) 1618–41
5. Counter-reformation England
6. Reformation politics (2) 1637–6
7. Restoration memory
8. Restoration crisis 1678–83
9. Invasion 1688–9
Part II. The English Revolution 1640–89: Radical Imagination: 10. The shape of the English Revolution
11. Radical reformation (1): the power of love
12. Radical reformation (2): outward bondage
13. Radical renaissance (1): after monarchy
14. Radical renaissance (2): republican moral philosophy and the politics of settlement
15. Radical restoration (1): the subjected plaine
16. Radical restoration (2): the old cause
Part III. Restoration 1660–1702: Reconstruction and Statebuilding: 17. Restoration process
18. First restoration 1660–78
19. 'Second Restauration' 1679–85
20. Third restoration 1688–94
21. Anglo-Dutch statebuilding.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]