The Constitutionalist Revolution
An Essay on the History of England, 1450–1642

An innovative account of English constitutional ideas from the mid-fifteenth century through to Charles I.

Alan Cromartie (Author)

9780521782692, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 August 2006

328 pages
23.4 x 16.1 x 2.6 cm, 0.61 kg

"This is a wide-ranging and illuminating study[...]the thesis is highly persuasive."
Richard Cust, University of Birmingham, American Historical Review

An innovative account of English constitutional ideas from the mid-fifteenth century to the time of Charles I, showing how the emergence of grand claims for common law, the country's strange unwritten legal system, shaped England's cultural development. Though he does not neglect the role of narrowly religious disagreements, Cromartie brings out the way that 'religious' and 'secular' values came to be closely intertwined: to the majority of Charles's subjects, the rights of the clergy and the king were legal rights; the institutional structure of Church and state was an expression of monarchical power, obedience to the king and to the law was a religious duty. A proper understanding of this cluster of ideas reveals why Charles found England so difficult to control and why both parties in the civil war believed that they were fighting for established institutions.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Fortescue's world
2. St German's world
3. Reformation and the body politic
4. Commonwealth and common law
5. Puritanism and Anglicanism
6. James, kingship, and religion
7. Law, politics, and Sir Edward Coke
8. The constitutionalist revolution
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]