After the Civil Wars

The first study of Restoration England from the point of view of both rulers and ruled, this volume offers a vital reappraisal of seventeenth century England. The civil wars had a traumatic effect on the English people: memories of bloodshed and destruction and the ultimate horror of the execution of Charles I continued to be invoked for decades afterwards. It is often argued that the political and religious fissures created by the wars divided English society irrevocably, as demonstrated by the later bitter conflict between the Whig and Tory parties. After the Civil Wars proposes instead that although there was political conflict, Charles II's reign was not a continuation of the divisions of the civil wars.

John Miller is Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College.

Preface Prologue Part one: The working of politics 1 Rulers and ruled A self-governing people The law 2 Centre and localities Policy- and decision-making Local government The means of coercion 3 Favour and reward The mechanisms of patronage The nature of rewards 4 News The demand for news Print Handwritten news Word of mouth 5 Popular politics The nature of popular politics Riot Elections 6 Parliament Representatives and represented The business of Parliament King and Parliament Part two: Political division and conflict 7 The issues: I. Popery and arbitrary government The ancient constitution Anti-popery Popery and arbitrary government page vii 8 The issues: II. Church and Dissent 126 Before the Restoration 126 The Restoration settlement 132 Church and people 135 The nature of Dissent: Presbyterians 141 The nature of Dissent: Independents, Baptists and Quakers 144 Persecution 147 9 The frustrations of the Cavaliers, 1660-64 161 The liquidation of the past 161 The resentments of the Cavaliers 164 The machinery of coercion 169 The Corporation Act 171 The church settlement 174 The Cavaliers' revenge? 181 10 Politics in flux, 1664-73 195 The second Dutch war and its aftermath 195 The Cabal 198 Church and Dissent 202 11 The rebirth of party, 1673-78 217 Danby and the direction of policy 217 Danby and the patronage system 222 Partisan divisions: Parliament 226 Partisan divisions: the localities 227 The politicization of the legal system 235 12 'Guelphs and Ghibellines', 1679-81 245 A county divided 245 The political issues: an exclusion crisis? 249 Church and Dissent 254 The process of political division 256 Elections 257 Petitions and addresses 261 The law 263 13 The triumph of the Tories, 1681-85 272 Tory and Whig 272 Royal policy 277 Church and Dissent 279 The law 283 The towns 285 The general election of 1685 288 Abbreviations 296 Select bibliography 301 Glossary 307 Index