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.

PrefaceProloguePart one: The working of politics1 Rulers and ruledA self-governing peopleThe law2 Centre and localitiesPolicy- and decision-makingLocal governmentThe means of coercion3 Favour and rewardThe mechanisms of patronageThe nature of rewards4 NewsThe demand for newsPrintHandwritten newsWord of mouth5 Popular politicsThe nature of popular politicsRiotElections6 ParliamentRepresentatives and representedThe business of ParliamentKing and ParliamentPart two: Political division and conflict7 The issues: I. Popery and arbitrary governmentThe ancient constitutionAnti-poperyPopery and arbitrary governmentpage vii8 The issues: II. Church and Dissent 126Before the Restoration 126The Restoration settlement 132Church and people 135The nature of Dissent: Presbyterians 141The nature of Dissent: Independents, Baptists and Quakers 144Persecution 1479 The frustrations of the Cavaliers, 1660-64 161The liquidation of the past 161The resentments of the Cavaliers 164The machinery of coercion 169The Corporation Act 171The church settlement 174The Cavaliers' revenge? 18110 Politics in flux, 1664-73 195The second Dutch war and its aftermath 195The Cabal 198Church and Dissent 20211 The rebirth of party, 1673-78 217Danby and the direction of policy 217Danby and the patronage system 222Partisan divisions: Parliament 226Partisan divisions: the localities 227The politicization of the legal system 23512 'Guelphs and Ghibellines', 1679-81 245A county divided 245The political issues: an exclusion crisis? 249Church and Dissent 254The process of political division 256Elections 257Petitions and addresses 261The law 26313 The triumph of the Tories, 1681-85 272Tory and Whig 272Royal policy 277Church and Dissent 279The law 283The towns 285The general election of 1685 288Abbreviations 296Select bibliography 301Glossary 307Index