After the Civil Wars: English Politics and Government in the Reign of Charles II

by Miller; John

• ISBN13: 9780582298989
• ISBN10: 0582298989
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-11-03
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Prologue	1	(6)
Part one: The working of politics
Rulers and ruled	7	(12)
A self-governing people	7	(3)
The law	10	(9)
Centre and localities	19	(16)
Policy- and decision-making	19	(4)
Local government	23	(3)
The means of coercion	26	(9)
Favour and reward	35	(18)
The mechanisms of patronage	35	(6)
The nature of rewards	41	(12)
News	53	(19)
The demand for news	53	(2)
Print	55	(3)
Handwritten news	58	(5)
Word of mouth	63	(9)
Popular politics	72	(27)
The nature of popular politics	72	(4)
Riot	76	(7)
Elections	83	(16)
Parliament	99	(12)
Representatives and represented	99	(2)
The business of Parliament	101	(4)
King and Parliament	105	(6)
Part two: Political division and conflict
The issues: I. Popery and arbitrary government	111	(15)
The ancient constitution	111	(4)
Anti-popery	115	(3)
Popery and arbitrary government	118	(8)
The issues: II. Church and Dissent	126	(35)
Before the Restoration	126	(6)
The Restoration settlement	132	(3)
Church and people	135	(6)
The nature of Dissent: Presbyterians	141	(3)
The nature of Dissent: Independents, Baptists and Quakers	144	(3)
Persecution	147	(14)
The frustrations of the Cavaliers, 1660--64	161	(34)
The liquidation of the past	161	(3)
The resentments of the Cavaliers	164	(5)
The machinery of coercion	169	(2)
The Corporation Act	171	(3)
The church settlement	174	(7)
The Cavaliers' revenge?	181	(14)
Politics in flux, 1664--73	195	(22)
The second Dutch war and its aftermath	195	(3)
The Cabal	198	(4)
Church and Dissent	202	(15)
The rebirth of party, 1673--78	217	(28)
Danby and the direction of policy	217	(5)
Danby and the patronage system	222	(4)
Partisan divisions: Parliament	226	(1)
Partisan divisions: the localities	227	(8)
The politicization of the legal system	235	(10)
`Guelphs and Ghibellines', 1679--81	245	(27)
A county divided	245	(4)
The political issues: an exclusion crisis?	249	(5)
Church and Dissent	254	(2)
The process of political division	256	(1)
Elections	257	(4)
Petitions and addresses	261	(2)
The law	263	(9)
The triumph of the Tories, 1681--85	272	(24)
Tory and Whig	272	(5)
Royal policy	277	(2)
Church and Dissent	279	(4)
The law	283	(2)
The towns	285	(3)
The general election of 1685	288	(8)
Abbreviations	296	(5)
Select bibliography	301	(6)
Glossary	307	(5)
Index	312