State Formation in Early Modern England, C. 1550-1700

by Braddick, Michael J.

• ISBN13: 9780511031199
• ISBN10: 051103119X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-12-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book examines the development of the English state during the long seventeenth century, emphasising the impersonal forces which shape the uses of political power, rather than the purposeful actions of individuals or groups. It is a study of state formation rather than of state building. The author's approach does not however rule out the possibility of discerning patterns in the development of the state, and a coherent account emerges which offers some alternative answers to relatively well-established questions. In particular, it is argued that the development of the state in this period was shaped in important ways by social interests - particularly those of class, gender and age. It is also argued that this period saw significant changes in the form and functioning of the state which were, in some sense, modernising. The book therefore offers a narrative of the development of the state in the aftermath of revisionism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Abbreviations and Conventions	p. ix
General Introduction	p. 1
Introduction	p. 9
The Embodiment of the State	p. 11
The Uses of Political Power in Early Modern England	p. 47
Conclusion	p. 96
Introduction	p. 101
Social Order: Poverty, Dearth and Disease	p. 103
The Courts and Social Order	p. 136
Conclusion	p. 172
Introduction	p. 177
The State and Military Mobilisation	p. 180
The Financing of the State	p. 233
Conclusion	p. 281
Introduction	p. 287
The Claims of the Confessional State: Local Realities	p. 291
Conclusion	p. 334
Introduction	p. 337
Elite Formation and State Formation in England, Wales and Scotland	p. 340
London's Provinces: State Formation in the English-Speaking Atlantic World	p. 379
Conclusion	p. 420
Conclusion: Actions Without Design, Patterns Without Blueprints	p. 427
Index	p. 438
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