Culture And Politics At The Court Of Charles Ii 1660 1685

The reconstitution of the royal court in 1660 brought with it the restoration of fears that had been associated with earlier Stuart courts: disorder, sexual liberty, popery and arbitrary government. This volume illustrates the ways in which court culture was informed by the heady politics of Britain between 1660 and 1685.

This volume brings together ten distinguished scholars of history, literature, music, theatre, and art to explore the political and cultural implications of the court's transgressive new character.

The late seventeenth century was a period of extraordinary turbulence and political violence in Britain, the like of which has never been seen since. Beginning with the Restoration of the monarchy after the Civil War, this book traces the fate of the monarchy from Charles II's triumphant accession in 1660 to the growing discontent of the 1680s. Harris looks beyond the popular image of Restoration England revelling in its freedom from the austerity of Puritan rule under a merry monarch and reconstructs the human tragedy of Restoration politics where people were brutalised, hounded and exploited by a regime that was desperately insecure after two decade of civil war and republican rule.

This indispensable introductory guide offers students a number of highly focused chapters on key themes in Restoration history. Each addresses a core question relating to the period 1660-1714, and uses artistic and literary sources – as well as more traditional texts of political history – to illustrate and illuminate arguments. George Southcombe and Grant Tapsell provide clear analyses of different aspects of the era whilst maintaining an overall coherence based on three central propositions: - 1660-1714 represents a political world fundamentally influenced by the civil wars and interregnum - The period can best be understood by linking together types of evidence too often separated in conventional accounts - The high politics of kings and their courts should be examined within broader social and geographical contexts Featuring chapters on the exclusion crisis, Charles II and James VII/II, as well as the British dimension, restoration culture, and politics out-of-doors, this is essential reading for anyone studying this fascinating period in British history.

Charles II was restored to the rule of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660, less than twelve years after the execution of his father, Charles I, and the ensuing republican experiment in government. Popular at first, the Restoration nevertheless failed to provide lasting settlement in any of the British kingdoms. Restoration and Revolution in Britain examines the political history of these kingdoms, from the Interregnum through Britain's eighteenth-century rise to power. Written especially for students approaching the Restoration for the first time, this essential introduction: - Assesses the reasons for the failure of settlement in the reigns of Charles and of his brother, James II - Integrates the histories of Charles's different realms - Examines the many connections between politics and Protestant religious disagreements - Provides helpful historical context for understanding a range of contemporary authors such as Bunyan, Locke and Milton - Concludes with an examination of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 and explains why settlement was finally achieved through revolution rather than through restoration

This book provides a fresh synthesis of relationships between cultural history and politics, from the eve of the Armada to the death of Charles II in 1685. It rejects whiggish and Marxist teleologies that have shaped previous accounts of this subject and emphasises instead the diversity of cultural perspectives available in the period; the role played by concepts of honour, law, divine providence and humanist scholarship; the profound importance of religious tensions in shaping political imagination; and the growing cultural importance of conflict and partisanship during and after the Civil War.