Restoration Historians And The English Civil War

This is a study of the histories of the English Civil War or some aspects of it written in England or by Englishmen and Englishwomen or publish ed in England up to 1702, the year of the publication of the first volume of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. By the terms of this definition, Clarendon is himself, of course, one of the historians studied. Clarendon's History is so formidable an achievement that all historians writing about the war before its publication have an air of prematureness. Nevertheless, as I hope the following pages will show, they produced a body of writing which may still be read with interest and profit and which anticipated many of the ideas and attitudes of Clarendon's History. I will even go so far as to say that many readers who have only a limited interest or no in terest in the Civil War are likely to find many of these historians interest ing, should their works come to their attention, for their treatment of the problems of man in society, for their psychological acuteness, and for their style. But while I intend to show their merits, my main concern will be to show how the Civil War appeared to historians, including Clarendon, who wrote within one or two generations after it, that is to say, at a time when it remained part of the experience of people still alive. A word is necessary on terminology.

Drawing upon the interdisciplinary field of social memory studies, this book opens up new vistas on the historical and political culture of early modern England. This book examines the conflicting ways in which the civil wars and Interregnum were remembered, constructed and represented in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. It argues that during the late Stuart period, public remembering of the English civil wars and Interregnum was not concerned with re-fighting the old struggle but rather with commending and justifying, or contesting and attacking, the Restoration settlements. After the return of King Charles II the political nation had to address the question of remembering and forgetting the recent conflict. The answer was to construct a polity grounded on remembering and scapegoating puritan politics and piety. The proscription of the puritan impulse enacted by the Restoration settlements was supported by a public memory of the 1640s and 1650s which was used to show that Dissenters could not, and should not, be trusted with power. Drawing upon the interdisciplinary field of social memory studies, this book offers a new perspective on the historical and political cultures of early modern England, and will be of significant interest to social, cultural and political historians aswell as scholars working in memory studies. Matthew Neufeld is Lecturer in early modern British history at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Ohlmeyer (history, Aberdeen U.) sets out to discover whether Irish statesman MacDonnell (1609-83) deserved, indeed deserves, the dismal reputation he acquired among his contemporaries and has steadfastly maintained amongst historians every since. She traces his career chronologically from his 1635 m

The English Civil Wars explores the period of turmoil in British history from 1637 and the latter part of the reign of Charles I, to the restoration with Charles II in 1660. The religious and political crises surrounding the Civil Wars, and the key personalities of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell are discussed in detail. The book combines narrative, interpretations, source material, questions and worked answers.

A brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian. The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule. In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.

This cultural history challenges the standard depiction of the 1660s as the beginning of a new age of stability, demonstrating that the decade following the Restoration was just as complex and exciting as the revolutionary years that preceded it.