First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, John Morrill's Very Short Introduction to Stuart Britain sets the Revolution into its political, religious, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural contexts. It thus seeks to integrate what most other surveys pull apart. It gives a graphic account of the effects of a century-long period during which population was growing inexorably and faster than both the food supply and the employment market. It looks at the failed attempts of successive governments to make all those under their authority obedient members of a unified national church; it looks at how Charles I blundered into a civil war which then took on a terrifying momentum of its own. The result was his trial and execution, the abolition of the monarchy, the house of lords, the bishops, the prayer book and the celebration of Christmas. As a result everything else that people took for granted came up for challenge, and this book shows how painfully and with what difficulty order and obedience was restored. Vividly illustrated and full of startling detail, this is an ideal introduction to those interested in getting into the period, and also contains much to challenge and stimulate those who already feel at home in Stuart England. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector (1653-8) is frequently described as 'king in all but name' without explaining exactly what this means. This book aims to correct the omission by demonstrating precisely in what way Cromwell's rule was a monarchical regime in the generally accepted sense of the term. The author challenges many widely held views about Cromwell, resulting in a portrayal of the man and his regime which is far removed from the stereotypical image of the Protector.

Christopher Durston's full-scale study ambitiously documents the history behind what remains today, a powerful symbol of military rule. He explores the motivations behind the decisions to appoint the major-generals, looking at their careers and personalities. Durston pays particular attention to the collection of the decimation tax, the attempt to improve the security of the regime, and the struggle to build a godly nation. He concludes with an investigation of the 1656 election and the major-generals' subsequent fall from power.

The Cromwellian Protectorate was a period of innovation in poetry and drama, as well as constitutional debate. This new account of the period focuses on key cultural institutions - Parliament, an embassy to Sweden, Oxford University, Cromwell's state funeral - to examine this poetry's relationship with a culture in transformation and crisis. Edward Holberton shows that the Protectorate's instabilities helped to generate lively and innovative poetry. Protectorate verse explores the fault-lines of a culture which ceaselessly contested the authority of its own institutions, including the office of Protector itself. Poetry by Andrew Marvell, Edmund Waller, William Davenant, and John Dryden, contributed to a vibrant poetic culture which embraced diverse forms and occasions: masques for the weddings of Cromwell's daughters, diplomatic poems to Queen Christina of Sweden, naval victories, civic pageants, and university anthologies in celebration of a peace treaty. Many of these texts prove difficult to align with established ideas of the political and cultural contests of the age, because they become entangled with cultural institutions which could no longer be taken for granted, and were in many cases transforming rapidly, with far-reaching historical consequences. Poetry and the Cromwellian Protectorate asks how poetry confronted questions that were complicated by institutional practices, how poets tried to square their wider cultural sympathies with their interests in a particular parliamentary or university crisis, and how changes in institutions afforded poets critical insights into their society's problems and its place in the world. The readings of this book challenge previous representations of Protectorate culture as a phase of conservative backsliding, or pragmatic compromise, under a quasi-monarchical order. Protectorate verse emerges as nuanced and vital writing, which looks beyond the personality of Oliver Cromwell to the tensions that shaped his power. Poetry and the Cromwellian Protectorate argues that it is precisely through being contingent and compromised that these poems achieve their vitality, and become so revealing.

The Cromwellian Protectorate examines the nature of the first regime ever to have had effective control of the British Isles and the impact that it had on England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and on Britain’s international reputation. Few previous studies of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and his son, Richard, have given sufficient emphasis to its achievements. Instead they have characterized it either as "a military dictatorship" or a reactionary regime that after the revolutionary events of 1649 put Britain on a road that led inevitably to the restoration of the monarchy. This book presents an alternative view of the Cromwellian Protectorate.

The classic, bestselling biography of one of the most controversial figures in British history from 'One of the finest historians of the age' The Times Literary Supplement From Fenland farmer and humble backbencher to stalwart of the good old cause and the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell became the key figure of the Commonwealth, and ultimately Lord Protector. In this fascinating and insightful biography, Christopher Hill reveals Cromwell's life from his beginnings in Huntingdonshire to his brutal end. Hill brings all his considerable knowledge of the period to bear on the relationships God's Englishman had with God and England, giving an unprecedented insight vital to understanding Cromwell.