This book explores the complex events and the increasing religious and political discord that followed the coronation of James I and which culminated in the English Civil War.

A gripping new account of the reign of the early Stuarts over Scotland, Ireland, and England - and why ultimately all three kingdoms were to rise in rebellion against Stuart rule.

Early Stuart England is one of the most intensively examined periods in English history. The outwardly successful reign of Elizabeth I gives way during the period to the breakdown of consensus, civil war, and eventually to the destruction of the monarchy itself. The reasons for this are hotly disputed. The tradional explanations have been challenged by the Revisionsts, whose own work is being challenged in its turn. book, therefore, is based on primary sources. Whilst the main focus is on politics and religion, the book also points to the significane of economic, social and cultural currents in the history of the period.

This important collection of essays, based on extensive original research, presents a vigorous critique of ` revisionist' analyses of the period, and reasserts the importance of long term ideological and social developments in causing the outbreak of the civil war.