This is a collection of essays about major aspects of the "English Revolution" of the mid-seventeenth century. It examines how it was fought (soldiers), how it was defended and argued over (writers), and how it was shaped and how it failed (statesmen). The essays are written by both established and younger scholars of the period in honor of Austyn Woolrych, founding Professor of History at the University of Lancaster and the author of many influential books and articles.
Frontispiece; Preface John Morrill; Austin Woolrych: an appreciation Lesley le Claire; 1. Secret alliance and Protestant agitation in two kingdoms: the early Caroline background to the Irish rebellion of 1641 John Reeve; 2. Of armies and architecture: the employments of Robert Scawen John Adamson; 3. George Digby, Royalist intrigue and the collapse of the cause Ian Roy; 4. The iconography of revolution: England 1642–9 Ian Gentles; 5. The casualties of war: treatment of the dead and wounded in the English Civil War Barbara Donagan; 6. 'A bastard kind of militia', localism, and tactics in the second civil war Sarah Barber; 7. Cromwell's commissioners for preserving the peace of the Commonwealth: a Staffordshire case study John Sutton; 8. Colonel Gervase Benson, Captain John Archer and the corporation of Kendal, c.1644–55 C. B. Phillips; 9. Repacifying the polity: the responses of Hobbes and Harrington to the 'crisis of the common law' Glenn Burgess; 10. Equality in an unequal commonwealth: James Harrington's republicanism and the meaning of equality J. C. Davis; 11 John Milton and Oliver Cromwell Blair Worden; 12. From pillar to post: Milton and the attack on republican humanism at the Restoration Nicholas von Maltzahn; 13. 'They that pursew perfaction on earth …': the political progress of Robert Overton Barbara Taft; 14. Locke no Leveller G. E. Aylmer; A bibliography of the writings of Austin Woolrych, 1955–95 Sara Coombs; Index.
"The book is a highly valuable resource to which researchers at many levels will turn for new and exciting insights....a pleasure to read and enjoy." Albion
"This book is valuable in many spheres of study...The book is a highly valuable resource to which researchers at many levels will turn for new and exciting insights. While there is a great sense of the care to provide well-researched articles, there is more; the authors were clearly happy to acknowledge their debt to their mentor and this makes this book, above all else a pleasure to read and enjoy." Martyn Bennett, Albion