Politics and the Nation: Obedience, Resistance and Public Order (Fontana History of England S.) - Softcover

This book is an exploration of the pivotal role of the monarchy in the affairs of society and State in England from the middle of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th. The main theme of the book is that there was an implied compact between the crown and the aristocracy which broke down in the 15th century when the king failed in his public obligations. It claims that the Tudors restored and renovated that relationship and that the early Stuarts by contrast withdrew within the increasingly narrow context of the royal court until Charles I gave the opposition no alternative but revolution and war.

An understanding of the changing role of the English monarchy is of vital importance in explaining the history of the years 1450 to 1660:

"The dominant theme of this book is that there was an implied compact between the crown and the aristocracy which broke down in the second half of the fifteenth century when the king failed in his public obligations... The Tudors, with the exception of Edward VI and Mary, restored and renovated that relationship with an aristocracy which itself had changed in composition and had found in Parliament an instrument for co-operation and communication with the crown... the early Stuarts by contrast withdrew within the increasingly narrow context of the royal court until Charles I, cut off as he was from the 'political nation', gave the opposition no alternative but revolution and war. So brief a summary cannot do justice to this subtle and persuasive narrative, lucidly and judiciously presented... The work is a continuously interesting narrative of two centuries in transition."
JOEL HURSTFIELD, 'The Times'.

Professor Loades has assimilated all significant recent scholarship, in this the thoroughly revised Fourth Edition of his classic introduction to the period.