This illuminating collection of essays assesses the seventeenth century, interpreting what used to be called 'The Puritan Revolution', the ideas which helped to produce it and resulted from it, and the relation between these ideas and the political and economic events of the day. Each essay approaches the subject from a different angle, looking at aspects of the revolution - whether religious, constitutional, economic or biographical - in conjunction with a lively sympathy for the men who lived in that revolutionary time. Analysing the writings of Marvell, Hobbes, Harrington and Samuel Richardson, as well as less 'respectable' writers, Professor Hill examines the legacy of the Reformation and the inspiration provided by ideals like the Brotherhood of Man and the desire to re-create a pre-Norman Golden Age. A book that no serious student of our history should miss; it is a treasury of interesting detail and strong ideas, CV Wedgwood.

This illuminating collection of essays assesses the 17th century, interpreting what used to be called "The Puritan Revolution," the ideas which helped to produce it and resulted from it, and the relations between these ideas and the political events of the day.

Reflections on the Puritan Revolution (1986) examines the damage done by the Puritans during the English Civil War, and the enormous artistic losses England suffered from their activities. The Puritans smashed stained glass, monuments, sculpture, brasses in cathedrals and churches; they destroyed organs, dispersed the choirs and the music. They sold the King’s art collections, pictures, statues, plate, gems and jewels abroad, and broke up the Coronation regalia. They closed down the theatres and ended Caroline poetry. The greatest composer and most promising scientist of the age were among the many lives lost; and this all besides the ruin of palaces, castles and mansions.

`A major contribution to our understanding of the English Revolution.' Ann Hughes, Professor of Early Modern History, Keele University.

Originally published in 1968, the documents collected in this volume (all re-set for ease of reading), trace the history of the Puritan Revolution from its roots in the early seventeenth century to the Restoration. They show how the causes and the course of the upheaval were reflected immediately and polemically in the torrent of books, tracts and pamphlets, letters, speeches, sermons, petitions, paper constitutions and government instruments that accompanied and often precipitated events. The documents substantiate the conviction of many scholars that the English Revolution represented a shaking of society comparable to the French and Russian revolutions. The Introduction discusses the work of historians of modern-day historians of the period and contributes to the debate about the underlying causes of the crisis.

Leveller Manifestoes (1944) is a collection of primary manifestoes issued by the Levellers, the group which played an active and influential role in the English revolution of 1642–49. This book collects together rare pamphlets and tracts that are seldom available, and certainly not in one place for ease of research.

The royalists of the puritan revolution. although amply noticed in martyrologies and other forms of contemporary writing. have since been largely neglected. and no comprehensive modem account has previously been published. The late Sir Charles Firth's paper. "The Royalists under the Protectorate. " 1 was originally intended as a lecture. was necessarily rather brief. and covers only part of the period examined in this study. However. I am under heavy obligations to it as will appear. Dr. Keith Feiling's study of the Tory party. while touching upon the civil war years. is naturally primarily concerned with the period after 1660. 2 A need exists. therefore. for a fresh examination of the history of the royalists. based not only on their own accounts of their hardships. but on other material as well. Such an inquiry should elucidate the development of the royalists as a party and the history of the various revolutionary governments of the times. It should furnish as well an essential introduction to the history of the restoration settlement and to the later history of parties. To supply such an investigation is the purpose of this study. Emphasis throughout has been on the economic and social conditions of the royalists. as the story of their military contributions to the king and of their plots against the revolution ary governments has been adequately treated in the standard historical accounts. No attempt has been made to discuss the royalists' place in the intellectual history of the age.