This study of seventeenth-century monarchy suggests that the arguments which were used to attack the potentially absolutist monarchy of Charles I were not all that different from those used against the constitutional monarchy of today. The seventeenth-century arguments were based on the fiction that the person who fulfilled the office could be distinguished from the office itself. Personal morality and behaviour were vital factors in assessing the value of government. From 1646 onwards there developed two parallel strands of thought. Those who believed in government by laws developed a republican response to the crisis of the 1640s. Those who believed that people made laws attacked Charles I rather than the monarchy itself, supported the regicide and subsequently approved of the rule of Cromwell.

This lively and accessible book reappraises the often complex relationship between British monarchs and some of their more troublesome subjects in the 'age of revolutions'. By exposing a rationale behind the efforts of the mad and the politically disaffected to intrude upon, assault or pester kings and queens from George III to Victoria, the author casts new light upon the contested languages of constitutionalism, contract theory and the rights of petition. The Hanoverian dynasty sought security from republicanism during the 1790s by reinventing itself as an affable, domestic, flexible and solicitous institution. But majesty and approachability were to prove uneasy bedfellows, and popular frustrations over unanswered petitions could provoke serious personal moments of crisis. In its detailed reconstruction of the mentalities of such unsuccessful and forgotten Royal 'assassins' as Margaret Nicholson, James Hadfield and Dennis Collins, this unique and pioneering study of monarchical history from below will interest the specialist and general reader alike, and provoke fresh controversy over the viability of monarchies in the modern world.

An engaging range of period texts and theme books for AS and A Level history. The period from 1603 to 1660 is characterised by complex religious and political developments, and dramatic events such as the execution of Charles I, civil war and the introduction of a republican form of government. In this clearly argued account, Graham E. Seel identifies the main political, religious and economic factors that help explain the events of this turbulent period, and assesses the role of leading personalities such as James VI and I, Charles I, Buckingham and Cromwell. Regicide and republic includes the additional document study The Civil War, 1637-49.

Maintaining that the trial and public execution of Louis XVI was an absolutely essential part of the French Revolution, Walzer discusses two types of regicide: the first, committed by would-be kings or their agents, left the monarchy's mystique and divine right intact, while the second was a revolutionary act intended to destroy it completely. Walzer defends the trial and execution of Louis XVI as necessary, since it not only tried to destroy the monarchy's mystique and divine right, but also required the deputies to fully explain their guiding philosophies and applied the rules of judicial process to establish equality before the law. New to this edition is an appendix containing "Revolutionary Justice," Ferenc Feher's classic rebuttal to Walzer's thesis, and Walzer's response, "The King's Trial and the Political Culture of the Revolution."

Gale Researcher Guide for: Classical Republicanism is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.

"The book argues that Toland shaped the republican tradition after the Glorious Revolution into a practical and politically viable programme, focused not on destroying the monarchy, but on reforming public religion and the Church of England. The book also examines how Toland used his social intimacy with a wide circle of men and women (ranging from Prince Eugene of Savoy to Robert Harley) to distribute his ideas in private. It also explores the connections between Toland's erudition and print culture, arguing that his intellectual project was aimed at compromising the authority of Christian knowledge as much as the political power of the Church."--Jacket.