Description
One of the most renowned historians of the English Civil War has written a crisp and lucid narrative of the complicated events of 1640 to 1660—not just the war between King and Parliament of 1642-46 but the second civil war, the execution of King Charles I, the rule of Cromwell, and finally the restoration of the monarchy. Blair Worden gets behind the preoccupations of later generations and explains what contemporaries on both sides thought they were fighting for and against.
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A brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian.The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule.In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.
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