Chapter I: Preface

The aim in writing this short history has been to give within a moderate compass a lively idea of the feelings and motives at work in what was perhaps the most important epoch of our national history. With this aim it seemed best to treat the main events with all that fulness of detail, which assists the imagination in realizing the past, and to omit such minor actions as seemed not essential to the understanding of the main facts. The same rule has been followed in dealing with the military history. For this, personal visits have been made to the battle-fields, and some rough sketches of the ground have been added. No constitutional question has been touched without a preliminary attempt to put the growth and forms of the Constitution before the reader in such a manner as to encourage him to form a judgment for himself.

In a joint work it is difficult to define exactly the part taken by each writer, but my own share in the book may be described rather as that of editor than author; it has, in fact, been mainly confined to matters of style and arrangement, with criticisms on events and on constitutional questions. My coadjutor, who kindly undertook the subject at my suggestion, wrote the first draft of the whole book, and is not only responsible for the accuracy of the facts, but deserves all the credit of research into original documents at the British Museum and Bodleian libraries.

While for facts our endeavour has always been to go to contemporary records, yet it is impossible that any one can write on this period without feeling more obligation to the labours of Mr. Forster than can be adequately expressed in foot-notes. Acknowledgement is also due for many suggestive ideas not only to Hallam and other writers on the time, but to Mr. Freeman for the light he has thrown on the early history of the English constitution, and to Mr. Bagehot for his vivid description of its practical working at the present time.

I cannot conclude without expressing our thanks to Mr. R. W. Taylor for some corrections in the proof, to the Rev. C. E. Moberly for revising the earlier chapters, and above all to the Bishop of Exeter, whose occasional hints have given the kind of help that can only be given by one who has not only an accurate knowledge of the facts, but a thorough grasp of the constitutional questions at issue.

J. SURTEES PHILLPOTTS.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. CONSTITUTIONAL INTRODUCTION.--GOVERNMENTS
OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. 1

II. CHARLES’ FIRST PARLIAMENTS.--IMPEACHMENT OF
BUCKINGHAM.--PETITION OF RIGHT (1625-1629) 29

III. ELEVEN YEARS OF ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT (1629-1640) 51

IV. MEETING OF LONG PARLIAMENT AND TRIAL OF
STRAFFORD (1640-1641) 82

V. GRAND REMONSTRANCE.--IMPEACHMENT OF FIVE
MEMBERS (1641-1642) 99

VI. FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR.--BATTLES OF EDGEHILL
AND NEWBURY (1642-1643) 123

VII. RISE OF INDEPENDENTS.--BATTLE OF MARSTON
MOOR.--SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE (1643-1645) 148

VIII. NASEBY.--END OF WAR (1645-1646) 179

IX. PRESBYTERIANS, INDEPENDENTS, ERASTIANS, AND
THEIR THEORIES 199

X. TRIUMPH OF THE ARMY OVER PARLIAMENT.--DEATH
OF THE KING (1647-1649) 212

XI. SOCIAL STATE OF ENGLAND 248

XII. TRIUMPHS OF THE COMMONWEALTH BY LAND AND
SEA (1649-1652) 277

XIII. FALL OF REPUBLICANS, AND BAREBONE’S PARLIAMENT
(1651-1653) 303

XIV. THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE
(1654-1656) 328

XV. THE LAST TWO YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE
(1656-1658) 347

XVI. RICHARD CROMWELL.--ANARCHY.--THE RESTORATION
(1658-1660) 367