Stephen C Taylor & Grant Tapsell 
The Nature of the English Revolution Revisited 
Essays in Honour of John Morrill

New insights into the nature of the seventeenth-century English revolution – one of the most contested issues in early modern British history.


The nature of the seventeenth-century English revolution remains one of the most contested of all historical issues. Scholars are unable to agree on what caused it, when precisely it happened, how significant it was in terms of political, social, economic, and intellectual impact, or even whether it merits being described as a ‘revolution’ at all. Over the past twenty years these debates have become more complex, but also richer. This volume brings together new essays by a group of leading scholars of the revolutionary period and will provide readers with a provocative and stimulating introduction to current research. All the essays engage with one or more of three themes which lieat the heart of recent debate: the importance of the connection between individuals and ideas; the power and influence of religious ideas; and the most appropriate chronological context for discussion of the revolution.


STEPHEN TAYLOR is Professor in the History of Early Modern England at the University of Durham.


GRANT TAPSELL is Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor at Lady Margaret Hall.


Contributors: Philip Baker, J. C. Davis, Kenneth Fincham, Rachel Foxley, Tim Harris, Ethan H. Shagan, John Spurr, Grant Tapsell, Stephen Taylor, Tim Wales, John Walter, Blair Worden

Table of Content

Charles I and Public Opinion on the Eve of the English Civil War – Tim Harris

Rethinking Moderation in the English Revolution: The Case of
n Apologeticall Narration – Ethan H. Shagan

The Parish and the Poor in the English Revolution – Tim Wales

Body Politics in the English Revolution – John D. Walter

The Franchise Debate Revisited: The Levellers and the Army – Philip Baker

Oliver Cromwell and the Instrument of Government – Blair Worden

‘de te Fabula narratur’: the Narrative Constitutionalism of James Harrington’s
Oceana – J.C. Davis

Democracy in 1659: Harrington and the Good Old Cause – Rachel Foxley

Ordination, Re-ordination, Conformity and the Restoration of the Church of England, 1660-1662 – Stephen Taylor

Ordination, Re-ordination, Conformity and the Restoration of the Church of England, 1660-1662 – Kenneth Fincham

Style, Wit and Religion in Restoration England – John Spurr

A British Patriarchy? Ecclesiastical Imperialism under the Later Stuart – Grant Tapsell