The Political World of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 1621-1641

by J. F. Merritt

Overview

These essays reexamine the early Stuart period from a fresh vantage point: the career of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford. Wentworth played a crucial role in virtually every disputed policy of the 1620s and 1630s, and his career encapsulates many of the paradoxes and tensions in Stuart politics. The Political World of Thomas Wentworth boasts a series of major articles exploring the political world under Charles I through Wentworth's career, and challenging some of the categories and presuppositions that characterize recent work on this period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521560412
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/07/1996
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: the historical reputation of Thomas Wentworth J. F. Merritt; 1. Phaeton's Chariot: the parliament-men and the Continental Crisis in 1621 Thomas Cogswell; 2. Sir Thomas Wentworth and anti-Spanish sentiment, 1621–4 Conrad Russell; 3. Wentworth's 'change of sides' in the 1620s Richard Cust; 4. The church triumphant? The emergence of a spiritual Lord Treasurer, 1635–6 Brian Quintrell; 5. Power and communication: Thomas Wentworth and government at a distance during the Personal Rule, 1629–35 J. F. Merritt; 6. Thomas Wentworth and the political thought of the Personal Rule Anthony Milton; 7. The attempted anglicisation of Ireland in the seventeenth century: an exemplar of 'British history' Nicholas Canny; 8. 'God Bless Your Free Church of Ireland': Wentworth, Laud, Bramhall and the Irish Convocation of 1634 John McCafferty; 9. Strafford, the 'Londonderry Business' and the 'new British history' Jane H. Ohlmeyer; 10. The public context of the trial and execution of Strafford Terence Kilburn and Anthony Milton; 11. Retrospective: Wentworth's political world in revisionist and post-revisionist perspective Peter Lake.

Editorial Reviews

"...the collection of essays in The Political World of Thomas Wentworth definitely makes a significant contribution toward a better understanding of the man and his age....Peter Lake's impressive and masterful overview of the historiography of seventeenth-century British history from the end of World War II to the present...is a must-read for all scholars of seventeenth-century British history." Ronald H. Fritze, The Sixteenth Century Journal

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