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Reimagining Constancy in the English Civil Wars exposes writers' reliance on conservative language during one of the most radical periods of English history. In case studies of both familiar genres (country house poem, love lyric, epic) and understudied ones (emblem book, prose romance), it shows how the conservative language of "constancy" was used to justify opposing positions in the period's most pressing controversies, including monarchical rule, ecclesiastical order, Catholicism, and England's relationship to the wider world. At the same time, writers like John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Hester Pulter, Percy Herbert, and others establish the virtue's importance to literary tradition, as they use "constancy" to retain, yet reimagine inherited formal structures and strategies. This book thus uses women's writing and non-canonical texts to highlight cross-factional conservatism and international investment in what scholars often describe as the "English Revolution".
[headline]Exposes writers' reliance on conservative language during one of the most radical periods of English history Using case studies of both familiar genres (country house poem, love lyric, epic) and understudied ones (emblem book, prose romance), Rachel Dunn Zhang demonstrates how the conservative language of 'constancy' underpinned the most pressing controversies of the English civil wars. Examining the work of John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Hester Pulter, Percy Herbert and others, Zhang exposes how writers invoked constancy to justify opposing positions in mid-seventeenth century debates over monarchical rule, ecclesiastical order, Catholicism and England's relationship to the wider world, even as they established the virtue's importance to literary tradition. Constancy was the means by which writers retained and reimagined inherited formal structures and strategies, complicating characterisations of the period as one of generic failure and fragmentation. In this important work, Zhang draws on underrepresented female and non-canonical voices to highlight cross-factional conservatism and international investment in what scholars often describe as the 'English Revolution'. [bio]Rachel Dunn Zhang is a scholar of early modern literature residing in the New York City area who has taught at Columbia University, Rutgers University, City College of New York and Touro College's Lander College for Women. Her work has been published in numerous scholarly journals, including Milton Studies, Ben Jonson Journal, Studies in Philology, Early Modern Women, The Seventeenth Century and Notes and Queries. An authority on Hester Pulter, Zhang is also a contributing editor for The Pulter Project.
The origins, nature and consequence of the English Civil War are subjects of continuing historical controversy. The English Civil War and Revolution is a wide ranging, accessible sourcebook covering the principal aspects of the mid-seventeenth century crisis. It presents a comprehensive guide to the historiographical debates involved. Drawing on a variety of source material such as official records, private correspondence, diaries, minutes of debates and petitions, this text provides: * contextual introductions to documents * a comprehensive glossary of seventeenth century terms * a chronology of events for reference * illustrations, including contemporary woodcuts. While familiarising students with some of the main sources drawn upon by historians working in the field, The English Civil War and Revolution contains many extracts from unpublished, manuscript sources. By taking sources from all levels of society and grouping them thematically, this book offers a number of viewpoints on the civil war and revolution, thus aiding understanding of this complex period.
Brereton's journal is a book made up of letters from the English Civil War (1642-1646). A Parliamentary general, Sir William was engaged in the siege of Dudley Castle, Bridgnorth Castle and the fortifield cathedral close at Lichfield. The Letter Book contains copies of letters sent and received by Brereton. There are details of his victory against the last Royalist army in the field, his various sieges, his constant need for money and more troops, and the movements of King Charles I prior to his surrender to the Scots. The Introduction details a history of the civil war, of the battles and skirmishes, up to the writing of the Letter Book. A conclusion relates what happened after: the end of the war, the trial and execution of Charles I, the Interregnum and finally the Restoration and Brereton's retirement from public life.
Historical parallels are pitfalls for the politician, because history never really repeats itself. One event may resemble another event, one situation another, although there is an interval of scores of years, or perhaps centuries, between them. Yet the conditions under which those events happened can never be the same, since change of place and progress of time forbid it. If we search a little we shall find that the superficial resemblances conceal fundamental differences, just as, when we look beneath the surface of things, we shall often perceive a real likeness where at first sight only the dissimilarity struck the eye. Suppose then that we take events which possess some general resemblance, and examine into the reasons why they resemble each other, and the extent to which they differ, and consider why they differ. Such a comparison is often profitable for the historian. It helps him to understand the real character of both events better; it brings out the special characteristics of each, the essential qualities which distinguish those particular events from each other, and from others of the same kind. It is for this reason that I have chosen an historical parallel as my subject to-day. The two events which I shall try to compare or contrast have a special interest for me one is the first political event in which I was interested as a boy, the other has been the study of my manhood. Their comparison has often been suggested by American writers. Mr J. F. Rhodes, for instance, in his History of the American Civil War, says, "The most interesting and instructive parallel to this period of our history is the great Civil War in England." The parallel was often suggested while the American Civil War was in progress: it occurred to some of the actors themselves. Once President Lincoln was pressed to offer terms to the South, and said that he could not treat with parties in arms against the government. The Confederate emissary argued that it had been often done, "especially by Charles I when at war with the British Parliament." Lincoln nimbly avoided the pitfall. "I do not profess," said he, "to be posted in history. On all such matters I will turn you over to Seward. All I distinctly recollect about Charles I is that he lost his head hi the end." It is natural that there should be many points of similarity. Take two races of the same stock, both trained by free institutions and both nurtured by the same creeds, heat them in the fire of political passions, subject them to the strain and pressure of civil war, and we should expect results of much the same kind to follow.
The sequence of civil wars that ripped England apart in the seventeenth century was the single most traumatic event in this country between the medieval Black Death and the two world wars. Indeed, it is likely that a greater percentage of the population were killed in the civil wars than in the First World War. This sense of overwhelming trauma gives this major new history its title: God’s Fury, England’s Fire. The name of a pamphlet written after the king’s surrender, it sums up the widespread feeling within England that the seemingly endless nightmare that had destroyed families, towns and livelihoods was ordained by a vengeful God – that the people of England had sinned and were now being punished. As with all civil wars, however, ‘God’s fury’ could support or destroy either side in the conflict. Was God angry at Charles I for failing to support the true, protestant, religion and refusing to work with Parliament? Or was God angry with those who had dared challenge His anointed Sovereign? Michael Braddick’s remarkable book gives the reader a vivid and enduring sense both of what it was like to live through events of uncontrollable violence and what really animated the different sides. The killing of Charles I and the declaration of a republic – events which even now seem in an English context utterly astounding – were by no means the only outcomes, and Braddick brilliantly describes the twists and turns that led to the most radical solutions of all to the country’s political implosion. He also describes very effectively the influence of events in Scotland, Ireland and the European mainland on the conflict in England. God’s Fury, England’s Fire allows readers to understand once more the events that have so fundamentally marked this country and which still resonate centuries after their bloody ending.