Commonwealth principles

Jonathan Scott0521843758, 9780521843751, 9780511265716, 0521035732, 9780521035736

Examining works which supported the abolition of monarchy and its replacement with a republic, Jonathan Scott ventures beyond existing studies of individual authors or specific themes to offer the first general account of an influential body of writing. Poets such as John Milton as well as journalists, political leaders, theorists and whig martyrs were among those contributing to the cultural ferment. The result is a major contribution to our understanding of seventeenth-century England, from one of its foremost historians.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Preface……Page 11
Historiography……Page 15
Long-term contexts: intellectual and practical……Page 19
Intellectual content: ends and means……Page 22
Ideas and events: the impact of the republican experiment in practice……Page 26
Part I Contexts……Page 31
‘Classical republicanism’……Page 33
Commonwealth principles……Page 48
Conclusion……Page 53
Introduction……Page 55
Christian humanism……Page 58
Anti-popery, anti-clericalism, liberty of conscience……Page 63
Reformation of manners……Page 68
Theology……Page 72
Enlightenment……Page 75
The english commonwealth……Page 77
The military-fiscal state……Page 79
The social state……Page 85
Discourses of a commonwealth……Page 89
Introduction: the question of modernity……Page 99
The context of time……Page 100
Political economy……Page 107
The context of space……Page 112
Part II Analysis……Page 121
Introduction: the law of war……Page 123
Milton and nedham……Page 127
Streater and sexby……Page 130
Harrington and neville……Page 132
Restoration, 1660–1680……Page 134
Sidney’s discourses……Page 138
Introduction: the empire of laws and not of men……Page 145
Popular unicameralism, 1623–1654……Page 149
The mixed constitution, 1653–1658……Page 153
The mariners and the ship, 1659–1660……Page 157
Restoration……Page 161
Introduction……Page 165
Milton……Page 167
Nedham……Page 170
Streater and vane……Page 172
Harrington……Page 176
Sidney……Page 180
Milton and plato……Page 184
Nedham and machiavelli……Page 191
Streater and aristotle……Page 192
Harrington……Page 195
‘Cleave, saw and cut:’ sidney, vane and the rhetoric of puritan magistracy……Page 198
The politics of the ancient constitution……Page 205
The politics of change……Page 215
Introduction……Page 224
Milton and the empire of the self……Page 228
Nedham, streater, harrington……Page 234
Sidney and neville……Page 238
Part III Chronology……Page 245
1603–1641: commonwealth principles and practice……Page 247
‘Two and fifty degrees of northern latitude’……Page 251
Tribune of the plebs……Page 255
The political theory of the english revolution……Page 261
‘A new order in the state’?……Page 266
The struggle for survival, 1649–1651……Page 270
A republic for expansion, 1651–1653……Page 276
Dissolution……Page 282
Republican compliment……Page 287
Republican criticism……Page 292
Harrington’s ‘model’ for healing and settling……Page 298
The republican moment, 1659–1660……Page 308
The fall of the protectorate, september 1658–april 1659……Page 310
Restoration of the rump, may–september 1659……Page 316
‘Anarchy’, october 1659–april 1660……Page 323
Introduction……Page 329
Analyses of failure……Page 332
Anatomies of tyranny……Page 339
The question of parliaments, 1681–1683……Page 350
A monarchical republic?……Page 356
Conclusion: the anglo-dutch achievement……Page 367
Appendix: ‘a pretty story of horses’ (May 1654)……Page 372
1. MANUSCRIPTS……Page 375
2. PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES……Page 376
3. SECONDARY SOURCES……Page 386
Index……Page 401