Power and authority in 17th century Britain

Course code: HICL208P

Tutor: Laura Stewart

This course assesses the social and political expression of power in early modern Britain. At the apex of the fundamentally hierarchal, patriarchal social order was the monarch. Although 17th century rulers theoretically had great power, there were conflicting views on the sources of their authority. In the mid-17th century, the debate about monarchy would result in civil war, regicide and the establishment of a republic. The monarchy was restored, but its relationship with the political elite, as represented by parliament, would never be the same again. How did the changing nature of the role of parliament affect the power of the monarch? The socio-political elite were not a static entity, either. Who were the elite and how was their status reflected in both local communities and in national institutions? One of those institutions, which operated at both local and national level, was the church. Elites used the church, or their conception of it, as a means to reinforce their power and authority, but communities of believers could pose a powerful threat to the traditional social order. These themes were not unique to 17th century Britain. A core component of this course is the attempt to identify what was definitively ‘early modern', not just peculiarly British, about the exercise of power and the nature of authority in this period.

1. Introduction.

2. The monarch: image and rhetoric

3. Parliaments

4. Elites

5. Local government in town and country

6. Protestant nations

7. Monopolising violence

8. Sinews of the state: taxes, revenues and debt

9. Case study: governing without kings

10. Britain and beyond

Key texts

M.J. Braddick, The Nerves of State: Taxation and the Financing of the English State 1558-1714 (1996).

K.M. Brown, Kingdom or Province? Scotland and the Regal Union 1603-1715 (1992).

K.M. Brown, Noble Society in Scotland (2000).

The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700 , ed. J.H. Burns and M. Goldie (1991).

S. Doran and C. Durston, Princes, Pastors and People: The Church and Religion in England, 1529- 1689 (1991).

B. Coward, The Stuart Age: England, 1603-1714 (3rd edn, 2003).

A. Fletcher, Reform in the Provinces: The Government of Stuart England (1986).

J. Goodare, The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625 (2004).

M.A.R. Graves, The Parliaments of Early Modern Europe (2001).

S. Hindle, The State and Social Change in Early Modern England , 1550-1640 (2002).

F. Heal and C. Holmes, The Gentry in England and Wales, 1500-1700 (1994).

G.E. Seel and D.L. Smith, Crown and Parliaments, 1558-1689 (2001).