Harris, T: Politics under the later Stuarts

This is the first major study to look at party politics in England over the later Stuart period as a whole, from the inception of party conflict in the reign of Charles II to its climax in the great rage of party under Queen Anne. It deals not only with high politics and with the organisation of the new parties, but also with the ideological roots of party strife and their relation to the partisan divisions that were simultaneously emerging in English society. The book traces the origins of party back to the failure of the Restoration settlement of 1660 to heal the wounds of a nation profoundly unsettled by the turmoil of civil war and republican experiment in government. There was disagreement over just how much power the monarchy should be permitted; and disagreement, too, over the nature of the desirable settlement in the Church. As a result, political conflict developed along two major axes: the constitutional axis, between those who championed strong monarchy and those who envisaged a stronger role for Parliament, and the religious axis, between the champions of High Anglican intolerance and those sympathetic to Dissent. Having charted these fault-lines in the political and social fabric of post-Restoration England, Tim Harris goes on to provide a richly detailed account of how these constitutional and religious tensions worked themselves out - at Westminster and in society at large - through the struggle between Whigs and Tories under the later Stuarts. This is an original and important book for the scholar and specialist. It combines synthesis of the latest scholarship with the author's own archival research to offer compelling new insights into the nature of the struggle betweenWhigs and Tories, and the reasons why these bitter partisan rivalries cut so deeply into English society during the period. Moreover, its chronological range allows Professor Harris to examine important questions about continuity and change in the political strife of these years which have hitherto been left unexplored. It is also a book that is easy for the student and non-specialist to enjoy, for Tim Harris brings the conflicts of the time vividly alive to the modern reader. He explains how the party configuration of subsequent British politics emerged as it did in these crucial years - but he also shows why the issues that underlay it were of such burning importance, and so difficult to resolve, for the men and women who crowd his pages.