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Why and how did a new type of intervention, intended to prevent rulers from punishing individuals for their religious beliefs and justified using natural law, emerge in England during the first decade of the eighteenth century? This article traces its origins to the War of the Spanish Succession, when Huguenot publicists and diplomats petitioned English politicians to negotiate freedom for Huguenot prisoners in France. In campaigning for prisoners’ freedom rather than for the restoration of Huguenot corporate rights in France, Huguenot publicists and diplomats had to justify intervention in universalising, non-confessional terms. Because those prisoners were not protected by treaty law, the laws of war, or the laws of France, they cited Protestant and humanist traditions of natural law and theories of natural sociability to justify negotiating their release. In so doing, they invited European readers, politicians and monarchs to sympathise with distant strangers—and even to take political action on their behalf—not only because they shared a common faith, but also because they belonged to human society and shared a common humanity. These arguments circulated both in print and among European diplomats, altering the conduct of international affairs. In England, this article shows, Huguenot campaigns influenced debates about intervention and English foreign policy-making. Thus, this article suggests a new narrative for the diffusion of humanitarian argument in eighteenth-century western European political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores popular politics and royalism during the English Civil Wars through the reaction of magistrates to the riot in Norwich on 24 April 1648 that was referred to by contemporaries as the 'mutiny' or the 'Great Blow'. On the eve of the Second Civil War, this confrontation between urban rioters and New Model Army troopers led to the largest explosion of gunpowder in seventeenth-century England, when ninety-eight barrels were ignited at the Committee House. The article analyses the 278 witness statements that were produced as part of the judicial inquest, making this the best documented provincial riot of the early modern period. These previously neglected proceedings can do much to advance our understanding of popular politics, royalism and urban culture. Therefore the article focuses on how the rioters mobilised and generated crowds through petitioning, subscription, print, preaching, rumour, health-drinking, seditious words, and gestures. It assesses participants' social origins and places them within contrasting local religious and political cultures in a battle for control of the key public spaces of the city. The seditious words revealed in the testimonies cannot be dismissed as merely anti-parliamentarian, and in many cases illuminate how a politics of popular royalism was revived in the city. The episode highlights how both national and local, and elite and popular politics overlapped and were entwined by civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the choice, reception and afterlife of both the Chinese and the British gifts given during Britain's first embassy to China. Earlier studies have tended to fault the Qing court for understanding the gifts they received as tribute and failing to appreciate the scientific items given by the British. However, gift-giving was a highly charged political issue in the domestic politics of both countries at this time and the terms in which the argument was conducted differed widely. This paper argues that the Chinese term that has been translated into the English 'tribute' did not have the same resonance in China, and that instead the gifts were received by both sides as part of the negotiations that accompanied the embassy. The most successful gifts in this context were those with an accepted monetary value in the existing trade between the two countries, notably high-quality textiles. British military gifts were also of importance in shaping the outcome of the embassy. However, attempts to use the gifts to present the culture or wider philosophical outlook of the giver were much less successful in this diplomatic context. After the embassy ended the vast majority of gifts given by both sides became exotic items in royal collections where they added to the glory of the recipient rather than that of the donor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses historical research which investigated the trial and execution of Charles I, King of England. Topics explored include the depiction of his reign and refusal to yield during his trial in literature, the way his conscience and duty as King may have influenced his decision-making and attitude during the trial, and the commitment demonstrated by Charles I to his sworn responsibility to protect his subjects.

The article discusses the role that father confessors and confession played in the 1692 witch trial in the Lutheran city of Rothenburg ob der Taube, Germany of the accused attempted murderer Barbara Ehness. An overview of Ehness's attempt to murder her lodger Hans Georg Rupp and his family through poisoning is provided. The Rothenburg cleric and Church Superintendent Sebastian Kirchmeier's efforts in witch hunting is discussed.

The article discusses the Prince George of Denmark's and his wife Princess (later Queen of Great Britain) Anne of Denmark's support for English William of Orange during the 1688 Glorious Revolution, including the role that promoting Protestanism in England played in George's support for William of Orange. An overview of the court cultures in England and Denmark is provided. Prince George's initial support for English King James II is discussed.

It is now generally accepted that there was a fall in the number of homicide prosecutions in early modern England, perhaps signifying broader shifts in violent behaviour. So far, however, apart from J.S. Cockburn’s 1991 study of long-term developments in homicide prosecutions in Kent, there has been little in-depth analysis of this transition. This article provides a detailed study of homicide prosecutions in Cheshire over the seventeenth century, focusing on the records of the county’s Court of Great Sessions, the local equivalent of the assizes. Cheshire is the only northern county where the surviving records permit this type of analysis over the seventeenth century, and hence constitutes an important point of comparison with research completed on homicide in the south during the early modern period. Cheshire homicide cases, and especially cases categorised as manslaughter, were running at a much higher level in the first half of the century, with a peak in the 1620s. Throughout the century, homicide in the county was an overwhelmingly male activity, with men of all classes being involved. It is suggested that, in the first half of the century at least, Cheshire was a weapon-carrying culture. The decline in homicide in the second half of the century is ascribed to a set of interrelated factors including the relative social stability of the period, and the greater integration of the county into the national political system, especially after 1688, and into the national economy. These and other forces worked together to create a major transition in the culture and social psychology of the early modern English population, in which the decline of homicide was an important element.

The article explores the constitutional history of England with a focus on the debates over political authority and the divisions between church and state at Whitehall Palace in London, England, during the civil war era of 1648-1649. Emphasis is given to topics such as religious toleration, interpretation of the Bible in reference to state policy, and support for the regicide of King Charles I.

The article discusses the economic conditions causing distress in England during the period following the 1688 Glorious Revolution from 1689 through 1702, including the political responses to the economic conditions during this period and the impact of the Glorious Revolution on economic distress. An overview of the social conditions of the poor under English King William III is provided.

The article discusses the master/servant relationship between King James II of England and his servant David Nairne, focusing on how Nairne's diary helps to understand James's life in exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Other topics include identification of Nairne as the author of "The Life of James II," a discussion of the piety of James II, and information on the Jacobite court in France.

This article reassesses the relationship that existed in the period 1649–53 between war in Ireland and politics in England. Drawing upon a largely overlooked Irish army petition, it seeks to remedy an evident disconnect between the respective historiographies of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland on the one hand and the Rump Parliament on the other. The article reconstructs some of the various disputes over religion, authority and violence that undermined the unity of the English wartime regime in Ireland. It then charts the eventual spilling over of these disputes into Westminster politics, arguing that their impact on deteriorating army-parliament relations in the year prior to Oliver Cromwell’s expulsion of the Rump in April 1653 has not been fully appreciated. The key driver of these developments was John Weaver, a republican MP and commissioner for the civil government of Ireland. The article explains how his efforts both to place restraints on the excessive violence of the conquest and to exert civilian control over the military evolved, by 1652, into a determined campaign at Westminster to strengthen the powers of Ireland’s civil government and to limit the army’s share in the prospective Irish land settlement. Weaver’s campaign forced the army officers in Ireland to intervene at Westminster, thus placing increased pressure on the Rump Parliament. This reassessment also enables the early 1650s to be viewed more clearly as a key phase in the operation of the longer-term relationships of mutual influence that existed between Dublin and London in the seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The civil wars and interregnum (1640–60) ushered in a period of religious flux and debate, with controversies pursued in fierce pamphlet wars. Equally important, but far less familiar to us, were the public disputations, which spread across England and Wales to become a significant aspect of the religious culture of the age. This article traces their antecedents in the European tradition of university disputation, in the sixteenth-century continental Reformation and in England. The civil-war disputations represented a dramatically new development, in their number and scale, in their genuinely open character, and in the participation of lay preachers, especially Baptists and Quakers. The article explores their appeal for separatist evangelists—and for the huge audiences they attracted—and the factors that could drive parish ministers, often reluctantly, to accept a radical’s challenge. About fifty disputations generated printed narratives, and often also rival accounts, which throw new light on the relationship between oral and print culture in this period. The article explores how editors shaped texts to sway reader reaction, and uses these texts for insights into debating tactics and audience participation. Disputations also offer new evidence in the ongoing debate over the emergence of the ‘public sphere’. In their formal procedures, social inclusivity and geographical spread they far surpass Habermas’s coffee-house milieu, but this was a rough public arena far removed from the world of bourgeois politeness. And with live debates often triggering new pamphlet-wars, we can identify a public sphere in which oral and print culture coalesced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses and presents a reprint of the document "Notes From Discourses Touching Religion," by Samuel Pepys, a client of England's King James II and president of the Royal Society. It examines Pepys' religious views, commenting on his religious allegiance, biblical criticism, and church history. The author considers the patron-client relationship between James II and Pepys and reflects on James II's efforts to promote Catholicism. Pepys' views on the Church of England are also addressed.

The article explores the organization, practice and popularity of episcopalianism in England during the 1650s. The authors reflect on pastoral responsibilities during the Interregnum and increasing demand for episcopal ordination. Topics discussed include social networks connecting bishops to ordinands, historical evidence such as exhibit books, and the significance of ordinands' university and college affiliations. Other topics include the popularity of the Presbyterian Church in England and Wales, the career development of clergy, and the role of Irish bishops.

The article presents an examination of the increased population of landed elites residing in London, England from the late 16th-century through the 17th-century. It explores the role the city played in national life, hosting institutions dedicated to the country's political, administrative and legal functions, while also discussing London's importance an a center of international activity. It examines the impact that the city environment had on the country's landed elite considering it stood in much contrast with their rural estates.

Religion has been increasingly reintegrated into the study of later seventeenth-century English politics. Nevertheless, historians of the later Stuart period have not displayed the same gusto for case studies of individuals’ careers as their colleagues working on the pre-civil war era. This article looks at the important role of religion within the career of Laurence Hyde, earl of Rochester (1642-1711), a very significant but under-studied politician whose long career in public life stretched from the Restoration to the latter part of Anne’s reign. It is argued that a vital dimension of Hyde’s religious beliefs can be supplied by a detailed consideration of his family life. His father’s example, his sister’s conversion, a series of early deaths, and his relationships with his brother-in-law – James II – and nieces – Mary II and Anne – all combined to define Hyde’s public status. The interplay of these factors would lead to acute crisis in the winter of 1686/7, when his position as the protestant chief minister of a catholic king became untenable, and chronic discontent thereafter until his death in 1711. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the formation of distinct presbyterian and episcopalian confessional cultures in Scotland in the period 1660 to 1715. Encouraged by institutional upheavals, generational change and controversy, Scotland's presbyterians and episcopalians came to hold opposing views on Church government and theology, and to worship in different ways. In terms of ecclesiology, the episcopalians became increasingly committed to iure divino principles, while their opponents upheld divine right presbyterianism. In theology, the episcopalians departed from the presbyterians’ orthodox Calvinism. The groups also diverged over piety and worship, with many episcopalians adopting the Anglican liturgy, while the presbyterians practised affective spirituality and extemporary prayer. The emergence of confessional cultures, which has been overlooked by previous historians, was of fundamental importance in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Scottish religious life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the evidence of purchase of wine in England during the 17th-18th centuries and explores whether wine was a commodity with high income elasticity. It notes that consumption of wine is associated with social status since only wealthy people could afford it. The author explores if wine purchases can provide evidence on the social conditions in England during the period studied. The author examines issues related to social mobility and the drinking of wine as well as the medical uses of wine.

Discusses two proposed measures considered by the British government to address its financial needs in 1627. Impact of war on England during the 17th century; Information on the extent and nature of absolutist principles in Great Britain during the early 17th century; Details on two documents relevant to the subject.

Discusses the response of the Justices of Peace in England and Wales to the proclamation of the Book of Orders on January 31, 1631 in Great Britain. Highlights on the Book of Orders; How it affected the organization of the Justice of Peace; How traditional historiography interpreted the Book of Orders.

Focuses on politics in Great Britain during the seventeenth century. English common law; Insular traditionalism; Commitment to a cohesive and ancient English constitution; Impact of the outbreak of the English revolution; Point at issue between John and James Hope and the Argyll government; Anglo-Scottish relations.

Attempts to explain how religious tension first arose within the Scottish Jacobite movement against England and what its consequences were. Case of rebel leader James Francis Stuart's outrage over a proposal for him to lead a Perth church service in 1716; Catalyzation of a group opposed to Stuart; Strategic situation between 1689 and 1692; Ideological Jacobite settlement of 1693 as imposed by outside intervention; Political paranoia that ensued.

Studies the existence of Her Majesty's Court at Westminster, a court of law during the reign of Queen Henrietta Maria of England. Parliamentary confirmation of the legality of the queen's court; Motivation behind the formal establishment of the court; Working relationship with the Queen's Council and the court's operations.