England in the Seventeenth Century

Maurice Ashley was a noted historian of the 17th Century and literary assistant to Winston Churchill.

‘A closely packed portmanteau of varied knowledge and mature thought, which travellers setting out on a voyage of discovery in the seventeenth century would do well to carry with them.’ C.V. Wedgewood, Time and Tide.

• 1. Prologue: The Road to England 2. The Classes and the Masses 3. Family Life 4. Climates of Opinion 5. The Reign of King James I, 1603-25 6. King Charles I and the ‘Eleven Years Tyranny’, 1625-40 7. The Great Civil War, 1640-49 8. Oliver Cromwell and the Interregnum, 1649-60 9. A Ferment of Ideas, 1640-60 10. King Charles II and the Wars Against the Dutch, 1660-74 11. The Beginnings of Political Parties, 1674-85 12. The Age of Experiment, 1660-89 13. King James II and the Glorious Revolution, 1685-9 14. King William III and Queen Mary II, 1689-1702 15. Queen Anne and the War Against France 1702-13 16. The Peace of Utrecht and the Growth of the First British Empire 17. England Under Queen Anne; the Augustan Age 18. Epilogue: The Death of Queen Anne.