King and Parliament (A.D. 1603-1714)

The Stuart century reshaped Britain forever. Beginning with James I's ascension in 1603 and closing with Queen Anne's death in 1714, this era witnessed the most dramatic constitutional crisis in English history: a king executed in the snow, a republic that collapsed, and a Glorious Revolution that permanently curbed royal power. George Henry Wakeling traces the violent theological disputes between Puritans, Anglicans, and Catholics that fueled political upheaval, showing how religious identity became inseparable from questions of sovereignty. The book illuminates the tense negotiation between Crown and Parliament that defined the modern British state, revealing the ideological and material forces that transformed England from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional one. Wakeling pays particular attention to the military and financial costs of war with Catholic Spain and France, demonstrating how fiscal necessity accelerated parliamentary power. For students of British history, this compact volume offers a clear-eyed account of how the age of absolutism gave way to the age of constitutional government.