The Duke of Lerma is the last major unknown statesman in modern European history. In this pioneering biography, Patrick Williams brings him dramatically to life and challenges many of the assumptions that historians have made about him and about Spanish history at a time of profound crisis. By placing Lerma firmly at the head of the 'procession of favourites' that marked the European seventeenth century he invites a re-evaluation of the phenomenon of government by favourites in this seminal period of European history. Francisco Gomez de Sandoval, Duke of Lerma (1553-1625), served Philip III of Spain as his favourite and first minister for twenty years (1598-1618). His power dazzled contemporaries; indeed, one petitioner reportedly told Philip III that he had come to see him 'because I could not get an appointment with the Duke of Lerma'. Within a decade of assuming office Lerma had raised his family from humiliating poverty into being by far the richest in Spain and had himself become the greatest patron of the arts in Europe in his generation. His use of power provoked intense debate in Spain about the nature of corruption in government. Intriguingly, Lerma remained deeply ambivalent about the power that he wielded with such assured brilliance, for throughout his adult life he was determined to follow a family tradition and retire from court into religious life to secure the salvation of his soul, finally achieving his ambition in 1617 when he secured a cardinalate. The great favourite ended his life as a prince of the Church.

Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters - 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. Alan Stewart shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, it throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital - sometimes the only - means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public - and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV Part One.

Selection of correspondence from the house which was once Little Malvern priory, illuminating life at the time. In 1538 John Russell, secretary to the Council of the Welsh Marches, acquired the dissolved priory of Little Malvern, where his descendants, the Beringtons, still live. This selection from the family letters in the WorcestershireRecord Office vividly illustrates the impact on Worcestershire of the Reformation and the Civil War. Among much else, it includes correspondence with Thomas Cromwell and Lord Chancellor Audley (who was John Russell's brother-in-law); Elizabethan medical prescriptions and business letters; correspondence about evading the penal laws against Catholics; a mock-heroic Latin skit on James I; a personal letter from one of the Jesuits executed at the time of theOates Plot, and an official certificate that Little Malvern had been (unsuccessfully) searched for priests. The letters themselves are accompanied by an introduction and explanatory notes. Michael Hodgetts has written extensively on Recusant History and is an acknowledged expert on English Catholic families and their houses.

This is a collection of essays by leading historians of early modern Europe and the US. The book explores how merchants, entrepreneurs, and other early modern capitalists viewed themselves.

"There is a welcome intellectual coherence and high scholarship to this latest volume in Berghahn's series on Austrian and Habsburg Studies." -German History

"This volume is a splendid addition to the invaluable Austrian and Habsburg Studies series. Each of its contributors has approached his or her subject in a novel way, and the result is a collection that obliges the reader to look at things with a fresh eye." -N-Net Reviews

..".a splendid volume...The essays in this volume offer scholars several fine theoreticl alternatives for pursuing new narratives about Austro-Hungarian society." -Central European History

"The book succeeds by exploring the ways in which dynastic patriotism really operated... It] offers a highly important contribution to scholarship. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars studying Habsburg and central and east Europeanhistory, identity formation, as well as monarchy as a political institution will greatly benefit from and need to read this book." -Slavic Review

"As with earlier volumes in this series, these essays are well-written and based on original research. There are extensive notes following each essay and a general index for the whole volume. Several topics are somewhat extraneous to the overall theme but readers will find them all of interest." -German Studies Review

The overwhelming majority of historical work on the late Habsburg Monarchy has focused primarily on national movements and ethnic conflicts, with the result that too little attention has been devoted to the state and ruling dynasty. This volume is the first of its kind to concentrate on attempts by the imperial government to generate a dynastic-oriented state patriotism in the multinational Habsburg Monarchy. It examines those forces in state and society which tended toward the promotion of state unity and loyalty towards the ruling house. These essays, all original contributions and written by an international group of historians, provide a critical examination of the phenomenon of "dynastic patriotism" and offer a richly nuanced treatment of the multinational empire in its final phase.

Laurence Cole is Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of Fur Gott, Kaiser und Vaterland: Nationale Identitat der deutschsprachigen Bevolkerung Tirols 1860-1914 (2000), and has recently edited Different Paths to the Nation: National and Regional Identities in Central Europe and Italy, 1830-1870 (2007). He is also co-editor of European History Quarterly.

Daniel Unowsky received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is Associate Professor of History at the University of Memphis. He is the author of The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism: Imperial Celebrations in Habsburg Austria, 1848-1916 (2005), and currently serves as book review editor for the Austrian History Yearbook."

In ancien regime France almost all posts of public responsibility had to be bought or inherited. Rather than tax their richer subjects directly, French kings preferred to sell them privileged public offices, which further payments allowed them to sell or bequeath at will. By the eighteenth century there were 70,000 venal offices, comprising the entire judiciary, most of the legal profession, officers in the army, and a wide range of other professions - from financiers handling the king's revenues down to auctioneers and even wigmakers. Though now yielding diminishing returns to the king, offices were more in demand than ever for the privileges and prestige, profit and power, that they conferred; and although it was widely accepted that selling public authority was undesirable, nobody imagined that those who had invested in offices could ever be bought out. The Revolution brought an unexpected opportunity to do so, but the legacy of venality has marked French institutions down to our day. William Doyle, one of the foremost historians of early modern Europe, has written the first comprehensive history of the last century of venality. He traces the evolution and dissolution of a system which was fundamental to the workings of state and society in France for over three centuries.

The period following the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis and the death of Henry II in 1559 is of crucial importance in the history of France and of Europe; yet little that is satisfactory has been written about it. To this, the work of Dr N.M. Sutherland is a notable exception. Princes, Politics and Religion, 1547-1589 brings together all her major articles, not already reprinted elsewhere, together with an introduction and two completely new contributions. While mainly focusing on the immediate origins and early decades of the French civil wars, she also deals in a wider sense with the great ideological struggle of the sixteenth century.

Now in its second edition, Britain since 1688 is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to British History from 1688 to the present day that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. Chronological in structure yet thematic in approach, the book guides the reader through major events in British history from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, offering extensive coverage of the British Empire and continuing through to recent events such as Britain's exit from the European Union. Fully revised and updated using the most recent historical scholarship, this edition includes discussion of the Brexit referendum and Britain's subsequent exit from the European Union, along with increased coverage of Britain's imperial past and its legacy in the present. New sidebars on themes such as race, immigration, religion, sexuality, the presence of empire and the experience of warfare are carried across chapters to offer students current and relevant interpretations of British history. Written by a team of expert North American university professors and supported by textboxes, timelines, bibliographies, glossaries and a fully integrated companion website, this textbook provides students with a strong grounding in the rich tapestry of events, characters, and themes that encompass the history of Britain since 1688.

This book examines the Whig theory of resistance that emerged from the Revolution of 1688 in England, and presents an important challenge to the received opinion of Whig thought as confused and as inferior to the revolutionary principles set forth by John Locke. While a wealth of Whig literature is analyzed, Rudolph focuses upon the work of James Tyrrell, presenting the first full-length study of this seminal Whig theorist, and friend and colleague of John Locke. This book provides a compelling argument for the importance of Whig political thought for the history of liberalism.

Europe where the sun dares scarce appear For freezing meteors and congealed cold.' - Christopher Marlowe In this innovative and compelling work of environmental history, Philipp Blom chronicles the great climate crisis of the 1600s, a crisis that would transform the entire social and political fabric of Europe. While hints of a crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, by the end of the sixteenth century the temperature plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbours were covered with ice, birds literally dropped out of the sky, and 'frost fairs' were erected on a frozen Thames - with kiosks, taverns, and even brothels that become a semi-permanent part of the city. Recounting the deep legacy and sweeping consequences of this 'Little Ice Age', acclaimed historian Philipp Blom reveals how the European landscape had ineradicably changed by the mid-seventeenth century. While apocalyptic weather patterns destroyed entire harvests and incited mass migrations, Blom brilliantly shows how they also gave rise to the growth of European cities, the appearance of early capitalism, and the vigorous stirrings of the Enlightenment. A sweeping examination of how a society responds to profound and unexpected change, Nature's Mutiny will transform the way we think about climate change in the twenty-first century and beyond.

What happened to the medieval romance genre during and after the Protestant Reformation in England? Who read these works; who printed them; and what did they mean to the varied audiences encountering them? Through a cross-temporal study using book history, reception history and cultural memory studies, this book argues that the medieval romances printed across the early modern period provided a flexible space for post-Reformation readers to negotiate their relationships with the recent 'medieval' past, a past that was becoming, for some, increasingly distanced from the present. In exploring the complex entanglements of time and technology that accrue on the pages of the post-Reformation romance book, Difficult Pasts offers an interdisciplinary framework for better understanding the role of physical books and imaginative forms in grappling with a 'difficult' past. -- .

This collection explores the political thinking of a fundamental period of Irish history. It moves from the turmoil of the 17th century, through the years of the Protestant ascendancy, to the revolutionary events at the end of the 18th century. Light is thrown on a huge cast of forgotten or never known figures, including royal officials, lawyers, clergymen, landowners, and popular writers.

In what is both a specific study of conversion in a corner of the Spanish Empire and a work with implications for the understanding of European domination and native resistance throughout the colonial world, Inga Clendinnen explores the intensifying conflict between competing and increasingly divergent Spanish visions of Yucatan and its destructive outcomes. In Ambivalent Conquests Clendinnen penetrates the thinking and feeling of the Mayan Indians in a detailed reconstruction of their assessment of the intruders. This new edition contains a preface by the author where she reflects upon the book's contribution in the past fifteen years. Inga Clendinnen is Emeritus scholar, LaTrobe University, Australia. Her books include the acclaimed Reading the Holocaust (Cambridge, 1999), named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, and Aztec: An Interpretation (Cambridge, 1995), and Tiger's Eye: A Memoir (Scribner, 2001).

Between 1560 and 1620, a thousand or more people left the town of Brihuega in Spain to migrate to New Spain (now Mexico), where nearly all of them settled in Puebla de los Angeles, New Spain's second most important city. A medium-sized community of about four thousand people, Brihuega had been a center of textile production since the Middle Ages, but in the latter part of the sixteenth century its industry was in decline--a circumstance that induced a significant number of its townspeople to emigrate to Puebla, where conditions for textile manufacturing seemed ideal.
The immigrants from Brihuega played a crucial role in making Puebla the leading textile producer in New Spain, and they were otherwise active in the city's commercial-industrial sector as well. Although some immigrants penetrated the higher circles of "poblano" society and politics, for the most part they remained close to their entrepreneurial and artisanal origins. Closely associated through business, kinship, marital, and "compadrazgo" ties, and in residential patterns, the Brihuega immigrants in Puebla constituted a coherent and visible community.
This book uses the experiences and activities of the immigrants as a basis for analyzing society in Brihuega and Puebla, making direct comparisons between the two cities by examining such topics as mobility and settlement; politics and public life; economic activity; religious life; social relations; and marriage, family, and kinship. In tracing the socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional patterns of a town in Spain and a city in New Spain--in all their connections, continuities, and discontinuities--the book offers a new basis for understanding the process and implications of the transference of these patterns within the early modern Hispanic world.

A look at how ordinary English men and women responded to the transformations that accompanied the regicide, the creation of a republic, and the rise of the Cromwellian Protectorate. How did ordinary English men and women respond to the transformations that accompanied the regicide, the creation of a republic, and the rise of the Cromwellian Protectorate? This book uncovers grassroots responses to the tangibleconsequences of revolution, delving into everyday practices, social interactions, and power struggles as they intersected with the macro-politics of regime change. Tussles at local alehouses, encounters with excise collectors inthe high street, and contests over authority at the marketplace reveal how national politics were felt across the most ordinary of activities. Using a series of case studies from counties, boroughs, and the London metropolis, Boswell argues that factional discourses and shifting power relations complicated social interaction. Localized disaffection was broadcast in newsbooks, pamphlets, and broadsides, shaping political rhetoric that refashioned grassroots grievances to promote royalist desires. By uniting disparate people who were alienated by the policies of interregnum regimes, this literature helped to create the spectre of a unified, royalist commons that materializedin the months leading up to Charles II's Restoration. Such agitation - from disaffected mutters to ritualistic violence against officials - informed the broad political culture that shaped debates over governance during one of the most volatile decades in British history. CAROLINE BOSWELL is Associate Professor in History at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of the standard textbook on the causes of the English Civil War provides a comprehensive guide to the historiographical debates surrounding this crucial period of English history.

Charles I was a complex man whose career intersected with some of the most dramatic events in English history. He played a central role in provoking the English Civil War, and his execution led to the only republican government Britain has ever known. Historians have struggled to get him into perspective, veering between outright condemnation and measured sympathy. Richard Cust shows that Charles I was not 'unfit to be a king', emphasising his strengths as a party leader and conviction politician, but concludes that, none the less, his prejudices and attitudes, and his mishandling of political crises did much to bring about a civil war in Britain. He argues that ultimately, after the war, Charles pushed his enemies into a position where they had little choice but to execute him.

The events surrounding the trial of Charles I have been remarkably understudied by historians, despite a wealth of information regarding both the proceedings and personalities involved, and contemporary responses and reactions. These essays submit one of the most momentous events in English history to rigorous scholarship, contextualize it in the light of recent historiography, and with a focus on the relations between the three kingdoms of Britain.

Silent Teachers considers for the first time the influence of Ottoman scholarly practices and reference tools on oriental learning in early modern Europe. Telling the story of oriental studies through the annotations, study notes and correspondence of European scholars, it demonstrates the central but often overlooked role that Turkish-language manuscripts played in the achievements of early orientalists. Dispersing the myths and misunderstandings found in previous scholarship, the book offers a fresh history of Turkish studies in Europe and new insights into how Renaissance intellectuals studied Arabic and Persian through contemporaneous Turkish sources. This story hardly has any dull moments: the reader will encounter many larger-than-life figures, including an armchair expert who turned his alleged captivity under the Ottomans into bestselling books; a drunken dragoman who preferred enjoying the fruits of the vine to his duties at the Sublime Porte; and a curmudgeonly German physician whose pugnacious pamphlets led to the erasure of his name from history. Taking its title from the celebrated humanist Joseph Scaliger's comment that books from the Muslim world are 'silent teachers' and need to be explained orally to be understood, this study gives voice to the many and varied Turkish-language books that circulated in early modern Europe and proposes a paradigm-shift in our understanding of early modern erudite culture.

Contagionism is an old idea, but gained new life in Restoration Britain. The Germ of an Idea considers British contagionism in its religious, social, political and professional context from the Great Plague of London to the adoption of smallpox inoculation. It shows how ideas about contagion changed medicine and the understanding of acute diseases.

'A groundbreaking work . . . Federici has become a crucial figure for . . . a new generation of feminists' Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room A cult classic since its publication in the early years of this century, Caliban and the Witch is Silvia Federici's history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages through the European witch-hunts, the rise of scientific rationalism and the colonisation of the Americas, it gives a panoramic account of the often horrific violence with which the unruly human material of pre-capitalist societies was transformed into a set of predictable and controllable mechanisms. It Is a study of indigenous traditions crushed, of the enclosure of women's reproductive powers within the nuclear family, and of how our modern world was forged in blood. 'Rewarding . . . allows us to better understand the intimate relationship between modern patriarchy, the rise of the nation state and the transition from feudalism to capitalism' Guardian

This collection conceptualizes the question of rulership in past centuries, incorporating such diverse disciplines as archaeology, art history, history, literature and psychoanalysis to illustrate how kings and queens ruled in Europe from the antiquity to early modern times. It discusses forms of kingship such as client-kingship, monarchy, queen consort and regnant queenship that manifest gubernatorial power in concert with paternal succession and the divine right of the king. While the king assumes a religious dimension in his obligatory functions, justice and peace are vital elements to maintain his sovereignty. In sum, the active side of governmental power is to keep peace and order leading to prosperity for the subjects; the passive side of power is to protect the subjects from external attack and free them from fear. These concepts of power find concurrence in modern times as well as in non-European cultures. Through a truly cross-cultural, transnational, multidimensional, gender-conscious and interdisciplinary study, this collection offers a cutting edge account of how power has been exercised and demonstrated in various cultures of some bygone eras.