This detailed study of the parish clergy in England on the Eve of the break with Rome is based on a wide variety of documentary sources, both ecclesiastical and secular, ranging from diocesan records to sworn evidence offered in litigation and acc

In these classic works, now reissued by Routledge, Professor Jordan studies the origins of modern social and cultural institutions in England. He is concerned with the momentous shift which occurred in men's aspirations for their society in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as reflected in the charities which were established by gifts and bequests. In a fascinating account of the measures taken by the Tudors and Stuarts to deal with the problem of poverty, Jordan concludes that it was principally dealt relieved by an immense outpouring of charitable wealth.

Blom's hypothesis is forceful, and has the potential to be both frightening and, if you hold it up to the light at just the right angle, a little optimistic. The idea can be put like this: climate change changes everything' John Lanchester, New Yorker 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.

'This is a fascinating and very important book on conflicts and their resolution (or attempted resolution) within early Stuart London Puritanism. It has vital things to say about the complexity and contradictory potentials within Puritanism divinity and Puritan milieux. It challenges a variety of simple notions about Puritanism as either consensual/establishment/mainstream or extremist/unpopular, by analyzing a series of conflicts, encounters, and juxtapositions amongst London Puritans. At its heart are remarkable individuals vividly portrayed - the aggressive and paranoid Puritan minister Stephen Denison and the perhaps heretical box-maker Etherington.' Professor Paul Seaver, Stanford University This book is based on a story. Its main protagonists are a London clergyman, Stephen Denison, and a lay sectmaster and prophet, John Etherington. The dispute between the two men blew up in the mid-1620s, but its reverberations can be traced back to the 1590s and continued to 1640. Through Denison, the book analyses the tensions and contradictions within the 'religion of protestants' that dominated great swathes of the early Stuart church. Through Etherington, it eavesdrops on a London puritan underground that has remained largely hidden from view and which, while it was related to, indeed, parasitic upon, was not coterminous with, the order and orthodoxy-centred puritanism of Stephen Denison. By placing the Denison/Etherington dispute in its multiple contexts, the book becomes a study of puritan theology and intra-puritan theological dispute; of lay clerical relations and of the politics of the parish; and thus of the social history of parish and puritan religion in London. It also discusses the local effects of national theological/political events such as the rise of Laudianism and the Personal Rule of Charles I, finally analysing the long-term origins of the ideological cacophany of the 1640s.

While it lasted only sixteen months, King Philip's War (1675-1676) was arguably one of the most significant of the colonial wars that wracked early America. As the first major military crisis to directly strike one of the Empire's most important possessions: the Massachusetts Bay Colony, King Philip's War marked the first time that Massachusetts had to mobilize mass numbers of ordinary, local men to fight. In this exhaustive social history and community study of Essex County, Massachusetts's militia, Kyle F. Zelner boldly challenges traditional interpretations of who was called to serve during this period.

Drawing on muster and pay lists as well as countless historical records, Zelner demonstrates that Essex County's more upstanding citizens were often spared from impressments, while the "rabble" -- criminals, drunkards, the poor-- were forced to join active fighting units, with town militia committees selecting soldiers who would be least missed should they die in action. Enhanced by illustrations and maps, A Rabble in Arms shows that, despite heroic illusions of a universal military obligation, town fathers, to damaging effects, often placed local and personal interests above colonial military concerns.

This book looks at London's provision of financial and military support for parliament's war against King Charles I. It explores for the first time a series of episodic, circumstantial and unique mobilisations that spanned from late 1641 to early 1645 and which ultimately led to the establishment of the New Model Army. Based on research from two-dozen archives, Civil war London charts the successes and failures of efforts to move London's vast resources and in the process poses a number of challenges to longstanding notions about the capital's 'parliamentarian' makeup. It reveals interactions between London's Corporation, parochial communities and livery companies, between preachers and parishioners and between agitators, propagandists and common people. Within these tangled webs of political engagement reside the untold stories of the movement of money and men, but also of parliament's eventual success in the English Civil War. -- .

For introductory World or Global history classes, especially those that cover the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries; upper-division courses on global imperialism in the modern era. Imperialism in the Modern World combines narrative, primary and secondary sources, and visual documents to examine global relations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The three co-editors, Professors Bowman, Chiteji, and Greene, have taught for many years global history classes in a variety of institutions. They wrote Imperialism in the Modern World to solve the problem of allowing teachers to combine primary and secondary texts easily and systematically to follow major themes in global history (some readers use primary materials exclusively. Some focus on secondary arguments). This book is more focused than other readers on the markets for those teachers who are offering more specialized world history courses--one important trend in global history is away from simply trying to cover everything to teaching real connections in more chronologically and thematically focused courses. invites students to study seriously world history from a critical framework. Too many readers offer a smorgasbord approach to world history that leaves students dazed and confused. This reader avoids that approach and will therefore solve many problems that teachers have in constructing and teaching world history courses at the introductory or upper-division levels. The reader will allow show students how to read historical documents through a hands-on demonstration in the introduction. The book also incorporates images as visual documents. Finally, the book conceives of global history in the widest possible terms; it contains pieces on political, diplomatic, economic, and military history, to be sure, but it also has selections on technology, medicine, women, the environment, social changes, and cultural patterns. Other readers can not match this text's breadth because they are chronologically and thematically so extended.

A fresh approach to the English civil war, War in England 1642-1649 focuses on answering a misleadingly simple question: what kind of war was it to live through? Eschewing descriptions of specific battles or analyses of political and religious developments, Barbara Donagan examines the 'texture' of war, addressing questions such as: what did Englishmen and women believe about war and know about its practice before 1642? What were the conditions in which a soldier fought - for example, how efficient was his musket (not very), and how did he know where he was going (much depended on the reliability of scouts and spies)? What were the rules that were supposed to govern conduct in war, and how were they enforced (by a combination of professional peer pressure and severe but discretionary army discipline and courts martial)? What were the officers and men of the armies like, and how well did they fight?
The book deals even-handedly with royalists and parliamentarians, examining how much they had in common, as well as discussing the points on which they differed. It looks at the intimacy of this often uncivil war, in which enemies fought at close quarters, spoke the same language and had often been acquainted before the war began, just as they had often known the civilians who suffered their presence. A final section on two sieges illustrates these themes in practice over extended periods, and also demonstrates the integration of military and civilian experience in a civil war.
Drawing extensively on primary sources, Donagan's study illuminates the human cost of war and its effect on society, both in our own day as well as in the seventeenth century.

This fascinating collection of essays written by renowned and emerging scholars of the early modern period explores the relationship between the extraordinary and the everyday to provide a greater understanding of and new insights into the mental and material worlds of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. By juxtaposing cases that struck early modern people as irregular or strange with things that they found perfectly usual, everyday matters such as household relationships, farting, drinking and exchanging insults are shown to reveal extraordinary aspects of early modern life, while seemingly exceptional events and beliefs -- such as those involving ghosts, prophecies, and cannibalism -- illuminate something of the routine experience of ordinary people. The contributions present not one worldview, nor adopt one way of approaching or illuminating the past. Rather, they demonstrate that categories such as the strange and the commonplace should be and were the subject of constant renegotiation, just as they are now.

This volume of original essays is designed to be of interest to students not only of Bunyan, but of the history, religion and literature of the seventeenth century

The essays in this volume contribute to a new understanding of the second half of the sixteenth century when England experienced the unprecedented rule of two successive queens regnant. Focusing on a diverse range of issues, from politics and personnel to ceremony and costume, and from a range of perspectives," Tudor Queenship" demonstrates that thinking about both queens at the same time can be highly suggestive, and propels us to revise, develop and understand, and to contextualize, traditional interpretations. From what Elizabeth learnt from Mary, assessments of political acumen and the significance of confessional differences this is the first volume to focus on both Mary and Elizabeth, and to consider them as Renaissance monarchs a European stage.

Children born out of wedlock were commonly stigmatized as "bastards" in early modern France. Deprived of inheritance, they were said to have neither kin nor kind, neither family nor nation. But why was this the case? Gentler alternatives to "bastard" existed in early modern French discourse, and many natural parents voluntarily recognized and cared for their extramarital offspring. Drawing upon a wide array of archival and published sources, Matthew Gerber has reconstructed numerous disputes over the rights and disabilities of children born out of wedlock in order to illuminate the changing legal condition and practical treatment of extramarital offspring over a period of two and half centuries. His book reveals that the exclusion of extramarital offspring from the family was perpetually contested in early modern France. Legal debate over illegitimacy carried political implications for France's dynastic monarchy. When Louis XIV, the Sun King, created a political firestorm by declaring his own extramarital offspring to be capable of inheriting the French crown, political theorists drew upon precedents of private law to argue for or against the exclusion of children born out of wedlock from the throne. Conversely, lawyers and litigants frequently invoked political interest in the course of private lawsuits involving extramarital offspring. In tracing the evolution of early modern debates over illegitimacy, Bastards offers a political history of the family from the oblique perspective of those who were theoretically excluded from it. With a cast of characters ranging from royal bastards to foundlings, Bastards offers a broad exploration of the relationship between social and political change in the early modern era. It offers new insight into the changing nature of early modern French law, revealing its evolving contribution to the historical construction of both the family and the state.

The authors in this volume analyze spiritual kinship in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age. Uniquely comparing Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox views and practices, the chapters look at changes in theological thought over time as well as in social customs related to spiritual kinship, including godparenthood.

First Published in 2005. In this book, the author seeks to apply a self-described broad approach to American economic growth and to place the process within the mainstream of American history. This approach establishes that economic growth involves far more than economics; most students of growth view that process as one which cuts across the boundaries of the disciplines within the social sciences. After a brief introduction of the subject of the book, Bruchey further discusses the need for such guidance and tries to make clear what it is that has directed his own path in this field.

First multi-disciplinary study of the cultural and social milieu of the post-medieval castle. The castle was an imposing architectural landmark in late medieval and early modern England and Wales. Castles were much more than lordly residences: they were accommodation to guests and servants, spaces of interaction between the powerful and the powerless, and part of larger networks of tenants, parks, and other properties. These structures were political, symbolic, residential, and military, and shaped the ways in which people consumed the landscape and interacted with the local communities around them. This volume offers the first interdisciplinary study of the socio-cultural understanding of the castle in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a period duringwhich the castle has largely been seen as in decline. Bringing together a wide range of source material - from architectural remains and archaeological finds to household records and political papers - it investigates the personnel of the castle; the use of space for politics and hospitality; the landscape; ideas of privacy; and the creation of a visual legacy. By focusing on such an iconic structure, the book allows us to see some of the ways in which men and women were negotiating the space around them on a daily basis; and just as importantly, it reveals the impact that the local communities had on the spaces of the castle. AUDREY M. THORSTAD teaches in the Department of History, University of North Texas.

Through a study of horses, the book reveals how an important and growing aristocratic estate was managed, where the aristocrat at the centre of it - William Cavendish - travelled and how he spent his time, and how horses were oneof the means by which he asserted his social status. This book, by a leading authority on early modern social and cultural history, examines in detail how an important English aristocrat managed his horses. At the same time, it discusses how horses and the uses to which they were put were a very significant social statement and a forceful assertion of status and the right to political power. Based on detailed original research in the archives of Chatsworth House, the book explores the breeding and rearing, the buying and selling, and the care and maintenance of horses, showing how these activities fitted in to the overall management of the earl's large estates. It outlines the uses of horses as the earl and his retinue travelled to and from family, the county assizes and quarter sessions, social visits and London for "the season" and to attend Court and Parliament. It also considers the use of horses in sport: hawking, hunting, racing and the other ways in which visitors were entertained. Overall, the book provides a great deal of detail on the management of horses in the period and also on the yearly cycle of activities of a typical aristocrat engaged in service, pleasure and power. PETER EDWARDS is an Emeritus Professor of Early Modern British Social History at the University of Roehampton. He has published numerous books including The Horse Trade of Tudor and Stuart England and Horse and Man in Early Modern England.

This book explores the formation of the British state and national identity from 1603-1832 by examining the definitions of sovereignty and allegiance presented in treason trials. The king remained central to national identity and the state until Republican challenges forced prosecutors in treason trials to innovate and redefine sovereign authority. Although jurors resisted the change, by the 1790s parliament and prosecutors accepted that treason law protected all Britons and the general safety of the state.

Women come to the fore in witchcraft trials as accused persons or as witnesses, and this book is a study of women's voices in these trials in eight countries around the North Sea: Spanish Netherlands, Northern Germany, Denmark, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. From each country, three trials are chosen for close reading of courtroom discourse and the narratological approach enables various individuals to speak. Throughout the study, a choir of 24 voices of accused women are heard which reveal valuable insight into the field of mentalities and display both the individual experience of witchcraft accusation and the development of the trial. Particular attention is drawn to the accused women's confessions, which are interpreted as enforced narratives. The analyses of individual trials are also contextualized nationally and internationally by a frame of historical elements, and a systematic comparison between the countries shows strong similarities regarding the impact of specific ideas about witchcraft, use of pressure and torture, the turning point of the trial, and the verdict and sentence. This volume is an essential resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of witchcraft, witchcraft trials, transnationality, cultural exchanges, and gender in early modern Northern Europe.

First published in 1928. 'These letters, well edited tell of a great conqueror, fighting for God and his king, and reveal the might proportions of the truly Elizabethan character that was Hernando Cortes.' Times Literary Supplement. Cortes's letters to the Emperor from Mexico are half-letters, half-despatches. The letters were all written between 1519 and 1526. Letter One: Despite the original never having been recovered, there is little doubt about the contents of this letter. The earliest discoveries of the mainland from 1517 onwards are outlined. Letter Two: Arguably the most dramatic of the five, this letter opens with the advance into the heart of the hostile country and the capture of the monarch. Letter Three: This letter covers the advance of Cortes into Culua, the assault on the capital itself and the various enterprises undertaken by the Conqueror to extend his power throughout Mexico. Letter Four: This letter is mainly concerned with organizational affairs, with the visit of Garay, causing rebellion in Panuco, and concluding with the Frenchman's death, being the most important incident. Letter Five: Beginning with the start of the expedition to Honduras, and chronicling the trials and tribulations of the daring journey, this letter ends with an account of Cortes' triumphant return to the post of Governor after several years' absence.

First published in 1928.
'Can be safely named unique and can never quite lose its value.' Times Literary Supplement.
'This should be bought not borrowed.' Saturday Review
The publication in 1648 of the first authentic account of the provinces of New Spain and Central America by a well-known and educated Englishman excited widespread interest, and The English-American found many readers even though the country was in the midst of revolution. It played an important part in reviving the anti-Spanish policy of Elizabeth and describes at first hand a stage of American society that was virtually unknown.
A. P. Newton's introduction places the book against the background of its time, which is vital in order to understand many of Thomas Gage's allusions. Although abridged from the original, the full chapter headings of the First Edition and the original numbering have been preserved.

First published in 1930.
'The Broadway Travellers consolidates its already high reputation by issuing this volume...' Spectator
This is the first translation of the Commentarios since original publication in 1647. Copies of the original are very rare yet the work covers an historically significant period, describing the operations leading up to the capture from the Portuguese of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, by an Anglo-Persian force. Of importance in the history of the rise of the Indian Empire, this is the first printed account of the Portuguese version of the affair.
The appendices include many previously unpublished Portuguese documents, the most important of which is the full Journal of Edward Monnox, who was present throughout the operations.