Conspiracy Culture in Stuart England - The Mysterious Death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (Hardcover)

The death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey has baffled scholars and armchair detectives for centuries; this book offers compelling new evidence and, at last, a solution to the mystery. On a cold October afternoon in 1678, the Westminster justice of the peace Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey left his home in Charing Cross and never returned. Within hours of his disappearance, London was abuzz with rumours that the magistrate had been murdered by Catholics in retaliation for his investigation into a supposed 'Popish Plot' against the government. Five days later, speculation morphed into a moral panic after Godfrey's body was discovered in a ditch, impaled on his own sword in an apparent clumsily staged suicide. This book presents an anatomy of a conspiratorial crisis that shook the foundations of late Stuart England, eroding public faith in authority and official sources of information. Speculation about Godfrey's death dovetailed with suspicions about secret diplomacy at the court of Charles II, contributing to the emergence of a partisan press and an oppositional political culture in which the most fantastical claims were not only believable but plausible. Ultimately, conspiracy theories implicating the king's principal minister, his queen and his brother in Godfrey's murder stoked the passions and divisions that would culminate in the Exclusion Crisis, the most serious challenge to the British monarchy since the Civil War.

General

Imprint:	The Boydell Press
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History
Release date:	December 2022
Authors:	Andrea McKenzie
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 22mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	284
ISBN-13:	978-1-78327-762-9
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 1500 to 1750 Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history > 1500 to 1700 Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Civil war Books > History > British & Irish history > 1500 to 1700 Books > History > History of specific subjects > Military history Books > History > World history > 1500 to 1750 Promotions
LSN:	1-78327-762-9
Barcode:	9781783277629

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