A pioneering exploration of the phenomenon of the composite state in Eighteenth-century Europe. Employing a comparative approach, it combines the findings of new research on Ireland with broader syntheses of major composite states in Europe those of France, Austria and Poland-Lithuania.

Presenting the correspondence of The Brodricks, who originated in Surrey and established themselves in Ireland, in County Cork, in the mid-17th century, and were among the most important Anglo-Irish political families in the reigns of the later Stuarts and early Hanoverians. Includes letters between Alan Brodrick (1656-1728) and his brother Thomas (1654-1730) who emerged as prominent figures in the Irish house of commons, at the forefront of a political interest which associated itself with the whig party in England The collection provides a wealth of detailed commentary on political events in Ireland and England, both national and local Largely unknown by historians until deposited with the Surrey Record Office in the 1970s, when its enormous value was appreciated by researchers seeking to understand Irish political history in the decades after the Glorious Revolution The first part of a three-volume edition that will present a fully annotated edition of the letters, running from 1680-1728, and covering the Williamite settlement in Ireland, the 'rage of party' under Queen Anne, and the complex factional politics of the years after 1714, marked by controversy over the South Sea Bubble, and in Ireland, the 'patriotic' agitation over Wood's halfpence Each volume includes an extensive introduction setting out the historical background to the letters, and placing the Brodricks in their various contexts, in County Cork and Surrey, and in the political worlds of Dublin and Westminster