Little integrates the latest research from younger and established scholars to provide a new evaluation and 'biography' of Cromwell. The book challenges received wisdom about Cromwell's rise to power, his political and religious beliefs, his relationship with various communities across the British Isles and his role as Lord Protector.

The neglected period of the Protectorate is reviewed and reassessed in this stimulating collection. The Protectorate is arguably the Cinderella of Interregnum studies: it lacks the immediate drama of the Regicide, the Republic or the Restoration, and is often dismissed as a 'retreat from revolution', a short period of conservative rule before the inevitable return of the Stuarts. The essays in this volume present new research that challenges this view. They argue instead that the Protectorate was dynamic and progressive, even if the policies put forwardwere not always successful, and often created further tensions within the government and between Whitehall and the localities. Particular topics include studies of Oliver Cromwell and his relationship with Parliament, and the awkward position inherited by his son, Richard; the role of art and architecture in creating a splendid protectoral court; and the important part played by the council, as a law-making body, as a political cockpit, and as part of a hierarchy of government covering not just England but also Ireland and Scotland. There are also investigations of the reactions to Cromwellian rule in Wales, in the towns and cities of the Severn/Avon basin, and in the local communities of England faced with a far-reaching programme of religious reform. PATRICK LITTLE is Senior Research Fellow at the History of Parliament Trust. Contributors: BARRY COWARD, DAVID L. SMITH, JASON PEACEY, PAUL HUNNEYBALL, BLAIR WORDEN, PETER GAUNT, LLOYD BOWEN, STEPHEN K. ROBERTS, CHRISTOPHER DURSTON.

This volume provides a detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate the book also examines both Lord Protectors, all three Protectorate Parliaments and the reasons why Oliver and Richard Cromwell were never able to achieve a stable working relationship with any Parliament. Its chronological coverage extends to the demise of the Third Protectorate Parliament in April 1659. This comprehensive account will appeal to historians of early modern British political history.

The crisis that befell Ireland in the 1640s has always fascinated historians. This volume of essays presents cutting-edge research on various aspects of the Irish wars, notably regionalism, the nature of English interventions, popular politics and the problems of allegiance, authority and legitimacy in church and state. The chapters include studies of the earl of Cork in Munster, the earl of Clanricarde in Connacht and Lord Montgomery in Ulster, as well as the Confederate Catholic engagement with popular politics. The role of the marquess of Ormond, the Irish Parliament and the Church of Ireland are also examined in new ways, and the volume ends with a fresh look at the war of words between Oliver Cromwell and the Catholic Church. Ireland in crisis presents a very different view of the period that challenges existing assumptions. It will appeal to lecturers, students and the general reader. -- .

This is the first truly scholarly edition of all the recorded writings and recorded speech acts of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and consists of more than 1,000 texts. Oliver Cromwell, one of Britain's greatest and most controversial generals, rose from lowly provincial origins to preside over the trial and execution of a king, to undertake the most complete conquest of Ireland and Scotland ever achieved, and to spend the last five years of his life as head of state, as Lord Protector of Britain and Ireland. A passionate speaker who claimed to be called by God to overthrow tyranny in church and state, and a powerful advocate for a very broad religious liberty and equality, his speeches and letters reveal the public and the private man more completely than for almost any other early modern political leader. This new edition not only publishes a number of new items, but also edits a large number from recovered originals not previously edited. Every item has its own detailed introduction explaining the status of the text and its context or contexts, but also very full annotation - identifying for example almost every person, place and event mentioned in the text and also - where there is no holograph but also variant copies - all significant differences between variant early copies.

A king beheaded. A monarchy abolished. And a commoner leading a republic by military rule set in their place. The wars that tore through the country in the mid-seventeenth century - splitting government, communities and families alike - were a true watershed in English history. But how, with Queen Elizabeth I's Golden Age still in living memory, did such a situation arise? Exploring the period's political disputes, religious conflicts and military battles, Patrick Little scrutinizes the nature and practicalities of conducting a civil war on English soil, as well as the experiences and motivations of key factions and combatants. By assessing how the realities of life in England shaped the conflict -and were torn apart by it - this wonderfully readable Beginner's Guide gets to the very heart of how a people came to kill their king.

Biographical studies of the two Dukes of Ormonde illuminate aspects of the operation of political power in seventeenth-century Ireland, and, on a wider European stage, the predicaments facing the nobility. A valuable insight into the political and material world of Ireland's leading aristocratic family. HISTORY For much of their lives the two dukes of Ormonde dominated public events in Ireland, where they served the English sovereign as viceroy five times; they were also powerful presences in the Stuart court in England, and commanded armies both in Ireland and Europe. Later, they spent long periods on the continent as travellers and exiles. Yetdespite their importance in the public life of the age, neither duke has been the subject of a full modern biography, a gap which this collection of essays aims to fill, using key episodes and phases in the Ormondes' careers to investigate the larger picture. The dukes' lives as great nobles, landowners and converts to Protestantism raise problems specific to Ireland, but they also exemplify the predicament of nobles elsewhere in Europe. A particular focusis on the worlds that they and their wives created, often innovative and always dazzling, and on the clienteles who looked to them for preferment and on which a part of the Ormondes' political weight rested. Throughout, much newlight is cast on such vexed questions as the troubled and constantly changing relationship between Ireland and England, between public and private interests, and the roles of women. Dr TOBY BARNARD teaches at the University of Oxford. Contributors: G.E. AYLMER, T.C. BARNARD, EVELINE CRUICKSHANKS, DAVID EDWARDS, JANE FENLON, RAYMOND GILLESPIE, DAVID HAYTON, PATRICK LITTLE, RENE MOULINAS, EAMONN - CIARDHA, NATHALIE GENET ROUFFIAC

In 1943, Jerald C. McIntire is supposed to die in a grenade explosion in the Ardennes forest in World War II. He miraculously survives, but from that point on Jerry no longer needs to eat or sleep, he has no emotions, and he never ages. After several suicide attempts, Jerry discovers he can't die. But how is this possible?

Nearly twenty years after his first brush with death, Jerry learns that he somehow broke the realm of the natural order. Even God Himself isn't sure how it happened, but Jerry is the only man ever born without a soul. The archangel Michael informs him that in the Soul War, good and evil are bound by certain laws and honor checks. Jerry, however, is bound by nothing and can therefore serve as the Master's Centurion-an agent of God bestowed with the name Jericho.

Jericho roams the streets of New York City, keeping order between the agents of Heaven and Hell, the angelus and the demonata. When a rogue deity, an ancient Hittite dragon god, comes to Earth and begins preying on both angels and demons, Jericho must step in to maintain the balance. But he stumbles into a much larger plot-one that threatens to irreparably damage the Balance of the Soul War and end all things.

This volume provides a detailed book-length study of the period of the Protectorate Parliaments from September 1654 to April 1659. The study is very broad in its scope, covering topics as diverse as the British and Irish dimensions of the Protectorate Parliaments, the political and social nature of factions, problems of management, the legal and judicial aspects of Parliament's functions, foreign policy and the nature of the parliamentary franchise and elections in this period. In its wide-ranging analysis of Parliaments and politics throughout the Protectorate the book also examines both Lord Protectors, all three Protectorate Parliaments and the reasons why Oliver and Richard Cromwell were never able to achieve a stable working relationship with any Parliament. Its chronological coverage extends to the demise of the Third Protectorate Parliament in April 1659. This comprehensive account will appeal to historians of early modern British political history.