‘By the Compass of the Word’: The Life and Piety of William Kiffen — A Quatercentenary Appreciation

2017 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-379
Author(s):  
Michael A. G. Haykin
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
John Bunyan ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Particular Baptist ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
Charles Ii

William Kiffen, a central figure in the emergence of the British Particular Baptist community in the seventeenth century, came to congregationalist and baptistic convictions in the political and religious turmoil of the reign of Charles I. By the early 1640s he was a key leader among the Particular Baptists in London, and went on to play a central role in their establishment as a distinct community over the next six decades. He was personally acquainted with not only Oliver Cromwell, but also Charles II and James II. His major literary work was a defense of closed communion, in which he opposed the views of John Bunyan. Kiffen won this debate, and so determined the shape of Baptist polity in the following century.

Fatal Adulteries: Sexual Politics in the English Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Samuel Fullerton
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
English Revolution ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Political Commentary ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
King Charles I ◽  
Sexual Histories ◽  
Charles Ii

Abstract This article argues for a reconsideration of the origins of Restoration sexual politics through a detailed examination of the effusive sexual polemic of the English Revolution (1642–1660). During the early 1640s, unprecedented political upheaval and a novel public culture of participatory print combined to transform explicit sexual libel from a muted element of prewar English political culture into one of its preeminent features. In the process, political leaders at the highest levels of government—including Queen Henrietta Maria, Oliver Cromwell, and King Charles I—were confronted with extensive and graphic debates about their sexual histories in widely disseminated print polemic for the first time in English history. By the early 1650s, monarchical sexuality was a routine topic of scurrilous political commentary. Charles II was thus well acquainted with this novel polemical milieu by the time he assumed the throne in 1660, and his adoption of the “Merry Monarch” persona early in his reign represented a strategic attempt to turn mid-century sexual politics to his advantage, despite unprecedented levels of contemporary criticism. Restoration sexual culture was therefore largely the product of civil war polemical debate rather than the singular invention of a naturally libertine young king.

Stuart Coronations in Seventeenth- Century Scotland

2018 ◽  
pp. 241-256
Author(s):  
Jane Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Charles Ii

The Scottish coronations of Stuart monarchs were highly politically significant—and controversial—occasions. When, in 1633, Charles I finally visited Scotland to be crowned, the manner of the coronation and of the king’s conduct bred anxiety and resentment among the Scots. His son would be crowned in Edinburgh long before being crowned Charles II in England: taking place in 1651, this Scottish coronation was a defiant challenge to the Commonwealth regime. Restored to the throne of England in 1660, Charles II was crowned in London in a ceremony that did not acknowledge his earlier Scottish coronation. This chapter examines the literature surrounding and linking these three coronation ceremonies that was published in Scotland, and, in some cases, republished or answered in England. It argues that this succession literature both illuminates and plays a dynamic role in shaping Scottish cultural identity and Anglo-Scottish relations.

scholarly journals MARIE GIGAULT DE BELLEFONDS, AMBASSADRESS OF FRANCE. GENDER, POWER AND DIPLOMACY AT THE COURT OF CHARLES II OF SPAIN, 1679-1681

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-30
Author(s):  
Ezequiel Borgognoni
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
System A ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
Charles Ii

In this article, I will analyse the political activity of marquise Marie Gigault de Bellefonds, ambassadress of France at the Madrid court between 1679 and 1681, by reflecting on the different diplomatic strategies implemented by her and her husband in order to gain the favour of the monarchs, particularly of the queen consort Marie-Louise of Orleans. The study of Louis XIV of France’s instructions to his ambassador and the perusal of the letters that the ambassadress sent to her friends in Paris evidence the importance of collaborative work in the marriages among diplomats in seventeenth-century court society. Moreover, our sources allow us to make visible the role of the wives of ambassadors in the pre-modern diplomatic system –a field of study in its beginning stages, but also highly promising. Who was Marie Gigault de Bellefonds? Why was she considered a dangerous individual or, as stated by Saint-Simon, «evil as a snake» at the court? Who were her main adversaries in Madrid? What was she accused of? Why did she and her husband have to leave the embassy in 1681? This research will attempt to answer these and other questions related to the presence of the French ambassadress at the court of Charles II and Marie-Louise of Orleans.

Resurrecting the Body Politic – Physiology’s Influence on Sir William Petty’s Political Arithmetick

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 157-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akos Sivado
Keyword(s):  
Medical Education ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
Trained Physician ◽  
Charles Ii

Sir William Petty (1623-1687), the founder of the method of “political arithmetick,” was a trained physician and anatomist. Receiving medical education both in England and on the continent, he later turned away from an academic career and a medical practice in favour of dealing with political and social matters, becoming one of the first advocates of quantifying social phenomena in order to better govern a population. Offering his services to both Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, Petty sought to reform and transform society (in Ireland in particular), while considering the physician’s treatment of natural bodies and the political advisor’s treatment of the body politic to be analogous enterprises. In doing so, he did not refrain from suggesting serious interventions into social life – something that his contemporary peers did not consider compatible with their medical backgrounds. This article attempts to investigate how Petty’s proposals could have differed so much in their scope and content from those of his colleagues, while remaining true to their largely shared Baconian and Harveyan origins.


Locke’s life

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
Georges Dicker
Keyword(s):  
John Locke ◽  
Glorious Revolution ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
King Charles I ◽  
History Of ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Political Works ◽  
Publishing Career ◽  
The Glorious Revolution

This chapter is a brief biography of John Locke. It summarizes how his fortunes waxed and waned under the regimes of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, King Charles II, King James II, and the “Glorious Revolution,” and it touches on his education at Westminster School and Christ College and on his ties to the Earl of Shaftesbury and to Lady Masham. The chapter also provides a brief history of Locke’s publishing career, including the Essay and political works such as the First Treatise of Government (a critique of the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings) and the Second Treatise of Government (an outline of the bases for democracy and an influence on the U.S. Constitution).

Theaters of Pardoning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Meyler
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Measure For Measure ◽  
Charles Ii

To address the roots of pardoning’s treatment in contemporary politics and uncover what new formulations of pardoning might contribute, this book examines the role of what it calls “theaters of pardoning”—a form of tragicomedy—in the drama and politics of seventeenth-century England. Historically, shifts in the representation of pardoning tracked the transition from a more monarchical and judgment-focused to an increasingly parliamentary and legislative vision of sovereignty. On stage, a transformation surreptitiously took place from individual pardons of revenge to more sweeping pardons of revolution. The change can be traced from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to later works like Philip Massinger’s The Bondman. In the political arena, the pardon correspondingly came to be envisioned in increasingly law-like terms, culminating in the idea of a general amnesty, or “Act of Oblivion,” implemented by the Restoration Parliament under King Charles II. The figuration of pardoning as lawgiving did not eliminate its connection with sovereignty but instead displaced sovereignty from the King onto Parliament. The link between pardoning and sovereignty has contributed to the suspicion that has more recently surrounded the exercise of pardoning. Only by breaking the connection between pardoning and sovereignty cemented in seventeenth-century England can we reinvigorate pardoning in the polity today.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Nadine Akkerman
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Charles I ◽  
Charles Ii

Your Majesty […] (as the Mirror of her sexe & quality), the most incomparable in generosity and affability by right termed the Queene of ♥.1 So wrote diplomat, spy, and art broker Sir Balthazar Gerbier in a letter of 1639. The recipient was Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James VI/I, sister to Charles I, and aunt to Charles II. By the time of her death at the age of 65, she had lived through the reigns of her father and brother, the decade of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, and seen her nephew restored to the throne of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. She was at the centre of the political and military struggle that was the Thirty Years War (1618–48), acting as powerbroker between the great families of Europe, not always successfully, and yet forged a dynasty that led directly to the Hanoverian succession of 1714: King George I was her grandson....

‘Eyes without Light’

2018 ◽  
pp. 222-240
Author(s):  
Henry Power
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Oliver Cromwell ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Relationship

During the seventeenth century the relationship between monarch and universities was a highly political one. This chapter considers the many collections of verse—in English and Latin—issued by the universities in response to royal successions. The protocols surrounding these volumes allowed for a certain amount of political self-expression. This chapter argues that these volumes became a means by which the universities could establish a relationship with the new monarch. The first half of the chapter charts the emergence and operation of protocols for producing these commemorative volumes. The second half offers a case study of Cambridge’s two commemorative volumes, respectively on the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658 and the accession of Charles II in 1660. The scholarly exercises contained within these volumes were capable of communicating significant political messages.

Competent to Rule?: Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato and a Secular View of Politics in Habsburg Dynastic History

2010 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 71-87
Author(s):  
Maria Golubeva
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval Period ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Habsburg Court ◽  
Oliver Cromwell

This article deals with an early modern court historian's judgments concerning the political competence and incompetence of his contemporaries. Although the phrase “political competence” may seem anachronistic when referring to the second half of the seventeenth century, hardly any historian today would deny that, at least since the late medieval period, European intellectuals belonging to political elites had developed their own understanding of what constitutes effective statesmanship. That understanding was not always normative, or based on exempla of the classical past—it could be practical and expressed through evaluations of current events. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the future Habsburg court historian Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato wrote about Oliver Cromwell: “And let it be noted from his extraordinary example, that not the nobility of birth, nor riches . . . qualify one for high office, as it usually solely happens, but that it is the opportunity that . . . wakes up the spirits, and sharpens the minds.” This article will deal with Priorato's judgments of political competence (and incompetence) in the works that he wrote while in the service of the Austrian Habsburgs.

Publics and Participation in the Three Kingdoms: Was There Such a Thing as “British Public Opinion” in the Seventeenth Century?

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Harris
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
British History ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Charles I ◽  
The People ◽  
Charles Ii

AbstractThis article explores where the people fit in to British history and whether there was such a thing as British public opinion in the seventeenth century. It argues that given the nature of the Stuart multiple monarchy, and the way the power structures of that monarchy impinged upon Ireland, Scotland, and England, the Stuarts' political authority was at times publicly negotiated on a Britannic level. People across Britain were engaged with British affairs: there was public opinion about British politics, in other words, albeit not British public opinion, since the people were bitterly divided at this time. However, because the crisis that brought down Charles I had been a three-kingdoms crisis, which in turn had helped spark the growth of a more sophisticated British news culture, the Restoration monarchy became increasingly sensitive to the need to try to keep public opinion across the Britannic archipelago on its side. In response to the challenge of the Whigs during the Exclusion Crisis, Charles II and his Tory allies sought to rally public support across England, Scotland, and Ireland and thus to represent “British public opinion” as being in favor of the hereditary succession. It was a representation, however, that remained contested.

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