Royalists and Patriots: Politics and Ideology in England, 1603-1640

319 Pages·2014·7.057 MB·English

by  J. P. Sommerville

From the reviews of the First Edition:
‘J.P. Sommerville’s Politics and Ideology in England 1603-1640 is an excellent book.
Commendably short, it is both a monograph on the political and ideological debates
which preceded the Civil War and a judicious reconsideration of their role in causing
it. . . , No one after reading him should be able to deny that the Civil War had long­
term ideological antecedents (though no doubt many will go on doing so).’
Christopher Hill, English Historical Review
‘All those interested in the field must become well acquainted with Sommerville’s
book, which represents the single most significant challenge to the revisionist
thesis ... It will as well likely have an extraordinary shelf life; long after the current
furor over Parliament dies down, undergraduates and their teachers will still read it
as the most convenient point of departure into the neglected ideological dimension
of early seventeenth-century England.’ Thomas Cogswell, Journal of Modern History
‘In a stimulating, subtly argued and well written book, Johann Sommerville sets out
to restore the role of ideology in the origins of the English Civil War . . . This is an
important book, which revitalizes the debate on the origins of the Civil War. The
interpretation is challenging, the detail largely accurate (this reader spotted very few
factual errors). The author and publisher are to be congratulated on producing a
cheaply priced, attractive and scholarly book. It deserves to be widely read.’
Kenneth Fincham, Parliamentary History
‘Dr Sommerville is delivering a challenge to most of the English work published in
this field in the past ten years. Such a challenge is a newsworthy event, and the
beginning of a major new round of debate. The gauntlet has been thrown down
with distinction: the scholarship is careful, the quotation accurate, the argument taut,
the style courteous and succinct, and the whole bears the unmistakable stamp of
quality. There are almost no passages in this work which will not survive a scrutiny
of their source.’ Conrad Russell, London Review of Books
‘But those who disagree with Dr Sommerville will have to address themselves to the
detailed substance of his case, and they will not find rebuttal an easy task. This is a
powerful and persuasive work of considerable originality and importance.’
G.E. Aylmer, Times Higher Educational Supplement
‘a thoughtful and well-organized set of essays’ James McSwain, History [US]
‘well researched, clearly thought through, and admirably written . . . Giving a fresh
view of political ideas of seventeenth-century England, Sommerville shows their
relationship to practical politics and emphasizes the fundamental disagreements on
basic tenets. Students will find the book at once provocative and reliable - so too
will their professors.’ Elizabeth Read Foster, American Historical Review
‘[fills] a yawning void, thereby forcing a revision in our thinking.’
Lamar M. Hill, Albion
‘The 17th century remains one of the most contested periods of English history.
This book, concerned with the relationship between political principles and political
practice, aims to provide more light on the subject rather than fuel the heat of
debate. It provides an incisive re-examination of the theories of divine right,
government by consent and the ancient constitution, and relates them both to the
crises and routine affairs of political and religious life under the first two Stuarts.’
R.C. Richardson, Times Educational Supplement
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ROYALISTS AND
PATRIOTS
Politics and Ideology in England
1603-1640
Second Edition
J.P. Sommerville
|J Routledge
Taylor &. Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1986 by
Pearson Education Limited
Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© Pearson Education Limited, 1986, 1999
The right of J.P. Sommerville to be identified as author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without either the prior written
permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United
Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this title is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sommerville, J.P., 1953-
Royalists and patriots : politics and ideology in England,
1603-1640 / J.P. Sommerville. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Politics and ideology in England, 1603-1640. 1986.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Political science—England—History—17th century. 2. Great
Britain—Politics and government—1603-1649. I. Sommerville, J.
P., 1953- Politics and ideology in England, 1603-1640. II. Title.
JA84.G7S67 1999
320.5'0942—dc21 98-46176
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-582-32006-2 (pbk)
Set by 35 in 10/ 12pt Bembo
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition vii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations and Bibliographical Note xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE Principles 7
1. The Divine Right of Kings 9
The law of nature 13
The necessity of government 18
Designation theory 24
Patriarchalism 29
The nature and limitations of royal authority 37
The influence and development of the theory of royal
absolutism 43
Conclusions 50
2. Government by Consent 55
The origins of government 60
The original contract 62
Conquest theory 65
The public good and resistance 68
The influence and significance of the theory 77
3. The Ancient Constitution 81
The common law as ancient custom 84
The common law as reason 88
The common law and statute 91
The common law and the royal prerogative 96
The common law and natural law 100
v
Royalists and Patriots
PART TWO Applications 105
4. Conflict and Compromise 107
Absolutism: attack and counter-attack 109
The case of John Cowell 113
Maynwaring and Sibthorp 119
James Ys speech of 21 March 1610 124
The marriage of prerogative and liberty 126
Making a difference between the king and the people 130
5. The Liberty of the Subject 134
Property 134
Absolute property 140
Absolutists on property 149
Imprisonment without cause shown, and the Petition of Right 153
Parliament 164
6. The Church 176
Papalist theory 182
Anti-papalist clericalism 187
The Royal Supremacy 191
Episcopacy by divine right 196
The church, the law and the laity 199
Laud and Arminianism 205
Conclusion 215
Revisionism Revisited: A Retrospect 224
Absolutism 226
Resistance 250
The languages of politics and the rules structuring consensus 254
Conclusion: revisionism, consensus and the causes of the English
Civil War 261
Suggestions for Further Reading 266
Chronology 273
Index 279
vi
Preface to the Second Edition
This second edition has been revised throughout to take account of research
done since 1986, when the book was first published. Errors have been cor­
rected in this edition and it contains much new material, dealing especially
with current scholarship. There is a lengthy new chapter, discussing recent
writings on early-seventeenth-century English politics and ideas, and espe­
cially the views of so-called ‘revisionist’ historians, some of whom have taken
issue with this book’s main arguments. The ‘Suggestions for Further Reading’
have been completely re-done to reflect the wealth of fine work that has
appeared since the mid-1980s. There is a new ‘Chronology’ listing the main
events mentioned in the text. The first edition sometimes used ‘he’ to mean
‘he or she’, but this one avoids such locutions except where they would be
seriously misleading.
For funding which made possible this revision, I am most grateful to
the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and to the
National Endowment for the Humanities. I am also much indebted to the
staffs of the Folger Shakespeare Library and of Memorial Library here in Mad­
ison for their courteous and expert assistance. A particular word of gratitude
is due to the ever-efficient Ed Duesterhoeft, the maestro of the microfilm at
Memorial Library.
Johann P. Sommerville
Madison
June 1998
A final warm word of thanks is due to the Huntington Library for awarding
me a fellowship. The proofs of the book and the index were completed in the
congenial surroundings of the Huntington.
San Marino, California
December 1998
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Acknowledgements
This book is about political ideas in England before the Civil War. Few of the
men who feature in these pages were original thinkers. They borrowed their
ideas from others. The same goes for the present writer. I owe a great deal of
gratitude to many historians for whatever good ideas there are in this book.
The bad ideas are, of course, my own. Debts for particular points are re­
corded in the notes and references but certain more general influences merit
recognition here.
First and foremost, I would like to thank those who read and commented
on drafts of the book. Professor G.R. Elton deserves additional thanks for the
unflagging energy with which he faced the uphill struggle of instilling in me
the elements of historical scholarship and a sense of the importance of English
political history. Professor Quentin Skinner has been a kind and constant
reader of my writings. Fie and Dr Richard Tuck guided my first faltering
steps in political philosophy and the history of political thought. Their own
works are a model of what can be achieved by a combination of historical
sensitivity and precision in conceptual analysis. Dr John Morrill has freely
shared his encyclopaedic knowledge of Stuart history and his boundless en­
thusiasm for the subject. Drs Mark Goldie and Glyn Parry and Mr Howard
Moss have also made many telling criticisms of the book and saved me from
blunders too horrendous to mention. I owe much to all of them.
Over the years, I have benefited from conversations with many friends and
scholars, including Mr John Adamson, Drs Martin Dzelzainis and Jamie Hart,
Professor Derek Hirst, Dr Peter Lake and Professor Linda Levy Peck. A
special word of thanks is due to Dr Richard Cust for permission to draw on
his important doctoral dissertation on the Forced Loan. More generally, I
would like to thank the members of those seminaries of historical learning,
the graduate seminars held at Cambridge and at the Institute of Historical
Research. They have taught me a great deal, and so too have my undergradu­
ate students.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank the staff of the Cambridge Univer­
sity Library for their unfailing courtesy and efficiency, and the Council of St
ix