The English Civil War is a subject which continues to excite enormous interest throughout the world. This atlas consists of over fifty maps illustrating all the major - and many of the minor - bloody campaigns and battles of the War, including the campaigns of Montrose, the battle of Edgehill and Langport. Providing a complete introductory history to the turbulent period, it also includes: * maps giving essential background information * detailed accompanying explanations * a useful context to events.

Examines the experiences of Catholics during the period when England was ruled by Puritan Protestants.

By spring 1645, two years of civil war had exacted a dreadful toll upon England. People lived in terror as disease and poverty spread, and the nation grew ever more politically divided. In a remote corner of Essex, two obscure gentlemen, Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne, exploited the anxiety and lawlessness of the time and initiated a brutal campaign to drive out the presumed evil in their midst. Touring Suffolk and East Anglia on horseback, they detected demons and idolators everywhere. Through torture, they extracted from terrified prisoners confessions of consorting with Satan and demonic spirits. Acclaimed historian Malcolm Gaskill retells the chilling story of the most savage witch-hunt in English history. By the autumn of 1647 at least 250 people--mostly women--had been captured, interrogated, and hauled before the courts. More than a hundred were hanged, causing Hopkins to be dubbed "Witchfinder General" by critics and admirers alike. Though their campaign was never legally sanctioned, they garnered the popular support of local gentry, clergy, and villagers. While Witchfinders tells of a unique and tragic historical moment fueled by religious fervor, today it serves as a reminder of the power of fear and fanaticism to fuel ordinary people's willingness to demonize others.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1978.

Popular interest in Cromwell has often exceeded the originality of what has been written about him. Barclay’s study comes out of meticulous research on a huge range of newly discovered primary sources, transforming our understanding of the life and career of Oliver Cromwell during the period from his birth in 1599 until 1642.

This book presents a fresh historical and theoretical analysis of religion and politics in early modern Europe.

This is a classic regional and comparative study of early modern witchcraft. The history of witchcraft continues to attract attention with its emotive and contentious debates. The methodology and conclusions of this book have impacted not only on witchcraft studies but the entire approach to social and cultural history with its quantitative and anthropological approach. The book provides an important case study on Essex as well as drawing comparisons with other regions of early modern England. The second edition of this classic work adds a new historiographical introduction, placing the book in context today.

The Puritan Ideology of Mobility: Corporatism, the Politics of Place, and the Founding of New England Towns before 1650 examines the ideology that English Puritans developed to justify migration: their migration from England to New England, migrations from one town to another within New England, and, often, their repatriation to the mother country. Puritan leaders believed firmly that nations, colonies, and towns were all “bodies politic,” that is, living and organic social bodies. However, if a social body became distempered because of scarce resources or political or religious discord, it became necessary to create a new social body from the old in order to restore balance and harmony. The new social body was articulated through the social ritual of land distribution according to Aristotelian “distributive justice.” The book will trace this process at work in the founding of Ipswich and its satellite town in Massachusetts.

The Eastern Association is best known for its performance at the battle of Marston Moor and the rise of Oliver Cromwell, but it was so much more. It was one of the most successful Parliamentary armies that served during the First Civil War; firstly having to secure the counties of East Anglia from Royalist sympathizers and then supporting Lord Fairfax’s Northern Association in its struggle with Newcastle’s Army and the latter’s final defeat at the battle of Marston Moor. It then assisted the remains of the Earl of Essex’s Army and Sir William Waller’s at the second battle of Newbury. Using contemporary and archaeological evidence this book looks at these two battles, as well as Gainsborough and Winceby, and the sieges of Reading, King’s Lynn, Lincoln and York. It also looks at the religious and political divisions within the army caused by the Presbyterians and Cromwell’s Independent factions which would almost cripple the army in winter of 1644, which would end in a bitter dispute in Parliament, which would eventually lead to the formation of the New Model Army. This book not only looks at the commanders but also the soldiers who served in the army by using their petitions which gives a vivid insight into the campaigns and life as a soldier during the Civil War, and is divided into the following chapters: 1) First Campaigns: the campaigns of Lord Grey of Warke, the first commander of the Eastern Association and also the early campaigns of Cromwell; 2) Manchester Takes Command: the increase in the strength of the Association under its new commander the Earl of Manchester, and the events leading up to it marching north, including Prince Rupert surprising the besiegers at Newark; 3) Newark: the Parliamentarian siege of Newark, and Rupert’s relief of the town; 4) The Siege of York: the events of the siege and siege warfare; 5) Marston Moor: the battle of Marston Moor and the surrender of York; 6) Crawford’s Campaign: the campaign of Major General Lawrence Crawford after the surrender of York, including the capture of Sheffield; 7) Manchester’s Campaign: describes Manchester’s movements from the surrender of York until his uniting with the armies of Essex and Waller at Basingstoke; 8) The Newbury Campaign: re-examines the battle and also considers the King’s return to Newbury and the combined Parliamentarian armies refusing to fight; 9) The Winter of Discontent: the dispute in Parliament which resulted in the Self- Denying Ordinance and the formation of the New Model Army; 10) The Last Campaigns: Cromwell being sent into the West and Crawford being ordered to assist Sir William Brereton, and then the disbandment of the Association’s regiments to form the New Model Army. The conclusion traces what happened to some of the combatants after the war, and appendices describe the logistics of the Eastern Association, and the Royalist Colors that were captured at Marston Moor. The discovery of the whereabouts of the correspondence of the Earl of Manchester after they were withdrawn from the then Public Record Office means that this book contains information not used in other books on the campaigns of the Eastern Association, and also the raising of the New Model Army, so is a must for anyone interested in the Civil War.

This book attempts both to take stock of directions in the field and to suggest alternative perspectives on some central aspects of the period.