Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War

by David R Como

Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War charts the way the English civil war of the 1640s mutated into a revolution, in turn paving the way for the later execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy. Focusing on parliament's most militant supporters, David Como reconstructs the origins and nature of the most radical forms of political and religious agitation that erupted during the war, tracing the process by which these forms gradually spread and gained broader acceptance. Drawing on a wide range of manuscript and print sources, the study situates these developments within a revised narrative of the period, revealing the emergence of new practices and structures for the conduct of politics. In the process, the book illuminates the eruption of many of the period's strikingly novel intellectual currents, including assumptions and practices we today associate with western representative democracy; notions of retained natural rights, religious
toleration, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment.

The study also chronicles the way that civil war shattered English protestantism--leaving behind myriad competing groupings, including congregationalists, baptists, antinomians, and others--while examining the relationship between this religious fragmentation and political change. It traces the gradual appearance of openly anti-monarchical, republican sentiment among parliament's supporters. Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War provides a new history of the English civil war, enhancing our understanding of the dramatic events of the 1640s, and shedding light on the long-term political and religious consequences of the conflict.

476 pages, Hardcover

Published September 19, 2018

Reviews

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this: Como carefully traces the development of radical ideologies to the point in 1646 where Republicanism is on the table.

Things I liked:
--we get a real sense of radicals as a 'fuzzy set', overlapping in pubs, in churches, and over printing presses: in this model the godly congregationalist churches are all competing for more or less the same set of people who may circulate between the churches before they settle. Como traces for us friendship and drinking groups and the links to people like Cromwell.
--Como's careful explanation of how to trace groups of people and ideas through the presses via their ornaments (place dividers, pretty letter-capitals) is just fascinating. This alone is worth the price of the book.
--and a really excellent discussion of how the Overton window moves from 1642 to 1646, with the King regularly playing into the hands of the radicals, and the Presbyterians fighting a rearguard action for a state controlled Church.

The only thing that did irritate me is that this is an entirely southern view of the issue: the furthest north city discussed is Leicester. We really do need a study of Radicalism in the North.


Worth the five days it took me to read this.

[Suzanne McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely outstanding - this is a magnificently thorough, persuasive, and engagingly written account of the many complex strands of radicalism in these years. I'm with the other reviewer who wished for an account of radicalism further north than Leicester, though :) Someone somewhere take up Como's baton for that :) In the meanwhile, this volume will be the gold-standard for years to come - and I am eager for his projected sequel!