The Fall of the British Monarchies 1637-1642

by Conrad Russell

A history of the dramatic events which led to the collapse of Charles I's authority in England, Scotland, and Ireland in the 1640s, this book links incidents in the king's three domains to construct a narrative account which makes sense of British history, as well as of the national story of
each country. Russell traces the important role of the Scots in dividing the English, and examines the Irish rebellion in its contemporary context. Above all, he uncovers the role played by the king himself, and argues that Charles Stuart was not the passive figure portrayed by so many historians,
but an active protagonist in the political events which were eventually to lose him not only one crown, but three.

Genres: History, English Civil War

570 pages, Hardcover

First published May 30, 1991

About the author

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl of Russell, was an English historian of early Stuart Britain and a politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his third wife Patricia Russell. He was also a great-grandson of the 19th-century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a pleasure to read anything of Russell's, and this is no exception: an excellent and detailed narrative of the events running up to the outbreak of the First English Civil War. He draws in what were then the most recent and convincing arguments on Arminianism (i.e. Tyacke) and includes a much-needed commentary on the British dimension. Sadly, this can interrupt the flow occasionally (as he will deal with events that were happening concurrently in Scotland and England in separate chapters, etc) and, given the importance of the Irish rebellion, it would have been nice to have seen Ireland discussed in more detail in and of itself, rather than simply in how those events impacted England. Despite the use of new scholarship and research - and more than a nod to postmodernism in thinking about rumour, popular politics, and language - he remains in the revisionist camp, ultimately tracing the problems of all three kingdoms to their one point of commonality: Charles I. Yet he does this in such a way as to keep Charles as a sympathetic, albeit deeply frustrating, figure.