Rebellion Quotes

“He visited the country house of a goldsmith, Sir Robert Viner, where ‘he showed me a black boy that he had that died of a consumption; and being dead, he caused him to be dried in an oven, and lies there entire in a box’.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Civil War: The History of England Volume III

“Parliamentary prisoners were often sent to Coventry under armed guard; hence the familiar expression.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

“at the beginning of September, parliament declared that those who opposed its intentions were ‘delinquents’ or ‘malignant and disaffected persons’ whose property could be confiscated.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

“rebarbative”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

“So on 6 February 1685, the new king, James II, ascended the throne in the face of sustained and organized opposition from Shaftesbury and the Whigs. He was fifty-two years of age and in vigorous health. He had already proved himself to be determined and decisive; he had remained faithful to his Catholic beliefs despite every attempt to persuade him otherwise. He was more resolute and more trustworthy than his brother, but he lacked Charles’s geniality and perceptiveness. He seemed to have no great capacity for compromise and viewed the world about him in the simple terms of light and darkness; there was the monarchy and authority on on side, with republicanism and disorder on the other. His manner was stiff and restrained, his temper short.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

“It was not simply the effect of an epigram but, rather, the product of a fertile mind and keen observation. Wit was the currency of the court of Charles II.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

“Everybody needed news. Everybody wanted news. News was known as ‘hot’. It was a society of conversation so that rumour and gossip passed quickly through the streets. At times of more than usual excitement papers and pamphlets were dropped in the street and were eagerly snatched up and passed from hand to hand. Anonymous publications, without a printer’s imprint, were widely circulated. One owner of a coffee-house trained his parrot to squawk ‘What’s the news?’ at his customers.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution