History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate [4 Bd.e].

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - sehr guter Zustand / very good condition - The four volumes of S. R. Gardiner�s History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate completed his monumental life work researching seventeenth-century Britain. They deal with the period between the execution of king Charles I and the rule of the Major Generals in 1656. This was a period characterised by an astonishing abundance of radical political and religious groupings and ideas, and it saw a constant search by Cromwell and the various factions which in turn supported him to gain a constitutional "settlement� which would prove stable. -- Volume One takes up the narrative with events directly after the execution of King Charles I, culminating in the mutiny of the Levellers which was ruthlessly suppressed by Fairfax and Cromwell at Burford in May 1649. -- Gardiner next turns his attention to the crushing of Irish opposition by an army led by Oliver Cromwell. The terrible consequences of this intervention remain indelibly etched in Irish history in the name of the two infamous sieges of Drogheda and Wexford. Opposition in Scotland was similarly silenced by Cromwell at the decisive battle of Dunbar in 1650. These victorious actions in Scotland and Ireland ensured that the revolution which had begun in 1642 was secured militarily. -- The second volume of S. R. Gardiner's History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate covers events between the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650 and the adoption of the Instrument of Government in December 1653. The campaign which ended in the Battle at Worcester in September 1651 was the last gasp of Royalist hopes for the demise of the new regime. Domestic conflict was followed by war with the Dutch, but the real problem for the victorious army lay in its search for a constitutional �settlement� which would in some way receive support from the various religious and political groupings which proliferated after the military battles had been won. -- Cromwell finally lost patience with the Long Parliament and used military force to eject the remaining members in April 1653. The problem which then arose was how to fill the constitutional vacuum. The Nominated Parliament which assembled in July 1653 was the first of Cromwell�s attempts to find an answer to this constitutional problem. -- But it was short-lived; the majority of members abdicated five months later when a new constitutional experiment in the form of the Instrument of Government was discussed and adopted. -- The third volume of Gardiner�s great History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate takes as its starting point the installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector on the sixteenth of December 1653. As Gardiner notes in the first chapter of the volume, the ceremony had a suspiciously familiar ring to it. 'Having received their obeisance, after the fashion of the former kings, his Highness, Oliver, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England was reconducted to Whitehall, assigned to him as the residence of the head of State! -- Elections took place in the summer of 1654 under the auspices of the new constitution enshrined in the Instrument of Government, and Parliament opened in September 1654. But this constitutional experiment ended four months later. The Protector dissolved Parliament in 1655 when it became clear that a sizeable republican faction were intent on opposing the workings of the new constitution at every turn. As one member declared the Protector�s right to rule could 'be measured out no otherwise than by the length of his sword! -- Cromwell now resorted to naked military power in order to maintain his vision of the revolution against the claims of his political and religious opponents. During the last half of 1655 the country was, in effect, divided into military regions and the repressive rule of the Major-Generals began. -- S.R. Gardiner died in 1902 leaving only one chapter of the final volume of his monumental History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate complete. After his death, his disciple and colleague C.H. Firth completed this volume. -- Firth deals thematically with a number of issues which confronted the Protector; his government's attitude towards religious toleration for such diverse groups as Quakers, Catholics and, most interestingly, Jews, is dealt with, as is the foreign and colonial policy of the Protectorate. The beginning of the end of the despised Major-Generals is also chronicled; the latest in a long line of governmental experiments, Cromwell's regional military governors foundered primarily in the same way as many governments before and since -the financial resources assigned to them were completely inadequate. -- Cromwell was also struggling to find a settlement in Ireland - of course the tragedies of later centuries have their roots to a large extent in the events of the 1640s and 1650s - a legacy which has continued to confound the best endeavours towards a solution by many governments to this day. ISBN 9780900075704