ABSTRACT
The number of reliable general histories and students' textbooks which serve as introduction to this period has greatly increased in the last ten years. These include G. E. Aylmer, The Struggle for the Constitution, 1603-89 (Blandford, 1963), R. Lockyer, Tudor and Smart Britain, 1471-1714 (Longman, 1965) and J. E. C. Hill, The Century of Revolution, 1603-1714 (Nelson, 1961; also Sphere, pb). M. Ashley, England in the Seventeenth Century (Penguin, cl and pb 1952) is a straightforward account. The two Oxford Histories for this period are still serviceable: G. Davies, The Early Stuarts, 1603-60 (Oxf,, 2nd edn 1959) and G. N. Clark, The Later Stuarts, 1660-1714 (Oxf., 2nd edn 1956). Constitutional history cannot be separated from political history, particularly for this century, and among the best guides to the period is J. P. Kenyon (ed.) The Stuart Constitution, 1603-88 (Camb., cl and pb 1966), with documents and commentary. The same author, in The Stuarts (Collins/Fontana, n.i. pb 1966) provides pen-portraits of the monarchs. Other collections of documents are J. R. Tanner, Constitutional Documents of the Reign of Jantes I (Camb., 1930), S. R. Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625-60 (Oxf., 3rd edn 1906) and W. C. Costin and J. S. Watson, The Law and Working of the Constitution, vol. 1 (Black, 2 vols, 2nd edn 1964). A. Browning, English Historical Documents, vol. 8, 1660-1714 (Eyre & S., 1953) is a mine of information; a companion volume for the first half of the century is awaited. Recent surveys of important constitutional developments include C. Roberts, The Growth of Responsible Government in Stuart England (Camb., 1966), C. C. Weston, English Constitutional Theory and the House of Lords, 1556-1832 (Routledge, 1965) and B. Kemp, King and Commons, 1660-1832 (Macmillan, 1957); and of political theory W. H. Greenleaf, Order, Empiricism and Politics: two traditions of English political thought, 1500-1700 (Oxf., 1964), J. A. W. Gunn, Politics and the Public Interest in the Seventeenth Century (Routledge, 1969) and C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism (Oxf., 7741962, pb 1964), which contains reassessments of Hobbes, the Levellers and Locke. Other themes raised in this century are explored in J. W. Gough, Fundamental Law in English Constitutional History (Oxf., 1955), F. D. Wormuth, The Origins of Modern Constitutionalism (Harper, 1949) and J. G. Pocock, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law (Camb., I957)· The legal background is important: A. Harding, A Social History of English Law (Penguin, 1966) provides an admirable introduction; the standard work is W. S. Holdsworth, History of English Law, vol. 6 (Methuen, 2nd edn 1937).
