ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part is concerned with political-constitutional, religious-ecclesiastical and social-economic developments in Stuart England. However, research and writing on other areas of the Stuart age have not made making interconnections with other areas any easier. It is true that there are clear connections between economic and political developments in early Stuart England. The early Stuart State both indirectly, through its expenditure on armaments and dockyards, and directly, in its attempts to intervene in economic affairs, played a major role in influencing economic development, though not always in the direction it intended. The part analyses separately some of the major characteristics of the economy, society, Church and government of early Stuart England. It addresses the question of how serious were the strains and stresses that existed in the social, economic, ecclesiastical and constitutional structure of England in the early seventeenth century.
