ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses three key areas of major change–constitutional change, religious and intellectual change, and economic and social change–largely within an English context and assesses their scale and importance. It explores more briefly two geographically wider aspects of change and continuity. In 1640–1 the Elizabethan constitution collapsed. Subsequently, during the English Revolution and the reigns of the later Stuarts, there was a search for a new constitutional 'settlement'. However, far more important in causing the expansion of the king's government were the wars of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Parliament in effect became responsible for the maintenance of the armed forces, and annual sessions were therefore necessary in order to grant the bulk of the money for this purpose. Since most English Protestants before 1640 were members of the Church of England, 'Anglican' is not a very helpful term to use in analysing religious opinion in that period.
