The 1600s were a
tumultuous century in British history. The Tudor dynasty came to an end with
the death of Elizabeth I, and the Stuarts ascended the throne. Disagreements
between king and Parliament increased, with the eventual explosion of civil war
in the 1640s and the Cromwell protectorate in the 1650s. Then came the
Restoration, with Charles II crowned king. Upon his death, his brother James II
became king, but his Catholicism and imperial ways were too much. William and
Mary, James II’s son-in-law and daughter, ascended the throne in the relatively
bloodless Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Rebellion is firmly in the tradition of popular
history writing in the U.K., and Ackroyd is one of its most prolific writers.
The book is a lively, exciting story, and it draws upon a lively, exciting
period. Ackroyd writes history with all of its warts, and none of the romanticizing
that many popular writers might be prone to.
The most
detailed and extensive section is the era that was the most pivotal – roughly 1640
to 1660, covering the fight between Charles I and the royalists on one side and
the Independents and Presbyterians of Parliament on the other. The detailed discussion
provides a solid summary of both causes and effects, and emphasizes that the it
wasn’t a simple “crown versus Parliament” fight. Loyalties could be fluid, and
both sides were guilty of extreme positions and acts. It was a time of
extremes.
The 17th
century was also a time when some of the greatest literature and theological
statements in English history was created. Shakespeare wrote some of his most
famous plays. A royal commission of scholars translated and created the King James
Version of the Bible. Thomas Hobbes wrote his
Leviathan. Milton wrote his
incredible poetry (and spent a time in prison for siding with Cromwell and
Parliament). John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s
Progress. Theologians spent five years (meeting at Hampton Court Palace) creating
the Westminster Confession.
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| Peter Ackroyd |
While the focus
is political history (and particularly the political history of England),
Rebellion also provides context of what was happening in the daily lives of the
people. We learn about crop failures; the growth, contraction, and growth of
trade; the return of the plague; and the first of London in 1666 (both King
Charles II and his brother worked to fight the fire, which burned for three
September days).
But it’s the
political history where Ackroyd excels and tells his best stories. We learn of
the workings and the corruption of the royal courts, the intrigues with various
European powers and how that played out in domestic politics, and the inner
workings o parliament and how it came to assume power and fight for power.
It’s a rich, exciting
story, and Ackroyd tells it extremely well.
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