The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England

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A fresh, exciting, “readable and informative” history ( The New York Times) of seventeenth-century England, a time of revolution when society was on fire and simultaneously forging the modern world. •“Recapture[s] a lost moment when a radically democratic commonwealth seemed possible.”—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker It was interesting to see the rise and fall of the aristocracy as well. A man could come from relatively humble beginnings and become a Duke in one lifetime. And lose their titles, lands (and heads) even faster. There is one chapter (17) which felt out of place, perhaps because I have already read detailed histories of this period, 1665 and 1666, discussing the Dutch naval wars, the Plague and the Great Fire of London.

Jonathan Healy does a magnificent job of telling this story. He focuses on trying to explain what it was like. He does not go deeply into the military tactic of the battles or the minutia of Court or Parliamentary wrangling. He does try to explain the mind set of this religion-soaked world where fine points of theology were matters of life and death. The threat of international Catholicism was more powerful than the communist threat of the 1950s or the recent Islamophobia. Their equivalent to 9/11 was Guy Fawkes' almost successful attempt to blow up Parliament and the King. The most interesting parts to me were the glimpses of the impact on every day people, and I do wish that we had learnt a bit more about what the government of the day was doing outside of the various plots to get either Protestants or Catholics in power - e.g how was healthcare provided, how was literacy going? Etc… but maybe that would have made it a ridiculously long book. The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics.In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control. An entertaining and easy to read overview of seventeenth century England, taking in civil war, plague, fire, and revolution.

A] lively, compelling and combative study of the most dramatic and consequential century in English history. . . . The Blazing World offers a thrilling panorama of the period, from perspectives high and low, told with a winning combination of impish wit, sound judgment, and serious scholarship. . . . It will delight those new to its extraordinary age, and fire up its grizzled veterans.” —Paul Lay, Telegraph

The 17th century was the most dramatic and consequential in British history, the period during which the modern world was formed, and Jonathan Healey is as assured a guide to its twists and turns, its tragedies and triumphs as one could wish for. The Blazing World is a triumph of scholarship and concision.” —Paul Lay, historian, author of Providence Lost This is a wonderful book, exhaustively researched, vigorously argued and teeming with the furious joy of seventeenth-century life' The TimesA major new history of England's turbulent seventeenth century and how it marked the birth of a new world The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics. In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control. The England of the late 17th century was richer and more powerful than ever. Its people, increasingly literate and better informed, participated more actively in the public sphere. Charles I had mutilated and imprisoned authors of “seditious” works, and forced some publications underground, but the revolution of the 1640s released a cascade of critical print, not all of it, as contemporaries complained, “lascivious, idle and unprofitable.” The “paper bullets” of the civil war had impact comparable to cannon. John Milton, known more as a pamphleteer than a poet, called for a completely unfettered press. By the time of the “Glorious Revolution” the country was awash with news and information that fueled a contentious political culture. A fresh, exciting, “readable and informative ” history ( The New York Times ) of seventeenth-century England, a time of revolution when society was on fire and simultaneously forging the modern world . • “Recapture[s] a lost moment when a radically democratic commonwealth seemed possible.”—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker It wasn't made any easier by whoever was sitting on the throne either side of the republic. James I, a Protestant with a Catholic mother, had to deal with the aftermath of the Catholic terrorist Gunpowder Plot early in his reign which set the anti Catholic tone for years to come. However, Protestant Charles I was married to a Catholic and as Jonathan Healey writes, veered towards Catholic tradition, wanting parishioners to "stand for the Creed and the Gloria, kneel at the sacrament and bow at the name of Jesus." The restoration king - Charles II, for all his public upholding of Protestantism, was baptised a Catholic shortly before his death. His brother James II was already a Catholic but promised to "defend and support" the church of England. Protestants hoped the king and queen's tragic inability to produce a child who would live long enough to become monarch would mean the throne returning to a Protestant after his death. But such hope was confounded with the birth of James, who by rights should have become the next king of England and restoring a Catholic succession. It was something the fledgling Protestants could not stomach, hence the Glorious Revolution and the invitation to William and Mary to invade England from the Netherlands. James II ended up deposed and a law passed that never again will the king or queen be a Catholic. Despite that act still law today, Britain's leading Catholic, Cardinal Vincent Nichols was still happy to pay homage to Charles III at his coronation.