Rebellion

September 22, 2014
Agitation was in the air throughout 17th-century England, and Ackroyd skillfully captures the feelings and events of the time in this third volume of his history of England (following Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I). The narrative opens with the merging of England and Scotland under one monarch, James I, whose massive gluttony Ackroyd contrasts with the dire finances of the country as a whole. There existed a “gulf between king and country,” as the author describes it, which only widened during the reign of James I’s successor, Charles I, due to wars with Spain and France. Following great financial distress and a civil war that pitted royalists against parliamentarians, Charles I was executed. While Scotland declared Charles II king, England’s parliament steered the country into what became the “Commonwealth of England,” with Oliver Cromwell as “Lord Protector.” In 1660, the monarchy was restored with Charles II on the throne. Ackroyd ends at the Glorious Revolution—when William III (William of Orange) overthrew James II after yet more religious upheaval—having left no stone unturned. Addressing politics, religion, court life, scandal, science, literature, and art, the depth and scope of Ackroyd’s account is impressive, and it is as accessible as it is rich.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
Biographer, historian and novelist Ackroyd (Three Brothers, 2014, etc.) continues his History of England series with the third of six proposed volumes. What makes the author so special is that he relates history as it once was told by the bards. Ackroyd tells us not just the history, but the story behind it and the story as it might have been viewed at the time. This was a violent period of religious struggle, with countless groups vying to eliminate each other and all of them hating the Catholics. King James was so impressed by the wealth of England that he immediately set about spending just about every penny in the treasury. He relied mostly on the help of his favorites at court, particularly the Duke of Buckingham, who scoffed at Parliament's impeachment. The premature death of Henry, James' eldest and most Protestant son, left inept Charles to inherit the throne and continue the Stuart traditions of divine right and treating Parliament as his piggy bank. They just couldn't accept that the king might be subject to English common law. All this led up to the civil war, the beheading of Charles and the rise of Oliver Cromwell, who was a man with more power than any king and who ruled as an absolute military dictator. His death quickly brought Parliament together to reinstitute the House of Lords and the office of king in the person of Charles II. He and his brother, James II, clung to the Catholic religion, generally poor attitude toward Parliament and lots of devious plots, which inevitably led up to the Glorious Revolution. Oddly enough, during the reigns of the early Stuart kings, trade increased, shipbuilding peaked, coal production doubled, and the agricultural revolution laid the basis for the 18th-century's Industrial Revolution. Appropriately detailed, beautifully written story of the Stuarts' rise and fall-will leave readers clamoring for the further adventures awaiting England in the 18th century.

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Starred review from September 15, 2014
Ackroyd is an award-winning novelist, broadcaster, and historian. In the third volume of his projected six-volume history of England, his subject is the tumultuous seventeenth century, which encompassed the rise of the Stuart dynasty, the continued artistic flowering launched in the Elizabethan Age, a ruinous civil war, and the triumph of parliamentary supremacy under the banner of the Glorious Revolution. Ackroyd is a wonderful storyteller, and he has a wonderful and vitally important story to tell. At times, he employs the great man approach, providing excellent insights into the character and motivations of several of the prime movers of events, including the awkward, intelligent James I; the tragically tone-deaf, doomed Charles I; and Charles' nemesis, the distinctly unlovable Oliver Cromwell. But Ackroyd also understands that what he refers to as the poetry of history can be written in short strokes as well as broad. He eloquently describes the development of literature, the ongoing religious controversies, and the evolving political sympathies and their effects on the lives and opinions of ordinary citizens. Although general readers in the U.S. may find some of the names and places unfamiliar, this masterful work of popular history will remind them that the ideas that launched our own revolution were forged during this seminal period of English history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)