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The English Revolution and the roots of environmental change : the changing concept of the land in early modern England /

This study brings a new perspective to the causes of the English Revolution. It pinpoints the economic motives behind the opposition to the crown, and shows their connection to the changing mind-set and political transitions of the time. Distinctively, it identifies the radicalism of the mercantile...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yerby, George (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Routledge, [2016]
Series:Routledge research in early modern history.
Subjects:
Great Britain > History > Civil War, 1642-1649 > Causes.
Great Britain > History > Civil War, 1642-1649 > Economic aspects.
Great Britain > History > Civil War, 1642-1649 > Environmental aspects.
Commons > Economic aspects > England > History > 17th century.
Commons > Environmental aspects > England > History > 17th century.
Land use > Political aspects > England > History > 17th century.
Land use > Social aspects > England > History > 17th century.
Social change > England > History > 17th century.
England > Commerce > History > 17th century.
England > Environmental conditions > History > 17th century.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction: The changing of the open, communal land into a national, commercial land, and the neglect of economic effects : is the environment history?
  • Part one. The close of the universal world of medieval England
  • The light touch of communalism on the land, and the openness of the medieval world
  • The dismissal of the saints, and the disappearance of the universal Church
  • The reordering of the physical and intellectual spheres
  • "The exceeding lucre that they see grow" : higher profits, and a heightened sense of property
  • Enclosure and consolidated holdings : the break-up of the communal system
  • The basis of improvement
  • The changing face of the land, and the "great bravery of building which marvellously beautified the realm"
  • Part two. The consolidation of a political nation
  • The definition of the state, and the developing structures of national administration
  • The national expansion of the middling sort, and the relevance of the rise of the gentry
  • "The authority of the whole realm" : parliamentary law as the first principle of representative rights, and national sovereignty
  • Freedom of trade as a developing principle : the assertion of absolute property against prerogative impositions
  • Parliament as a point of contact between the constituencies : the emergence of a freestanding national interest, and roots of English liberty
  • The Elizabethan nation : "The envy of less happier lands"
  • The foreign foreign policy of James I
  • "A declaration of the state of the kingdom" : the national imperatives that necessitated automatic parliaments, and the triumph of freedom of trade
  • The commercial landscape : "How wide the limits stand between a splendid and a happy land"
  • Conclusion: The limits of the commercial land : is the environment history?