Focusing on the interaction of religion and politics, this is a comprehensive chronological survey of the political thought of post-Reformation Britain which examines the work of a wide range of thinkers.

'Professor Burgess' claim that the Restoration of 1660 witnessed the end of Britain's wars of religion, preparing the way for the merging of the confessional state with the Enlightenment world, is one we should take seriously.' - Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement

Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: POLITICAL THOUGHT AND CONFESSIONAL POLITIES, 1500-1640
Henrician Political Thought
Reformation, Obedience and Resistance
Lawful Politics and Protestant Conformity: Political Thought in the Age of Elizabeth I
Peaceful Politics? Jacobean and Caroline England
PART TWO: POLITICAL THOUGHT AND RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION, 1640-1660
Resistance and Royalism in the British Monarchies
Religion and Radicalism in the English Revolution
Thomas Hobbes
Republicanism and the English Commonwealth: Political Thought During the Interregnum
Conclusion
Notes
Further Reading
Index

GLENN BURGESS is Professor of History at the University of Hull, UK. His previous publications include The Politics of the Ancient Constitution (1992) and Absolute Monarchy and the Stuart Constitution (1996).