The Royalists during the Puritan Revolution

Book excerpt: The royalists of the puritan revolution. although amply noticed in martyrologies and other forms of contemporary writing. have since been largely neglected. and no comprehensive modem account has previously been published. The late Sir Charles Firth's paper. "The Royalists under the Protectorate. " 1 was originally intended as a lecture. was necessarily rather brief. and covers only part of the period examined in this study. However. I am under heavy obligations to it as will appear. Dr. Keith Feiling's study of the Tory party. while touching upon the civil war years. is naturally primarily concerned with the period after 1660. 2 A need exists. therefore. for a fresh examination of the history of the royalists. based not only on their own accounts of their hardships. but on other material as well. Such an inquiry should elucidate the development of the royalists as a party and the history of the various revolutionary governments of the times. It should furnish as well an essential introduction to the history of the restoration settlement and to the later history of parties. To supply such an investigation is the purpose of this study. Emphasis throughout has been on the economic and social conditions of the royalists. as the story of their military contributions to the king and of their plots against the revolution ary governments has been adequately treated in the standard historical accounts. No attempt has been made to discuss the royalists' place in the intellectual history of the age.