A ready reference for general readers, undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and scholars, this volume contains 320 entries by 80 experts, covering a broad range of topics, plus a lengthy chronology and extensive bibliography. The entries are based on current scholarship and are followed by pertinent references. Among the items included are biographies of kings and queens, ministers, opposition leaders, ecclesiastics, and literary figures; entries on the army, navy, courts, and other institutions; local government and officials; important court cases and documents, such as the Great Contract, Petition of Right, and Bill of Rights; and controversial examples of the Royal prerogative, such as the dispensing and suspending of powers.
The volume also covers the Civil Wars, Glorious Revolution, and other rebellions; the Dutch, French, and Spanish Wars; and diplomatic events. Anglicanism, Puritanism, and other religious topics are included as well as political groups, such as the Cavaliers and Roundheads, and radicals like the Diggers and Fifth Monarchists. Social and economic topics include agriculture, mercantilism, poor laws, population, and taxation. The dictionary also covers cultural topics, conceptual topics such as divine right, and topics on women. Although the book focuses on England, it also includes entries on Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and topics relating to those areas.
About the Author: RONALD H. FRITZE is University Professor of History at Lamar University. He is the editor of the Historical Dictionary of Tudor England (Greenwood, 1991) which was selected as one of the best reference books published in 1991 by the Library Journal. He is also the author of Reference Sources in History: An Introductory Guide (1990) and Legend and Lore of the Americas before 1492 (1993).
WILLIAM B. ROBISON is Professor of History and Graduate Coordinator of the Master of Arts program in History at Southeastern Louisiana University. Named to the Warren Reimers Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities at Southeastern Louisiana University, he is the author of several articles on politics and the Reformation in Tudor Surrey and a contributor to the Historical Dictionary of Tudor England (Greenwood, 1991).
