Subjects and Sovereigns

Concerned In A General Way With Theories Of Legitimacy This Book Describes A Transformation In English Political Thought Between The Opening Of The Civil War In 1642 And The Bill Of Rights In 1689. When It Was Complete The Political Nation As A Whole Had Accepted The Modern Idea Of Parliamentary Or Legal Sovereignty. The Authors Argue That A Conservative Theory Of Order Which Assigned The King A Lofty And Unrivalled Position Gave Way In These Years To A More Radical Community-Centered View Of Government By Which The King Shared Law-Making On Equal Terms With The House Of Lords And The House Of Commons. Although The Community-Centered Ideology May Appear Unexceptional To The Modern Observer It Constituted A Revolutionary Departure From The Prevailing Order Theory Of Kingship And Political Society That Had Characterized Political Thought In The Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries.