The Personal Rule of Charles II 1681-85

This book examines the period when from 1681 until his death in 1685 Charles II ruled without a Parliament. It argues that the nature of this personal rule was very different from both the personal rule of Charles I in 1629-40 and that of James II in 1685-88. It discusses the nature of the Whig and Tory parties at this crucial period of their formation as political parties showing how they coped with the absence of a parliamentary forum. It discusses politics in the localities the growing importance of news dissemination in political life and the politics of religious persecution and toleration. It includes coverage of Scotland and Ireland setting the discussion in a Three Kingdoms context. GRANT TAPSELL is a lecturer in history at St Andrews University. He was previously a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge and a Research Fellow at Darwin College Cambridge. A volume in the Studies in Early Modern Cultural Political and Social History series edited by David Armitage Tim Harris and Stephen Taylor