Synopses & Reviews
Dominion: England and its Island Neighbours c.1500-1707 is a rich narrative history of England's increasing dominance over the cluster of territories that became known as the British Isles. It brings alive a period and a geography remarkable for repeated religious wars and a long colonial struggle as well as for London's emergence as a political, economic, and cultural hub. While
Dominion concentrates on English actions and purposes, it pays careful attention to interactions in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and to the pressures of European competition. It does so by drawing on the vibrant recent scholarship of the separate nations and considerable primary research, and also on the language of the actors, from Henry VIII and Elizabeth, Spenser and Shakespeare, to Oliver Cromwell and John Milton.
Its purpose is not just to explore English understandings and ideologies, but their consequences, both creative and disruptive. The landmarks of the Tudor and Stuart centuries may be familiar: the creation of Ireland as a subordinate but fractured kingdom, the unification of Wales with England, the unstable union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the bloody conquest and reconquest of Ireland, and the formation of the United Kingdom amid fierce rivalry with France. By interweaving these strands as a single coherent story of English reactions and projections, this book opens up a new understanding of this formative period in the history of these islands - and also of its fractious legacy.
About the Author
Derek Hirst is William Eliot Smith Professor of History, Washington University, St Louis, and the author of a number of books on the history of early modern English history and literature, including
England in Conflict (1999) and, as co-editor,
The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell (2010).
Table of Contents
Part I: Searching for meaning: Empire and the rat Part II: England's archipelagic history c.1500-1707
Prologue
1. The old order changes 1500-1540
2. Titles in question 1540-1551
3. State formations 1551-1568
4. Causes of the Lord 1568-1585
5. Endgames 1585-1603
6. A greater Britain 1603-1618?
7. Conforming kingdoms 1618-1637
8. Conflicted kingdoms 1637-1646
9. Revolution and conquest 1646-1660
10. Restoring crown and church 1660-1686
11. A British Isles 1687-1707
Part III: Bibliographic essay
Index