Description
Secrets of the Kingdom
British Radicals from the Popish Plot to the Revolution of 1688-89
Richard L Greaves
This volume completes a trilogy that explores the history of British political and religious radicalism - in England, Scotland, Ireland, and British exile communities on the Continent - from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the Revolution of 1688-89. The trilogy underscores both the continuity and the geographical range of dissident activity in all three kingdoms over nearly three decades.
Much of the present volume deals with the controversial conspiracies collectively (and misleadingly) known as the Rye House Plot. Whether these conspiracies actually existed has been disputed since the 1680's, and the problem of evaluating the evidence regarding them is complicated by the fact that both Whigs and Tories freely engaged in subornation, severely undermining the credibility of many accounts, not to mention the integrity of the judicial system. The book traces the complete history of the Rye House Plot, including the general uprising planned by Monmouth and his associates, the schemes to assassinate Charles and James, and the trials of a number of conspirators. The author concludes that, on balance, the evidence affirms the existence of conspiracies against the crown.
The author describes and analyzes several other instances of radical activity: the assassination of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Bothwell Bridge rebellion, the Argyll and Monmouth rebellions, and the involvement of the radicals in the events leading up to the revolution of 1688-89. Historiographically, the book is part of a major reassessment of the late Stuart period which accords greater attention to the significance and contribution of British radicals. It is now clear that radical activity continued throughout the British Isles during the reigns of Charles II and James II, and even beyond, and that Restoration Nonconformists were not uniformly quiescent and passive.
The first volume in the trilogy, Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663, was published in 1986 by Oxford University Press. The second volume, Enemies Under His Feet: Radicals and Nonconformists in Britain, 1664-1677, was published in 1990 by Stanford University Press.
Richard L. Greaves is Robert O Lawton Distinguished Professor of History and Courtesy Professor of Religion at Florida State University. He is the author of editor of more than a dozen books.
This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the following original edition:
Title Secrets of the kingdom: British radicals from the Popish Plot to the Revolution of 1688-1689
Author Richard L. Greaves
Publisher Stanford University Press, 1992
ISBN 0804720525, 9780804720526
Length 465 pages
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Tags:
Stanford university press, Popish Plot, Whigs, London Gazette, PRO SP, Rye House Plot, Scotland, Covenanters, Shaftesbury, BL Add, Netherlands, Earlston, RPCS, nonconformists, Argyll, duke of York, Fifth Monarchist, Monmouth rebellion, Cheshire, Exclusion Crisis, England 
