Title: Protestantism and patriotism : ideologies and the making of English foreign policy, 1650-1668 /
Authors: Pincus, Steven C. A.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Christianity and politics Protestant churches History; Protestant churches England History; Patriotism England History; Protestantism; Great Britain Foreign relations; Great Britain Foreign relations
Abstract: Protestantism and Patriotism offers a fundamental reinterpretation of English political culture between 1650 and 1668. It is also both the most detailed study to date of the causes and consequences of the first two Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1654, and 1665-1667), and a reconfiguration of the English political nation which engaged in those two conflicts. Professor Pincus argues that it is impossible to understand the making of English foreign policy in this period without a careful study of its ideological contexts, while at the same time suggesting that accounts of English domestic politics which ignore the ideological implications of England's place in European political culture are impoverished. Because of the broad context in which the Anglo-Dutch Wars are situated, the book will appeal not only to specialists in English foreign policy but to all those interested in seventeenth-century English and Dutch politics and culture.
Contents: Pt. I. The rod of the Lord: ideology and the outbreak of the First Anglo-Dutch War : -- Historiographical overview -- The attempt at unification -- The road to war -- Pt. II. To unite against the common enemy: the 1654 Treaty of Westminster and the end of apocalyptic foreign policy : -- Historiographical overview -- The causes of the war stated -- Peace proposed -- Political upheavals and ideological divisions -- The rejection of apocalyptic foreign policy -- The Protectorate's new foreign policy -- Pt. III. Popery, trade, and universal monarchy: ideology and the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War : -- Historiographical overview -- The establishment of an Orangist foreign policy -- The Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1662 -- The Northern Rebellion and the reestablishment of Anglican Royalist consensus -- The April 1664 trade resolution -- Popery, trade, and universal monarchy -- pt. IV. The Medway, Breda, and the Triple Alliance: the collapse of Anglican Royalist Foreign Policy : -- Historiographical overview -- The circulation of news and the course of the war -- The popular understanding of the war -- The government's war aims -- An Orangist revolution -- Victory denied and wartime consensus shattered -- The rise of political opposition -- The road to Chatham: the decision not to send out a battle fleet -- The demise of Anglican Royalist foreign policy.