The making of the United Kingdom, 1660-1800
Subtitle: state, religion and identity in Britain and Ireland
By: Jim Smyth.
Series: British Isles series; British Isles series (Harlow, England)
Publisher: Longman
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Harlow, England; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
Subjects: National characteristics, British -- History; National characteristics, Irish -- History; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1660-1714; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 18th century; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 17th century; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 18th century; Great Britain -- Church history -- 17th century; Great Britain -- Church history -- 18th century; Ireland -- Church history
Description: England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales have distinct histories, but not separate ones. Sensitive questions of religion, local loyalty, and allegiance to the state, shaped politics within and between the four nations - and still give an edge to politics in parts of modern Britain. In 1660, the restoration of Charles II to all three of his kingdoms, was followed by an attempt to impose religious uniformity across his kingdoms. It failed. The make-up of the British Isles was too diverse. Tories, Jacobites, radicals and Whigs each had strong links to a Church or religious faction. Politics and religion could intermingle dangerously. Fear of popery was a major cause of the revolution of 1688, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century Presbyterians led Scottish opposition to a union until they were recognised as an established church. At the end of the century the architects of the act of union with Ireland hoped, finally, to resolve the 'Catholic Question', but (as it does today) constitutional change brought issues of national identity to the fore. The eighteenth century witnessed the triumph of unionism on the larger island, and the rise of nationalism and separatism across the Irish sea. The Making of the United Kingdom seeks to explain that crucial divergence, and gives an incisive account of the forging of Britishness - the sense of a new nation. -- Publisher description
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-235) and index.