Preface; Directions: 1. Remapping early modern England: from revisionism to the culture of politics; 2. A commonwealth of meanings: languages, analogues, ideas and politics; Texts and Power: 3. The king's writ: royal authors and royal authority in early modern England; 4. Private conscience and public duty in the writings of James VI and I; 5. Private conscience and public duty in the writings of Charles I; Visions and Politics: 6. Stuart monarchy and political culture; 7. 'An image doting rabble': the failure of republicanism culture in seventeenth-century England; Rewritings: 8. Rewriting the history of Parliament in seventeenth-century England; 9. Rewriting Sir Robert Cotton: politics and history in early Stuart England; Re-Viewings: 10. Religion, rhetoric and revolution in seventeenth-century England; 11. Celebrating a cultural turn: political culture and cultural politics in early modern England; 12. Representations and negotiations: images, texts and authority in early modern England.

"these essays, written over the last decade by an imaginative and influential historian of early modern politics, will be welcomed by all who study 17-th century Britain...highly recommended." Choice