There was birth as well as death, as this revolution “brought an extraordinary moment of ideological creativity ”. In army grandee John Lambert’s 1653 Instrument of Government , under which Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector, England had its first written constitution and one that enshrined religious toleration. There were no penalties compelling people to any particular faith, instead an exhortation that “endeavours be used to win them by sound doctrine and the example of good conversation ”. A major new history of England's turbulent seventeenth century and how it marked the birth of a new world Unfortunately, the Stuart kings Charles II and James II’s style of management was drifting towards autocracy, reopening old wounds — now fault lines between the new Whig and Tory parties. Healey recounts the Popish Plot, Exclusion Crisis, Monmouth Rebellion and Glorious Revolution with gusto, revealing the crucial inheritance of the unfinished business of the 1649 revolution for events in 1688 — a view not always fashionable among historians.

Anyone who is slightly aware of English history will know that the seventeenth century is the century of English revolution, civil war and the death of the English monarch accused of treason. The author compares this period of devastating upheaval to where England is now: facing the birth of a new world. To cover such a long period I am sure that Healey has had to make many choices over what to emphasise and what to omit, but for me as a lay reader, the book gives a wonderful understanding of a complex period. There are many detours that can be taken into the various Protestant religious sects (Quakers, Socinians, Muggletonians, Seekers etc) and political groups (Levellers, Diggers etc), which are mentioned sufficiently, but which don’t lose the overall narrative drive of the book. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it to the interested reader of popular history. It's clear that one of the reasons Britain's first republic failed do disastrously was because of the simmering religious schizophrenia at large. New Protestant England couldn't seem to work out what Protestantism it should follow. They argued about whether there should be an altar in church and where it should be, the anti Popish brigade supported execution for Catholics who believed in transubstantiation, the state even put to death its own archbishop of Canterbury. If that wasn't enough, some of the emerging peace loving Quakers found themselves being hounded and killed by the state. A] lively, compelling and combative study of the most dramatic and consequential century in English history. . . . The Blazing World offers a thrilling panorama of the period, from perspectives high and low, told with a winning combination of impish wit, sound judgment, and serious scholarship. . . . It will delight those new to its extraordinary age, and fire up its grizzled veterans.” —Paul Lay, Telegraph It was a century of Guy Fawkes and Oliver Cromwell, of kings executed and monarchy restored, of Parliaments extended and prorogued for years, of witches tried and religious sects tortured and tolerated. If was a world, in short, in literal revolution, a world turned upside down as the British 17th century has been called in history and song. I was curious to learn more about the period based on an essay on 17th century Puritanism by Marianne Robinson in her 5-star classic What are we doing here?.The Lady, now the Empress, uses her power to learn everything that she can about the Blazing World. She learns that the world’s inhabitants all speak the same language, follow the same religion, and obey the same all-powerful Emperor. Each species group lives independently and follows a unique profession, but they coexist peacefully, without fighting over power. The gooselike bird-men, the kingdom’s astronomers, tell the Empress about the Blazing World’s sun, moon, and stars. The bear-men, who are experimental philosophers, use telescopes to test the bird-men’s hypotheses and microscopes to show the Empress tiny objects, like a fly’s eyes and a piece of charcoal. The fish-men and worm-men (natural philosophers) teach her about the Blazing World’s animals, and the ape-men (chemists) explain how basic elements make up everything in nature. But other groups (like the lice- and parrot-men) humiliate themselves when they present their shoddy work, and the Empress banishes them from her palace. She blames the Blazing World’s religion for their failures, so she decides to convert its people to her own. She builds two chapels, one out of the Blazing World’s shining star-stone and the other of its burning fire-stone. The Restoration, widely welcomed, saw a return towards monarchical absolutism, for which Louis XIV, the French Sun King, was the model and apogee. James II, who inherited the Crown after his brother Charles II’s death in 1685, had learnt nothing from the tumultuous age into which he had been born. His misjudgments climaxed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which ensured the Protestant Crown in Parliament under William and Mary, in whose reign scientific and economic innovations would pave a path to global ascendancy.

It’s a cliché to say that history repeats itself, especially since it often doesn’t. Oxford professor Jonathan Healey makes it clear in The Blazing World that the figures discussed within — Oliver Cromwell, William Laud, and the Stuart monarchs from James I to Charles II, among a cast of many more — could only have existed during their unique time. And yet, “The echoes of seventeenth-century England are still with us,” he writes, “in our society, in the built environment and in the very landscape.” Though “an absolutist by nature”, James was canny enough to realise the limits of ambition in his wealthy new kingdom. His son, Charles – the spare who became the heir following the death of his glamorous brother Henry in 1612 – was less flexible. Healey is scathing in his judgment (and, refreshingly, never afraid to judge) about this “man of blood” who in the 1640s led his country into two needless civil wars, describing him as a “stuffy authoritarian… never ruthless enough to be a successful tyrant”, though he concedes, as did Rubens, that the king had a good eye for a painting. Healy] makes a convincing argument that the turbulent era qualifies as truly ‘revolutionary,’ not simply because of its cascading political upheavals, but in terms of far-reaching changes within society.... Wryly humorous and occasionally bawdy”— The Wall Street Journal It also includes rather a lot about Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, which although interesting, read as though inserted to introduce a female voice. Cavendish’s achievements were considerable, including a early work of speculative/utopian fiction, The Blazing World and Other Writings, and being the first female inducted into the Royal Society (discussed natural philosophy, which is the contemporary description of scientific knowledge). However, Cavendish comes across as very much unique because of her social position, ahead of her time, and not part of some larger feminist movement.

However, constitutional niceties clearly weren't the primary motivator for all participants in the Civil War: Cromwell, for example, described constitutions as mere 'dross and dung' in comparison with Christ. The author speculates that post-Civil War England might have taken a different direction under the stewardship of a more constitutionally minded leader such as John Lambert, who he describes as a 'constitutional genius' (an interesting judgment on someone who came up with a constitution which failed). Things can only get better Healey’s book is refreshing for its energetic writing, engaging wit and sound foundation in recent historical scholarship. . . . Rather than advancing a new interpretation, Healey captures the vitality and turbulence of 17th-century England in an effective retelling, with many more players than the typical cast of kings and queens. . . . While narrating this tempestuous past, Healey has an eye on the present. He regards key stages in the political and intellectual history of revolutionary England as ‘steps on a longer journey’ toward modern democracy. . . . This readable and informative overview evokes a lost world which, for better or worse, ‘was blazing a path toward our own.’” —David Cressy, The New York Times The main population still lived in the countryside though industrialisation was just beginning with Newcastle coal being shipped to London. The British Empire was beginning to take off and at home the great stone buildings were replacing the wooden structures of Tudor England.