The Liberties of the Subject and the Power of the State in Early Modern England

FAIN: FA-55671-11

David Cressy
Ohio State University (Columbus, OH 43210-1349)

This study examines collisions between popular perceptions of the privileges of the subject and assertions of power by divine-right monarchs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. It combines archival research in local administrative documents with critical re-reading of landmark constitutional texts to retrieve and contextualize the demotic political voice. Exploring fundamental issues of citizenship and power through experiences of ordinary people, it shows how the “honor” and “necessities” of the crown and the “liberties” and “commodities” of the subject combined to articulate the “the birthright of an Englishmen.” The resulting book, The Crown and the People of Early Modern England, offers a new social history of a divided political culture which gave rise to the Anglo-American civic tradition.