Politics and War in the Three Stuart Kingdoms, 1637-49

David Scott claims, justly, to offer ‘an integrated narrative’ of emphatically political and military developments in the three distinct kingdoms (and their appendages) of the Stuart inheritance over an exciting decade. At all vital points—1640, 1641, 1642, 1646, 1648, 1649—he shows what events and trends meant to each entity separately and for the multiple ‘state’ generally. Differences of approach and reaction are neatly unravelled. Scott's attitude to the current ‘heinous sin of anglo-centricity’ is brisk and sensible. To deny to England the prime role in all this is not only unhelpful but distorting. England was the chosen location for the ambitious Stuart monarchy, and greater in terms of population, wealth, communications, diplomacy and political sophistication. London—which Charles I ineptly left in 1642—lay at the heart of England and the whole complex. Charles’ aspirations to be ‘a King again’ via Scotland and Ireland were chimerical, as were his son's in 1650–51

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