Endorsements

To pre-civil war commentators on the capital, Westminster was traditionally viewed as the 'royal' city. It was the site of Whitehall Palace and the royal courts of justice, while its Abbey was the 'house of kings'. In contrast to London, its inhabitants were assumed to be instinctive followers of king and court. Yet after January 1642 the monarch no longer resided there, and after 1649 there was no monarchy. Instead the town hosted regicidal regimes whose most prominent members occupied highly visible roles in local society and controlled its iconic buildings and spaces. This book examines the varied and fascinating ways in which the series of non-monarchical regimes of the period interacted with this unique locality and its community. Westminster emerges as a site of extraordinary ambiguities and juxtapositions. The promoters of vigorous moral reformation and a sustained and often intrusive military presence coexisted uneasily with the area's distinctive forms of elite sociability and luxury. The state's foremost godly preachers performed in close proximity to royalist churchmen. More generally, the forces of political, religious and cultural conservatism could be observed on the very doorstep of the non-monarchical regimes. At key moments, Westminster's distinctive geography and government also played a significant role in shaping the political crises of the period. As the first monograph dealing with this crucial part of the metropolis during the civil wars and interregnum, this important book will be essential reading for those interested in the political, religious and cultural history of the 1640s and 1650s, for historians of the capital, and for those studying the literature and cultural geography of early modern England.