The Good Old Cause

Part 1 Social classes before 1640: the landed class; feudal sources of revenue; landowners in developing bourgeois society; sales of land; the new gentry; merchants; the bourgeoisie; the new power of money; hymn for a merchant; a merchant's advice to his son; yeomen; conflicting standards; the lower orders; contrasts of wealth and poverty; paupers; class feeling; the peasant tradition. Part 2 Economic life before 1640: depopulation; peasant grievances; agrarian discontent; direct action; petition against enclosure; London's merchant companies; for free trade; the clothing industry; royal interference with the clothing industry; monopolies; failure to protect interests of merchants. Part 3 The state machine before 1640: the crown; feudal monarchy; a royal favourite; sale of offices and honours; the aristocracy depend on court pickings; the star chamber; the high commission; class privileges spread too wide; the law courts; in prison; justices of the peace; class rule; whom did the House of Commons represent?; danger of military absolutism; parliament and crown; a revolutionary scene; forebodings of conflict; the financial situation; growing difficulties; ship money. Part 4 Church and state before 1640: the doctrines of the Church of England; church and state are one; religion as an instrument of government; what parliamentarians objected to in the church; archbishop laud; what cavaliers objected to in the puritans; what was a puritan?; what the cavaliers feared; Protestantism and the bourgeoisie; the Roman Catholic threat; threat to the reformation in Scotland; threat to the reformation in Ireland; the new philosophy. Part 5 The international situation: an ambassador's observations; appeasing international reaction; the parliamentary attitude; relation of home and foreign policy; influence of the Netherlands; the Dutch Republic - a model and a rival. Part 6 The storm breaks: the opposition organizes; popular pressure on the government; the impeachment of Strafford; abolition of the star chamber; financial control; Charles I tries a coup d'etat; control of the church; the end of government without parliament; appeal to the people; Charles tries another coup; a revolutionary situation; preparations for war; bourgeoisie and parliament; the two sides line up; gentry versus freeholders; cavaliers and roundheads; the class division; importance of the city; fears of the gentry; how to deal with democrats. Part 7 The civil war: causes of civil wars; historical analyses; contemporary views of the causes of the war; parliamentary debate on the causes of the war; religion or class interests?; the parliamentary army and navy; the royalist army; parliamentary finance; royalist finance; effects of war on relations of landlord and tenant; social unrest; the class struggle; administration by parliament; anxiety of the aristocracy; Scottish army versus democracy; Scottish army in English politics; Cromwell demands an army that will fight; the new model ar