![]() ![]() Later in the century, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who had been a key figure in the royalist party, wrote his History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars, which is acknowledged as one of the greatest works of English historiography. Even during the 1640s, there was much collecting and publishing of the documents issued by the two sides. These dramatic events have not lacked their historians. The old order was restored, but the memory of the civil war haunted later centuries and influenced the religious and political affiliations of many subsequent generations. In 1660, the restoration of Charles II abruptly closed down this debate. Now in the British Library, they offer an unparalleled insight into the mental life of the time and the host of radical schemes put forward for the reform of religion, government and society. Between 16 the bookseller George Thomason collected some 20,000 of them. There was a ferment of ideas, reflected in an unprecedented outpouring of tracts and pamphlets. The defeat of Charles I led eventually to the trial and execution of the king, the abolition of the monarchy, the House of Lords and the Anglican church, and the expropriation of hundreds of royalist landowners. Even more traumatic than the fighting itself was the social and political revolution that accompanied it. ![]()
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