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God’s Fury, England’s Fire

Power to the people

Michael Braddick
Allen Lane, 758pp, £30,

Robert Stewart

Wednesday, 27th February 2008

Robert Stewart on Michael Braddick's account of the English Civil War

As to how ‘political awareness’ influenced an individual’s choice when the time to take sides came, Braddick treads softly. Many a Puritan had to weigh in his mind whether true religion at the cost of bloodshed, the destruction of crops and the breaking of social ties was preferable to peace at the cost of supporting a distrusted king. And when the latter option receded, a range of other considerations came into play. What is clear, Braddick writes, is that ‘the two sides consisted of complex coalitions of allies, with varying concerns and differing degrees of conviction and commitment’ and that ‘maps of military control are not maps of popular allegiance’. In the end, of course, the most convinced and committed gained ascendancy and brought republicanism to England. Their legacy was long-lived. But their heyday was brief. Not the least achievement of Braddick’s dissection of the political nation beyond the great and the powerful is to add to our understanding of why (though the question lies outside the scope of his book) the English people took so readily to the restoration.

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