Published in 1966, The Stuart Constitution at once established itself as the standard documentary textbook for courses in English seventeenth-century history in schools (A-level), polytechnics, and universities, and one which at the same time offered an individual revisionist outlook on many of the problems involved. For the second edition Professor Kenyon has entirely rewritten his commentary to take account of the latest research in this field; he has thoroughly revised the structure of the book, and he has also strengthened the documentation in several important areas, notably the Interregnum, 1649–1660. The book is divided into four parts, the first three of which are devoted to the periods 1603–1640, 1640–1660 and 1660–1688 respectively. The fourth part deals with some of the general issues of government, at both central and local level, throughout the seventeenth century. One hundred and forty-six documents are included in all, and to aid the student reader speling and
The period from 1680 to about 1720 was one of the most complex and difficult in the history of British politics, to contemporaries as well as to posterity. The parameters of political obligation were decisively shifted by the Revolution of 1688; statesmen and politicians had now to accustom themselves to the novelty of a parliament in session every year; Britain was almost continuously engaged in the most ambitious and expensive wars in her history to date; political parties were slow to form, and of doubtful repute when they did. Professor Kenyon's Ford Lectures, delivered in Oxford in 1976 and now published as a paperback for the first time, remain a standard account of the period. For this reissue, Professor Kenyon has written a new preface which discusses the book in the light of recent historiography.
