Maurice Ashley (1) (1966–1994)

1063 The Golden Century: Europe 1598-1715, by Maurice Ashley (read 27 Jul 1970) This is an intriguing survey of its period which stimulated my interest in said period muchly. While I feel I am familiar with the Thirty Years War, I have not recently read much in the period from 1648 to 1715. I was not even aware that there were revolutions around 1648 except for the English one. The Fronde (a term for a slingshot) was from 1648 to 1759 in France, and at least at the beginning was insurrectionary. The rest of the period is dominated by Louis XIV. This is an excellent study. I want to read more like it.… (more)

Points of interest:
Cromwell on Barebones Parliament: "I am more troubled now with the fool than with the knave."
First public concerts date from Restoration: violin was introduced then.
Re James II's three questions of 1687:
i) Documents are now in Bodleian
ii) The enquiry only showed the King's enemies how strong they were.
In Anne's reign real wages were higher than at any time since the reign of Henry VI.
Tory government took great trouble to get Asiento clause at Utrecht - shows Whigs weren't alone in their concern for trade.
Definitely the most disappointing volume of the series which I have read. The chapters on political history are dreary and uninspired - no attempt to highlight the significant points or clarify the chain of cause and effect. He seems to think that scholasticism and reason are mutually incompatible, and O.J.G. Welsh has pointed out in the Tablet how her has got the Secret Treaty of Dover all wrong. The most interesting chapter I found to be the one called 'A Ferment of Ideas 1640-60', which 'placed' for me a number of people whose importance had always been rather obscure - Chilligworth, the Cambridge Platonists, and Harrington, in particular.
(notes written 1954)… (more)