The Restless Republic

A book for our time

A superb book. A large spread of colourful characters - and not just the usual suspects - take us through the complex tapestry of the times. Cromwell and Charles I are here. But there’s much more of the men and women, who seem to have fallen out of popular history, but who made the years between monarchs (and who made the restoration); John Bradshaw, who sat as chief justice in Charles I’s trial and later helped make Cromwell’s civil administration tick, generals; the Lord Fairfax, a man who seemed able to wear his authority with ease and present at many of the key ‘hinge’ moments, and George Monck (who was loyal Royalist, then Parliamentarian, and then instrumental in bringing about the Restoration). Scientist, William Petty, who accurately mapped Ireland (a feat) but which was done to then dispossess mainly Irish Catholics of their land in favour of English and Scottish landowners - an act which haunts Ireland to this day. Religious commoner Anna Trapnel, who was thrust briefly into the spotlight of the tumultuous age before disappearing back into obscurity, the “flinty” Duchess of Derby - a Royalist diehard, left furious with Charles II’s leniency to former republicans (and she knew how to hold a grudge). Close students of the UK’s gutter press may feel some pangs of familiarity the story of ‘tabloid hack’ Marchamont Nedham, whose weather-vane morals meant he always found himself on the losing side. (There’s a few in Fleet Street today who could take a sharp note of that lesson). Whether you are Royalist, Republican or neutral, this novel deftly written, well-paced, impeccably-sourced and never dull. Plenty of proof here that people - and politics - never change, that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and there’s a lot to be said for keeping your powder dry until the time is right to use it. There’s no fairness on show here, or judgement, no story of good vs evil, just an assessment of the troubled times - A story for our times, also, especially Britain’s current restlessness and disapproval of how it is governed, what with Brexit and the subsequent shuffling out of our own time’s ancien regime. But also worth noting (as the book points out), it was in this era, through the dreadful spilling of much blood - most of it innocent - that changes were wrought, which set the stage for what created a more settled ‘modern” Britain, the Industrial Revolution, turbo-charged Empire-building, the partition of Ireland and The Troubles. By way of epilogue, although the experiment of republic failed, some lessons were learned, as it’s clear it empowered Parliament to be capable of bringing about the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, the bloodless removal of one monarch (James II), for another, William and Anne, and the Bill of Rights.