Urban Politics and the British Civil Wars

On 23 July 1637, riots broke out in Edinburgh. These disturbances triggered the collapse of royal authority across the British Isles. This volume explores the political and religious culture in the Scottish capital from the reign of James VI and I to the Cromwellian occupation. It examines for the first time the importance of Edinburgh to the formation of the Scottish opposition movement and to the establishment of the revolutionary Covenanting regime.Although the primary focus is the Scottish capital, an explicitly British perspective is maintained. This is a wide-ranging study that engages in debates about early modern urban culture, the problem of multiple monarchy and the issue of post-Reformation religious radicalism.

This work received an ‘honourable mention’ for the 2007 Frank Watson Book Prize for the Best Book in Scottish History. Of the number of highly-regarded submissions for this year's competition, the panel of judges agreed that Laura Stewart’s work, although not winning the prize outright, stood out for particular attention.

Laura A.M. Stewart, Ph.D. (2003) in History, Edinburgh University, is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Edinburgh University. She has produced articles on poor relief, religious debate and taxation in early modern Scotland.