One of the most catastrophic reigns in British history The short, action-packed reign of James II (1685-88) is generally seen as one of the most catastrophic in British history. James managed, despite having access to tremendous reserves of good will and deference, to so alienate his supporters that he had to flee for his life. And yet, most of that life was spent not as king but first as heir to Charles II, as Duke of York (after whom New York is named) and then in the last part of his life as the first Jacobite "Pretender," starting a problem that would haunt Britain's rulers for generations.

James II: The Last Catholic King (Penguin Monarchs)

Biographies & Memoirs

Womersley, David

Historical

Allen Lane.

SPECTATOR AND TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2015 
The short, action-packed reign of James II (1685-88) is generally seen as one of the most catastrophic in British history. James managed, despite having access to tremendous reserves of good will and deference, to so alienate his supporters that he had to flee for his life. And yet, most of that life was spent not as king but first as heir to Charles II, as Duke of York (after whom New York is named) and then in the last part of his life as the first Jacobite 'Pretender', starting a problem that would haunt Britain's rulers for generations.

James II (Penguin Monarchs)

Penguin

The subject of this book is the story of the conflict between Gibbon and those he mockingly dubbed the "Watchmen of the Holy City," and it explores the ramifications of an elusive aspect of authorship. By considering the sequence of interactions between the historian and his readership, Womersley makes possible a more intimate understanding of what might be called Gibbon's experience of himself. At the same time he deepens our knowledge of the conditions of English authorship during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Gibbon and the 'Watchmen of the Holy City': The Historian and his Reputation, 1776-1815

Clarendon Press

In 1589 the Privy Council encouraged the Archbishop of Canterbury to take steps to control the theatres, which had offended authority by putting on plays which addressed 'certen matters of Divinytie and of State unfitt to be suffred'. How had questions of divinity and state become entangled? The Reformation had invested the English Crown with supremacy over the Church, and religious belief had thus been transformed into a political statement. In the plentiful chronicle literature of the sixteenth-century, questions of monarchical legitimacy and religious orthodoxy became intertwined as a consequence of that demand for a usable national past created by the high political developments of the 1530s.Divinity and State explores the consequences of these events in the English historiography and historical drama of the sixteenth century. It is divided into four parts. In the first, the impact of reformed religion on narratives of the national past is measured and described. Part II examines how the entanglement of the national past and reformed religion was reflected in historical drama from Bale to the early years of James I, and focuses on two paradigmatic characters: the sanctified monarch and the martyred subject. Part III considers Shakespeare's history plays in the light of the preceding discussion, and finds that Shakespeare's career as a historical dramatist shows him eventually re-shaping the history play with great audacity. Part IV corroborates this reading of Shakespeare's later history plays by reference to the dramatic ripostes they provoked.

Divinity and State

Religion & Spirituality

Oxford University Press

The Transformation of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought, Series Number 1)

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Cambridge University Press

Restoration Comedy (Blackwell Essential Literature)

The two plays presented in full in this volume – Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World – illustrate the evolution of Restoration comedy between 1675 and 1700. 
<ul> <li>Includes full texts of Wycherley's The Country Wife and Congreve's The Way of the World.</li> <li>Demonstrates how Restoration comedy evolved between 1675 and 1700.</li> <li>Introduces general readers or students to the genre.</li> <li>An editorial introduction guides readers through the plays and the period.</li> </ul>

Dramas & Plays

Wiley/Blackwell

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Books by Womersley, David