The seventeenth century, writes Mark Kishlansky, was “a wheel of transformation in perpetual motion,” a period of political and religious upheaval that defined the nation for decades to come and remains critical for understanding the nation today.

Beginning with the accession of James I and concluding with the death of Queen Anne, this compelling account describes the tempestuous events that took place during the Stuart dynasty and provides lively pen portraits of the many fascinating personalities involved. Conspiracies, rebellions, and revolutions jostle side by side with court intrigues, political infighting and the rise of parties. In 1603 Britain was an isolated archipelago; by 1714 it had emerged among the intellectual, commercial, and military centers of the world.

“Kishlansky’s century saw one king executed, another exiled, the House of Lords abolished, and the Church of England reconstructed along Presbyterian lines . . . A masterly narrative, shot through with the shrewdness that comes from profound scholarship.”—Jonathan Clark, Spectator

“A historian with a real love for the period, a real understanding of many different aspects of it, and an exhilarating style.”—Ronald Hutton, The Times Literary Supplement

“This sweeping, dramatic chronicle of a century of Stuart rule will rivet even the general reader with no particular interest in British history.”—Publishers Weekly