The crown, the peerage and high politics 1689-1760
It is the contention of this thesis that the crown went through some rather marked change during the course of the period, starting with the Bill of Rights and effectively ending with the Act of Settlement in 1701. In 1689 the crown had an extensive prerogative and a limited executive, in 1702 it had a more limited prerogative (although it did come into operation until after Annets 1714 death) and an extensive executive. Thereafter, there was no deterioration in the crown's position during the subsequent decades to the period's end. The importance of the crown has been underestimated because of the limited amount of direct research on it as a political entity. This thesis makes advances in terms of both factual knowledge and historiography. Its body falls into two principal parts. The first of these are three structural analyses of crown patronage in relation to the peeragetitles, central office and local office. The second is a broad political narrative. The analyses show that the crown was a very definite presence in high politics. Over the period as a whole the crown defined the limitations that its political managers had to operate within these. As the period progressed crown prejudices, especially with
Backhouse, David John
History
The crown, the peerage and high politics 1689-1760. It is the contention of this thesis that the crown went through some rather marked change during the course of the period, starting with the Bill of Rights and effectively ending with the Act of Settlement in 1701. In 1689 the crown had an extensive prerogative and a limited executive, in 1702 it had a more limited prerogative (although it did come into operation until after Annets 1714 death) and an extensive executive. Thereafter, there was no deterioration in the crown's position during the subsequent decades to the period's end. The importance of the crown has been underestimated because of the limited amount of direct research on it as a political entity. This thesis makes advances in terms of both factual knowledge and historiography. Its body falls into two principal parts. The first of these are three structural analyses of crown patronage in relation to the peeragetitles, central office and local office. The second is a broad political narrative. The analyses show that the crown was a very definite presence in high politics. Over the period as a whole the crown defined the limitations that its political managers had to operate within these. As the period progressed crown prejudices, especially with
crown peerage high politics contention crown rather marked change course period start bill rights effectively end act settlement crown extensive prerogative limited executive limit prerogative although come operation death extensive executive thereafter deterioration crown position subsequent decade period end importance crown underestimate limited amount direct political_entity make advance term factual knowledge historiography body fall_two principal part first_three structural_analysis crown patronage relation central office local office second broad political narrative analysis_show crown definite presence high politics period whole crown define limitation political manager operate_within these period progress crown prejudice especially