Articles in the early modern category

Hume on the events of 1688

Stirrings of unease

The English, prepossessed against their sovereign, firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis [Louis XIV] for their entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain destruction.

[Footnote:] That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt France and England, appears both, from Sunderland’s Apology, and from D’Avaux’s Negotiations, lately published: see vol. iv. p. 18. Eng translation, 27th of September, 1687; 16th of March, 6th of May, 10th of August, 2d, 23d, and 24th of September, 5th and 7th of October, 11th of November, 1688.

These suggestions were every where spread abroad, and tended to augment the discontents of which both the fleet and …

Year 1688

The so-called 'Glorious Revolution' in England in 1688 was a pivotal event in the country's history. It also began a train of events leading to almost twenty years of war in Europe and the emergence of Britain as a major power. This is why elsewhere I cover the life of Thomas Pitt who, living from 1653 to 1726, straddled this period of rapid social and economic change in Europe and the world.

Wills, 1688: a global history

To take an overview of the deepening connections between parts of the world, I will often go back to a short but highly interesting book, John Wills' global history of the year 1688. He speculates that: In 1688 a full sense of the variety of the world's places and peoples, of their separations and their connections, was confined to a few, referring to the small number of travellers as well as the literate …