War and politics in the Elizabethan counties reassesses the English
national war effort during the wars against Spain (1585-1603). Drawing
on a mass of hitherto neglected source material from both central and
local archives, it finds a political system in much better health than
has been thought, revising many existing assumptions about the
weaknesses of the state in the face of military change.
This book approaches the topic by examining England as a single polity,
drawing case studies from across the country and from politics and
government at all levels, from the court and privy council to the
counties and parishes. It assesses the work of the central regime
alongside the local machinery of lord lieutenancies which carried its
demands into the counties, towns and parishes of England. These
mechanisms of rule were crucial to the success of the war effort, by
providing troops to fight Elizabeth's wars overseas, running the militia
which defended against Spanish invasion attempts and paying for them
both through local taxes. The problems of government on the ground are
examined in a wide-ranging set of contexts, addressing popular attitudes
to the war and the government's efforts to influence them, resistance to
government demands, and the problems of governing a country divided in
religion and a regime deeply fearful of the future. In this way it
ranges much more widely than the war alone, providing a new assessment
of the effectiveness of the Elizabethan state as a whole.
This book will be of interest to historians of English politics and
government at both national and local levels in the Elizabethan and
early Stuart periods.
