WHEN GOD WAS KING:
Rebels & Radicals of the Civil War
& Mayflower Generation
By Martyn Whittock
Lion. 249 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 0 745 980 423
Martyn Whittock taught history in a secondary school for many years and has written numerous history books. In this one, he tells the story of the radical groups of the 1640s and 1650s who, in one way or another, believed that England should be ruled strictly by the laws of the Bible.
His book is easy to read, aimed at the general reader who wants to understand this period of English history better. This occasionally leads to poor comparisons, for example, likening Cromwell’s campaigns in Ireland to the strategy of ISIS.
The development of different sections of Protestantism represented in England in the mid-17th century is outlined and he covers the progress of the Reformation in Scotland.
Levellers and Diggers
There are chapters on the prosecution of witchcraft in the mid-17th century and on Cromwell’s campaigns in Ireland. Chapters follow on the Levellers and on the Diggers, radicals who went further than the leaders of the Commonwealth in their demands for greater political participation and economic equality. Then come chapters on the more extreme Fifth Monarchists, the Ranters and the Quakers.
The course of events under Cromwell, after the execution of Charles I, is traced, followed briefly by the restoration of the monarchy, aspects of Charles II’s rule bearing on the ‘godly’ and the Monmouth Rebellion. A chapter covers the rule of the godly in north America, from the arrival of the Mayflower to the Salem witch trials.
Two final chapters attempt to summarise the influence of the godly in subsequent years up to the present day, highlighting the continued political significance of nonconformity in Britain and in the USA.
The book provides a useful introduction to its subject, but perhaps unwittingly gives the impression that nonconformity was the heir primarily of the radical sects on which the book focuses, rather than of the more mainstream Puritan movement.
