Dominion : England and its island neighbours, 1500-1707 / Derek Hirst.

"Dominion: England and its Island Neighbours c.1500-1707 is a rich narrative history of England's increasing dominance over the cluster of territories that became known as the British Isles. It brings alive a period and a geography remarkable for repeated religious wars and a long colonial struggle as well as for London's emergence as a political, economic, and cultural hub. While Dominion concentrates on English actions and purposes, it pays careful attention to interactions in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and to the pressures of European competition. It does so by drawing on the vibrant recent scholarship of the separate nations and considerable primary research, and also on the language of the actors, from Henry VIII and Elizabeth, Spenser and Shakespeare, to Oliver Cromwell and John Milton. Its purpose is not just to explore English understandings and ideologies, but their consequences, both creative and disruptive. The landmarks of the Tudor and Stuart centuries may be familiar: the creation of Ireland as a subordinate but fractured kingdom, the unification of Wales with England, the unstable union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the bloody conquest and reconquest of Ireland, and the formation of the United Kingdom amid fierce rivalry with France. By interweaving these strands as a single coherent story of English reactions and projections, this book opens up a new understanding of this formative period in the history of these islands - and also of its fractious legacy."--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Searching for meaning: empire and the rat. England's archipelagic history c.1500-1707. Prologue -- The old order changes 1500-1540 -- Titles in question 1540-1551 -- State formations 1551-1568 -- Causes of the Lord 1568-1585 -- Endgames 1585-1603 -- A greater Britain 1603-1618? -- Conforming kingdoms 1618-1637 -- Conflicted kingdoms 1637-1646 -- Revolution and conquest 1646-1660 -- Restoring crown and church 1660-1686 -- A British Isles 1687-1707 Bibliographic essay. Index.