This volume provides a comprehensive account of seventeenth-century London during the reigns of James the first and Charles the first, chronicling the city's evolving relationship with the Crown. The author details the continuous financial demands placed upon the municipality, including forced loans, ship money, and royal contracts, which steadily alienated the commercial classes and strained the civic treasury.
A central problem posed throughout the text is how the City of London maintained its ancient chartered rights, privileges, and financial independence against the financial exactions and political interference of the Stuart monarchs. The narrative traces the development of political tensions from the early Catholic plots and the plantation of Ulster and Virginia to the eventual outbreak of open civil war.
The text covers major historical storylines such as the foundation of the New River water supply by Hugh Middleton, the colonization efforts in Ireland and America, and the recurring trials of the London Corporation against Star Chamber judgments. Key figures include the monarchs, various lord mayors, and parliamentary leaders who navigated the shifting tides of allegiance between the court and the growing Puritan opposition.
As the narrative progresses toward the outbreak of hostilities, the author illustrates how the city became the financial backbone of the parliamentary cause. The London trained bands emerge as a crucial military force, while the municipal government transitions from cautious negotiation to active armed resistance against royal authority.
The volume concludes by detailing the hardening of factional divisions within the capital, the rise of the parliamentary military apparatus, and the irrevocable break between the city and the Crown, setting the stage for the dramatic conflicts of the mid-seventeenth century.
