The Devil's Book: Charles I, The Book of Sports and Puritanism in Tudor and Early Stuart England
Alistair Dougall
Abstract
This book takes a fresh look at the controversy surrounding the publication of the Book of Sports, the royal declaration which James I and Charles I used to sanction recreations on Sundays. The book explores the cultural battle involving the elites and ordinary people of pre-civil war England, which were caused by the sharp and dangerous tensions between those who wanted to enforce a strict form of Sunday observance and those who enjoyed and championed traditional sports and festivities. The book demonstrates how a new, rigid form of sabbatarianism developed during the late sixteenth and early ... More
This book takes a fresh look at the controversy surrounding the publication of the Book of Sports, the royal declaration which James I and Charles I used to sanction recreations on Sundays. The book explores the cultural battle involving the elites and ordinary people of pre-civil war England, which were caused by the sharp and dangerous tensions between those who wanted to enforce a strict form of Sunday observance and those who enjoyed and championed traditional sports and festivities. The book demonstrates how a new, rigid form of sabbatarianism developed during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and became the hallmark of English puritans, who sought to reform people's behaviour and to suppress all Sunday recreations. Their zealous attempts to impose their form of Sunday observance and their concerted attack on traditional festivity divided communities, and the book provides a wealth of examples from around the country of conflict over Sunday sports and their attendant socialising. It is an original, refreshing study, which throws new light on early modern social life and disorder, and on how and why James I and Charles I took sides in the cultural conflict over Sabbath observance and recreation. It examines how the impact of the Book of Sports and attitudes to traditional festivity were key factors in England's eventual descent into civil war and helped to determine allegiances in the war itself. This book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the causes of the deep divisions in early Stuart society.
Keywords:
Book of Sports,
Puritanism,
Sabbatarianism,
Charles I,
James I,
religion,
festivity,
disorder,
Civil War,
cultural
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780859898560 |
| Published to Liverpool Scholarship Online: January 2014 |
DOI:10.5949/liverpool/9780859898560.001.0001 |
