Reading and politics in early modern England the mental world of a seventeenth-century Catholic gentleman.

Includes bibliographies and index.

9780719080241; 9780719080241; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Note on dates and style; Introduction; Part I Family, friends and connections; Chapter 1 William Blundell's family and friends; Chapter 2 William Blundell and the wider world; Part II Reading and reflections; Chapter 3 Reading and the construction of commonplaces; Chapter 4 Reading the confessional divide; Chapter 5 A Catholic approach to the world; Conclusion; Appendix Map of Little Crosby and surrounding area; Select bibliography; Index.

This book examines the activities of William Blundell, a seventeenth-century Catholic gentleman, and using the approaches of the history of reading provides a detailed analysis of his mindset. Blundell was neither the passive victim nor the entirely loyal subject that he and others have claimed. He actively defended his family from the penal laws and used the relative freedom that this gave him to patronise other Catholics. Not only did he rewrite the histories of recent civil conflicts to show that Protestants were prone to rebellion and Catholics to loyalty, but we also find a different persp.

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