Britain And Europe In The Seve :: essays research papers

J.R. Jones, a Professor of English History in the inform of English Studies at the University of East Anglia, England, in Britain and Europe in the seventeenth Century, has written a very informative and interesting book.Britain and Europe in the Seventeenth Century is a relatively short book that deals with the encounter that Britain had on European affairs at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The thesis is basically summed up in the title of the book. To expand on the thesis, Dr. Jones emphasizes the culture interdependence of Britain and Europe in the seventeenth century, and shows that events at home can non be in effect(p)y understood unless they are related to developments and forces abroad. In cultural and gifted, as well as political and economic matters, the effect on Britain of contrasted influences is for most of this period greater than that of Britain on Europe one of the briny questions that Dr. Jones considered when writing this book was why this relati on was later reversed.In expression at this period as a whole there is a clear contrast between Britain&8217s isolation and unimportance in European affairs at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and Britain&8217s full involvement as a major influence after 1688. This involves intellectual and political matters. European intellectual developments during the first part of the century did non significantly affect the main part of English life, and English influences on Europe were negligible. The only groups interested in developments in Europe were minorities who were disgruntled with the established order in Britain. For most of these &8220Puritans the Calvinist churches of Europe provided the mildew which they hoped to establish in England. During James I&8217s reign they were godly by Dutch divines and encouraged in their opposition to royal policies. In economic and intellectual matters Scotland was basically a colony of Holland. But the partially formed Calvinist inte rnational, to which English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians belonged, together with German, Czech, Swiss, Magyar, French, and Dutch churches, did not survive the 1620&8217s. It was shattered in the early disastrous phases of the Thirty years War, and by the submission of the Huguenots when Louis XIII insisted on the elimination of foreign pastors, so that by the time English Puritanism temporarily triumphed during the English Revolution it held some European connections of any importance, and was dependent of its own intellectual resources. The connections which bound universality with Europe were more durable.