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First published in 1987 Politics without Parliaments discusses the period 1629-40 which preceded the English Civil wars. It focuses on the responses of local leaders in the towns and counties to the personal rule of Charles I who dissolved parliament in 1629. It describes their reactions to his religious, military, and fiscal policies and the men and measures associated with him. Charles 's efforts to force the Scots accept the new prayerbook alarmed people in England and brought them to new levels of political activity which culminated in the petitions and protests of the summer of 1640. By late September Charles yielded to the pressure and announced that he would summon a parliament to meet in November.

Based on extensive research in local records and family papers, this book provides a new and comprehensive understanding of responses to Charles I's non parliamentary governments. Professor Cope concentrates on the country rather than the court and argues that throughout this period the local leaders did not forsake politics. This book provides students and scholars of seventeenth century history with new insights into the background to the English civil wars in the 1640s.