Parliamentary protestations and political culture in revolutionary England

Abstract

There are well-known examples of documents in the history of Great Britain, which have become momentous for the history of nations: these include the English Magna Carta, Scottish Declaration of Arbroath and Irish Statutes of Kilkenny. Their historic significance was not realized at the time of their creation, nor was their crucial role in the process of the formation of ethnic and national communities. The history of the “mythologization” of the Protestation of 1641 spanned a quite short period, but was intense. The creation and recording of the Protestation, its acceptance by Parliament, the King’s reaction to it, and the signing of its English and Welsh versions in provincial parishes as “the national oath” took place between 1641 and 1642. The text was almost immediately raised to the rank of the foundations of the “Godly cause”, and, consequently, to the rank of a key text/event of the Great Rebellion. The book Covenanting Citizens. The Protestation Oath and Popular Political Culture in the English Revolution by J. Walter [Walter 2017] is by no means the first study dedicated to the content and existence of the Protestation of 1641. Such renowned British researchers as Ch. Hill, B. Manning, D. Underdown and others formed an extensive tradition of studying the text in the context of political radicalization of the Great Rebellion. On the basis of a wide range of sources — Parliamentary journals and numerous memoirs — the book reconstructs the causes and motives for the initiation of the Protestation (April 1641) and the process of its discussion (3 and 4 May). A comprehensive picture restored by the author of the monograph generally demonstrates that, despite the evident loss of mutual trust between the monarch and members of the House of Commons and the fear of a royal or popish revolt, the Parliament in 1641 acted within traditional framework: the search of a constitutional compromise. Refs 11.