Political documents of the civil wars
What follows are summaries of some of the key political documents from the start of Charles I’s conflict with Scotland in 1637 to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Instead of a chronological or thematic approach, this is a different angle from which to consider the history of the period, a record of the proliferation of plans and constitutions cooked up by all sides in their attempts to find a solution to the nation’s deep divisions.
Lining them up like this brings out the collapse of consensus, the collapse of belief in a central set of political and religious values which characterised the era, and the countless attempts made by different political players to rebuild it. In the last few documents you can see the eventual realisation emerging that only some measure of tolerance and pluralism could replace the late-medieval idea of…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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