To Settle the Succession of the State

The safety of the Protestant Succession dominated politics from the Exclusion Crisis to the Forty-Five rebellion, and for more than half a century questions of religion and ideology were inextricably linked to the choice between de facto reigning monarchs and exiled Stuart Pretenders. The writings of the period are shot through with politics, and this volume in the Context and Commentary series is designed to illustrate how literature forms, modifies and reflects political ideologies.