The Restless Republic

Paperback, 496 pages

English language

Published March 2, 2023 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:: 978-0-00-828205-9

(2 reviews)

On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.

The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley, who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the …

On a raw January afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.

The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley, who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man.

The Restless Republic ranges from London to Leith, Cornwall to Connacht, from the corridors of power to the common fields and hillsides. Gathering her cast of trembling visionaries and banished royalists, dextrous mandarins and bewildered bystanders, Anna Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain’s history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

2 editions

The Gnome King reviewed The Restless Republic by Anna Keay

Review of 'Interregnum' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I was the sort of kid at school it was impossible to get interested in learning, everything was so very dull with the teachers droning on and on…my history teacher actually taught PE and had no knowledge of the second subject he was forced to teach. So as soon as I got a chance I dropped history…now and then though a book comes along that makes me regret that decision big time, imagine how much I could have learnt if Anna Keay was my teacher. This book was a fascinating read, I always assumed that Oliver Cromwell was a psycho that killed many to fill his need to become King, what this book has done is bring him to life and explain his role in the ending of Charles I reign and the years that followed. I feel like I have a great understanding behind his motives and that he …

I was the sort of kid at school it was impossible to get interested in learning, everything was so very dull with the teachers droning on and on…my history teacher actually taught PE and had no knowledge of the second subject he was forced to teach. So as soon as I got a chance I dropped history…now and then though a book comes along that makes me regret that decision big time, imagine how much I could have learnt if Anna Keay was my teacher. This book was a fascinating read, I always assumed that Oliver Cromwell was a psycho that killed many to fill his need to become King, what this book has done is bring him to life and explain his role in the ending of Charles I reign and the years that followed. I feel like I have a great understanding behind his motives and that he did believe he was following god’s will and not doing this all for himself.

The book isn’t just about Cromwell, I only mentioned him as he was one of the biggest players in this moment of history, it actually follows a small number of people, not all of them well known, and the book looks at how they played their part in events and how in their small ways they influenced things. The book follows these people in a chronological format starting with those that were involved with the King’s trial all the way up to those that helped get Charles II on the throne. The research has been impeccable, it must have taken a long time to find out all this info about those with smaller parts, in fact Keay has to admit defeat on the ending of one person as they just seemed to vanish. A lot of history books can be very dry and filled with quote after quote, this one is very different, the quotes are kept to a minimum and the rest is all Keay’s words, at times I got so caught up in the narrative that I forgot it wasn’t fiction. The book is over 400 pages and not once did I get bored and that is a huge accomplishment for this sort of subject.

For me the most interesting thing in this book was the part women played, they were so strong and without their influence over the men things could have been very different…and as is usually the case they get mostly forgotten over time. I loved how one Lady held a castle under siege against one of the toughest generals (A real Game of Thrones woman), another held her own in court against some manly lawyers and another was instrumental in putting a King back on the throne. Absolutely fascinating stuff.

I highly recommend this book, a small period of history that was very unique and these peoples stories have been told in a riveting way.

Blog Review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/02/28/the-restless-republic-britain-without-a-crown-by-anna-keay/

Christopowers

rated it

July 23, 2023