Research Catalog

Title

Quarrel with the king : the story of an English family on the high road to civil war / Adam Nicolson.

Author

Nicolson, Adam, 1957-

Publication

New York : Harper, [2008], ©2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 306 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps; 24 cm

Summary

"Quarrel with the King tells the story of the first four earls of Pembroke, their wives, children, estates, tenants, and allies, following their high and glamorous trajectory from the 1520s through 1650 - the most turbulent and dramatic years of English history - across three generations of change, ambition, resistance, and war. The Pembrokes were at the heart of it all: the richest family in England, with old blood and new drive, led as much by a succession of extraordinary women as by their husbands and sons." "It is also the story of a power struggle, over a long century, between the family and the growing strength of the English Crown. For decades, questions of loyalty simmered: Was government about agreement and respect, or authority and compulsion? What status did traditional rights have in a changing world? Did a national emergency mean those rights could be ignored or overturned? These were the issues that in 1642 would lead to a brutal civil war, the bloodiest conflict England has ever experienced, in which the earl of Pembroke - who had been loyal till then - had no choice but to rebel against a king who he felt had betrayed both him and his country." "At other times, the Pembrokes both threatened the Crown and acted as its bruisingly efficient and violent agents. They were ambivalent figures: flag bearers for an ancient England and time servers in some of the most corrupt courts England has ever known; fawning courtiers and indulgent landlords; puritanical aristocrats and rebel grandees. Nicolson's book amounts to a study in all the ambiguities involved in the exercise and maintenance of power and status."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Herbert, William, Sir, 1507-1570 > Family
• Herbert family
• Nobility > Great Britain > Biography
• Great Britain > History > Charles I, 1625-1649

Note

• A version of this book appeared in the UK under the title: The Earls of paradise.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-292) and index.

ISBN

• 9780061154317 (hardcover)
• 0061154318 (hardcover)

LCCN

• 2008004262
• 40016114366

OCLC

• ocn191898135
• 191898135
• SCSB-13972227

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries