A rich narrative history of England's increasing dominance over the territories that became known as the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the reign of Henry VII through to the Act of Union of 1707.

• Part I: Searching for meaning: Empire and the rat


• Part II: England's archipelagic history c.1500-1707


• Prologue


• 1: The old order changes 1500-1540


• 2: Titles in question 1540-1551


• 3: State formations 1551-1568


• 4: Causes of the Lord 1568-1585


• 5: Endgames 1585-1603


• 6: A greater Britain 1603-1618?


• 7: Conforming kingdoms 1618-1637


• 8: Conflicted kingdoms 1637-1646


• 9: Revolution and conquest 1646-1660


• 10: Restoring crown and church 1660-1686


• 11: A British Isles 1687-1707


• Part III: Bibliographic essay


• Index

Derek Hirst is William Eliot Smith Professor of History, Washington University, St Louis, and the author of a number of books on the history of early modern English history and literature, including England in Conflict (1999) and, as co-editor, The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell (2010).