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Home / Historical Periods / Tudor & Stuart Britain / Stuart Period

Period

Stuart Period

1603–1714 CE

The Stuart Period began when James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne in 1603. It includes the Jacobean and Caroline courts, conflict over religion and royal authority, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the execution of Charles I, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution and the Protestant succession. It was a period when monarchy survived, but not unchanged.

This period matters because it tested the limits of kingship, Parliament and religious conformity. England, Scotland and Ireland were drawn into interconnected conflict, and the monarchy was abolished, restored and then constrained. The result was a new political settlement that shaped later British history.

Stuart fiction includes Robert Harris’s Act of Oblivion, Rose Tremain’s Restoration, Iain Pears’s An Instance of the Fingerpost, Andrew Taylor’s Marwood and Lovett novels, Giles Kristian’s Bleeding Land trilogy and Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle. The period works well for civil-war soldiers, spies, fugitives, plague survivors, London officials, scientists, conspirators and families divided by politics.

Related people for Stuart Period

Anne Fairfax1617/18–1665 Cardinal Mazarin1602–1661 Catherine de’ Medici1519–1589 Catherine of Braganza1638–1705 Charles II of England1630–1685 Charles I of England1600–1649 Elizabeth I1533–1603 Francis, Duke of Guise1519–1563 George III1738–1820 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden1594–1632 Guy Fawkes1570–1606 Henrietta Anne Stuart1644–1670 Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester1612–1658 James VI and I1566–1625 Jane Lane, Lady Fisher1626–1689 John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee1648–1689 John Moore1761–1809 John Tradescant the elder1570–1638 John Tradescant the Younger1608–1662 Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth1649–1734 Louis XIV1638–1715 Mary, Queen of Scots1542–1587 Nell Gwyn1650–1687 Oliver Cromwell1599–1658 Philip II of Spain1527–1598 Richard Cromwell1626–1712 Robert Catesby1573–1605 Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury1563–1612 Robert Clive1725–1774 Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron1612–1671 Walter Raleigh1552–1618

Series

Series about Stuart Period (4 series)

The Secret of the Journal in Order

by C. F. Dunn 5 books 4.2

The Secret of the Journal follows Cambridge historian Emma D’Eresby after her research into a seventeenth-century diary takes her to a university in Maine. There she meets the surgeon Matthew Lynes, whose apparent age and carefully guarded family history are incompatible with the evidence contained in the journal.…

The Stuarts in Order

by Jean Plaidy 7 books 4.3

The Stuart novels explore the dynasty from the restoration of Charles II through the Revolution of 1688 and the early eighteenth-century struggle over succession. Court intrigue, royal favourites, hidden marriages and confessional rivalry reveal a monarchy repeatedly threatened by its own family divisions.

Tradescant Novels in Order

by Philippa Gregory 2 books 4.4

The Tradescant novels are a two-generation biographical family saga inspired by the gardeners and collectors John Tradescant the Elder and John Tradescant the Younger. Their work for royal and aristocratic patrons connects the development of English gardens and collections to travel, scientific curiosity, patronage and the growth of…

Books

30 Best Novels About the Stuart Period

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.

Non Fiction

10 Non-Fiction Books About the Stuart Period

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.