Roger L'Estrange: A Study in the History of Royalist Opinion in England, 1659-1688

Abstract

This thesis is based upon a collection of L'Estrange pamphlets held by the Alexander Turnbull Library - pamphlets written from the royalist or cavalier point of view during the reigns of Charles II and James II. Their range is such that they bear upon every considerable public crisis of these reigns. Because of the public nature of L'Estrange's activities, this thesis has been intended to show him, not in isolation, but against a background of political and religious controversy. The standard biography of L'Estrange, that by George Kitchin, treated his life as an episode in the history of journalism and the public press: this thesis has had the aim of examining his representative opinions rather than his official activities as a government publicist and licenser of the press. In the matter of the authenticity of the pamphlets ascribed to L'Estrange, and their date of publication, Kitchin's bibliography has been followed throughout. The spelling and punctuation of the primary sources has been retained in all cases, except where a modern reprint of a work - such as Reresby's Memoirs – modernised the spelling, and was the only copy available. In certain instances L'Estrange did not number the pages of his prefaces. For this reason there are some cases where no page number has been given to quotations.