1 Introduction – Chris R. Kyle and Jason Peacey
2 ‘A dog, a butcher, and a puritan’: the politics of lent in early modern England – Chris R. Kyle
3 The Lord Admiral, the Parliament-men and the Narrow Seas, 1625–7 – Thomas Cogswell
4 Space, place and Laudianism in early Stuart Ipswich – Noah Millstone
5 ‘Written according to my usual way’: political communication and the rise of the agent in seventeenth-century England – Jason Peacey
6 Diligent enquiries and perfect accounts: central initiatives and local agency in the English civil war – Ann Hughes
7 Provincial ‘Levellers’ and the coming of the regicide in the Southwest – David R. Como
8 Sovereignty by the book: corporations, plantations and literate order – Dan Beaver
9 Local expertise in hostile territory: state building in the peripheries – Jennifer Wells
10 News and the personal letter, or the news education of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 1660–71 – Lindsay O’Neill
11 The news out of Newgate after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion – Rachel Weil
Index

Connecting centre and locality sets out to explore the dynamics of local/national political culture in seventeenth-century Britain, with particular reference to political communication. It examines the degree to which connections were forged between London, Whitehall, Westminster and the localities, and analyses the patterns and processes that can be recovered.

The fundamental aim of the book is to create a dialogue between two prominent strands in recent historiography, and between the work of social and political historians of the early modern period. Chapters by leading historians of Stuart Britain examine how the state worked to communicate with its people and how local communities, often far from the metropole, opened their own lines of communication with the centre. Rather than being an exhaustive study of all forms of political communication, the volume highlights a variety of ways this agenda can be addressed.

Substantial work is currently being done on subscriptional culture across the nation, from petitioning to Protestation, loyal addresses, lobbying and litigation. Connecting centre and locality provides a reminder of the gains to be made when political communication is placed at the heart of both social and political history. It will provide an impetus for further scholarship.