The Politics of the Ancient Constitution is a close examination of the political ideas of common lawyers in early Stuart England, and includes important surveys of the ideas of Sir Edward Coke and John Selden. It provides an original interpretation of the lawyers' theory of the ancient constitution and on this basis it provides a novel interpretation of the basic structure of political thought and ideology in pre-Civil War England. In this way the book is able to make a substantial contribution to debates over the ideological origins of the English Revolution.

Glenn Burgess is Professor of History at the University of Hull, UK. He is the author of The Politics of the Ancient Constitution: An Introduction to English Political Thought 1603-1642 (1992); Absolute Monarchy and the Stuart Constitution (1996); British Political Thought 1500-1660 (2009); and many articles, essays and edited collections.

Preface
PART 1 EXPLORING THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND
Ancient Constitutions: Politics and the Past
The Ancient Constitution of England
Problems and Implications
PART 2 THE COMMON LAW MIND AND THE STRUCTURE OF POLITICAL DEBATE
Some Historiographical Perspectives
The Elements of Consensus in Jacobean England
Making Consensus Work
Towards Breakdown: 'New Counsels' and the Dissolution of Consensus
Epilogue: The Crisis of the Common Law.