Cressy, David. England’s Islands in a Sea of Trouble. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Outcrops in the English Channel are battered by waves as the sparse inhabitants brace against the raids by pirates and privateers. The small islands off the coast of England were outcrops of the Empire and possessed unique economic and political institutions. Throughout the history of the archipelago around England, the islands served as targets of opportunity for pirates and tax havens in the modern era. All of the islands suffered from isolation from the mainland and were often an afterthought of the central government in London. However, during moments of crisis, the islands could be used by warring factions as a safe retreat from enemy forces. In the early modern period, the islands were difficult to govern from London due to their isolated nature and the terrain around the islands. How the Islands were governed is the central question that David Cressy tries to answer in England’s Islands in a Sea of Trouble.
David Cressy is a professor of early modern England at The Ohio State University. He has written extensively on social aspects of England in the early modern period. Alongside this book, Cressy has written numerous works on early modern Egland. He focuses on the time of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties and the social revolution that followed those periods. Cressy is an expert in early modern England and throughout his number of books, he provides a complex analysis of society in early modern England.
The layout of England’s Islands is easy to follow and provides a well-structured book that provides case studies of some of the islands and moves into larger social and cultural impacts on the islands. The first section of the book includes two case studies of the Island of Lundy off the coast of Wales and the Channel Islands between England and France. The second half of the first section examines the natural conditions that made the islands hard to govern and the economies that allowed the islands to maintain a population. The second section examines the social and everyday life of the islands starting directly after the English Civil War. Cressy dedicates chapters to the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration of Charles II. Section two covers the islands of England during the revolutionary time during the early modern period.
The third section examines the use of the islands as a prison starting with Charles I. Charles I used some of the islands as prisons for religious dissidents that threatened his power. The following chapter explores the year-long imprisonment of Charles I after the royalists lost the English Civil War. The following two chapters investigate the prison island system through the Interregnum and the Restoration. The third section explores the ways that the central government used the islands as a resource to cure their political problems.
Cressy writes a wonderful book that examines a part of the English empire that remained outside of England proper but still benefited from the rights of English citizens. During the early modern period, the government in London wanted to create a unified state that was organized around their power. The Islands around England proved resistant to incorporation into England. Some of the islands, such as Lundy, did not have resources or a strategic position for London to be concerned about their incorporation. Other islands, such as the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands, were very important strategically to England due to their proximity to their lifelong rival France. London needed to control the islands to project their power into the English Channel and to prevent the spread of French influence towards England.
Some islands had a strong cultural tradition that conflicted with the wishes of London. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands were traditionally part of different governments. The Isle of Man was settled by Norse conquerors that traveled throughout the British Isles. The traditional government has remained in power on the island and they did not speak English but rather spoke a Norse tongue. The Channel Islands also had established cultural ties that traced back to the days of William of Normandy. The Islands were a part of the Kingdom of Normandy and they spoke a form of French. The Channel Islands were right off the coast of France and were threatened by invasion. The military governors of the Channel Islands were appointed by the Crown. Throughout their history, the Channel Islands were a thorn in the side of England by resisting central authority. Both islands resisted the tide of centralization emanating from London.
Many of the islands around England were used as prisons by the central authority in London. During the reign of Charles I, religious dissidents were moved to the islands to isolate them from the rest of the population. Charles I also spent a year as a prisoner on the Island of Wight. During his time on the island, Charles constantly devised ways to escape and rally loyal forces to overthrow Parliament. During the Interregnum, the islands were used to house a number of prisoners, including royalist army officers, religious dissidents, and conspirators against the regime. The stance towards the periphery islands was similar in both the reign of Charles I, the Interregnum, and Charles II.
David Cressy is an expert in early modern England and provides another well-researched book that examines a subject that is gaining traction in historiography. More work is needed to bring the islands around England fully into the history, but Cressy provides a wonderful example of how to bring an oft-overlooked subject into the wider field of English history. The book has many strong points, including strong research and a compelling argument. Cressy does a great job at compiling a number of sources that back up the argument that the author is making. One aspect of the book I believed that detracted from it was the format of the book. The book is not organized chronologically and it made it difficult to follow each island through time. Each section is organized thematically and multiple times I had to reread paragraphs to follow the time jump. Overall, Cressy delivered a good book that adds to previous works. He is bringing to light a missed part of the history of the British Isles.
Reviewed by Tyler Thompson, Student at George Mason University.
