Sexual Politics in Revolutionary England

Sexual politics in revolutionary England explores the sudden appearance of graphic sex-talk in polemical print during the English Revolution. This was a novel development, for prior to 1640, explicit sexual language in England was largely confined to subversive oral and scribal forms. Yet after the collapse of press licensing that accompanied the outbreak of civil war, it rapidly evolved into a vital component of mid-century public culture. By the Stuart Restoration, sexual politics had become a routine element of English political life.This book tells that story for the first time in a sweeping narrative account. Drawing on print and manuscript sources from dozens of archives, it traces the evolution of explicit sex-talk from its pre-war underground roots into a premier mode of public politicking during the 1640s and 1650s. In those years, contemporary ideas about sex and the body invaded crucial mid-century debates over religious toleration, sectarian radicalism, and patriarchal kingship to dramatic effect. In the process, the book shows, sex-talk became a key tool of partisan identity formation and military mobilization, as contemporaries repeatedly portrayed themselves as morally upright patriarchs and their enemies as promiscuous lechers. By 1660, twenty years of increasingly visible sexual politics had laid formative groundwork for the libertine antics of Charles II's courtiers as well as the caustic slanders levelled against the Restoration court by its godly critics. This book therefore offers an important new context for approaching the history of late Stuart sexual culture - and through it, that of Western sexuality more broadly.