A ‘lunatick revolter from loyalty’: the Death of Rowland Wilson and the English Revolution
Ann Hughes is Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University. Her research focuses on the English Revolution and she has most recently been concerned with religion, print culture and gender. Her last book was Gangraena and the Struggle for the English Revolution, Oxford, 2004, and she is currently coediting the works of Gerrard Winstanley and completing a book for Routledge on Women, Men and Politics in the English Revolution.
Correspondence: a.l.hughes{at}his.keele.ac.uk
In this essay I discuss the struggle to define the meaning of the death of a prominent London parliamentarian, Rowland Wilson, in order to argue that a full understanding of the English Revolution can best be achieved through a political history that is fully integrated with economic, social and cultural approaches. Wilson's end highlights the centrality of London as a contested participatory political arena wherein alliances were formed and different factions competed for support. It illustrates the importance of different forms of communication and representation to political mobilization; the role of print, of course, but also the use of rumour, gesture and ritual activity. Finally it explores the impact of traumatic political upheaval on gendered political identities, through the presentation of the public and private life of this troubled man.