The Improbable Puritan: A Life of Bulstrode Whitelocke

by Ruth Spalding

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Very Good, signed book, FIRST EDITION, Faber & Faber, London, 1975. Signed by the Author. A very good, clean and sound copy in oatmeal-coloured cloth boards, gilt title on spine, with a very good dust-jacket in a clear protective wrapper. Quite a scarce book.

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book of 2019 so far

Ruth Spalding wrote this her only biography in 1975 and it’s fair to say she specialised in her subject .
Bulstrode Whitelocke lived 1605-75 through the period of the social upheaval of the English civil war, and he was a assiduous diarist and recorder of events both at the personal and national level .

A lawyer, he rose to be briefly the senior figure in the commonwealth in 1669 when president of the council, a sort of top table for top politicos and lawyers established during Cromwell’s era. His diaries therefore record life at home and life at the top of the tree and of course his long climb up it . The insights are remarkable and the whole book is told as a spell binding story of life as we can understand it .

He is a good man is Bulstrode , a devoted father husband and friend - notwithstanding he had 3 wives and 17 children. His motto - Quodcunque evenerit optimum - whatever happens is best , if I make it so - tells the story of the unflappable way he faces life’s challenges (sometimes mortal in the frothy era of regicide and revolution and restoration) and his devotion to common sense and tolerance.

For anybody interested in dipping below the factual surface of the Civil War era this is a “must read”.

[Bill38silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

In recent times the most enjoyable books of many I have read about seventeenth century British history, have been biographies: Kings James and Charles 1, Prince Rupert, Cromwell, diarists Evelyn and Pepys, John Hampden, and other key players and participants in the Civil Wars. Although perhaps a less well known influential figure is Bulstrode Whitelocke. An improbable Puritan he may be but without doubt Ruth Spalding has produced a very interesting life of a gentleman, a man of conscience and a central figure in key events which transformed the constitution throughout a time of many crises.

This book is extremely well written. It has some fascinating anecdotes and includes an interesting account of the author tracing missing manuscripts and a diary record of her subject often set out in the style of a third person dialogue. The account of Whitelocke's short time as Ambassador to Sweden (and the intriguing Queen Christina) is an insight on how foreign policy and diplomacy operated in the turbulent seventeenth century. Recommended reading.

[Clint Wastling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bulstrode Whitelocke was at the centre of events of the English Civil War. In this well researched biography, he comes across as religious but not an extremist. His failure to get a constitutional monarchy accepted after Richard Cromwell left office, comes across as one of the main reasons for him being sidelined by history.
The most fascinating parts of the biography span the period he was ambassador to Queen Christina in Sweden. It also shows the malicious and cruel side of Charles 2nd's restoration.

[David Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous effort to research and and write so well about this fascinating individual and his family living in dangerous times