The Origins of the English Civil War [antikvár]

Preface The relations of authors and publishers, like those of men and women, rest on a mixture of mutual need, desire and incomprehension. An editor, then becomes a sort of marriage counsellor, devoted to the task of explaining the outlook of each party to the other. My greatest debt then is to the parties, for allowing themselves to be guided to the marriage now solemnised by the printers. My thanks are due to Mr. Derick Mirfin, of Macmillan, for his patience, understanding and perceptive suggestions and particularly for his tolerance of a lateness on delivery dates which authors share only with the shipping industry. My thanks are due to my contributors for their kindness and forbearance in adapting their work to the needs of the volume. In particular, I would like to thank Professor Lamar Hill and Mr. Michael Mendle for contributing at very short notice and Professor J. H. Elliott for writing his concluding review chapter at high speed during the 1972 power cuts. Since publishers, like early Stuart kings, are suffering severely from the effects of inflation, we have found it necessary to accept a number of economies which have helped me to understand the unpopularity of Lord Treasurer Cranfield. There has been severe pressure on the length of the book, and even more pressure to reduce the number of footnotes. The editorial ruling has been that footnotes must be kept for verbatim quotations, and for research discoveries. The chief casualties, then, have necessarily been those courteous bibliographical footnotes in which ong acknowledges the use of a colleague's work. We hope that any colleagues who find their work drawn on in this volume will appreciate that our gratitude is none the less because we have been unable to express it in a footnote. Spelling has been modernised throughout. I would like to thank Professor G. E. Aylmer, Mr. J. P. Cooper, Mr. Derek Hirst, Mr. Horace Sanders and Mr. David Thomas for reading parts of the manuscript, and making a number of helpful suggestions and corrections, and Penelope Corfield for a number of stimulating debates which have helped to enrich the introduction and for reading most of the proofs. For any errors which remain, we alone are responsible. I would like to thank the Trustees of the Bedford Settled Estates for permission to quote from manuscripts in their possession, ojb.c.w.—1*