Resumen de Charles ii's Commission for Ecclesiastical Promotions, 1681–1684: A Reconsideration
This article dissents from the classic analysis of the ‘commission for ecclesiastical promotions’ (1681–4) offered by Robert Beddard in 1967. Rather than acting as a powerful ‘instrument of tory reaction’, in the hands of a ‘reversionary interest’ of lay and clerical ‘Yorkists’ dedicated to changing the political hue of the upper ranks of the clergy, in reality it functioned as ‘an instrument of personal rule’ for a king who had not surrendered his own interests to those of his heir presumptive. Its political impact is queried with evidence from the start of James's reign that emphasises the immediate sense of crisis felt by many bishops.
