The History of England: Revolution
by Peter Ackroyd, Macmillan, £25
The fourth volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England lands with a 400-page thud and a narrative stretching from the crowning of William III to the Battle of Waterloo.
To some extent, this is the tale of the Glorious Revolution and its discontents. Ackroyd is not an outright tarnisher of 1668 and all that, but neither is he averse to scratching away some of the gilt. Loyalty to William was “distinctly muted” in many parts of the country where he was seen as a foreign king imposed by force: “Yet what could be done? The crown was on his head. Indifference, or resignation, was the inevitable response.”
