FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Whig's Progress traces the career of the Right Honorable Thomas Wharton, eventually fifth Baron, first Earl, and first Marquess of Wharton, from his birth during Oliver Cromwell's campaigns through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 - through the rise, the fall, and the resurgence of the Whig party, which he would ultimately lead. The narrative also follows Wharton through his education in France and his later adventures in duels, horse races, elections, parliamentary warfare, romance, and conspiracy." "Considered simply as a story, the narrative has intrinsic drama, with a complex protagonist, a vivid cast of historical characters, and enough conflict (including family conflicts) for several novels. The cast is headed by the redoubtable Wharton clan and by the party leaders, royal and non-royal, who dominated the period. The characters are usually vivid, often confused, sometimes psychotic, and (in the Restoration era) seldom pure. History is sometimes indistinguishable from gossip - some of it supplied by the Whartons. Political drama often becomes social drama." "A biography of Wharton ("Tom," to his family, his friends, and by 1680, to political England) involves an account of the tortuous Popish Plot, the Exclusion Crisis, the formation of the Whig and Tory parties, and the intricacies of the Glorious Revolution. Without oversimplifying a very complex set of events, the author has made his treatment both accurate and readily comprehensible to twenty-first-century readers." Clark has searched through original documents and used primary sources as much as possible. He has also corrected many errors in secondary sources, producing a readable yet authoritative history of a major political figure in the Restoration era.

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