Focusing on the impact of Continental religious warfare on English, Scottish and Irish Protestantism, this study is concerned with the way in which British identity developed in the early Stuart period. Still debated today, the question of British national identity first emerged in 1603 when James VI of Scotland succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, uniting the three kingdoms under one monarch. What followed was conflict between the dynastic vision of a Britain defined by loyalty to the king, and a new collective identity, characterized by military ambition and anti-popery. White examines what militant Protestants in England, Scotland and Ireland thought about 'Britain'. British identity and foreign policy are studied as one, allowing a greater understanding of the role of religious fervour on national and international politics of the time; the focus being on what brought British Protestants together, rather than what kept them apart.
