The First Whigs: The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678-1683

The Exclusion Crisis was an attempt to bar the King from ascending the throne. The author sets the crisis in its historical perspective as part of a continuing struggle between representative government and monarchial absolutism. The Whigs emerge as a highly disciplined political group who, after winning only a partial victory, were betrayed by a corrupt leader, and fell into disunity.