All our climacterics have one remarkable feature in common: the men who set them moving did not initially intend or foresee their actual outcomes. In each case the authors of political change enjoyed a brief illusion of success, but what they established failed to withstand the internal stresses or external buffetings to which it was subjected. When the Long Parliament first met, none of its members or supporters desired or seriously anticipated a prolonged civil war, yet that is what came to pass. The army that abducted the king in 1647, far from seeking his deposition or death, wanted to restore him on more favourable terms than his parliamentary captors were offering, yet eighteen months later it was mainly instrumental in bringing him to the scaffold. When Cromwell expelled the Rump it was not his aim to become head of state and he had a sincere aversion to military dictatorship, yet he became Lord Protector before the year was out. After his death, the last thing that those who overthrew his son wanted was to bring back the Stuart monarchy, yet back it came just a year later. To a striking degree, the story to be told in this book is a story of unforeseen consequences.

He would have been better engaged in an exercise of damage limitation… investigation of the army plot… did him great harm.

But far from learning his lesson, he proceeded to involve himself in a second army plot.

Charles I of England completely off his tits on army plots. 'I can stop any time I like' he tells his friends, as he joins another army plot.