This interdisciplinary collection stresses the cosmopolitan nature of society, politics and culture at the Stuart court, and the importance of this cosmopolitanism in shaping political life and culture well beyond the court itself. The essays deal with the actual operation of the court, politics, and the systems of cultural meaning in which political life was embedded. Also included are a provocative overview of the whole period by Jonathan Scott, and a concluding chapter by Geoffrey Parker that suggests several new avenues for placing the British Isles within a European perspective.