With God on our side

Few would expect a history of the Cromwellian protectorate to begin on a small island off the coast of present-day Nicaragua. But that is precisely where Paul Lay, editor of History Today magazine, transports his readers in the opening pages of this absorbing and beautifully written book.

The island in question was Providence: a rocky but verdant outcrop, just a few miles square, which had been reached by a party of English folk in 1629. As Lay observes, this would be “the furthest outpost of English puritanism” for the next decade. ‘Providence’ was understood by English Protestants at this time to mean