This groundbreaking work, first published in 2005, reveals exactly how Shakespeare was influenced by contemporary strands in political thought that were critical of the English crown and constitution. Shakespeare has often been seen as a conservative political thinker characterised by an over-riding fear of the 'mob'. Hadfield argues instead that Shakespeare's writing emerged out of an intellectual milieu fascinated by republican ideas. From the 1590s onwards, he explored republican themes in his poetry and plays: political assassination, elected government, alternative constitutions, and, perhaps most importantly of all, the problem of power without responsibility. Beginning with Shakespeare's apocalyptic representation of civil war in the Henry VI plays, Hadfield provides a series of powerful new readings of Shakespeare and his time. For anyone interested in Shakespeare and Renaissance culture, this book is required reading.

Winner of the SCSC Roland H.Bainton Prize for Literature

'… scintillating study … This challenging, innovative book should permanently transform the way we think about Shakespeare's politics.'

Source: The Times Literary Supplement

'groundbreaking study ... His convincing argument subverts assumptions concerning the political orthodoxy of Shakespeare.'

John King Source: Literature and History

'This brilliant reading comes just when we thought there was nothing more to be said about Shakespeare and politics.'

Peter Holbrook Source: The Review of English Studies

'The suggestive power of Shakespeare and Republicanism lies in the seriousness with which it links Shakespeare's stories, characters and themes to intellectual and political ideas.'

Heather James Source: Shakespeare Quarterly

'Hadfield has performed a valuable service in urging us to think again about how and why Englishmen learned to think of themselves as citizens, and mapping out some of the textual routes by which they arrived at that destination.'

Anne McLaren Source: Textual Practice

'…Hadfield's effort to uncover in Shakespeare elements of a submerged English republican tradition is a worthy, useful and often interesting project.'

Source: CLIO