Tumults, uproars and rebellion in the commonwealth: Malmesbury during the childhood of Thomas Hobbes

Tony McAleavy

Tumults, uproars and rebellion in the commonwealth: Malmesbury during the childhood of Thomas Hobbes

Malmesbury during the childhood of Hobbes was a highly unruly place. The town was disturbed by a spectacular, violent feud in the 1590s between a local lawyer called John Stumpe and Edmund Hobbes, the leading member of the extended Hobbes family. Stumpe described the behaviour of those supporting Edmund Hobbes as ‘tumults, uproars and rebellion in the commonwealth'. In this talk Tony McAleavy will explore the childhood experiences of Hobbes and links with his later political thinking.

Tony McAleavy, Malmesbury's esteemed historian, is the author of ‘A Factious, Seditious and Unruly Multitude: Malmesbury During the Childhood of Thomas Hobbes’, Hobbes Studies (2021) and 'Thomas Hobbes and Malmesbury' (2022).

This is the last of four talks from the Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury Society