Robert BradyMD (1627–1700) was an English academic and historical writer supporting theroyalist position in the reigns ofCharles II of England andJames II of England.[1] He was also aphysician.
Brady was born inDenver, Norfolk in 1627.[2] He was son of Thomas Brady, an attorney ofDenver, Norfolk. He was educated inDownham Market and atCaius College, Cambridge.[3] He was made Master of Caius College in 1660, on theEnglish Restoration. In the 1670s, he hoped to write for the prominent politiciansJoseph Williamson andAnthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, but they declined the offer. It was only whenWilliam Sancroft becameArchbishop of Canterbury that Brady found a patron.[4]
Beginning in 1677, Brady held the position ofRegius Professor of Physic at Cambridge. He sat as Member of Parliament for theUniversity in 1681 and 1685.[5]
In historical controversy, he was opposed toWilliam Petyt andJames Tyrrell, along what would becomeTory versusWhig lines, then forming in theExclusion crisis of the 1680s. Brady is regarded as holding to an uncompromising royalist position.[6] Others on the Whig side wereWilliam Atwood, Edward Cooke, andSir John Somers.
J. P. Kenyon takes him as a pioneer among the royalist scholars of English medieval history, who were working towards a formulation akin to Kenyon's viewpoint.[7]John Pocock[8] regards as "unforgettably damaging" the effect the (proto-)Tory Brady and others made, in attacking the doctrine of the "Ancient Constitution" as a failed description of the real circumstances of political arrangements in the England of the Middle Ages. On the narrow point of the actual legal effects of theNorman Conquest, Brady had been anticipated bySamuel Daniel, in views that are quite close to some modern scholars.[9] He moved from there to argue forabsolutism,[10] and thatMagna Carta was not a major charter for popular freedom.[11] Brady's ideas drew onHenry Spelman andRobert Filmer.[4]
David C. Douglas remarks that although his motivations as a scholar were at least as political as those of his opponents, his techniques were so far superior that his work remained of importance.[12] Brady was aided in his later work by a position from 1686 in the archives of theTower of London.[4][13]
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Regius Professor of Physic 1677–1700 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Master ofGonville and Caius College 1660–1700 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCambridge University 1681–1689 With:Sir Thomas Exton 1679–1689 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
