The introduction to this book set out its intention to address three contentious areas of recent historiography. I have argued that ancient prophecy represented a powerful political, religious and social language that was never under complete elite control, and yet which could never be completely ignored by the elite. I have suggested that this was partially to do with the vitality of regional political cultures in the English, and the British, monarchy well into the early modern period. And I have urged that this indicates a strong continuity in non-rational elements to the political culture of this country. Where prophetic traditions waned, they did so because the usefulness of the language they represented declined: Nixon in particular and, to a certain extent, Merlin ceased to offer an approach to the political and social issues of the later nineteenth century. Nixon's tradition also suffered from the fragmentation of the political, social and economic coherence of the regional culture from which it originated. This did not, of course, mean the end of ancient prophecy, because the continuing and developing relevance of the Shipton tradition demonstrated that continuing relevance was possible, and its regional base in Yorkshire, far from declining, achieved a startling growth in self-identity and confidence.

It is worthwhile briefly returning to set this in the context of some major recent work in the field perhaps most closely allied to ancient prophecy, astrology, Curry's Prophecy and Power.