Part Two: Boyle’s Work in Context Sixteen-year-old Robert Boyle’s Grand Tour of Europe was cut short in 1642 by a letter from his father reporting that the Irish had rebelled and that he and three of Robert’s brothers were hard pressed to defend his extensive Irish holdings. Robert’s brother, Frank, then nineteen, hastened home to Ireland, but Robert returned to Geneva with their tutor; there he learned in 1643 of the death of their father. When Robert Boyle made his way to England in 1644, the country was in the throes of civil war. A brief look at the rich stew of social, political, and religious disputes of the time, including especially the class and gender politics of that turbulent period, will help us to understand his own political and social ideas. ...
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