Richard Cust

Anti-puritanism and urban politics: Charles I and Great Yarmouth

This article is a study of political conflicts in Yarmouth during the 1620s and 1630s between a group of puritan aldermen and their anti-puritan opponents. These focused firstly on efforts initiated by Bishop Harsnet to remove the stipendiary lecturers supported by the puritans; and secondly on attempts by the anti-puritan aldermen to introduce a less ‘popular’ form of town government by revising Yarmouths charter. Throughout these conflicts the anti-puritan side were able to secure considerable backing at court, particularly from Charles I, through employing a rhetoric which highlighted the threat to order and authority presented by a combination of puritanism and ‘popularity’. The article shows how strong fears of this threat were at the heart of the Caroline regime, and how the actions which resulted could cause deep local divisions. It also illustrates the ways in which local interest groups and their supporters manoeuvred around the king to achieve their ends.

A Rutland Quarrel, the Court of Chivalry and the Irish Peerage during Charles I's Personal Rule

Abstract In July 1635 Sir Henry Mynne defamed William Lord Sherard at the Rutland assizes and set in motion a train of events which reached up to Westminster and across the prerogative court system to highlight some of the more obscure aspects of Charles Is Personal Rule. The case was originally tried in Star Chamber, but then in February 1638 was passed on to the newly reformed Court of Chivalry where it set an important precedent for establishing the courts right to try defamation suits. The trial also became an example of the crowns determination to bolster the honour of the peerage in the face of insults by social inferiors. And, more broadly, the treatment of Sherard offers an insight into Charless handling of the Irish peerage and the vexed issue of how they were to be ranked in relation to their English counterparts. It illustrates the experiences of a group who, in spite of their pledges of loyalty and support for the crown and prerogative government, found their interests shunted aside as the king promoted the welfare of the more powerful and influential English peerage. Charless efforts to promote the welfare of the nobility and take them into partnership with the crown formed an important strand of royal policy during the Personal Rule. This case reveals some of its successes and failures.

The defence of episcopacy on the eve of civil war: Jeremy Taylor and the Rutland petition of 1641

The discovery that Jeremy Taylor, the ‘Anglican’ divine, wrote much of the text of the Rutland Petition in Defence of Episcopacy in November 1641, and included many of the arguments that appeared in his ‘Of the sacred order and offices of episcopacy’, published in 1642, throws fresh light on the political and ecclesiastical implications of royalist petitioning. These petitions have sometimes been viewed as expressions of support for ‘prayer book Protestantism’. But, in line with other recent work, this article argues that they drew support from a very broad spectrum of religious opinion, which ranged from moderate Puritan supporters of further reform to avant-garde conformists. Each had their own agenda; but they could be mobilised behind the petitions because of the widespread fear of radical sectarian challenges to the established Church in late 1641.

Charles I’s Noble Academy

This article investigates the noble academy, known as the Musaeum Minervae, established by Sir Francis Kynaston in Covent Garden in 1635–1636. Drawing on a newly discovered manifesto in which Kynaston set out the case for his academy – a transcript of which is provided as an appendix – it analyses the aims behind the project, in the context of earlier English academy schemes, the nature and scope of its activities and the reasons for its collapse. Throughout the academy’s existence, Charles I provided substantial support and took a close interest in its fortunes, treating it as part of a wider project to strengthen the English aristocracy and make them fit servants of his monarchy.