The Crown and Its Records : Archives, Access, and the Ancient Constitution in Seventeenth-Century England

Archives are popularly seen as liminal, obscure spaces -- a perception far removed from the early modern reality. This examination of the central English archival system in the period before 1700 highlights the role played by the public records repositories in furnishing precedents for the constitutional struggle between Crown and Parliament. It traces the deployment of archival research in these controversies by three individuals who were at various points occupied with the keeping of records: Sir Robert Cotton, John Selden, and William Prynne. The book concludes by investigating the secretive State Paper Office, home of the __arcana imperii__, and its involvement in the government's intelligence network: notably the engagement of its most prominent Keeper Sir Thomas Wilson in judicial and political intrigue on behalf of the Crown. Foreword and Acknowledgements Contents Introduction, focus, sources and method Part One: The Institutional Background 1 English archives: The beginnings 2 Records mismanagement 3 Preservation, misplacing, destruction, and embezzlement 4 Specific record-keeping situations: Provincial and legal records 5 Arrangement and description: Inventories, calendars, and records editions 6 Attempts at reforming government records before 1640 7 The records in the Revolutionary era 8 The Restoration and afterwards 9 An ironic counterpoint: Sir Robert Cotton’s ‘private library’ Part Two: English Archives and the Seventeenth-Century Constitutional Controversies 10 Archives’ role in the constitutional debates, and the Whig theory of history 11 The English legal system in the seventeenth century and the permissions regime for the public records 12 The foundation of the seventeenth century: History, Reformation and the ‘Ancient Church’ 13 History-writing, treason, and censorship 14 The Society of Antiquaries, primary source research, and the Ancient Constitution 15 Sir Edward Coke, Magna Carta, and records seizures 16 Parliamentary research orders 17 Sir Robert Cotton as archival research assistant to government and Parliament 18 John Selden: Archival research, legal history, and constitutional activism 19 William Prynne and the counter-revolution in the records editions 20 Epilogue to Part Two: The Civil War, the Tower records clerks, and espionage Part Three: Secrecy and Access at the State Paper Office 21 Thomas Wilson’s appointment as Keeper: The political background 22 The establishment of the State Paper Office 23 Francis Bacon, George Villiers, and records classification 24 Practical problems at the State Paper Office: Records storage, Jacobean court intrigues, and money matters 25 The political uses of history and the Crown’s records 26 Records accessioning and power politics during Wilson’s tenure 27 Archives and intrigue: Wilson and the judicial persecution of Sir Walter Ralegh 28 The State Paper Office after Wilson 29 The Civil War and Interregnum 30 The Restoration, records seizures from Revolutionaries, and cataloguing 31 Official secrecy and research permissions 32 Use requests under James I 33 Use requests after the Restoration Conclusion: English archives and the wider European context Bibliography Biographical note Index of Persons