CROWN SERVANTS

Series Two: Papers of the Wynns of Gwydir, 1515-1690, and the Clenennau Letters and Papers, 1584-1698, from the National Library of Wales

This second series of Crown Servants makes available the Papers of the Wynns of Gwydir, 1515-1690, from the National Library of Wales. These document the lives of two generations of an important and influential Welsh family whose power base was in North Wales. We are also including the Clenennau Letters and Papers, 1584-1698 in this project. These papers have two major attractions for the Early Modern scholar:

• They provide an excellent case study of the relations between the core and the periphery in British politics from the reign of Henry VIII, through the Civil War, to the Restoration.
• They provide a rich seam of 17th century newsletters, 1623-1682, a genre that is attracting increasing study from political, cultural and social historians.

These papers are an important source for Religion and Politics in Britain through the Tudor and Stuart period - with the family maintaining Catholic and Protestant lines to ensure their survival.  It is also an excellent source for topics as varied as the Royal progresses and court entertainment, the English Civil War, and the Gunpowder Plot.