Contributes to a better understanding not only of ecclesiastical power and politics but of life in an elite household in seventeenth-century Britain The Lambeth and Croydon Palace accounts for William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, represent the only extant record of the archiepiscopal household during his tenure in office. Spanning the period from December 1635 to January 1642, they offer a unique prism through which to view the highs and the lows of Laud's controversial career. They provide a wealth of new insights into his formal role, his private life and his personal habits, while at the same time casting new light on his associations with men and women from across the social hierarchy, including courtiers, privy councillors, merchants, MPs and, of course, the king. Yet the document itself, lost between 1642 and 1912 andnow housed in the National Archives, Kew, has almost entirely escaped the attention of modern scholars. This important manuscript is edited and analysed here in full for the first time. A lengthy introduction provides an overview of the ways in which the document brings to life both the household and its head, demonstrating how the household responded to its immediate social environment and the wider political context; interrogating the gifts and their givers to identify networks of people in social, political and religious terms; and, more generally, teasing out the relationship between material objects and political power. This is followed by a complete text of the manuscript, with contextual footnotes. Thus, the volume contributes to a deeper understanding not only of ecclesiastical power and politics, but of life in an elite household in seventeenth-century Britain. LEONIE JAMESis Lecturer in History at the University of Kent, Canterbury and author of 'This Great Firebrand': William Laud and Scotland, 1617-1645 (Boydell Press, 2017).

Presents Scotland as a case study for a fresh interpretation of Archbishop William Laud, his career and his working partnership with Charles I. William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45), remains one of the most controversial figures in British ecclesiastical and political history. His rise to prominence under Charles I, his contribution to the shaping and implementation of contentious religious policies and his subsequent and catastrophic downfall are fundamental to our understanding of the religious and political developments which led to the collapse of royal authority in all three of theStuart kingdoms. Events in Scotland were central to this chain of events, and this book presents Scotland as a case study for a fresh interpretation of Laud, his career and his working partnership with Charles I. Casting new andmuch-needed light on Laud's engagement in Scottish affairs, this book reveals that his agency in Scotland was broadly consistent with - although differing in detail from - his approach in England and Ireland. It represents a majorcontribution to key debates on the nature of religion and politics in the 1630s and early 1640s and enhances current thinking on the role of both prince and prelate in the formulation of ecclesiastical policy, the 'British problem', and, indeed, the causes of the British Civil Wars. LEONIE JAMES is Lecturer in History at the University of Kent, Canterbury.