The Estates of the English Crown, 1558-1640

by R. W. Hoyle

Overview

The English kings and queens were by far the country's major landowners in the century before the Civil War, owning manors and other properties in every county. This collection of essays is the first comprehensive account of their estates and their management. Each essay takes a separate area of the history of the estates and assesses the success with which the intentions of government were implemented on the estates themselves. The book covers both national and local issues and will be of interest both to those interested in the successes and failures of government in the century before the Civil War and to those concerned with change in the countryside.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521360821
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/25/1992
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.34(d)

Table of Contents

List of tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; List of Pubic Record Office classes cited; 1. Introduction: aspects of the Crown's estate, c. 1558–1640 Richard Hoyle; 2. The Elizabethan Crown lands; their purposes and problems David Thomas; 3. The Elizabethan Duchy of Cornwall, an estate in stasis Graham Haslam; 4. Exchequer officials and the market in Crown property, 1558–1640 Madeleine Gray; 5. Power, patronage and politics: office-holding and administration on the Crown's estates in Wales Madeleine Gray; 6. Tenure on the Elizabethan estates Richard Hoyle; 7. Leases of Crown lands in the reign of Elizabeth I David Thomas; 8. Customary tenure on the Elizabethan estates Richard Hoyle; 9. 'Shearing the hog': the reform of the estates, c. 1598–1640 Richard Hoyle; 10. Jacobean Phoenix: the Duchy of Cornwall in the principates of Henry Frederick and Charles Graham Haslam; 11. The Crown as projector on its own estates, from Elizabeth I to Charles I Joan Thirsk; 12. Disafforestation and drainage: the Crown as entrepreneur? Richard Hoyle; 13. From swanimote to disafforestation: Feckenham Forest in the early seventeenth century Peter Large; 14. Reflections on the history of the Crown lands, 1558–1640 Richard Hoyle; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The Estates of the English Crown, 1558-1640 is an indispensable and much-needed book, dealing thoroughly with those problems of tenures, Exchequer administration and royal finance..." Times Literary Supplement

"Hoyle and his team have demystified the lands. Their volume is an essential handbook and much more." W.J. Jones, Canadian Journal of History

"These essays are rich in both detail and insight, and ought to be counted among the most significant contributions made in recent years to the administrative and financial history of the early modern English state." John M. Currin

"...very readable, well organized, exceptionally well documented, and soundly argued." The Historian

"...The quality of the work is amazingly even...this is an important book and one that will undoubtedly spark further investigations." Roy E. Schreiber, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"This is a devastating book: fourteen essays by six scholars (six of them by the editor himself) take us into the minefield of the early modern English royal estate; and if some of the mines are exploded round us, we are led safely out again, with infinitely better understanding and the feeling that the claim that this is 'the first full account of the largest estate in early modern England' is entirely justified." Jenny Wormald, Renaissance Quarterly

From the Publisher