This is a brief guide to help you find records relating to 16th and 17th century political history. The most important records relevant to this subject held at The National Archives are the State Papers. Original 16th and 17th century records can be difficult to search, but more and more are being made available online.
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What records can I see online?
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State Papers Online (1509-1603)
Search State Papers Online (institutional subscription required) for 16th and 17th century State Papers Domestic, Foreign, Scotland, Ireland and Registers of the Privy Council. The Calendarscalendar - a list, usually in chronological order, in which a detailed summary of individual documents is provided are fully searchable, and many entries are linked to a digital image of the relevant State Paper.
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Colonial State Papers (1574-1757)
Search the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial: North America and the West Indies 1574-1739 online at Colonial State Papers (institutional subscription required), together with digital images of records of the Privy Council and Board of Trade between 1574-1757 relating to America and the West Indies.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Records of the Exchequer (1086-1994)
Browse Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, in record series E for records of the Exchequer, the main financial department of the medieval and early modern English state. They include records of the Court of Augmentation, founded in 1536 to deal with the transfer of land to the Crown when the monasteries were dissolved.
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Records of the Court of Star Chamber (1461-1649)
Browse our catalogue in record series STAC for records of the Court of Star Chamber, which was concerned with the enforcement of law and order.
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King's Bench Baga de Secretis (1477-1813)
Browse our catalogue for treason trials and other special court cases in the Baga de Secretis records in series KB 8 or search the same series by name (using the boxes below). Please note that not all the catalogue descriptions of records in KB 8 include a person's name.
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Privy Council registers (17th century)
Browse our catalogue, in record series PC 2 for registers of the Privy Council, comprising the minutes of its proceedings, its orders, certain proclamations and the reports of committees.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Archives
Visit the British Library website to find out about its holdings of records and documents relating to the political history of the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of these are also available on State Papers Online (institutional subscription required).
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Records held locally
Search for key political figures in the National Register of Archives (NRA) database to find records held in local archives.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Explore a range of 16th and 17th century sources in British History Online. These include keyword searchable calendars of almost all 17th century State Papers. A subscription is payable to view some calendars, but others - such as the calendars to the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII and the Calendars of the State Papers Colonial - are free.
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Parliament