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A peek into the past

The State Papers Domestic of Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, covering the period from 1509 to 1603 are now available online for anyone who's interested to rummage though, at State Papers Online.

The papers cover a vast range of issues from the time:

Containing 380,000 facsimile manuscript documents linked to fully-searchable Calendar entries, Part I delivers the complete collection of State Papers Domestic for this era. Every facet of early modern Government is detailed including social and economic affairs.
Key themes of Part I include:
  • Henry VIII’s relations with Europe
  • The Reformation
  • The Dissolution of Monasteries
  • Elizabeth I: Marriage and the Succession
  • Voyages of Discovery of Drake, Gilbert, Hawkins and Frobisher
  • Relations between the Crown and the nobility
  • The rise and fall of the Earl of Essex
  • The diplomacy of William Cecil and Francis Walsingham
Includes:
  • From the National Archives, London: SP 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15
  • From the British Library: Lansdowne Collection Burghley Papers
  • Calendars to all the above series and the HMC Calendars and Haynes/Murdin transcriptions of the Cecil Papers, Hatfield House

Part II will be available from 2009, and will include:
"The Tudors: Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509 – 1603: State Papers Foreign, Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council"

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