Texts

Accessing texts and douments from the Stuart era is increasingly easy. On our online resources page we describe some of the best sources of reliable material, and on our independent study page we address the needs of A-Level and university students faced with the demands of working alone with such resources.

On this page we focus on some of the texts which have influenced the ‘Stuarts Online’ films. These are texts, in particular, concerned with moments of succession, from one regime to another. A selection of succession texts is available on The Stuart Successions Project website. You can also use the Stuart Successions database to trace other writing from these pivotal moments in early modern British history.

In addition, we are producing an anthology of succession literature, which will be published in print by Manchester University Press in 2017. This will make a great deal of important texts available – all modernized and annotated – and will include a substantial introduction. In advance of this publication, we offer here a short extract from each item.

James I

A Proclamation Declaring the Undoubted Right of Our Soveraigne Lord King James, to the Crown of the Realms of England, France and Ireland (1603)

Richard Niccols, ‘A True Subjects Sorowe, for the Losse of his Late Soveraigne’ (1603)

Michael Drayton, To the Majesty of King James (1603)

Sir John Davies, The Kings Welcome (1603)

Robert Fletcher, ‘Our Present Sorrow and Our Present Joy’ (1603)

Thomas Dekker, 1603: The Wonderful Year (1603)

Ben Jonson, ‘A Panegyre on the Happy Entrance of James Our Sovereign to His first High Session of Parliament’ (1604)

A New Song to the Great Comfort and Rejoicing of all True English Hearts  (1603)

Thomas Dekker, et al., The Magnificent Entertainment (1604)

The King’s Majesty’s Speech, as it was Delivered by Him in the Upper House of the Parliament (1603)

Charles I

James Shirley, ‘Upon the Death of King James’ (1625)

John Donne, The First Sermon Preached to King Charles (1625)

John Webster, The Progeny of the Most Renowned Prince James, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland (1625)

A True Discourse of all the Royal Passages, Tryumphs and Ceremonies, Observed at the Contract and Marriage of the High and Mighty Charles, King of Great Britaine, and the Most Excellentest of Ladies, the Lady Henrietta Marie of Bourbon (1625)

Abraham Holland, An Elegy: or, Some Posthume Tears upon the Royal Hearse of Our Late Sovereign King James (1626)

George Eglisham, The Forerunner of Revenge. Upon the Duke of Buckingham, for the Poisoning of the Most Potent King James of Happy Memory (1626)

William Drummond of Hawthornden, ‘Caledonia’s Welcome’ (1633)

Cromwells

Marchamont Nedham, [extract from] Mercurius Politicus (1653)

Andrew Marvell, The First Anniversary of the Government Under High Highness the Lord Protector (1655)

‘The Character of a Protector’ (1654)

[extract from] The Publick Intelligencer (1658)

John Dryden, Heroic Stanzas Consecrated to the Glorious Memory of His Most Serene and Renowned Highness Oliver Late Lord Protector of this Common-Wealth (1659)

The World in a Maze: or, Oliver’s Ghost (1659)

Charles II

Charles II, The Declaration of Breda (1660)

John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)

[extract from] Samuel Pepys, Diary (1660)

Martin Parker, The King Enjoys His Own Again (1660)

John Dryden, Astraea Redux (1660)

Rachel Jevon, Exultationis Carmen. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty Upon His Most Desired Return (1660)

John Crouch, The Muses Joy for the Recovery of that Weeping Vine Henrietta Maria (1660)

England’s Pleasant May-Flower: or, Charles the Second Came Home the Twnty-Ninth of May (1660)

George Wither, ‘To the King’s Majesty’ (1660)

John Denham, The Prologue to His Majesty at the First Play Presented at the Cock-Pit in Whitehall (1660)

James II

John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis (1685)

John Dryden, Albion and Albanius (1685)

James II, An Account of What His Majesty Said at His First Coming to Council (1685)

Elinor James, To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty. The Humble Petition of Elinor James (1685)

William Penn(?), Tears Wiped Off (1685)

Francis Turner, A Sermon Preached Before Their Majesties King James II and Queen Mary, at Their Coronation (1685)

England’s Royal Renown in the Coronation (1685)

Aphra Behn, A Poem Humbly Dedicated to Catherine Queen Dowager (1685)

William III and Mary II

John Evelyn, from the Diary (1688)

Aphra Behn, A Pindaric Poem to the Reverend Doctor Burnet (1689)

Aphra Behn, A Congratulatory Poem to Her Sacred Majesty, Queen Mary, on Her Arrival in England (1689)

Elkanah Settle, ‘Britain’s Address to the Prince of Orange’ (1689)

On the Occasion of the Descent of the Prince of Orange into England: A Pindarique Ode (1689)

The Protestants Ave Mary, On the Arrival of Her Most Gracious Majesty Mary, Queen of England (1689)

Thomas Shadwell, The Address of John Dryden, Laureate, to His Highness the Prince of Orange (1689)

A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country (1689)

Arthur Maynwaring, Tarquin and Tullia (1689)

Anne

Queen Anne, Her Majesty’s Speech to Both Houses (1702)

England’s Triumph (1702)

The English Muse: Or, a Congratulary Poem Upon Her Majesty’s Accession to the Throne of England (1702)

Albina, Or The Coronation (1702)

John Tutchin, The Observator (1702)

The Restoration: or, A Change for the Better (1702)

Bevil Higgons, The Mourners (1702)

William Walsh, To the Queen on her Coronation Day (1706)