State Papers Online:
Explore a range of documents that capture the details of England's diplomatic, business, and political interactions with other nations during the Tudor era.
The Tudor era was witness to great change, revolution, and transformation, particularly affecting matters of faith and politics that are still influential today. As part of the Gale Primary Sources family, State Papers Online: State Papers Foreign: Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council: Part II: The Tudors, Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509–160 details every foreign facet of early modern government, including international relations, alliances, wars, naval and military policy, commercial and maritime law, trade, intelligence, and correspondence between the Tudors and their regal peers.
Part II: The Tudors: Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, 1509-1603: State Papers Foreign: Ireland, Scotland, Borders and Registers of the Privy Council completes the State Papers of the Tudor period by reuniting the Foreign, Scotland, Borders, and Ireland papers for the sixteenth century together with the Registers (Minutes) of the Privy Council for the whole of the Tudor period. Part II opens up a window on the Tudor world beyond the borders of England, documenting Tudor England's relations with other states both near and distant, including those it sought to control (Scotland, Ireland, and Wales), those it fought wars or maintained peace with in Europe (the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and France), and those it traded with (the Ottoman Empire, the Barbary Coast, and Russia). Part II's comprehensive coverage of international diplomacy, colonial policy, commercial and maritime law, trade and industry, and naval and military policy offers early modern historians key insights not only into the inner workings of the Tudor court but also into the courts of its foreign allies and enemies.
Owing to the international reach of the State Papers, users will find hundreds, in some instances, thousands of documents partly or completely written in non-English languages including, but not limited to, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Key themes
- Captivity, trial, and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
- French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots (1562-1598)
- 1541 Act raising Ireland into a kingdom annexed to the Crown of England
- Henry VIII's "rough wooing" of Scotland
- England's defeat of Philip II of Spain's Grand Armada in 1588
- Beginning of an eighty-year war between Spain and the Netherlands in 1566
- England's relations with the Barbary States, Denmark, Flanders, France, Genoa, Holy Roman Empire, German States, Hamburg and Hanse Towns, Holland and Flanders, the Italian States and Rome, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Savoy and Sardinia, Sicily and Naples, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Tuscany, and Venice
- Letters to and from the English agents in Scotland: the ambassadors Randolphe, Killigrew, and the two Bowes, and the secretarial assistant Nicolson
- Extents and valors of the possessions of dissolved religious houses in Ireland, and those attainted of high treason, including Gerald, Earl of Kildare (1540-1583)
State Papers Online, 1509-1714 includes a number of research tools to facilitate its use, including:
- Essays on key themes by leading scholars
- Tools -- abbreviations, glossaries, dates, money, weights and measures, chronologies, genealogical trees, diagram maps, principal officers of crown and state
- Notepads
- Personal archives
- Links to related sites -- biographies, understanding documents, paleography courses, Latin courses, primary sources, texts, catalogs and bibliographies, maps and place names, portraits and images, reference works
- Key documents -- within the archive organized by monarch
- Calendar prefaces
- Image gallery
FEATURED REVIEW
“The combined collections that comprise the database provide an unprecedented opportunity to view facsimiles of the key primary source documents for British history during an extensive period between 1509 and 1782. A particular strength is the integration of documents from various collections, with access provided by text-searchable calendar abstracts and metadata for uncalendared manuscripts. The great majority of the foreign affairs documents from the 17th and 18th centuries had not previously had any indexing access.”
- eDesiderata, Center for Research Libraries
Additional Details
subjects covered
- British Studies
- European Studies
- East European & Russian Studies
- Medieval & Renaissance Studies
- Western European Studies
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Law & Legal Studies
- Religion & Philosophy
Support Materials
View and download these PDFs
Platform Features & Tools
Cross-Search Capability
Search across State Papers Domestic, Foreign, Ireland, and the registers of the Privy Council from 15th to 18th centuries.
Comparative Analysis
View two manuscripts side by side to compare drafts or handwriting.
Multiple Ways to Explore
Search across the Calendar entries and link to the manuscript, or browse each manuscript volume folio by folio.
Reviews & Testimonials
“State Papers Online Part II enchants and educates with images, references, calendars, chronologies and biographies.”
State Papers Online transforms early modern historical research at top UK universities Read more>>
