The W G Hoskins Lecture 1995

‘The Crown and the People of the Provinces under the Tudors and the Stuarts’ presented by Gordon Forster.

The sixth Hoskins lecture

20 May 1995

The sixth W.G. Hoskins lecture, ‘The Crown and the People of the Provinces under the Tudors and the Stuarts’, was given by Gordon Forster, doyen of northern history, founder of Northern History, contributor to both the Cheshire and East Riding volumes of the Victoria County History and sometime external examiner of the M.A. course in English Local History in the University of Leicester. Fond memories of W.G. Hoskins were recalled in his opening words which included a description of a field trip in Yorkshire when the young Gordon Forster was seated on the coach behind the two great men of English Local History, Professors Finberg and Hoskins. He expected great enlightenment on the passing landscape but sadly none was forthcoming as the eminent pair slept throughout the whole journey.

Returning to the theme of his lecture, the speaker stressed the emphasis on good order and obedience in the period of the Tudors and Stuarts and noted the need at the time for religious uniformity. Much use was made of various forms of propaganda which enforced the current philosophy of obedience and conformity. He described the institutions which were charged with the implementation of local statutes.

The Privy Council, active between the time of Elizabeth I and Civil War, supported civil order; the judges of the central courts were linked from the provinces to Star Chamber; Parliament, which passed statutes, was represented at a local level by the sheriffs and church courts. He noted that churchwardens during this period found their duties increasingly secularised, through an increased range of duties such as the administration of the poor law.

In response to the social and economic tensions most evident from the 1530s, the role of government was expanded and an elaborate legislative framework was created. Some of the problems of enforcing law and order at a local level were discussed, as were some of the ways in which local and central activities interlocked and depended for their success on local co-operation.

From an original report by Penny Upton.