Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial Revolution Wardship in Britain, 1485–1660
Book contents
- Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial Revolution
- Cambridge Studies in Economic History
- Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial Revolution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Wardship and the Feudal Incidents, 1066–1540
- 3 The Court of Wards and Liveries, 1540–1642
- 4 The Court of Wards
- 5 The Early Stuart Fiscal State
- 6 Law and the Court of Wards
- 7 The Economic Consequences of Wardship
- 8 ‘Like Horses in Smithfielde’
- 9 Wardship and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - Wardship and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025
Book contents
- Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial Revolution
- Cambridge Studies in Economic History
- Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial Revolution
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Wardship and the Feudal Incidents, 1066–1540
- 3 The Court of Wards and Liveries, 1540–1642
- 4 The Court of Wards
- 5 The Early Stuart Fiscal State
- 6 Law and the Court of Wards
- 7 The Economic Consequences of Wardship
- 8 ‘Like Horses in Smithfielde’
- 9 Wardship and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The ninth chapter expands the analysis to Scotland and Ireland; in both kingdoms, wardship was instrumental in the disintegration of royal power. In Scotland, Charles I’s efforts to re-write the land law and extend his rights to wardships via an Act of Revocation (1633) was considered to be ‘the ground stone of all the mischeiffe that folloued after’ (sic), an arch reference to the rebellion that began in Scotland in 1638. In Ireland, wardship and the entire land law were deployed as a means of religious conversion. Wardship was thus an integral component of the bitter religious conflict that erupted in 1641. It was these rebellions which ultimately precipitated the English Civil War, that offered Parliament the opportunity to finally abolish the feudal tenures in 1646, an abolition confirmed at the Restoration of the Crown in 1660.
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- Institutional Change and Property Rights before the Industrial RevolutionWardship in Britain, 1485–1660, pp. 199 - 228Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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