Ireland in the Stuart Papers Book

The Stuart papers are in effect the official correspondence of the court of James II and, predominantly, of his son, the Old Pretender. Following the death of Cardinal York in 1807, the British Government, at the instigation of the Prince Regent, acquired these papers. The entire collection contains in the region of 80,000 items.

The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts published the papers for the period up to 1718 in seven volumes, but these contain relatively little of Irish interest. The Stuart papers have largely been ignored as a source of Irish history; yet they shed a great deal of light on Catholic Ireland in the first half of the eighteenth century. In particular they deal with the nomination of bishops to vacant sees and with clerics who furnished the court with reports on events and conditions in Ireland; they also include much information on the Irish colleges on the continents.

About the Author:

Patrick Fagan is the author of Catholics in a Protestant Country: The Papist Constituency in Eighteenth-century Dublin (1998) and Divided Loyalties: The Question of the Oath for Catholics in the Eighteenth Century (1997).