Arnold Hunt (University of Durham): The Forgotten Laudian? Richard Steward and the origins of Anglican high churchmanship

Richard Steward (1595-1651) played a key role in the promotion of Laudianism in the 1630s and the formation of Anglican royalism in the 1640s. During the Uxbridge negotiations in 1645, he exerted a decisive influence in persuading the king not to compromise on episcopacy, and after Charles’s execution in 1649 he continued to play an influential role in holding together the exiled royalist community and arguing against any accommodation with the Commonwealth regime. Yet his significance as a Laudian ideologue and preacher remains obscure, largely because his sermons never appeared in print during his lifetime.

This paper will reconstruct Steward’s career and situate his sermons in their original context in the 1620s in order to highlight his importance as a central figure in the development of Laudianism.

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