In seventeenth-century England, petitioning was ubiquitous. It was
one of the only acceptable ways to address the authorities when seeking
redress, mercy or advancement. As a result, it was a crucial mode of
communication between the ‘rulers’ and the ‘ruled’. People at all levels
of society – from noblemen to paupers – used petitions to make their
voices heard.
Some were mere begging letters scrawled on scraps of paper; others
were carefully crafted radical demands signed by thousands and sent to
the highest powers in the land. Whatever form they took, they provide a
vital source for illuminating the concerns of supposedly ‘powerless’
people and offer a unique means to map the structures of authority that
framed early modern society.
The Power of Petitioning in Seventeenth Century England is a small but growing site that plans to transcribe and publish the texts of more than 2,000
seventeenth-century petitions as well as a series of guides and other
resources. The site also has a blog on which they report progress, share links to online resources and share details of the lives of people in the seventeenth century.
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