"THAT THE TRAITOROUS BY INTENDINGS AND DESIGNING TO ALIENTATE THE HEARTS AND AFFECCIONS OF HIS MAJESTY'S GOOD SUBJECTS FROM HIS ROYALL PERSON AND GOVERNMENT, AND TO HINDER THE MEETING OF PARLIAMENT…"

(ENGLISH LAW). Proceedings Upon Impeachments from the year 1666 to the year 1681. [Manuscript]. No place, circa 1681. Quarto, modern full brown calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $3200.

Original manuscript from the late 17th century with the parliamentary impeachment proceedings against 14 individuals during the reign of Charles II.

The accounts—written in legible script, with an index at front—begin with the proceedings against Viscount Mordaunt, charged with raping the daughter of the surveyor of Windsor Castle when Mordaunt was the castle's constable. Although they include a number of cases, including that of William Penn in 1668, the clear focus is on the Popish plot, a supposed conspiracy promulgated in 1678 that led to the arrest and trial of five Catholic lords—Baron Arundell, the Marquess of Powis, Baron Belasyse, Baron Petre and Viscount Stafford—all of which are recounted in this manuscript. As anticatholic hysteria waned and it became increasingly clear that the "plot" was a fiction, the fallout entrapped more of the players: the impeachment of William Scroggs, who served as the Chief Justice during the trials, is detailed, as is that of the Lord High Treasurer, the Earl of Danby, who was charged with concealing the plot, and Edward Fitzharris, who had attempted to implicate Danby in Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's murder in 1678, an event which fanned the flames of anticatholic hysteria. Armorial bookplates; inkstamp of the Grotius Society.

Spine toned; text clean.