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Series
King William's Chest
Catalogue reference: SP 8
What's it about?
SP 8
The contents of a chest or cabinet used by William III, both as Prince of Orange and subsequently as King, to preserve his papers, public and private. Before 1689 they cover his dealings with his uncles Charles II and James II and ministers and...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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SP 8
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Title (The name of the record)
- King William's Chest
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Date (When the record was created)
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1670-1698
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Description (What the record is about)
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The contents of a chest or cabinet used by William III, both as Prince of Orange and subsequently as King, to preserve his papers, public and private. Before 1689 they cover his dealings with his uncles Charles II and James II and ministers and subjects in England. Thereafter they trace the course of his resistance to Louis XIV of France. They indicate the extent to which William held the reins of foreign policy and confined his interest in his kingdom to the provision of support for his campaign against French sway in Europe. The archive terminates following the peace treaty of Ryswick, which it partly documents.
About half these documents are foreign in content, many in language too, and even among the domestic ones there is a bias towards military, naval, Irish and Scottish affairs which concerned the king as leader of the allied coalition against Louis XIV, though there is also correspondence with his Secretaries of State and other officials on home matters.
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Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
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Arrangement
The normal arrangement for undated documents in this series is for them to be placed at the end of a month if they have been assigned to it without greater precision, and at the end of a year if no particular month has been deduced.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English and French
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- William III, 1650-1702
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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18 bundles and volumes
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- Nearly all calendared in: Calendar of State Papers Domestic Charles II ed M A E Green F H B Daniell and F Bickley 28 volumes (London 1860-1947) Calendar of State Papers Domestic James II ed E K Timings 3 vols (London 1960-1972) Calendar of State Papers Domestic series of the reign of William and Mary ed WJ Hardy and E Bateson 11 volumes (London 1895-1937) Please speak to staff at the Map and Large Document Room enquiry desk for the precise location. Many letters were printed in full in: Sir John Dalrymple Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland (London 1771-1773) Correspondentie van Willem III en van Hans Willem Bentinck eersten Graaf van Portland ed N Japikse Ryks Geschiedkundige Publication kleine serie 23-24 26-28 (The Hague 1927-1937).
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C13550/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
208,922 records
Within the department: SP
Records assembled by the State Paper Office, including papers of the Secretaries...
You are currently looking at the series: SP 8
King William's Chest
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