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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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William Laud
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(1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633. By his vigorous efforts to suppress *Puritan forms of worship, and to impose on the country a royalist Anglican church, he did much to provoke the antagonisms which erupted in the *English Civil War. His declaration that the king had a *divine right to rule, and that to oppose him entailed damnation, was made in 1640, the year in which the *Long Parliament assembled. Before the year was out, parliament had impeached Laud for treason. His trial did not begin until 1644, and by that stage of the war the proceeedings were a travesty of justice. Without apparent legal justification he was condemned and beheaded on Tower Hill.
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