11 - North-East Welsh Royalism and Loyalism, 1660–85

Summary

For royalists the need for secrecy and conspiracy disappeared as soon as Charles II was invited to return on 8 May 1660. The memories of the 1640s and 1650s remained strong, however, and were crucial in explaining the attitudes of those who returned as JPs, deputy lieutenants, and high sheriffs in ‘a miraculous resurrection from the grave’, after being ‘civilly dead’ for thirteen years. Their desire to demonstrate loyalty and to regain their rightful and historical role saw the North-East Welsh gentry scramble to obtain offices which they previously would have disdained. Sir Roger Mostyn, for example, competed for the office of high sheriff in 1660, when his family had previously devoted significant time and energy to avoiding being chosen for that position. He held the office in 1665–66 for Flintshire. There was also a feeling that loyalty in the Civil Wars and Interregnum should lead to rewards for royalists in the Restoration, and punishment for their former foes. The North-East Welsh gentry ranged themselves against former Puritan officeholders, soldiers, and religious radicals, raising ‘volunteares all ould Royalists’ to defend their region and the Crown. These groups were perceived as a highly political as well as religious threat. The North-East Welsh counties were constantly on the alert for potential plots, despite the limited number of nonconformists in the region – they apparently initially believed the Great Fire of London to be a plot (as, indeed, did many in London itself), and made surveys into the strength of their militia in preparation for defending themselves. Religious radicalism was viewed as a genuine threat to the state, particularly to the established Church of England as part of that state. In order to maintain the resurrected traditional social hierarchy and the Church to which the North-East Welsh gentry had such strong historic connections, they fought to defeat those they viewed as political and religious radicals.

The Restoration and the Order of the Royal Oak

For the North-East Welsh gentry, the memory of their service and loyalty in the dark days of the Interregnum was central to their self-representation and actions after the Restoration.