William Prynne
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William Prynne, an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were Presbyterian, but he became known in the 1640s as an Erastian, arguing for overall state control of religious matters.
Illustration of Prynne by Wenceslaus Hollar
The title page of Prynne's The First and Second Part of a Seasonable, Legal, and Historicall Vindication, and Chronological Collection of the Good, Old, Fundamentall Liberties, Franchises, Rights, Laws of All English Freemen [...] (2nd ed., 1655), one of the works published when Prynne was in Swainswick
The title page of Prynne's The First Part of a Brief Register, Kalendar and Survey of the Several Kinds, Forms of All Parliamentary VVrits (1st ed., 1659). Prynne went on to publish another three parts in 1660, 1662 and 1664.
William Laud
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William Laud was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms; he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 and executed towards the end of the First English Civil War in January 1645.
Portrait by Anthony van Dyck c. 1636
Stained glass windows in the Chapter House, Canterbury Cathedral, depicting Henry IV, Henry VIII, Thomas Cranmer and Laud
Altar, c. 1635, the centre of dispute between Puritans and Laudians, possibly consecrated by Laud himself
Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, Laud being tried for treason, with several people present labelled