The Trials of Edward Vaughan: Law, Civil War and Gentry Faction in Seventeenth-Century Britain, c.1596-1661

This book tells a remarkable story. Edward Vaughan was the fifth son of a landed gentleman, and could not have expected much beyond a career in law. However, by fair means and foul (mostly foul), he managed to gain possession of one of the largest estates in seventeenth-century Wales. His tenure was not to be a quiet one, however, as the Protestant Vaughan endured a bruising legal contest with a powerful Catholic magnate over these lands. Vaughan’s case was then swept up in the politics of...