ABSTRACT
Tudor and Stuart Newcastle expanded rapidly due to the booming coal trade with London. This made its relations with the court and capital particularly important, especially as an inner ring of coal merchants sought to control city government. The interaction of local community and central government is one of the pervasive themes of the history of early modern England. Newcastle in the seventeenth century provides a useful case study of the interaction of local community aspirations and perceptions with the broader issues agitating state and church throughout the century. The latter part of the sixteenth century had witnessed an intense struggle in Newcastle over issues related to the structure of local government. That struggle was basically the result of the increasing dominance in local affairs exercised by a small and exclusive clique of powerful merchants.
