LAUD, WILLIAM

born Oct. 7, 1573, Reading, Berkshire, Eng. died Jan. 10, 1645, London archbishop of Canterbury (163345) and religious adviser to King Charles I of Great Britain. His persecution of Puritans and other religious dissidents resulted in his trial and execution by the House of Commons. Additional reading H.R. Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud, 15731645, 2nd ed. (1962); W.M. Lamont, Godly Rule, ch. 3 (1969), stressing Laud's idea of the Elect Church; Christopher Hill, Economic Problems of the Church, from Archbishop Whitgift to the Long Parliament, pt. 3 (1956), on Laud's large but unsuccessful schemes for restoring the church's economy; J.W. Allen, English Political Thought, 16031644, vol. 1, pt. 2 (1938, reprinted 1967), showing the vagueness of his political ideas; E.C.E. Bourne, The Anglicanism of William Laud (1947), an uncompromisingly favourable clerical view.