The king’s ‘loyall Welsh’ formed a significant part of his armed forces. Loyalty was a powerful brand and concept in the early modern period, and it was one that was significantly prized in Wales. The North-East Welsh gentry prioritised loyalty to the Stuart monarchs, their country, and their peers above all other political values. Loyalty was a political and religious idea, demonstrated through words, behaviour and ritual, and objects. Loyalty was referenced in letters, poems, proclamations, and narratives from 1640 to 1688. It was embodied and commemorated in objects. It was frequently used as a rhetorical tool, but also featured in more personal reflections. Loyalty can refer to faithful adherence to a promise or oath, or to a ‘sovereign or lawful government’. North-East Welsh gentlemen saw their adherence to the Stuarts in this light, although this was partly determined by the narratives of history and kinship as well as the inherent goodness of a political state and system. As one significant expression of loyalty at a time of great crisis, royalism was woven into the fabric and society of North-East Wales.

Royalism will be defined herein as both a personal and corporate allegiance to the Stuart monarchs in the period 1642 to 1660, and an identity during that period and beyond. In North-East Wales there was a strong prevalence of the instinctive and personal form of allegiance identified by Barbara Donegan. This allegiance was shaped by Welsh historical culture, particularly in its ‘familial’ and personal nature – if connection through history and family was of prime importance elsewhere in North-East Welsh society, it was certainly crucial in Civil War allegiance. ‘Loyalism’ here is used in two senses. First, in a general sense of loyalty across the period 1660 to 1688 to the monarchy, the Church of England, and to the ordered society. Second, as a political identity and a legacy of royalism which affected political and religious actions and responses from the Restoration onwards. In the more general sense of political ‘loyalism’, the functioning of the North-East Welsh conservative political system depended on the existence of local, regional, and national patriarchs. If the monarch was at risk, so was the power and authority of those beneath him.