ROYAL POST-HORSE ROUTES IN ENGLAND AND WALES - THE EVOLUTION OF THE NETWORK IN THE LATER-16TH AND EARLY-17TH CENTURY

Postmasters receiving Exchequer wages in return for hiring out post horses to official travellers and undertaking to arrange the conveyance of the royal packet from stage to stage, were first established in England and Wales during the sixteenth century. But until late in the reign of Elizabeth I only the routes from London to Dover and from London to Berwick were continuously funded. Elsewhere the services of provincial postmasters were periodically engaged and discharged according to changing military and strategic considerations. By the 1590s however the spread of the network was greater than it had ever been and routes were more permanent in character. This paper analyses the accounts of the Master of the Posts which commence in 1566 in order to trace the evolution of the network, its extent and its cost in Treasury wages. The wider significance of the royal post-horse system is also considered. © 1991.