Royal cache of forgotten Civil War pamphlets discovered

For hundreds of years, they have lain in dusty bindings unnoticed and untouched in a Whitehall library. But now more than 900 pamphlets relating to the Civil War, believed to be the King's own collection, have been found at the Home Office.

The pristine papers, possibly the most complete in the world, are thought to include up to eight previously unknown documents that will shed light on the turbulent events leading to the beheading of Charles I in 1649.

Annotated in the spidery handwriting of the King's advisers in the last years of his reign, the collection includes royalist pamphlets by the printers of "the King's most Excellent Majestie" and Parliamentary papers that give a flavour of MPs' growing disgust with the monarch's conduct.

The documents were discovered two weeks ago by Dominic Grieve, a Tory home affairs spokesman, who heard rumours of the hoard and made inquiries. Scholars of the period had known nothing of the papers and were astonished to be told of their existence by The Independent.

Earl Russell, one of the world's leading authorities on the Civil War, has had the first glimpse of them.

"This was probably of Royalist provenance," he said. "It is a fascinating collection of material. There are probably at best five or six collections of this kind of material, they include Bodleian, Harvard and Yale. It is a very important collection which is together in one place. Many of these documents are scattered. It will be of immense interest to scholars and it should be studied closely."

Among the papers are polemics debating the rights and wrongs of Parliament's battle with the monarchy including one entitled "conscience satisfied", which argues that "there is no warrant for the armes [sic] now taken up by subjects".

Others discuss the Irish rebellion, which triggered the first English Civil War. Many are printed in Oxford, a key Royalist stronghold where the monarch later made his base.

The private musings of churchmen and the King's advisers – including, it is thought, Gilbert Sheldon, a fervent loyalist in King Charles's court who was Warden of All Souls College and later Archbishop of Canterbury – are scrawled in the margins.

There are also records of unusual discoveries including the finding of a "miraculous sea monster with two heads and ten horns" – which was probably a giant squid – off the coast of Ireland.

The emergence of the collection, after more than 300 years gathering dust, is already causing a flurry of excitement in the academic world.

Mr Grieve said: "I hope that further steps are taken by the Home Office to make them available to scholars and the public. They should be in a collection where people can see them and give them the attention they deserve."

Lord Russell, whose publications include The Origins of the English Civil War and The Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637-1642, is to spend several more sessions analysing the papers. He has already begun contacting Civil War experts around the world to alert them to the find.

Home Office ministers are now keen to see the collection, which has never before been catalogued or studied, given the attention it deserves, and made available to scholars of the period.

The Home Office said that it was keen to see the documents given serious public attention. Scholars of the period – but not the public – would be allowed to view them, it said.