Archbishop of Canterbury, executed by Parliament during the English Civil War. His theological vision of comprehensiveness within traditional liturgical form, his defense of apostolic succession and Episcopal polity, and his careful scholarly method (exemplified in his Conference with Fisher) made him a hero to Anglo-Catholics and a villain to Puritans. His martyrdom in 1645 sealed his status as a figure of contested symbolic power in Anglican, Puritan, and broader Reformation historiography.

Laud's tradition is deeply contested. To Anglo-Catholics (especially in the nineteenth century), he was a martyr and hero—a bishop who stood firm against Puritan assault on apostolic order and liturgical tradition. To Puritans and their heirs, he was a dangerous reactionary who betrayed the Reformation and sought to restore Catholic practices. To modern secular historians, he is often portrayed as a religious zealot caught in political forces beyond his control.

Laud had no medieval cult or canonization. However, the BCP 2019 designates him as a 'Martyr' (red vestments) on January 10, the date of his execution. This designation encodes a particular Anglican memory: that he died defending the faith rather than betraying it. Anglo-Catholic tradition has always venerated him; Victorian high-church Anglicans saw in Laud a precedent for their own liturgical and theological revival. His Conference with Fisher remained influential in Anglican apologetics. However, his reputation has become more complex in modern scholarship: historians acknowledge his genuine theological learning while also recognizing the authoritarian character of his ecclesiastical policies and his role in alienating Parliament before the Civil War.

His inclusion in the calendar as Martyr is itself historically weighted—it represents modern Anglican (particularly Anglo-Catholic) judgment rather than ancient tradition or universal consensus.

William Laud was born in 1573 in Reading, the son of a cloth merchant. He received a good education at Reading School and St John's College, Oxford, where he excelled in classics and theology. He was ordained in 1601 and began a career as Fellow of St John's, Oxford, where he became known as a theologian of precise learning and strong opinions about proper liturgical practice and ecclesiastical polity.

• Martyr
• Bishop