877 research outputs found
Armed conflict and border society: The East and Middle Marches, 1536-60
No full textThe final phase of the Anglo-Scots Wars (1542-1560) significantly affected Northumberland. The Tudor government attempted to use the militarised society of Northumberland as a means of subduing Scotland. However, the ensuing conflict took a heavy toll on the Marchers. Instability plagued the region, while leading military families feuded with each other. The efforts of the Tudors were not concerted enough to overcome the Marchers' allegiance to kith and kin. March society proved to be remarkably inhospitable for Tudor state building, and in the end, the military community of Northumberland remained just as vulnerable to both internal and external threats as it had been before the wars. This work questions the success of Tudor state building տ the mid-sixteenth century. The analysis employs both State Papers and local documents to illuminate the political dialogue between central government and the peripheral frontier administration. Official correspondences of March officers also highlight the depths to which Tudor policy had taken root in Northumberland. An analysis of muster rolls suggests that Northumbrian society’s involvement in the wars greatly fluctuated over nearly a twenty-year period, only to see the military capacities of Northumbrians significantly wane by 1560. The personal testimonies of officers imply that the Tudors had some initial success in bringing significant military power to their side. However, the same documents also suggest that incoherent policies resulted from the rapid succession of three separate monarchs after the death of Henry VIIL In the end, the Tudor state was unable to instil order in Northumberland, and the military necessities of frontier security remained problematic for the rest of the sixteenth century
Tudor women writers fashioning masculinity
No full textThis thesis contributes to the growing interest in early modern masculinity and its literary representations by introducing texts by women writers into dialogue with their male-authored counterparts. It argues for a more nuanced approach that recognises that the concepts of masculinity and femininity can only be fully understood when studied in relation with each other.
The first chapter explores how, notwithstanding the wisdom of conduct books and marriage guides, the demands of the state may not always be commensurate with those of the domestic realm and shows that this conflict necessitates a rethinking of existing definitions of masculinity by focusing on selected writings of the Tudor sisters Mary and Elizabeth and Jane Fitzalan’s *Tragedie of Iphigeneia*. The second chapter identifies how Elizabeth’s unique discursive strategies were designed to elicit support from her male subjects and subdue the belligerence that simmered under polemic like John Stubbs’ *Gaping Gulf*. In her letters to Anjou, the chapter examines how Elizabeth manoeuvred around her position as a beloved and as a monarch to fashion a husband who would not only be sympathetic but also subordinate to her political authority. This chapter also shows how the fabulous world of John Lyly’s *Galatea* consummates the Queen’s desire for the ideal male subject. The final chapter investigates the construction of martial manhood. It juxtaposes Mary Sidney’s *The Tragedy of Antonie* with William Shakespeare’s *Antony and Cleopatra* to determine how the figure of Cleopatra, common to both plays, challenges and revises the martial code of masculinity as embodied by Antony. By examining the authorial position appropriated by Cleopatra in the plays and its impact on the narrative, this chapter also extends this thesis’ interest in the extent to which female characters within texts compete for diegetic control with male protagonists
English fictions of communal identity, 1485-1603
No full textChallenging a long-standing trend that sees the Renaissance as the end of communal identity and constitutive group affiliation, author Joshua Phillips explores the perseverance of such affiliation throughout Tudor culture. Focusing on prose fiction from Malory\u27s Morte Darthur through the works of Sir Philip Sidney and Thomas Nashe, this study explores the concept of collective agency and the extensive impact it had on English Renaissance culture. In contrast to studies devoted to the myth of early modern individuation, English Fictions of Communal Identity, 1485�1603 pays special attention to primary communities-monastic orders, printing house concerns, literary circles, and neighborhoods-that continued to generate a collective sense of identity. Ultimately, Phillips offers a new way of theorizing the relation between collaboration and identity. In terms of literary history, this study elucidates a significant aspect of novelistic discourse, even as it accounts for the institutional disregard of often brilliant works of early modern fiction
Secretaries, statesmen and spies : the clerks of the Tudor Privy Council, c.1540 - c.1603
No full textThis dissertation studies the office of the clerk of the Privy Council, including discussions of the office itself, and the nineteen men who held that office between its creation, in 1540, and 1603. The dual focus on the office and officers aims to provide greater understanding of both. Areas of study include the personal and professional backgrounds of the clerks, their careers, writings both political and personal, additional offices held and both social and financial concerns. This covers areas as diverse as knighthoods, land grants, election to the House of Commons, political treatises and university education. Additionally, the duties of the office, both standard and extraordinary, are discussed, as well as details regarding the creation and handling of the clerk’s primary concern, the Privy Council register. This includes details regarding signatures, meetings with ambassadors, examination of prisoners, Council meetings, salaries and fees, and attendance rotation. Ties between the clerks and clerkship and the Privy Council and its members are discussed throughout, as well as the role of patronage, education, foreign experience and personal motives. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of the clerks of the Privy Council and their office, knowing that one cannot be fully understood without the other
Reforming nationhood : England in the literature of the Tudor imperial age, 1509-1553
No full textThe thesis explores the relationship between empire and nationhood in the literature of the Royal Supremacy. In so doing, it contests the assumptions of the social historians Michel Foucault, Benedict Anderson, Jürgen Habermas, and Ernest Gellner - all of whom have dated the dawn of the nation-event on our Western political horizons from the end of the eighteenth century. The thesis invites important outcomes for our perception of early Tudor political culture, and for our wider appreciation of the origins of English national identity. It differentiates the Habsburg imperial idea from the Tudor ideology of empire inherited by Henry VIII upon his accession in 1509. It then distinguishes both these imperial ideologies from Henry's pretensions, as enshrined in the 1533 Appeals Act, to
empire in the English Church. Despite these differences between the Habsburg and Tudor ideologies of empire, each received identical expression in propaganda that identified both England and the Holy Roman Empire with Virgil's Golden Age. The first two chapters explore the Golden Age motif in pageantry produced for the joint London Entry of Henry
VIII and Charles V (1522), and for the Entry of Anne Boleyn in 1533. Chapter Two concludes that the function of the 1533 Entry as propaganda for the Royal Supremacy was
undermined by the similarities between its stagecraft and that of the 1522 Entry
Euphemia Tudor Kleczkowska and Ketty Kleczkowska-Kierkpatrick
No full textThe article discusses Cyprian Norwid’s contacts with more distant relatives: Euphemia Tudor, daughter of Frederic Tudor and wife of the diplomat Michał Kleczkowski; and Ketty Carter, wife of Colonel Kornel Kleczkowski (and after his death, wife of Thomas Edward Kierkpatrick). Both these couples were used by Norwid as subject to his deliberations on mixed marriages of Poles with American and English women. The author is painstakingly collecting any available data on both Norwid's relatives, hoping for her knowledge of the relationships to expand
Euphemia Tudor Kleczkowska and Ketty Kleczkowska-Kierkpatrick
No full textArtykuł omawia kontakty Cypriana Norwida z dalszą rodziną: Euphemią Tudor, córką Frederika Tudor i żoną dyplomaty Michała Kleczkowskiego, oraz Ketty Carter, żoną pułkownika Kornela Kleczkowskiego (a po jego śmieci żoną Thomasa Edwarda Kirkpatricka). Oba te małżeństwa posłużyły Norwidowi do refleksji na temat mieszanych małżeństw, zawieranych przez Polaków z Amerykankami i Angielkami. Autorka zbiera dostępne informacje na temat obu „kuzynek” Norwida, mając nadzieję, iż w przyszłości wiedza ta ulegnie poszerzeniu.The article discusses Cyprian Norwid’s contacts with more distant relatives: Euphemia Tudor, daughter of Frederic Tudor and wife of the diplomat Michał Kleczkowski; and Ketty Carter, wife of Colonel Kornel Kleczkowski (and after his death, wife of Thomas Edward Kierkpatrick). Both these couples were used by Norwid as subject to his deliberations on mixed marriages of Poles with American and English women. The author is painstakingly collecting any available data on both Norwid's relatives, hoping for her knowledge of the relationships to expand
New Approaches to Earlier Tudor Drama. Introduction: Why Attend to Earlier Tudor Drama?
No full textWhile the past two decades have seen the publication of excellent new scholarship about and resources for the study of earlier Tudor drama, much of this work continues to stress the historical and performance contexts for plays from the first half of the sixteenth century. The four essays in this Issues in Review demonstrate and call for new approaches to this material by featuring repertory studies, ecocritical readings, manuscript studies, and digital humanities approaches
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