This England Essays on the English Nation and Commonwealth in the Sixteenth Century
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Patrick Collinson was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College.<p>'There is much to enjoy and relish here; the pity is there will be no more essays from such a fertile mind.'<br />Kenneth Fincham, The Journal of Early Modern Studies, Vol XLIII, No. 4|'Highly recommended'<br />J. Berlatsky, CHOICE, May 2012, J. Berlatsky, CHOICE</p>
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Patrick Collinson was one of Britain’s foremost early modern historians. This volume collects together a number of his most interesting and least easily accessible essays with a thoughtful introduction written specifically for this book.
This England is a celebration of ‘Englishness’ in the sixteenth century. It explores the growing conviction of ‘Englishness’ through the rapidly developing English language; the reinforcement of cultural nationalism as a result of the Protestant Reformation; the national and international situation of England at a time of acute national catastrophe; and of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of her line, remaining unmarried, refusing to even discuss the succession to her throne.
Introducing students of the period to an aspect of history largely neglected in the current vogue for histories of the Tudors, Collinson investigates the rising role of English, of England’s God-centredness, before focusing on the role of Elizabethans as citizens rather than mere subjects. It responds to a demand for a history which is no less social than political, and investigates what it meant to be a citizen of early modern England, living through the 1570s and 1580s.
Introduction. This England: Race, nation, patriotism
1. The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England
2. The Elizabethan exclusion crisis and the Elizabethan polity
3. Servants and citizens: Robert Beale and other Elizabethans
4. Pulling the strings: religion and politics in the progress of 1578
5. Elizabeth I and the verdicts of history
6. Biblical rhetoric: the English nation and national sentiment in the prophetic mode
7. John Foxe and national consciousness
8. Truth, lies, and fiction in sixteenth-century protestant historiography
9. One of Us? William Camden and the making of history
10. William Camden and the anti-myth of Elizabeth: Setting the mould?
11. John Stow and nostalgic antiquarianism
Index
This England is a celebration of ‘Englishness’ in the sixteenth century, and examines the growing conviction of ‘Englishness’ through the rapidly developing English language; the reinforcement of cultural nationalism as a result of the Protestant Reformation; the national and international situation of England at a time of acute national catastrophe; and of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of her line, who remained unmarried throughout her reign, refusing to even discuss the succession to her throne.
In a series of essays, Collinson explores the conviction among leading Elizabethans that they were citizens and subjects, also responsible for the safety of their commonwealth. The tensions between this conviction, born from a childhood spent in the Renaissance classics and in the subjection to the Old Testament of the English Bible, to the dynastic claims of the Tudor monarchy, are all explored at length. Studies of a number of writers who fixed the image of sixteenth-century England for some time to come – Foxe, Camden, and other pioneers of the discovery of England – are included in this extensive study.
This volume is a timely response to a demand for a history which is no less social than political, and investigates what it meant to be a citizen of England living through the 1570s and 1580s.