The Spanish Match and Jacobean Political Thought, 1618-1624
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Opposition in a pre-Republican Age? The Spanish Match and Jacobean Political Thought, 1618-1624 Kimberley Jayne Hackett Ph.D University of York History Department July 2009 Abstract Seventeenth-century English political thought was once viewed as insular and bound by a common law mentality. Significant work has been done to revise this picture and highlight the role played by continental religious resistance theory and what has been termed 'classical republicanism'. In addition to identifying these wider influences, recent work has focused upon the development of a public sphere that reveals a more socially diverse engagement with politics, authority and opposition than has hitherto been acknowledged. Yet for the period before the Civil War our understanding of the way that several intellectual influences were interacting to inform a politically alert 'public' is unclear, and expressions of political opposition are often tied to a pre-determined category of religious affiliation. As religious tension erupted into conflict on the continent, James I's pursuit ofa Spanish bride for Prince Charles and determination to follow a diplomatic solution to the war put his policy direction at odds with a dominant swathe of public opinion. During the last years of his reign, therefore, James experienced an unprecedented amount of opposition to his government of England. This opposition was articulated through a variety of media, and began to raise questions beyond the conduct of policy in addressing fundamental issues of political authority. By examining the deployment of political ideas during the domestic crisis of the early 1620s, this thesis seeks to uncover the varied ways in which differing discourses upon authority and obedience were being articulated against royal government. In particular, it suggests that confessional politics interacted with a broader culture of opposition developing throughout the Jacobean period to create a potent form of critical public discourse. 2 Contents Abbreviations 4 Notes on the Text 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 8 1. Divided Allegiance 26 Catholic and Protestant during the Spanish Match 2. Hidden Depths 52 Recovering the Meaning ofJohn Taylor's Works in Context, 1618-1624 3. Politics and the 'Heauenly Sonnets' 90 George Wither's Religious Verse, 1619-1625 4. Critical Theatre 128 Political Thought in the Early Plays ofPhilip Massinger 5. The 'Execution of Iustice' or Legalised Violence? 161 The English Reception of Oldenbarnevelt 's Fall 6. Making 'Republikes of Kingdomes'? 211 Dutch Politics and English Pamphlet Polemic, 1621-1623 Conclusion 259 Appendix 267 Bibliography 279 3 Abbreviations APC Acts of the Privy Council ofEngland in the Reign ofJames 1 (Germany, 4 vols, reprint 1974) Arber, TR E. Arber (ed.), A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers ofLondon, 1554-1640 (New York, 5 vols, 1875-94, reprint 1950) BIHR Bulletin ofthe Institute ofHistorical Research BL British Library Cogswell, BR Thomas Cogswell, The Blessed Revolution: English Politics and the Coming of War, 1621-1624 (Cambridge, 1989) Cust, 'Public Richard Cust, 'The "Public Man" in Late Tudor and Early Stuart Man' England', in Peter Lake and Steve Pincus (eds.), The Politics ofthe Public Sphere in Early Modern England (Manchester, 2007), pp. 116-143 CSPD Calendar ofState Papers Domestic, James I, 1619-23 (London, 1858). EHR English Historical Review ELR English Literary Renaissance G&S, Martin van Gelderen and Quentin Skinner (eds.), Republicanism: A Republicanism Shared European Heritage (Cambridge, 2 vols, 2002) HJ Historical Journal HLQ Huntington Library Quarterly JBS Journal ofBritish Studies KJV The Holy Bible, conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out ofthe Original! tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared and reuised by his Maiesties speciall Comandement (London, 1611) L&P,PS Peter Lake and Steve Pincus (eds.), The Politics ofthe Public Sphere in Early Modern England (Manchester, 2007) ODNB Oxford Dictionary ofNational Biography P&P Past and Present 4 PMLA Publications of the Modern language Association ofAmerica RPCS The Register of the Privy Council ofScotland, First ser., eds. J. H. Burton and D. Masson (Edinburgh, 14 vo1s, 1877-98) RQ Renaissance Quarterly SPD The Complete State Papers Domestic, series 1, James I (Harvester Microform, 1980) SPF State Papers Foreign, The National Archives TRHS Transactions ofthe Royal Historical Society 5 Notes on the Text All quotations of biblical text taken from KJV, unless otherwise stated. In quotations from original printed or manuscript text, original spelling and punctuation have been retained, with contractions expanded in square brackets. {} indicates words interlined. Words struck through indicate words deleted (where discemable) in the original. Dates follow Old Style, unless otherwise stated, except the year, which is taken to begin on January 1. 6 Acknowledgements My first and foremost thanks go to my supervisor and mentor, David Wootton, whose generosity with both his time and his space has been instrumental in the completion of my thesis. I feel I have been able to grow in many ways whilst at York and this is in a large part due to David's gentle encouragement towards a more searching and critical approach. His enviable intellect has continually provided me with motivation and a goal (if an unattainable one!) to aspire to. lowe innumerable thanks to Susan Joyce, without whose generous bequest of a doctoral studentship to the department, I would not have been able to undertake this work. The time that I have had the opportunity to spend with Susan and Peter has confirmed what truly generous and warm-hearted people they are, and I feel deeply privileged to have benefited so much from their kindness. I would also like to thank Bill Sheils and Jim Sharpe for their support. Their helpful and constructive comments have been very valuable and I am indebted to them both for taking the time to read drafts of my work. I have also had the opportunity to benefit from the generosity of several scholars who have been willing to share their ideas and work with me. In particular, I would like to thank Michael Questier for generously giving me the chance to engage with his unpublished work on two occasions. Thanks also go to Bill Sherman, Michelle o 'Callaghan, Tara Hamling and Trevor Cooper. For help with translations, I give my thanks to Niels van Manen, Jenny Hillman, and most notably, Julie Taylor. To Julie and Matthew I offer my most sincere and heartfelt thanks, for without their unfaltering support over the past six months, I would not have stayed focused and kept going. I would also like to offer my thanks to Charles Fonge, whose understanding and encouragement allowed me to take valuable time away from the busy world of information compliance! Finally, lowe an inestimable debt of gratitude to Mum and Dad and so offer my thanks here as the first small inroad into repayment. Without their lifelong encouragement to believe I was able to achieve anything, I would not have even seen the doors of opportunity that have since opened for me. Always willing to offer both their emotional and financial support, and provide last-minute solutions to unfortunate encounters with technology, my Mum and Dad are as much a part of this thesis as I am, and to whom, therefore, it is dedicated. 7 Introduction 'The plaine truth is', James I publicly explained early in 1622, 'That Wee cannot with patience endure Our Subiects to vse such Antimonarchicall words to Vs concerning their Liberties'. 1 James's immediate point of reference here was the 'carping wits' in the House of Commons, who had entered into a fractious exchange with the king at the end of the 1621 Parliament following their petition concerning religion, Prince Charles's prospective marriage and the continental war.2 Yet, taken more broadly, James's statement neatly reflects the widespread reaction provoked by the king's dynastic and foreign policy between 1618 and 1624, and succinctly epitomises the predominant royal understanding of such public opposition. Varying media were employed to articulate dissent over James's pursuit of a Spanish bride for his son, and, as many contemporaries recognised, the criticism of the king's policy increasingly began to address questions about political authority. Even a cursory glance at much of the critical literature generated during the early 1620s reveals that it was not just a jealous Commons who were becoming defensive over their liberties.3 As the direction of royal policy clashed with the demands of Reformed unity in the face of international confessional warfare, an increasing number of appeals were being framed in public terms, which often sought to educate and call upon a politically alert 'public', as much as the ruling elite. The notion of a 'public sphere' in early modem England has been adapted and redeployed from Jiirgen Habermas's late seventeenth-century bourgeois, coffee house culture.4 An 'occasional' relationship has been identified between the public and politics, whereby an increasingly participatory reaction to moments of crises I James VI and I, His Majesties Dec/aration touching his Proceedings in the Late Assembly and Convention of Parliament (London, 1622), p. 47; Thomas C. Fulton, "'The True and Naturall Constitution of that Mixed Gouernment": Massinger's The Bondman and the influence of Dutch Republicanism', Studies in Philology, 99 (2002), 152-178, 157. 2 James I, His Majesties Dec/aration, p. 44; for contrasting interpretations of this parliamentary episode see Robert Zaller, The Parliament of 1621: A Study in Constitutional Conflict (Berkeley, 1971); Brennan C. Pursell, 'James I, Gondomar and the Dissolution of the Parliament of 1621', History, 85 (2000), 428-445; Richard Cust, 'Prince Charles and the Second Session of the 1621 Parliament', EHR, 122 (2007),427-441. 3 For this view of the Commons 'desperately defending embattled freedoms', see Zaller, Parliament of 1621, p. 179. 4 Jiirgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, tr.