The Making of Englishmen Studies in the History of Political Thought
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The Making of Englishmen Studies in the History of Political Thought Edited by Terence Ball, Arizona State University JÖrn Leonhard, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Wyger Velema, University of Amsterdam Advisory Board Janet Coleman, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Vittor Ivo Comparato, University of Perugia, Italy Jacques Guilhaumou, CNRS, France John Marshall, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Markku Peltonen, University of Helsinki, Finland VOLUME 8 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ship The Making of Englishmen Debates on National Identity 1550–1650 By Hilary Larkin LEIDEN • BOSTON 2014 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. More information about the initiative can be found at www. knowledgeunlatched.org. Cover illustration: Titian (c1545) Portrait of a Young Man (The Young Englishman). Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence, Italy. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larkin, Hilary. The making of Englishmen : debates on national identity, 1550-1650 / by Hilary Larkin. pages cm. -- (Studies in the history of political thought; volume 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-23473-4 (hardback : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-24387-3 (e-book) 1. National characteristics, English--History--16th century. 2. National characteristics, English-- History--17th century. 3. Group identity--England--History--16th century. 4. Group identity-- England--History--17th century. 5. Nationalism and literature--Great Britain--History--16th century. 6. Nationalism and literature--Great Britain--History--17th century. 7. English language--Rhetoric-- Political aspects. I. Title. DA118.L335 2013 942.05--dc23 2013031670 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1873-6548 ISBN 978-90-04-23473-4 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-24387-3 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Hilary Larkin. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................................................vii Conventions ...............................................................................................................ix List of Figures .............................................................................................................xi Introduction ................................................................................................................1 PART ONE THE PLAIN ENGLISHMAN 1. The Rise of an Ethos of Plainness ................................................................. 25 2. The Plain-Speaking Englishman ................................................................... 33 A Language in Flux ....................................................................................... 33 The Cult of Homespun Speech ................................................................. 34 Politicisation of the Plain Englishman .................................................... 43 The Speech of Returned Travellers .......................................................... 47 The Courtier’s Velvet Terms ....................................................................... 57 Discoursing Gestures ................................................................................... 67 3. The Image of the Englishman ....................................................................... 79 The Politics of Appearance ........................................................................ 79 A Golden Age of Native Dress ................................................................... 80 The Materials of Identity ............................................................................ 92 A World of Fashions ..................................................................................... 98 Dressing the Head .......................................................................................117 PART TWO THE LOYAL ENGLISHMAN 4. The Development of an anti-Catholic Narrative....................................125 5. The Estrangement of English Catholics....................................................131 Constructing a Plain, Protestant and un-French Utopia ..................131 The Alienation of the Jesuits ...................................................................143 The Ideological Battle Against Spanishness ........................................148 Debating National Authenticity .............................................................151 <UN> <UN> vi contents 6. The Fabrication of a Jesuited Mock Weal .................................................167 Catholic Reassertions of Englishness ....................................................167 Staging Englishness and Jesuitism .........................................................187 Machiavels and Mercuries in the Caroline Era ...................................195 The Triumph of a Stereotype ...................................................................202 PART THREE THE FREE ENGLISHMAN 7. The Growth of a Rhetoric of Liberty ..........................................................209 8. The Rights-Bearing Englishman .................................................................213 Early Statements in Parliament ..............................................................213 The 1628 Synthesis of Rights ..................................................................218 Liberties as Popular Polemic....................................................................227 The New Enemies of Liberty....................................................................234 Revolutionary Implications .....................................................................238 9. The Neo-Classical Englishman ....................................................................253 The Roman Tradition .................................................................................253 The Spectre of National Decline .............................................................257 The Brink of Degeneration .......................................................................262 The Classical Republican Turn ................................................................273 The ‘Fate’ of English Liberty .....................................................................287 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................293 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................303 Manuscripts ..................................................................................................303 Printed Primary Sources ...........................................................................303 Secondary Works .........................................................................................314 Index of Subjects ...................................................................................................337 Index of Names......................................................................................................345 <UN> <UN> PREFACE My interest in the history of English identity long predated my studies at University. Studying for a doctorate at Cambridge gave me the chance at last to transform that interest into the subject of a thesis and now a book. Above all else, the work was shaped fundamentally in discussions with Quentin Skinner. I am deeply grateful for his readiness to share his insights into the theory and practice of history and for his unstinting generosity, all of which made doing the history of ideas in his company not merely a scholarly experience of the very first order but also a most civilised one. In the course of writing, I have become indebted to many scholars, among them John Morrill, David Colclough Annabel Brett, Markku Peltonen and Alex Shepard. As the scope of the work increased, so did my discussions with