University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 From A “strong Town Of War” To The “very Heart Of The Country”: The English Border Town Of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, 1558-1625 Janine Maria Van Vliet University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Van Vliet, Janine Maria, "From A “strong Town Of War” To The “very Heart Of The Country”: The English Border Town Of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, 1558-1625" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3078. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3078 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3078 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. From A “strong Town Of War” To The “very Heart Of The Country”: The English Border Town Of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, 1558-1625 Abstract The English border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed provides the perfect case study to analyze early modern state building in the frontiers. Berwick experienced two seismic shifts of identity, instituted by two successive monarchs: Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625). Both sought to expand state power in the borders, albeit in different ways. Elizabeth needed to secure her borders, and so built up Berwick’s military might with expensive new fortifications and an enlarged garrison of soldiers, headed by a governor who administered the civilian population as well. This arrangement resulted in continual clashes with Berwick’s traditional governing guild. Then, in 1603, Berwick’s world was turned upside-down when James VI, king of Scotland, ascended the English throne.