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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES School of Humanities The Construction and Use of Gender in the Pamphlet Literature of the English Civil War, 1642-1646 by Jennifer Frances Cobley Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2010 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Doctor of Philosophy THE CONSTRUCTION AND USE OF GENDER IN THE PAMPHLET LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR, 1642-1646 By Jennifer Frances Cobley This thesis examines how the authors of ephemeral print used the gender framework for political ends during the first Civil War. In particular it considers how both the royalist and parliamentarian pamphleteers constructed and promoted a hegemonic, patriarchal definition of manhood amongst their male supporters in order to encourage them to fight for either king or parliament. It also demonstrates how the pamphleteers of each party drew upon deep-seated cultural allusions and a pre-existing language of insult in order to claim that their enemies were ‘unmanly’ or ‘effeminate’ and therefore unable or unwilling to uphold the patriarchal social order. The thesis shows that the pamphleteers of both sides set out to demonstrate that their own men were exemplars of patriarchal manhood, while simultaneously claiming that the anti-patriarchal behaviour of their opponents had betrayed their unsuitability for a position of authority within the commonwealth. Gendered language was therefore a powerful way to legitimise the claim of one’s own side to patriarchal authority and political power while simultaneously delegitimizing the claim of one’s opponents. The introduction outlines the key questions which the thesis seeks to address and gives my reasons for undertaking this study. Chapter one examines the reluctance of past generations of historians to study the wartime tracts and highlights the importance of the new cultural history, gender studies and the linguistic turn in bringing the gendered language of the wartime tracts to academic attention. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the print culture of the Civil Wars. In particular, the pioneering work of David Underdown has led other historians to explore how the wartime pamphleteers made use of cultural references in order to communicate political ideas. Chapter one situates my thesis within these recent developments in scholarship. Chapter two considers the main gendered themes of the parliamentarian tracts during the first Civil War. It explores how and why manhood was constructed and how gendered insult was utilised by the pamphleteers. Chapter three focuses on how three principal royalist personalities were represented in parliamentarian tracts, namely Charles I, Queen Henrietta Maria and Prince Rupert. Chapter four considers the broader gendered themes within the royalist literature of the period and tests the assertions of previous historians that royalist propaganda was frequently elitist and self-defeating. Chapter five explores the royalists’ treatment of three key parliamentarian figures: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Sir William Waller and Lady Ann Waller. It explores the careful treatment that Essex initially received from the royalist polemicists and contrasts this with the increasingly barbed attacks that were made against Waller, particularly by commenting upon the actions of his wife, Ann. The conclusion summarises the key arguments of the thesis and relates my findings to other broader questions regarding the operation and contestation of patriarchal power during the conflict, the practice of printing and how the use of gendered language developed in the polemical works of the later 1640s. The thesis ends with a brief discussion of some areas in which further research might enable us to better understand the vital role that gender played in reinforcing authority during the turbulent 1640s. Contents DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP _____________________________________________ IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ______________________________________________________ V ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS ________________________________________ VI INTRODUCTION ______________________________________________________________ 1 Part 1.1 – Sources: Print Culture in the 1640s _________________________________________ 10 CHAPTER I: AN ‘EXCELLENT TALENT … IN LYING AND SLANDERING’: PREJUDICE AND THE PRINT CULTURE OF THE CIVIL WAR ___________________ 21 Part 1.1 – Stigmatised Sources: Historians’ views of Civil War pamphlets, 1644 - circa 1890 ___ 22 Part 1.2 – Pamphlets and Politics: The impact of Marxism and social history ________________ 23 Part 1.3 – Language, Gender and Power: The Emergence of Gendered Readings of the Wartime Pamphlets _____________________________________________________________________ 29 Part 1.4 – Beyond the ‘Linguistic Turn’: the Birth of ‘New’ Cultural History ________________ 32 Part 1.5 - Sexuality and Social Order ________________________________________________ 42 CHAPTER II: ‘WOMANISH’ CAVALIERS: THE USE OF GENDERED LANGUAGE BY PARLIAMENTARIAN PAMPHLETEERS, 1642-46 ________________________________ 53 Part 1.1 – ‘Quit yourselves like men’: Constructing Manhood ____________________________ 58 Part 2.1 – ‘The just contempt of understanding men’: Parliamentarian Depictions of Royalist Unmanliness ___________________________________________________________________ 65 Part 2.2 – 1642: The Gathering Clouds of War ________________________________________ 67 Part 2.3 – 1643: The Conflict Deepens ______________________________________________ 73 Part 2.4 – 1644: Victory and Defeat ________________________________________________ 78 Part 2.5 – 1645-1646: The Triumph of the New Model Army ____________________________ 83 Part 3.1 – Conclusion ____________________________________________________________ 86 CHAPTER III: REPRESENTATIONS OF ROYALIST PERSONALITIES IN PARLIAMENTARIAN PAMPHLET LITERATURE _______________________________ 90 i Part 1.1 – ‘The Queene of Troubles’ and her ‘weak-backed Lord’: Representations of Queen Henrietta Maria and King Charles I in Parliamentarian Print Culture _______________________ 90 Part 1.2 – 1642: A Role in the War _________________________________________________ 92 Part 1.3 – 1643: The ‘omnipotent over-ruling power of the Queen’ ________________________ 94 Part 1.4 – 1644: ‘[I]t had beene better for him that he had Conquer’d himselfe’: Questioning the Manliness of the King __________________________________________________________ 101 Part 1.5 – 1645: ‘A Prince seduced out of his proper sphear’: The Impact of the Battle of Naseby ____________________________________________________________________________ 107 Part 1.6 – 1646: Defeat and Surrender ______________________________________________ 113 Part 1.7 – Conclusion ___________________________________________________________ 114 Part 2.1 – ‘A loose and wilde Gentleman’: Parliamentarian Representations of Prince Rupert __ 115 Part 2.2 – 1642: Reviling Prince Rupert ____________________________________________ 116 Part 2.3 – 1643: Unrestrained, Unreasonable and Unmanly _____________________________ 119 Part 2.4 – 1644: Shattering Armies and Reputations: the Impact of Marston Moor ___________ 124 Part 2.5 – 1645: ‘Branded for a coward’: Prince Rupert’s declining Role in the War __________ 126 Part 2.6 – Conclusion ___________________________________________________________ 128 CHAPTER IV: ‘CUCKOLD CAPTAINS’: THE USE OF GENDERED LANGUAGE BY ROYALIST PAMPHLETEERS, 1642-46 _________________________________________ 130 Part 1.1 – ‘A Perfect Souldier is a Perfect Man’: Constructing Manhood ___________________ 136 Part 2.1 – ‘[T]he wiser sort hold … Round-heads to be but … Cuckolds’: Royalist Depictions of Parliamentarian Unmanliness ____________________________________________________ 145 Part 2.2 – 1642: ‘Our continuall scolding shall make them goe to the warres’ _______________ 145 Part 2.3 – 1643: The Conflict Deepens _____________________________________________ 151 Part 2.4 – 1644: Defeat and Victory _______________________________________________ 158 Part 2.5 – 1645-1646: Railing in the Face of Defeat ___________________________________ 161 Part 3.1 – Conclusion ___________________________________________________________ 163 CHAPTER V: REPRESENTATIONS OF PARLIAMENTARIAN PERSONALITIES IN ROYALIST PROPAGANDA, 1642-46 ___________________________________________ 166 Part 1.1 – ‘A Cuckold and a Rebel’: Royalist depictions of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ___ 166 Part 1.2 – ‘The darling of the swordmen’: The Earl of Essex in 1642 _____________________ 167 Part 1.3 – Twists and reversals: the campaigns of 1643 ________________________________