With Cap and Gown, Booted and Spurred the University Experience
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WITH CAP AND GOWN, BOOTED AND SPURRED 1603-1660 WITH CAP AND GOWN, BOOTED AND SPURRED THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE AND THE TRANSMISSION OF MASCULINE CULTURE IN EARLY STUART ENGLAND 1603-1660 By GREGORYW. STONE, B. A. HONOURS A Thesis Submitted to the School ofGraduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment ofthe Requirements for the Degree Master ofArts McMaster University © Copyright by Gregory W. Stone, September 2004 Wilfred Emberton, The English Civil War, Day by Day (Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing, 1997), 16. MASTER OF ARTS (2004) McMaster University (History) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: With Cap and Gown, Booted and Spurred: The University Experience at Oxford and Cambridge and the Transmission of Masculine Culture in Early Stuart England, 1603-1660 AUTHOR: Gregory W. Stone, B. A. Honours (The University of Calgary) SUPERVISOR: Professor J. D. Alsop NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 212 11 Abstract This thesis deals with the institutional histories of Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in an attempt to establish their role within the English state and within English culture in the Early Modem period. It seeks to explain the complex relationship between social definitions of masculinity and the translation of those conceptions via the universities to a student population whose influence and power upon their leaving of those precincts would be felt throughout the nation. It further argues that education at Oxford or Cambridge was not relegated to the college halls alone, but was the result of both official and unofficial instruction conducted both within and without the university setting. 111 Acknowledgements 9'Xi8. The acknowledgements are perhaps the most difficult section to write in relation to a work that has received so much support and encouragement from so many. I must preface my thanks by stating that if a name is not found upon these pages, it is the result of my owing too much to too many rather than a disregard for each and every contribution, all of which have been to my immeasurable benefit. Of friends, mentors and family, I am blessed both in their number and their quality and may offer but these insufficient words of gratitude in return. This thesis is particularly indebted to my advisor, Professor James D. Alsop whose patience, encouragement, and support was at all times forthcoming regardless of how much they were tested. In addition, I would add Professor Stephen J. Heathorn and Professor Melinda Gough who did me the great honour of acting upon my examining committee and whose critiques and comments have helped to improve the final manifestation of this work in addition to those offered by Professor Alsop. The work as it is here presented is indebted to their advice and corrections and any success with which it meets is very much to their credit. The responsibility for any errors that may persist, however, resides with the author and not his mentors. My family as well has maintained me throughout my writing by listening, providing comments, asking questions, and through the support they offered at all stages. Without the patronage of my father, Michael J. Stone, and my mother, Mary E. Lea, this work may never have been initiated. They have provided for my every endeavor in every lV way and I owe them much more than gratitude for this current work alone but rather, for my entire university education heretofore. I was also fortunate to have the additional support of my father-in-law, Gerald Muza, and my mother-in-law, Leslie Muza. The writing would have proven to be infinitely more difficult without them in a great many ways but it is their friendship I appreciate the most. I was benefited too by my sister, Jacqueline L. Stone, my brother-in-law, Craig A. Peterson, and my friend Krista Engstrom, all of whose constant encouragement and good humour seemed to make my obstacles the less. To my family and friends, I owe many more thanks than may be written. I am indebted as well to where this thesis was written, most especially the Kilmorey Lodge and the Twin Butte Cafe along with their staff in southern Alberta. In particular, thanks to Miss Nicki Schoening whose work upon the illustrations was a great help. My gratitude also extends to McMaster University as a whole and to its staff and my fellow students. To write a thesis is a pleasant thing when conducted in such agreeable and convivial settings. Though I am indebted to so many, this work must be dedicated to one alone: to my wife, Jennifer Dawn Stone. To dedicate this thesis to her is but a paltry sum in return for her constant support and endurance, her patience and her fortitude, which remained even when my own seemed to falter. To Jennifer. They shall all be for Jennifer. Gregory W. Stone McMaster University, September 21 st, 2004 v Table Of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................ .iii. Acknowledgements and Dedication ......................................................... .. .iv. List of Illustrations ................................................................................. vii. Introductory Verse ................................................................................... 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 2. Chapter I: Legacies of Reform .................................................................. 10. Chapter II: Legacies of Rebirth ................................................................ .40. Chapter III: The Academic Man, University Curriculum, and University Life ..................................................... 62. Chapter IV: The Educated Man, The Extra-Curricular, and University Life ..................................................... 104. Chapter V: The Stuart University Man, His Influence, and His Life Cut Short .......................................................... 147. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 180. Appendix I: Regional Origins of Matriculants at Oxford ............................................................................ 186. Appendix II: The Percentage of Justices of the Peace Having Attended Oxford or Cambridge Universities .......................... 187. Appendix III: The Ratio of Educated to Uneducated "Worthies", Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, in Thomas Fuller's Worthies ofEngland ...................................................... .188. Appendix IV: Extracts From the Laudian Code, 1636 ....................................... 189. Appendix V: Two Examples of Curricular Studies at Oxford and Cambridge Universities ......................................................... .192. Appendix VI: Extracts From John Earle's Micro-Cosmographie .. ........................ 195. Appendix VII: A Relation of the University Experiences of Anthony Ashley Cooper ....................................................... 197. Bibliography ........................................................................................ 199. Vl List of Illustrations Title Page: Charles I as a Young Man .......................................................... ~. Figure 1.1: Trinity College, 1688 ............................................................... 21. Figure 1.2: Bronze statue of Charles I ......................................................... 23. Figure 3.1: Student Dress at Cambridge, 1676 .................................................. 87. Figure 3.2: Sir Richard Lovelace ............................................................... 95. Figure 4.1: John Evelyn ......................................................................... 110. Figure 4.2: Trinity and Wadham Colleges, Oxford ................................................................................... 113. Figure 4.3: Mother Warner's Alehouse, Oxford, 1720 ......................................................................... 134. Figure 5.1: The King's Army, A Parliamentary Satire ............................................................................ 162. vu Master of Arts Thesis - Gregory W. Stone, McMaster - Department of History 0, what a noble mind is here o'er thrown The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword: The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observ' d of all observers, -- quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched That suck'd honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; That unmatch'd form and feature ofblown youth Blasted with ecstacy: 0, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! Hamlet, III, i. 1 Master of Arts Thesis - Gregory W. Stone, McMaster - Department of History Introduction In a letter to Vice-Chancellor Frewen of Oxford University dated 1631, Archbishop Laud, the newly appointed chancellor, initiated a campaign which would endure for the entirety of his office and persist long afterwards. He implored his deputy in the following terms: "I pray call the heads together, and give them warning concerning their several companies, that no man of what degree soever (and therefore much less youths) be suffered to go in boots and spurs together with their gowns."1 Laud's complaint was not particularly novel. His predecessor, the Earl of Pembrook had noted the sound of heavy heels and jangling spurs in the halls as well; he had voiced his displeasure but had done