Shaping the Nation Before the Reformation: English National Identity up to 1530
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Shaping the Nation before the Reformation: English National Identity up to 1530 Stephanie Kathryn Collinson Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History July 2015 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. ©2015 The University of Leeds and Stephanie Kathryn Collinson The right of Stephanie Kathryn Collinson to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. i Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Paul Cavill and Dr Alan Murray. Their patience and encouragement have been invaluable, as well as their advice on numerous drafts, guidance of my writing style, and help in shaping my ideas into their present form. I am also grateful to Professor Anthony Wright, as my second supervisor until his retirement, who was also very influential in guiding the direction and focus of this thesis. This thesis could not have been produced without the financial support of the University of Leeds: their Faculty of Arts Partial PhD Scholarship and maintenance allowance has enabled me to pursue this degree full-time. Staff particularly at the British Library, the Institute of Historical Research and the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester have been very helpful and accommodating. I am also indebted to the Reverend Roger Farnworth, for access to the beautiful Church of St Michael and All Angels in Ashton-under-Lyne, and for providing me with information about the Henry VI window. I am grateful for the support and unending encouragement of my family and friends. Finally, thanks to James – whose life has been almost as invested in this thesis as my own – for love, patience and minimal complaint. All remaining errors I acknowledge as my own. ii Abstract The broad subject of ‘nation’ has received substantial scholarly attention, which has resulted in a variety of opinions regarding the dating of the emergence of nationhood. Dominant theories suggest that it is a modern development, belonging to post-eighteenth- century democratic government and a result of this shift in the political landscape. Others have asserted much earlier developments, particularly for England, such as the Reformation of the 1530s, the Hundred Years War or earlier, as the defining periods of identity formation. However, the period of almost a century between the final stage of the Hundred Years War and the break with Rome, particularly the decades preceding the 1530s, has not been fully explored in relation to English nationhood. This thesis will look at evidence for the articulation of English nationhood – that is the sense of belonging to a community which identified itself as English – within this period. It will draw upon the definition of modern nations, outlined by Craig Calhoun, in order to demonstrate the capacity for early sixteenth-century England to understand identity within the same parameters. It will suggest that national identity was complex, and articulated in a number of ways, and that these depended upon earlier developments and sentiment but were more fully explored and made available through the advent of print. In their turn, ways in which identity was expressed during this period provided a framework for negotiating the break with Rome and its implications for Englishness. In contrast to theories which suggest the incompatibility of monarchical systems of government and the idea of nations, it will also demonstrate that the crown was central to directing national sentiment, and aimed to invest the nation in itself as a means of ensuring support and participation of subjects, although sentiments of Englishness did not always follow, but transcended the crown’s rhetoric. iii Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Contents iii Abbreviations v Introduction 1 Chapter One: Frontiers of Nationhood 24 I. Defining ‘England’ 26 II. Geographical Frontiers 47 III. Membership, Participation and Englishness 73 Chapter Two: Histories of Nationhood 94 I. Origin Myths and Ancient Pasts 97 II. The ‘Ancient Enemy’ and National Heroes 118 III. Cousins’ War and the ‘Trauma of their Time’ 141 Chapter Three: Personification of Nationhood 162 I. English Saints 165 II. Henry VI: Political National Saint 186 III. St George 204 Chapter Four: Occasions for Nationhood 227 iv I. Celebration 229 II. War 245 III. Popular Protest 264 Conclusion 290 Bibliography 295 v Abbreviations BL British Library Calhoun Craig Calhoun, Nationalism (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1997) Chronicle of London to 1483 A Chronicle of London, from 1089 to 1483: Written in the Fifteenth Century (London: Richard Taylor, 1827, reprinted, Felinfach: Llanerch Publishers, 1995) EEBO Early English Books Online English Chronicle An English Chronicle, 1377-1461: Edited from Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS 21068 and Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Lyell 34, ed. C. William Marx (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003) Great Chronicle The Great Chronicle of London, ed. by Arthur H. Thomas and Isobel D. Thornley (London: G. W. Jones, 1938) Hall’s Chronicle Edward Hall, Hall’s Chronicle: Containing the History of England, During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, and the Succeeding Monarchs to the End of the Reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are Particularly Described the Manners and Customs of those Periods (London: G. Woodfall, 1809) vi Heralds’ Memoir The Heralds’ Memoir 1486-1490: Court Ceremony, Royal Progress and Rebellion, ed. by Emma Cavell (Donington, Lincolnshire: Shaun Tyas, 2009) Libelle The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye: a poem of the use of sea power, ed. by George F. Warner (Oxford: Clarendon, 1926) LPFD Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 21 vols (London: Longman, 1862-1910). REED Records of Early English Drama Relation A Relation, or rather, a true account of the Island of England: with sundry particulars of the customs of these people and of the royal revenues under King Henry the Seventh, about the year 1500, ed. and trans. by Charlotte A. Sneyd (London: The Camden Society, 1847)in The Making of the Modern World <http://0-find.galegroup.com.wam.leeds.ac.uk/mome/> [accessed 14th November 2011]. Shrank Cathy Shrank, Writing the Nation in Reformation England, 1530-1580 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) Statutes The Statutes of the Realm, 11 volumes (1810-1828), in MOMW. vii TRPI Tudor Royal Proclamations, volume 1: The Early Tudors, 1485-1553, ed. by Paul L. Hughes and James F. Larkin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964) 1 Introduction In 1523, John Bourchier, Lord Berners, translated into ‘our maternall englysshe tonge’ chronicles which ‘redounde to the honoure of Englysshemen’. He aimed to inspire ‘gentylmen of Englande’ to emulate their ‘valyant aunceytours... in defence of their countre’.1 His choice of source was Jean Froissart, a native of Hainault whose work recounted the first phase of the Hundred Years War. His motivation, at least in part, was the renewal of conflict with France. Not only was Lord Berners able to view the contemporary war as a collective undertaking of Englishmen on behalf of England, but he also identified his intended audience by their common descent from the Englishmen of the text, and their shared native language. Lord Berners’ introduction, then, demonstrates his own sense of belonging to a national community, of how it was constructed and defined, and an understanding of the significance of an English translation. The broad subject of ‘nation’ and the related phenomena ‘nationalism’ and ‘national identity’ have received substantial scholarly attention, particularly in the last four decades, producing a range of opinions regarding the dating of the emergence of nationhood. As a result, there is a fundamental disagreement between modern and medieval scholarship. Contrary to the experience of Lord Berners, dominant theories assert that the nation is a modern development, coinciding with an age of democratic government, from the eighteenth century onwards, which replaced earlier monarchical systems of rule. Although these theories recognise the significance of earlier developments, they emphasise the incompatibility of earlier systems of government with the concept of the ‘nation’, and suggest 1 John Bourchier, Preface, Here begynneth the first volum of sir Iohan Froyssart (London: Richard Pynson, 1523), in EEBO <http://0-eebo.chadwyck.com.wam.leeds.ac.uk/home> [accessed 15th April 2010]. 2 that this shift in the political landscape resulted in the emergence of national identity.2 ‘Nationalism’ in particular, when taken to mean the political utilisation of national sentiment, is thought to be ‘rooted in modernity’.3 Others have rejected the placement of the birth of the nation in the modern period, and the characteristics identified by theories of modern nationhood may be used to demonstrate their earlier existence. Research has identified the break with Rome as a significant turning point and suggests that the decades following the Reformation were ‘a crucial time for forming the image of England’.4 Looking still further back, others have highlighted the impact of events such as the Hundred Years War in initiating a ‘great awakening of vigorous national feeling’.5 While this research has successfully departed from the modern origins of the nation, and asserted the capacity of late medieval and early modern people to express national identity, the period between the Hundred Years War and the Reformation has received little attention with regard to English identity, while the events and impact of the 1530s have drawn scholarly focus more generally, resulting in the relative neglect of the earlier years of Henry VIII’s reign. It is the intention of this thesis to explore the evidence for the articulation of English nationhood – that is the sense of belonging to a community which identified itself as English – within this period.