My publications on early modern England deal with literacy, education, migration, communication, commemoration, kinship, kingship, revolution, rites of passage, religion, politics, Gypsies, and islands.
Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea is a work of social history examining community relationship... more Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea is a work of social history examining community relationships, law, and seafaring over the long early modern period. It explores the politics of the coastline, the economy of scavenging, and the law of ‘wreck of the sea’ from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I to the end of the reign of George II. England’s coastlines were heavily trafficked by naval and commercial shipping, but an unfortunate percentage was cast away or lost. Eighteen of England’s historical counties and eight more in Wales had coastlines where sailing ships came to grief. Wrecks were disasters for merchants and mariners, but opportunities for shore-dwellers. As the proverb said, it was an ill wind that blew nobody any good. Lords of manors, local officials, officers of the Admiralty, and coastal commoners competed for maritime cargoes and the windfall of wreckage, which they regarded as providential godsends or entitlements by right. A varied haul of commodities, wines, ...
This essay explores the contested reputation of Charles, comparing the judgments of contemporarie... more This essay explores the contested reputation of Charles, comparing the judgments of contemporaries and posterity. Whereas apologists considered Charles the best of all monarchs, some historians have declared him unfit to govern. Far from being anachronistic, as hyper-Revisionists have protested, this view echoes extreme expressions of dissatisfaction from the 1620s to the 1640s. David Cressy reviews contemporary understandings of the business of kingship, whereby a monarch could be judged. He concludes that Charles I was largely responsible for his troubles.
This article treats book burning and censorship in England between the 1520s and the 1640s as par... more This article treats book burning and censorship in England between the 1520s and the 1640s as part of the communications repertoire of the early modern state. Combating heresy, blasphemy, and sedition, Tudor and Stuart authorities subjected transgressive works to symbolic execution at key sites in London and the universities.The addition of the hangman to the ceremony in the 1630s reinforced the authority of the state over texts. But the ritual was not always performed according to the script. Through gesture, voice, and narrative, actors and spectators sometimes subverted the ceremony, imposing a contrary meaning on its message. Even as an exercise of power, book burning was unstable and ambivalent and was ultimately counterproductive.
E . ngland in 1641, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I, was a country in crisis, bes... more E . ngland in 1641, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I, was a country in crisis, beset by fears and dangers. Correspondents wrote uneasily of the "divisions and distractions" afflicting their "disjointed and distempered kingdom."' Both public and private utterances of the time evince an accumulation of menace, a loss of civility, a fracturing of community, an ungluing of the elements as the country teetered on the edge of confusion. But the gloom was illuminated by hope that the balance of order might again be restored if people of good will came together. Even as opposing armies gathered in August 1642 there were reasons to believe that civil war might be averted, as crises had been resolved and difficulties smoothed before. English culture provided a self-regulating mechanism of consensus that normally prevented crises from erupting into open conflict. This essay examines how part of that mechanism failed. How were the demands of orthodoxy and diversity balanced in a complex and pluralistic society? How were disagreements between neighbors settled, conflicts over religion deflected, and all sorts of political and ideological difficulties prevented from getting out of hand? The simple answer, which obtained until late in the 163os, was by not demanding too much or pressing too hard. Then as now, society worked best under principles of moderation, and foundered when zealots or true believers insisted on exercising their power. Keith Thomas's observation that "the amount of compromise, accommodation, and complaisance required to make any human society run smoothly has always placed a heavy strain on those who believe it is necessary to follow an upright course" applies as much to the Laudian episcopate of the 163os as to its Puritan opposition.2
David Cressy examines the battle to control the meaning and memory of the English revolution. Two... more David Cressy examines the battle to control the meaning and memory of the English revolution. Two principal stories emerged, one of the imperilment of the Reformation under a malignant and ill-advised regime, and of the providential resumption of reform after 1640 that was tested by the extremes of civil war; the other claimed that England was overwhelmed by unexpected catastrophe. “Remembrancing”could not stop the war, but history assigned blame and helped to explain the origins of the conflict; more broadly, it gave the past a shape and meaning that enabled contemporaries to make sense of the disturbances and distempers of their age. The circulation of speeches, petitions, 63. This is the argument of David Cressy,“Revolutionary England 1640–1642,”Past and Present, no. 181 (November 2003): 35–71, further developed in England on Edge. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.32 on Mon, 10 Oct 2016 04:26:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Il s'agit là d'une histoire sur les histoires, sur les témoignages divers et les fragment... more Il s'agit là d'une histoire sur les histoires, sur les témoignages divers et les fragments d'informations qui gravitent autour de la narration d'un récit historique. Elle commence par une plongée dans la culture villageoise de l'Angleterre élisabéthaine, emprunte les voies sinueuses de la gynécologie, des pratiques de sages-femmes, de la justice ecclésiastique, fait un détour par la littérature éphémère des pamphlets et s'achève dans les dossiers des membres du Conseil privé de la reine. En chemin, elle soulève de multiples interrogations sur la vérité et les preuves, la crédulité et la crédibilité, l'authenticité et la vérification, ainsi que sur le caractère insaisissable du récit historique. C'est une histoire qui rapproche les préoccupations des notables locaux et celles du pouvoir central, celles des magistrats laïcs et ecclésiastiques, celles des hommes et des femmes ; c'est également un défi pour l'historien qui doit faire preuve d'...
This article explores the social, legal, and administrative response in Tudor and early Stuart En... more This article explores the social, legal, and administrative response in Tudor and early Stuart England to people known in law as ‘Egyptians’ or ‘counterfeit Egyptians’ but commonly called ‘Gypsies’. It argues that such people differed from ordinary poor vagrants in their heritage, their language, and such activities as horse dealing and fortune-telling. Elizabethan and Jacobean publications placed Gypsies on the fringes of fecklessness, criminality, and the picaresque, and established a stereotype of deceit and imposture that has not yet disappeared. Acts of Parliament in 1531, 1554, and 1563 criminalized ‘Egyptians’, forbidding their entry, ordering their expulsion, and eventually making them liable to the death penalty. Enforcement, however, was haphazard, and repression co-existed uneasily with growing registers of tolerance. This is a neglected topic in early modern social history, with links to international and interdisciplinary Romani studies as well as work on itinerancy, et...
... Over-optimistic characterizations like those of Vincent and Jordan clearly misread the situat... more ... Over-optimistic characterizations like those of Vincent and Jordan clearly misread the situation, but even the careful discussions of Simon and ... John Brinsley in the Jacobean period and Christopher Wase after the Restoration both encouraged children to become educated to the ...
... York: Academic Press, 1971). 5r4 Page 5. VAST AND FURIOUS OCEAN5 great migration of the 163os... more ... York: Academic Press, 1971). 5r4 Page 5. VAST AND FURIOUS OCEAN5 great migration of the 163os only professional travelers, mer-chants and mariners, experienced blue-water sailing. Although they were islanders, all ...
Charles I's Star Chamber prosecution of the lawyer William Prynne, the minister Henry Burton,... more Charles I's Star Chamber prosecution of the lawyer William Prynne, the minister Henry Burton, and the physician John Bastwick generated both contemporary and historiographical controversy, mostly concerned with their writings, their trial, and their punishment in London. This article turns attention to their unusual offshore incarceration on the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Scillies between 1637 and 1640. It examines the material, social, and spiritual circumstances of island detention, and shows how the “puritan martyrs”1 coped with separation from the world. Though the discourse of martyrdom invited a compilation of miseries, invoking scriptural comparisons, this triumvirate experienced isolation that did not necessarily incapacitate them. Prynne savored the hospitality of his jailers, Burton smuggled out polemical tracts, and all three found inspiration in the book of Revelation, written by St. John while a prisoner on the island of Patmos. Each returned to the fray i...
Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea is a work of social history examining community relationship... more Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea is a work of social history examining community relationships, law, and seafaring over the long early modern period. It explores the politics of the coastline, the economy of scavenging, and the law of ‘wreck of the sea’ from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I to the end of the reign of George II. England’s coastlines were heavily trafficked by naval and commercial shipping, but an unfortunate percentage was cast away or lost. Eighteen of England’s historical counties and eight more in Wales had coastlines where sailing ships came to grief. Wrecks were disasters for merchants and mariners, but opportunities for shore-dwellers. As the proverb said, it was an ill wind that blew nobody any good. Lords of manors, local officials, officers of the Admiralty, and coastal commoners competed for maritime cargoes and the windfall of wreckage, which they regarded as providential godsends or entitlements by right. A varied haul of commodities, wines, ...
This essay explores the contested reputation of Charles, comparing the judgments of contemporarie... more This essay explores the contested reputation of Charles, comparing the judgments of contemporaries and posterity. Whereas apologists considered Charles the best of all monarchs, some historians have declared him unfit to govern. Far from being anachronistic, as hyper-Revisionists have protested, this view echoes extreme expressions of dissatisfaction from the 1620s to the 1640s. David Cressy reviews contemporary understandings of the business of kingship, whereby a monarch could be judged. He concludes that Charles I was largely responsible for his troubles.
This article treats book burning and censorship in England between the 1520s and the 1640s as par... more This article treats book burning and censorship in England between the 1520s and the 1640s as part of the communications repertoire of the early modern state. Combating heresy, blasphemy, and sedition, Tudor and Stuart authorities subjected transgressive works to symbolic execution at key sites in London and the universities.The addition of the hangman to the ceremony in the 1630s reinforced the authority of the state over texts. But the ritual was not always performed according to the script. Through gesture, voice, and narrative, actors and spectators sometimes subverted the ceremony, imposing a contrary meaning on its message. Even as an exercise of power, book burning was unstable and ambivalent and was ultimately counterproductive.
E . ngland in 1641, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I, was a country in crisis, bes... more E . ngland in 1641, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I, was a country in crisis, beset by fears and dangers. Correspondents wrote uneasily of the "divisions and distractions" afflicting their "disjointed and distempered kingdom."' Both public and private utterances of the time evince an accumulation of menace, a loss of civility, a fracturing of community, an ungluing of the elements as the country teetered on the edge of confusion. But the gloom was illuminated by hope that the balance of order might again be restored if people of good will came together. Even as opposing armies gathered in August 1642 there were reasons to believe that civil war might be averted, as crises had been resolved and difficulties smoothed before. English culture provided a self-regulating mechanism of consensus that normally prevented crises from erupting into open conflict. This essay examines how part of that mechanism failed. How were the demands of orthodoxy and diversity balanced in a complex and pluralistic society? How were disagreements between neighbors settled, conflicts over religion deflected, and all sorts of political and ideological difficulties prevented from getting out of hand? The simple answer, which obtained until late in the 163os, was by not demanding too much or pressing too hard. Then as now, society worked best under principles of moderation, and foundered when zealots or true believers insisted on exercising their power. Keith Thomas's observation that "the amount of compromise, accommodation, and complaisance required to make any human society run smoothly has always placed a heavy strain on those who believe it is necessary to follow an upright course" applies as much to the Laudian episcopate of the 163os as to its Puritan opposition.2
David Cressy examines the battle to control the meaning and memory of the English revolution. Two... more David Cressy examines the battle to control the meaning and memory of the English revolution. Two principal stories emerged, one of the imperilment of the Reformation under a malignant and ill-advised regime, and of the providential resumption of reform after 1640 that was tested by the extremes of civil war; the other claimed that England was overwhelmed by unexpected catastrophe. “Remembrancing”could not stop the war, but history assigned blame and helped to explain the origins of the conflict; more broadly, it gave the past a shape and meaning that enabled contemporaries to make sense of the disturbances and distempers of their age. The circulation of speeches, petitions, 63. This is the argument of David Cressy,“Revolutionary England 1640–1642,”Past and Present, no. 181 (November 2003): 35–71, further developed in England on Edge. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.32 on Mon, 10 Oct 2016 04:26:46 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Il s'agit là d'une histoire sur les histoires, sur les témoignages divers et les fragment... more Il s'agit là d'une histoire sur les histoires, sur les témoignages divers et les fragments d'informations qui gravitent autour de la narration d'un récit historique. Elle commence par une plongée dans la culture villageoise de l'Angleterre élisabéthaine, emprunte les voies sinueuses de la gynécologie, des pratiques de sages-femmes, de la justice ecclésiastique, fait un détour par la littérature éphémère des pamphlets et s'achève dans les dossiers des membres du Conseil privé de la reine. En chemin, elle soulève de multiples interrogations sur la vérité et les preuves, la crédulité et la crédibilité, l'authenticité et la vérification, ainsi que sur le caractère insaisissable du récit historique. C'est une histoire qui rapproche les préoccupations des notables locaux et celles du pouvoir central, celles des magistrats laïcs et ecclésiastiques, celles des hommes et des femmes ; c'est également un défi pour l'historien qui doit faire preuve d'...
This article explores the social, legal, and administrative response in Tudor and early Stuart En... more This article explores the social, legal, and administrative response in Tudor and early Stuart England to people known in law as ‘Egyptians’ or ‘counterfeit Egyptians’ but commonly called ‘Gypsies’. It argues that such people differed from ordinary poor vagrants in their heritage, their language, and such activities as horse dealing and fortune-telling. Elizabethan and Jacobean publications placed Gypsies on the fringes of fecklessness, criminality, and the picaresque, and established a stereotype of deceit and imposture that has not yet disappeared. Acts of Parliament in 1531, 1554, and 1563 criminalized ‘Egyptians’, forbidding their entry, ordering their expulsion, and eventually making them liable to the death penalty. Enforcement, however, was haphazard, and repression co-existed uneasily with growing registers of tolerance. This is a neglected topic in early modern social history, with links to international and interdisciplinary Romani studies as well as work on itinerancy, et...
... Over-optimistic characterizations like those of Vincent and Jordan clearly misread the situat... more ... Over-optimistic characterizations like those of Vincent and Jordan clearly misread the situation, but even the careful discussions of Simon and ... John Brinsley in the Jacobean period and Christopher Wase after the Restoration both encouraged children to become educated to the ...
... York: Academic Press, 1971). 5r4 Page 5. VAST AND FURIOUS OCEAN5 great migration of the 163os... more ... York: Academic Press, 1971). 5r4 Page 5. VAST AND FURIOUS OCEAN5 great migration of the 163os only professional travelers, mer-chants and mariners, experienced blue-water sailing. Although they were islanders, all ...
Charles I's Star Chamber prosecution of the lawyer William Prynne, the minister Henry Burton,... more Charles I's Star Chamber prosecution of the lawyer William Prynne, the minister Henry Burton, and the physician John Bastwick generated both contemporary and historiographical controversy, mostly concerned with their writings, their trial, and their punishment in London. This article turns attention to their unusual offshore incarceration on the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Scillies between 1637 and 1640. It examines the material, social, and spiritual circumstances of island detention, and shows how the “puritan martyrs”1 coped with separation from the world. Though the discourse of martyrdom invited a compilation of miseries, invoking scriptural comparisons, this triumvirate experienced isolation that did not necessarily incapacitate them. Prynne savored the hospitality of his jailers, Burton smuggled out polemical tracts, and all three found inspiration in the book of Revelation, written by St. John while a prisoner on the island of Patmos. Each returned to the fray i...
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