Manchester University Press
8 The succession in sermons, news and rumour
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Arnold Hunt
Abstract
This chapter discusses the handling of succession by late Elizabethan preachers, contrasting the directness of Dean Nowell’s sermon at the opening of the 1563 Parliament with the obliqueness of those delivered in the long 1590s. Even so, it is argued that succession formed a significant undercurrent of late Elizabethan preaching, news- and rumour-mongering, and that occasionally clergymen got rapped over the knuckles for overstepping the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable. This was the case of Bishop of St David’s Anthony Rudd who, preaching at Whitehall during Lent 1596, cut too close to the bone in reminding the Queen of her advanced age which dictated that she look to the future of her country.
Abstract
This chapter discusses the handling of succession by late Elizabethan preachers, contrasting the directness of Dean Nowell’s sermon at the opening of the 1563 Parliament with the obliqueness of those delivered in the long 1590s. Even so, it is argued that succession formed a significant undercurrent of late Elizabethan preaching, news- and rumour-mongering, and that occasionally clergymen got rapped over the knuckles for overstepping the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable. This was the case of Bishop of St David’s Anthony Rudd who, preaching at Whitehall during Lent 1596, cut too close to the bone in reminding the Queen of her advanced age which dictated that she look to the future of her country.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I v
- Dedication vi
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations and conventions xiii
- Genealogical charts xiv
-
Part I Contexts and approaches
- 1 Introduction 3
- 2 The earlier Elizabethan succession question revisited 20
-
Part II Religion and politics
- 3 The Puritan, the Jesuit and the Jacobean succession 47
- 4 Taking it to the street? 71
- 5 Bishop Richard Bancroft and the succession 92
-
Part III The court
- 6 Essex and the ‘popish plot’ 115
- 7 The Scottish King and the English court 134
-
Part IV Imaginative writings and the wider public world
- 8 The succession in sermons, news and rumour 155
- 9 Hamlet and succession 173
- 10 The poetics of succession, 1587–1605 192
-
Part V Britain and beyond
- 11 Polemic and prejudice 215
- 12 Brinkmanship and bad luck 236
- 13 A view from abroad 257
- 14 States, monarchs and dynastic transitions 276
- Afterword 295
- Select bibliography 304
- Index 314
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I v
- Dedication vi
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations and conventions xiii
- Genealogical charts xiv
-
Part I Contexts and approaches
- 1 Introduction 3
- 2 The earlier Elizabethan succession question revisited 20
-
Part II Religion and politics
- 3 The Puritan, the Jesuit and the Jacobean succession 47
- 4 Taking it to the street? 71
- 5 Bishop Richard Bancroft and the succession 92
-
Part III The court
- 6 Essex and the ‘popish plot’ 115
- 7 The Scottish King and the English court 134
-
Part IV Imaginative writings and the wider public world
- 8 The succession in sermons, news and rumour 155
- 9 Hamlet and succession 173
- 10 The poetics of succession, 1587–1605 192
-
Part V Britain and beyond
- 11 Polemic and prejudice 215
- 12 Brinkmanship and bad luck 236
- 13 A view from abroad 257
- 14 States, monarchs and dynastic transitions 276
- Afterword 295
- Select bibliography 304
- Index 314
