Manchester University Press
11 Polemic and prejudice
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Susan Doran
Abstract
Two major obstacles stood in the way of James’s VI’s claim to the English succession claim: prejudices surrounding his Scottish birth; and the general perception of him in England as untrustworthy. Using a wide range of literary and polemical texts, as well as some state papers, this chapter explores these drawbacks in turn, and analyses James’s strategies for overcoming them. The chapter argues that the discussions about James’s national identity had repercussions on the sense of nationhood developing in England during this period. It also reveals how the arguments about the nature of ‘Britishness’ in the 1590s came to be a dress-rehearsal for the union debates of the early Jacobean period.
Abstract
Two major obstacles stood in the way of James’s VI’s claim to the English succession claim: prejudices surrounding his Scottish birth; and the general perception of him in England as untrustworthy. Using a wide range of literary and polemical texts, as well as some state papers, this chapter explores these drawbacks in turn, and analyses James’s strategies for overcoming them. The chapter argues that the discussions about James’s national identity had repercussions on the sense of nationhood developing in England during this period. It also reveals how the arguments about the nature of ‘Britishness’ in the 1590s came to be a dress-rehearsal for the union debates of the early Jacobean period.
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
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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
