Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Riot, Sodomy, and Minions: The Ambiguous Discourse of Sexual Transgression
- 2 From Goats to Ganymedes: The Development of Edward II’s Sexual Reputation
- 3 Edward II and Piers Gaveston: Brothers, Friends, Lovers
- 4 ‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’: Edward II’s Agency and Culpability
- 5 Edward II as Political Exemplum
- 6 ‘No escape now from a life full of suffering’: Edward II’s Sensational Fall
- 7 Beyond Sexual Mimesis: The Penetrative Murder of Edward II
- Conclusion: The Literary Transformation of History
- Appendix: Accounts of and allusions to Edward II’s reign, composed 1305–1697
- Index
5 - Edward II as Political Exemplum
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Riot, Sodomy, and Minions: The Ambiguous Discourse of Sexual Transgression
- 2 From Goats to Ganymedes: The Development of Edward II’s Sexual Reputation
- 3 Edward II and Piers Gaveston: Brothers, Friends, Lovers
- 4 ‘Is it not strange that he is thus bewitch’d?’: Edward II’s Agency and Culpability
- 5 Edward II as Political Exemplum
- 6 ‘No escape now from a life full of suffering’: Edward II’s Sensational Fall
- 7 Beyond Sexual Mimesis: The Penetrative Murder of Edward II
- Conclusion: The Literary Transformation of History
- Appendix: Accounts of and allusions to Edward II’s reign, composed 1305–1697
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter discusses the continuing political relevance of Edward II's narrative during the late sixteenth and seventeenth century in England and France. As the first English King to have been deposed, and a paradigmatic example of the dangers of overmighty favourites, Edward was a compelling precedent for writers across the political spectrum. Analysis of the ways in which writers deployed his example provides a valuable case study for investigating how historical examples functioned in early modern political discourse, and reveals the hermeneutic agency of political writers in the process of ‘using’ history, when examples such as Edward's deposition could be interpreted as supporting either side of a political debate.
Keywords: Charles I, Elizabeth I, Henri III, James I, James II, James VI, use of history
Introduction
Unlike the chronicles discussed in the previous chapter, not all negotiations of the political relevance of Edward II's story were polyvocal. On the contrary, some were deliberately, polemically monovocal. Edward II's reign represented a seminal English precedent for the deposition and execution of a monarch (as Edward's death was widely perceived by the sixteenth century); and it also provided a parallel for the ‘age of overmighty favourites’ in which (as J.H. Elliott has argued) the people of early modern England believed they lived. As a result, Edward's story was frequently used as an analogue for contemporary events, and was deployed to support various (often contradictory) political positions in early modern England and France. These political allusions do not only provide important insight into the development of Edward's historiographical reputation: they are also a valuable resource for investigating the ways in which historical examples functioned in early modern political discourse.
This chapter relies substantially for its theoretical background on Curtis Perry's excellent introduction to the early modern discourse of favouritism, and its ‘cumulative’ construction, in his 2006 book Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England. Perry argues that this discourse has many stock elements independent of historical facts:
there is more to the discourse of favouritism than just a series of isolated court contexts: the kinds of invective levelled against successive favourites are so consistent as to hint at habits of political imagination that extend beyond the context of any single career.
- Type
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- Information
- Reputation of Edward II, 1305–1697A Literary Transformation of History, pp. 177 - 214Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020