This thesis seeks to examine where and how privateers fit into the composition and development of the Royal Navy, beginning with the outbreak of the Spanish War in 1585 and ending with the beginning of the English civil wars in 1642. A chapter each will be dedicated to Elizabeth I, James VI and I, and Charles I and these will examine the role and use of privateers and compare this against the changes taking place in the Royal Navy at the time. Elizabeth I utilized an effective mix of private and public interests in her Royal Navy, which saw a return under Charles, although it was not fully realized until Parliament took control of the fleets in 1642. In the interim, James I's decision to outlaw privateering, and his reliance on the advice of his unqualified and inexperienced gentleman favourites led to the Royal Navy becoming a highly corrupted and inert force. The potential that James had inherited from Elizabeth in regards to English seapower was unrealized as naval officials motivated by personal avarice both literally and figuratively stripped the Royal Fleet of its power. Charles, with his understanding of the importance of skilled seamen to the English Navy, took the steps needed to reverse this decline albeit through dubious and unconventional means. During the Caroline era privateers again rose to prominence, and their exploits aided in the redevelopment of the navy as an effective arm of government. However, the time of Charles's rule was different than those of both Elizabeth and James, and the King's attempts to return of the Royal Navy to its former power failed to take into account the demands of a population whose cries for a navy to protect shipping went unheeded. These demands would not be fully realized until Parliament took control of the navy, but the foundation for the immensely successful and remarkably powerful Royal Navy of Horatio Nelson was laid in the early modern period under the rule of such monarchs as Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles I.

Les pouvoirs laïques et cléricaux dans la France du Bas Moyen Âge ont eu recours à tout un arsenal dans l'objectif de modeler une société encadrée, au sein de laquelle les individus détenaient une place assignée ne devant être transgressée. Le respect de ce cadre social et de l'ordre fut garanti entre autres par des marqueurs visuels importants, révélant les traits identitaires, tels le sexe, le statut social et l'appartenance à un groupe. Afin d'assurer le fonctionnement de cette société d'ordre, les autorités ont notamment eu recours aux discours sur l'habit afin d'imposer un cadre vestimentaire au moyen de lois ou par la diffusion d'un message moraliste chrétien. L'importance des discours tenus sur le costume, qui dans les derniers siècles du Moyen Âge constituait le marqueur visuel par excellence, soulève une question: le vêtement pouvait-il être considéré à l'époque comme un outil d'encadrement et de reproduction sociale? L'étude des discours laïques et cléricaux sur les vêtements révèle que les pouvoirs mirent de l'avant une discussion sur des aspects particuliers de l'habit, selon leurs préoccupations respectives. Bien que le message de l'Église et de la royauté diffère, leurs discours illustrent qu'à l'époque, l'habit était un marqueur identitaire puissant qu'il fallait contrôler. Cette recherche contribue à enrichir le domaine de l'anthropologie du vêtement et des mentalités médiévales en faisant la lumière sur le rôle de l'apparence dans la construction d'une société idéale imaginée par les pouvoirs de l'époque.

This thesis examines the Somerset Case of 1772 and considers it within its immediate social, political, and legal landscape. Legal and political reform and imperial debate ensured that the case would be important for the understanding of core English ideals such as property, slavery, liberty, humanity and natural rights. These issues coalesced in 1772 and provided the background against which Lord Mansfield reached his famous decision. Instead of contributing to the ongoing economic versus humanitarian debate in recent scholarship, this thesis seeks to uncover the genesis of these humanitarian sentiments, and show how humanist arguments became useful and important in late-eighteenth century legal and abolitionist thought. Popular political agitation, the proliferation of pamphlets, the circulation of ideas concerning the rights of man, and legal reformist argument throughout England and Scotland influenced the case and Mansfield's final decision. By considering the Somerset decision within its immediate social, political, and legal landscape, it is unmistakable that the case was a harbinger that abolition was to come in England.

In 1429, the seven-year-old Henry VI was crowned king of England. He was crowned king of France in Paris in December 1431, a few days after his tenth birthday. Part procession, part spectacle, the civic-organized royal entries accompanying these events began with the greeting of the king by the city's officials outside the gates. The king was then led through the city, stopping to view pageants---often described by contemporaries as "mysteries"---along the procession route. The only king to be crowned in England and France, Henry VI was also the only ruler to make royal entries as king into both London and Paris. This study examines both entries, considering the events themselves as well as the documents describing them. It asks, what was the function of the event of the fifteenth-century royal entry in Paris and London, as well as of the documents describing these events? It considers royal entries on both sides of the Channel from the perspectives of both history and literature, combining an examination of these entries and their manuscripts for the first time. These descriptions were produced by fifteenth-century writers for a fifteenth-century audience, and were as much a part of the royal entry as was the procession through the city. This study argues that civic officials used both the format of the royal entry itself and the written descriptions of entries to promote their city's interests. Both London and Paris royal entry organizers used the event as a form of negotiation with the visiting king, an opportunity to express the city's expectations to the ruler. Although the themes and routes of successive entries could appear similar, the speeches and signs explaining individual pageants expressed very different sentiments. In London, civic officials used the documents describing entries to elevate their city, creating pro-London descriptions that were circulated in London-centric manuscripts. They deliberately used royal entry descriptions to promote their city.

This thesis began as an attempt to understand why the war in Bosnia was allowed to unfold in the fashion it did. Why in spite of the widespread reports of genocide and ethnic cleansing (carried out in this bloody war) did we in the West stand by and do nothing? My initial questions with respect to this revolved around whether or not we had forgotten the lessons learned from the Second World War or had we--Western society--simply become void of all sense of morality? Did we not care about what was going on in Bosnia because of the apparent lack of an immediate impact this would have on our lives? While not denying the validity of the last two points (as will be shown later in this thesis) the answers to my initial questions would prove to be much more complex and evolve the scope of this project tremendously. Guided by the principles developed by Kenneth Waltz in his book Theory of International Politics an attempt at answering these questions is provided. This thesis is an effort to illustrate that it is not merely coincidence that the war in Bosnia unfolded on the heels of the unraveling of the Soviet Empire. Rather, by using the war in Bosnia as a case in point, this thesis is an attempt to illustrate that events such as the conflict in Bosnia are consequences of the breakdown of the bipolar confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Furthermore, it is also an attempt to point out that events such as Bosnia can be expected more frequently unless the leadership (in the international system) the bipolar structure demanded is restored.

This thesis focuses on the notes, journals, and final published Narrative of Sir John Franklin's troubled First Arctic Land Expedition (1819-1822). Working from a Heideggerian perspective, this study critiques new historicist approaches to the expedition and suggests new ways of interpreting the various expedition texts. In particular, this study concentrates on the issues of textuality and language which are highlighted by the explorers' meticulous records of the expedition's failure. Ultimately, it is proposed that this failure was due more to the wilfulness of the English explorers than it was to the virulent Eurocentrism of the era. The study then moves on to broader issues of land and landscape, working from both the expedition texts and various contemporary Arctic texts. The study concludes by emphasizing the essential connection between language and land in the landscape of a historical people.

This thesis compares Serbian and Croatian ethnic nationalist movements and ideas from 1985-1996, arguing that irrespective of the many self induced differences between these two nations, the way in which each understands their own group in relation to outsiders and enemies is remarkably similar. This thesis also examines the influence and importance of biblical and Zionist notions of self and other, time in history, good and evil, and conceptualisations concerning the end of history, comparing them to Serbian and Croatian views of self identity, history, other nations and states, and world events. Important here is a qualitative discourse analysis of primary source material from the Yugoslav civil war (1991-1996) originating from Serbia and Croatia. The author of this thesis will posit that Serbian and Croatian nationalist movements have sought to legitimate the often violent acts of statecraft by creating a national conception of the self which borrows literal, metaphorical and mythic elements from very traditional and mainstream sources, namely biblical or Christian and Zionist conceptions of fall and deliverance. This thesis reviews the nature of these original conceptions of group self identity, then compares these to Serbian and Croatian myths of the righteous nation in history. These myths include a series of mythic types: myths of the original and heroic nation, myths of the Fall (persecution myths), myths of renaissance or awakening, and myths of deliverance and redemption. These myth types are organised into a four stage model based on a structure borrowed from biblical cyclical teleology. These borrowed mythic elements form the core of modern Serbian and Croatian national identity, contributing to a type of attribution theorising where the self can do no wrong, and all others can do no good.

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