This thesis is an attempt to evaluate the evidence for and against the presence of a hero in King John. As such, it is actually a search into the artistic abilities which Shakespeare exercised in this drama to determine whether he created a dramatic work of art which merits recognition for its own sake.

BACKGROUND - Bipolar disorder has been postulated as an explanation for King John's inconsistencies of leadership and vagaries of character. Changes in activity, matching those in mood, are core features of the condition. METHOD - A measure of King John's activity was derived from his travelling itinerary. Change Point Analysis (CPA) was used to detect significant changes in that travelling activity and from them, to identify clinically compliant, high and low, activity time periods. The results were tested against an alternative mathematical model (Bollinger Bands™), three alternative parameters and two comparator itineraries (familial & non-familial). Using primary historical sources and published analyses, bipolar symptoms were identified and their temporal relationship to the ICD-10 compliant CPA periods evaluated. The influence of circumstances was also evaluated using primary sources and a representative sequential sample (1200-1204). RESULTS - CPA identified 83 periods of changed travelling activity. These changes were mathematically independent of the availability of the historical sources that underpin the itinerary. From these, 37 high and 22 low periods complied with current diagnostic guidelines and demonstrated descriptive and statistical similarities to those found in the bipolar literature. Analyses using alternative mathematical modelling and different parameters showed similar changes; analyses of comparator itineraries showed a possible familial trait. Of the 17 bipolar symptoms identified, all were found in CPA periods of appropriate polarity. Of the 23 sequential periods, 10 showed evidence of behaviour that was difficult to attribute to circumstances. CONCLUSIONS & OUTCOMES - The pattern of changes in King John's activity are highly suggestive of bipolar disorder with primary historical sources describing synchronous bipolar behaviour. This may alter our understanding both of King John and of Magna Carta. Change Point Analysis merits greater consideration when analysing time based data, as does the use of activity as an objective marker of human behaviour.

The allegorical representations of authority that reveal themselves in Shakespeare’s work mirror the political landscape of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. As the audience witnesses these reflections they inherently use them to craft an interpretation of the contemporary political and social world. Yet, Shakespeare’s allegorical representations do not simply reflect the political landscape; instead these representations reflect a distortion of reality crafted by Shakespeare. These distortions demonstrate the ability of performance to play a role in the historiographic process, and they illuminate the role of the artist in the shaping of history and memory.

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The Protestant community is articulated through liturgy, history, and drama. Liturgy teaches communal bonds and scripts their enactment, while narrative and dramatic depictions of the collective past appeal to the imagination of readers and viewers. Liturgy and literature are joined by the participation they invite, which engages parishioners, readers, and audiences with questions of affiliation and collectivity. Lack of attention to the ways Renaissance texts pondered over and produced bonds of commonality has sidetracked us from the communal nature of the period. We need to reevaluate such bonds to better understand how English culture imagined relationships between individual and community, and between people and institutions---including church and theatre. When orthodox writing is treated as doctrine and praxis, and not as a means for political indoctrination, we gain a different understanding of the potential for human relationships, one more generous and reciprocal than the model of coercion that has dominated literary studies. Such reciprocity is found in Church of England liturgy, and in the imaginative space of Foxe's Acts and Monuments, which seeks to forge the Protestant community through an ethics of reading. Imaginative space was also a public space, and Shakespeare's King John and Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris reflect upon religious affiliation in moments of war and atrocity; both plays represent very tangled lines of identification that do not endorse Catholic-Protestant factions but undo them. Religious writing and public theatre explored the precarious balance between community and individual, offering readers and audiences a vehicle for thinking about their own immediate lives and their sense of belonging.

Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (1173-1140) has long been considered one of the leading heroes of Wales. The life and rule of Llywelyn, known as Llywelyn the Great, is explored in detail in this thesis. The grandson of Owain Gwynedd, ruler of North Wales from 1137-1170, Llywelyn grew up during the period of turmoil following Owain’s death. After wresting control of Gwynedd from his rival family members in the latter decade of the 12th century, he proceeded to gain recognition as the foremost representative of Wales on the political stage. Although viewed as a legendary hero in Welsh history, poetry and culture, Llywelyn's route to power is more complex than that. The thesis explores the development of the man from rebel and warlord, to leader and spokesman, to statesman, traces the expansion of his hegemony throughout Wales, and discusses the methods he used to gain and maintain power. Particular attention is paid to his use of family, marriage, allies, rivals and the church to achieve his goals. These insights can be derived from the surviving charters, letters, and other acta of Llywelyn and the Royal Chancery of England, the titles accorded therein, Welsh and English chronicles, as well as, occasionally, Venedotian Poetry. Finally, this thesis seeks to address the limitations on Llywelyn’s successes, in light of succeeding events and concludes with a discussion of Llywelyn’s legendary status in the modern world.