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This thesis is a study of radical manhood during the English Revolution. It examines different forms of radicalism, including that of soldiers, Levellers, Diggers, Quakers, and Ranters. By examining a plurality of radical sectaries, it acknowledges that, just as there was no one way to be a man in the seventeenth-century, there was no one way to be a radical man. Studying a variety of groups has the added benefit of allowing the thesis to explore radicalism across the period, including the Army Revolt of 1647-49 and Leveller activism in the mid-1640s, through to the spread of the Quaker Movement during the Interregnum. This enables the study of different types of radicalism; from the more formalist radicals who had a defined programme for change, such as the Levellers and the Diggers, to the more individualistic, ecstatic ministries of the Ranters and the Quakers. The thesis makes the case that all of the radical manhoods under discussion are varying forms of alternative manhood, which existed outside of, or in tension with, patriarchal manhood. These manhoods are designated alternative manhoods because they either did not relate to, or had a complicated relationship with, the household. Typical studies of manhood during the early modern period have focused on household patriarchy as the centre of male power and male identity formation; conversely, this thesis discusses alternative manhoods that were not centred on the household. The thesis’s central argument is that independence was a defining feature of manly identities. It has already been demonstrated by historians of manhood that economic independence was an important feature of early modern patriarchal manhood. This thesis argues that, in cases where economic independence was unattainable, independence remained a desirable state. Independence did not have to be economic independence, it could imply agency over actions, or the absence of a relationship of dependence on clerical authorities. Further, the focus on independence allows the thesis to study manhood in areas outside the household, such as politics, the army, and the church. Overall, discussing manhood from the perspective of independence makes it possible to discuss alternative ways that men could achieve full manhood that were unrelated to domestic patriarchy.

This thesis draws upon evidence from over twenty archives in the UK and US. It uses the context of Liverpool, arguably the ‘second city of empire’ because of its extensive social, economic, and political networks overseas, to enhance knowledge of British imperialism during the American Revolutionary era (1763-1783).Part One analyses the ‘gentlemanly capitalist’ paradigm of P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins. In brief, this theory argues that the landed elite and financial-commercial services, concentrated upon the City of London, held sway over British imperial policy-making. This was chiefly because these interests were regarded as being ‘gentlemanly’, or socially acceptable, to the landed elite. In contrast, northern manufacturers were less influential in the imperial decision-making process. By working longer hours and being associated with labour unrest, industrialists were not perceived as being sufficiently gentlemanly by the ruling order. My dissertation tests this theory within the context of the late-eighteenth century. This is an original contribution to knowledge because most, although not all, studies of Cain and Hopkins focus upon later periods. Hanoverian Liverpool is an ideal test case because the town had a mixed economy. It contained a manufacturing base, served a wider industrial hinterland, and, because Liverpool was linked to the Atlantic empire, spawned a mercantile service sector community with interests in commerce and finance. This thesis generally supports Cain and Hopkins, but with some modifications. One of these is to view the late-eighteenth century as a period of emerging gentlemanly capitalism, referred to here as ‘proto-gentlemanly capitalism’. The fact that Liverpool merchants and the local landed elite were not yet fully socially integrated, is one of several reasons why the town lacked success in influencing imperial policy-making between 1763 and 1783.Warfare was synonymous with the Hanoverian empire. Therefore, Part Two expands our knowledge of the empire at home, or how the American War (1775-1783) impacted upon Liverpool economically, socially, and culturally. Previous histories of the economic impact of this conflict upon Liverpool concentrated upon overseas trade, and therefore stressed its negative consequences. However, this thesis looks at both overseas trade and domestic business. It paints a more nuanced picture, and, by using Liverpool as a case study, shows that the impact of warfare upon the UK economy produced mixed results. Finally, this thesis considers the socio-cultural impact of the war upon Liverpool. In the process, it demonstrates that military conflict affected both the northern and southern regions of Britain during the eighteenth century. Militarisation of the local community prompted discussions regarding the boundaries of national and local government. The War of Independence split opinion, thereby revealing divergent trends within British imperial ideology. Finally, on balance, the American War cultivated a ‘British’ national identity in the town (although there were still other identities present).

In 1889, the Edinburgh-based natural scientist Patrick Geddes predicted a future in which a ‘more than earthly paradise of love’, known previously only to poets and their muses, would be realized. Similar intimations of an imminent utopia of transformed sexual relations were being felt and articulated by other young, progressive men and women in cities across Britain, intent on eradicating what they perceived to be the hypocritical sexual and social conventions of their parents. Within the current historiography, the primary setting for this late-Victorian generational revolt is often considered to be London. This thesis shifts the focus to Scotland, exploring the progressive challenge to Victorian sexual attitudes and behaviour in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It looks in detail at two married couples, Bella and Charles Pearce, and Patrick and Anna Geddes. Both were broadly-speaking feminists and socialists, committed in differing ways to heralding in a new age of egalitarian, altruistic and fraternal relations between the sexes. Both were also responsible for some of the period’s key texts on the Woman Question and the Sex Question, Bella Pearce the editor of ‘Matrons and Maidens’, the first feminist column in a socialist newspaper, and Patrick Geddes the author of 'The Evolution of Sex', a popular science book on the cause of sexual differentiation. Utilizing the methodologies of gender history and the history of sexuality, this thesis analyzes the exact nature of their sexual and gendered discourse, situating it precisely within the wider discursive field of fin de siècle feminist, socialist, scientific, medical, sociological and religious thought. However, it also aims to reflect thoughtfully on the relationship between the couples’ discourse and their subjectivity, examining the ways in which their intimate and social lives affected their ideas about sex. Overall, the thesis argues that whilst in some aspects the sexual and gendered attitudes and behaviour of late-Victorian Scottish sexual progressives were similar to those of feminists and socialists elsewhere in Britain, in other important ways they were different and distinctive. An understanding of them is therefore vital to a full appreciation of the complexities of British progressivism during this period.

This thesis employs a gendered reading of contemporary accounts in order to explore how men’s expert performances in tournaments enabled them to achieve high status manhood during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century when England witnessed a resurgence of chivalry. In applying medieval concepts of masculinity to ideals of both kingship and nobility in the early modern period, it argues for continuity across a period of history that has often been treated as two distinct stages. The aim is to shed light on how tournaments were a fundamental aspect of Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII’s kingship and masculinity, but also on other nobles and gentry men at these courts who also took this martial display seriously. By examining how men’s performances in the joust were used as a means to evaluate their suitability for royal matches, service in warfare and attendance in the privy chamber, I uncover how those few men who dominated the tiltyard were able to achieve an unrivalled masculine status and close friendship with Edward IV and Henry VIII. The emphasis on a chivalrous version of masculinity as a prevalent model for men of high status during the late medieval and early modern period has brought to the forefront of this study a new group of courtiers, who have largely been missing from the historiography.

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This thesis studies the origin and role of wealth in the Viking Age (late 8th to 11th century) and Late Norse (11th to 15th century) earldoms of Orkney and Caithness, northern Scotland. It has four aims. Firstly, it attempts to elucidate the key sources of wealth in the earldoms and, more specifically, the possible economic role of fish trade. Secondly, it investigates how control of these sources of wealth may have been distributed within Viking Age and Late Norse society. Thirdly, it attempts to isolate chronological trends in the utilisation of different sources of wealth and the social relations surrounding them. Finally, it was hypothesised that a consideration of these issues might illuminate the character and causes of the transition of Orkney, Caithness and Shetland from a semi-independent and non-Christian Viking Age polity to a periphery of medieval Christian Europe. Part 1 is a geographical and protohistorical survey of Viking Age and Late Norse Orkney, Caithness and Shetland. It discusses available evidence and establishes the considerable wealth of the earldoms. Part 2 investigates the possible sources of this wealth. It concludes by highlighting circumstantial evidence for an export trade in cured fish. Zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data receive particular attention. New methodological tools for interpreting the weight of zooarchaeological assemblages are also discussed. In Part 3, the possibility that medieval fish middens (at sites such as Robert's Haven, Caithness) represent waste from the production of cured fish for export is considered in detail.

Cemetery companies were the principal agency of the transition from a traditional reliance on graveyards to the use of modern extra-mural cemeteries. The thesis comprises a study of the 113 cemetery companies established from 1820 to 1853, a period which saw the origin of this type of enterprise and its spreading throughout Britain. The companies are not analysed as economic entities, but rather as representations of a range of attitudes towards the problems associated with intramural interment. To facilitate discerning different trends relating to the public perceptions of the burial problem, the companies have been classified according to type. This is an exercise which relies on textual analysis of company documents to understand the principal motivation of each group of directors. Three different types of company are examined in the thesis. Directors of enterprises within the first group to emerge saw the burial problem as a religious-political issue, and used cemetery companies as a means of providing extended space for burial which was independent of the Established Church. The new cemeteries had unconsecrated ground, and offered the freedom for Dissenters to adopt any burial service they wished. The increased enthusiasm for all joint-stock enterprise in the mid-1830s saw the advent of the speculative cemetery company, which saw in the burial issue the potential to make profits in one of three ways: by tapping a specific territorial market, a particular class market, or by buying and selling the scrip of grand and impractical necropolitan schemes. A third type of company dominated the 1840s, and its main concern was the provision of extra-mural cemeteries as a sanitary measure. In addition to studies of these three groups of companies, the thesis presents analysis of two additional themes essential to the progress of burial reform: fears concerning the integrity of the corpse; and the cultural significance thought to attach to cemetery foundation. The thesis demonstrates, by studying these companies, that the reasons for taking action to found cemetery companies could vary considerably, and that perception of the burial issue altered a number of times.