Developing from the recent surge of interest in the Royalist cause during the Civil Wars, this thesis explores the question of how Royalists were portrayed in the press between 1637 and 1646. It addresses the question through textual analysis and specifically examines printed material in an effort to investigate the construction of Royalist identity as well as the peculiarities of Royalist discourse. At its most fundamental level, this thesis seeks to address the issue of Royalist identity, and in doing so suggests that it was predicated on an inconsistent and problematic form of English patriotism. According to the argument presented here, Charles I led a cause that was supposed to protect and champion the core institutions and cultural norms upon which the very nature of Englishness rested. Royalism existed to preserve England from what were perceived as the foreign and anti-English agendas of Parliament. An underlying argument in this thesis is that Royalist print aspired to define and anchor language, with the implication that textual meaning was solidly formed and unquestionable. Royalist text, unlike that of Parliament, was supposed to represent truth, effectively rendering Royalist print a force for stability in an increasingly chaotic world. Alongside its focus on the ways in which the Royalist press tried to fashion an English identity for the King’s supporters, this thesis also explores the image of the cavalier stereotype. It aims not to debunk such a stereotype, but to explore the implications behind it and show how they challenged and undermined the Royalists’ Englishness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:572672 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Jones, Paul Alastair Michael |
| Publisher | Keele University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/3850/ |
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