The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the rise of an intense interest in Anglo-Saxon history and artifacts that accompanied the transcription, translation, and dissemintation of the contents of England's monastic libraries following the Reformation begun in the 1530s. The tide of religious reform turned to more secular, legal concerns under the two early Stuart kings, and the pre-Norman past was used to simultaneously legitimize and criticize early-seventeenth-century monarchy and its ancient privileges by free monarchists and constitutionalists, respectively. Much of the modern criticism surrounding the constitutional crises of the reigns of James VI and I and Charles I as it relates to the Anglo-Saxon past focuses on Bede and the Benedictine Reformers of the tenth century. The present study, however, considers an often-cited text typically relegated to the periphery: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Chronicle makes its debut in print under the direction of Abraham Wheelock and the Cambridge University Press in 1643. The annalistic history appears alongside Bede's Historia Ecclesisatica, and, in the 1644 reprint and augmentation, the laws from Ine to Alfred and the later Anglo-Norman kings. Wheelock's editio princeps of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle appears at the height of the First English Civil War in 1643, and it is often treated by modern critics as an appendix to the Old English Historia to which it is attached. This dissertation argues that the Chronicle is not peripheral, and that it participates in a larger royalist campaign to establish the West Saxons as the institutional forbears of the first two Stuart kings. The opening chapters establish Wheelock and his literary circle as participants in the ongoing constitutional debate that culminated in the Personal Rule of Charles in 1629 and the opening years of the Civil Wars a decade later. After the political alleigances of those who surround the production of the 1643 Chronicle have been thoroughly considered, the focus of this study then turns to the text of the Chronicle itself. Wheelock inserts himself into the Chronicle's narrative by means of excision, substitution, and inconsistent translation so that the Chronicle may more easily conform to early modern perceptions of kingship. Specifically, his intervention into and manipulation of the genealogical West Saxon Regnal Table and his interpretation of the advisory body of the Anglo-Saxons known as the witan provide a lens through which to read the medieval Chronicle as a polticial document suitable for seventeenth-century purposes. Lastly, this dissertation traces the influences of the 1643 edition upon the only other Chronicle printed in that century—the 1692 version compiled and edited by Bishop Edmund Gibson. This final chapter argues that Gibson, like Wheelock, uses the Chronicle for political, and in the latter antiquary's case, nationalistic ends. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / March 7, 2017. / Abraham Wheelock, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Antiquarianism, English Civil Wars, Seventeenth Century / Includes bibliographical references. / David F. Johnson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Charles E. Brewer, University Representative; A.E.B. Coldiron, Committee Member; Bruce Boehrer, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_507993 |
| Contributors | Day, Patrick V. (authoraut), Johnson, David F. (David Frame), 1956- (professor directing dissertation), Brewer, Charles E. (Charles Everett) (university representative), Coldiron, A. E. B. (Anne Elizabeth Banks) (committee member), Boehrer, Bruce Thomas (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of English (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (262 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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