Petitioning was a staple of the Early Modern European world, theoretically available to all, from peasant to nobleman. The British Isles were no exception to that. This thesis drew a 50-year line between 1629 and 1679, and looked into how people regularly petitioned during some of the most eventful and transformative years of British history, to request what resources they thought necessary or advantageous. Within this timeframe, exceptional mass petitions coexisted with countless ordinary, singular petitions. The findings were a mix between continuities and changes owing to shifting political circumstances. The study found that several lines of argumentation endured through the decades. Familial responsibility, poverty and influence remained commonly used as everything around the petitions changed. On the other hand, the decapitation of King Charles I created a vacuum in the petitioners’ collective imagination. This thesis found that to fill that vacuum, petitioners employed and articulated a novel, depersonalized understanding of a “State”: a non-regal replacement for the Stuarts, even before Charles I lost his head. The Restoration reversed these developments, as the late King’s son very quickly concentrated upon his figure the attention and words of his petitioners. The legacy of the Wars and the Interregnum was a legacy of endurance and service for many Royalists, who often turned to petitions for satisfaction. They articulated that service again and again, pointing to a reciprocal relationship between monarch and loyal subjects. Overall, this thesis argues that petitioning was a wholly uninsulated, highly observant practice that eloquently articulated its surroundings. It expressed those surroundings through its own prism of resource negotiation in the face of authority.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-476395 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Vavalis, Anastasios |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Historiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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