STRATEGY AND MOTIVATION IN THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-807
Author(s):  
MARK NICHOLLS
Keyword(s):  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Meaningful Sense

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to develop our understanding of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot by asking a number of elementary questions. Were the plotters terrorists in any meaningful sense? Were they religious fanatics, as the Jacobean state understandably chose to portray them after the event? Was their plan built on a misguided fantasy of widespread support for a Catholic insurrection, or does the Plot perhaps have a practical coherence that lies obscured by the drama of the projected strike against Westminster? How does evidence for coherent planning square with the strong desire for revenge, running through so much of the surviving testimony? Through answers to these questions, we begin to see the Gunpowder plotters as men engaged in a calculated and demonstrably pragmatic attempt to engineer a change in regime. Their planning was robust, and to the point, while the emotional power of revenge was channelled creatively by the ringleaders. The article concludes that the odds against success were long, but not impossible.

“I'd make thee eat the mischief thou hast vented”: Discourse of Law in Ben Jonson's Catiline His Conspiracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Akihiko Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Legal Procedures ◽  
The Way

This essay explores the discourse of law that constitutes the controversial apprehension of Cicero's issuing of the ultimate decree of the Senate (senatus consultum ultimum) in Catiline. The play juxtaposes the struggle of Cicero, whose moral character and legitimacy are at stake in regards to the extra-legal uses of espionage, with the supposedly mischievous Catilinarians who appear to observe legal procedures more carefully throughout their plot. To mitigate this ambivalence, the play defends Cicero's actions by depicting the way in which Cicero establishes the rhetoric of public counsel to convince the citizens of his legitimacy in his unprecedented dealing with Catiline. To understand the contemporaneousness of Catiline, I will explore the way the play integrates the early modern discourses of counsel and the legal maxim of ‘better to suffer an inconvenience than mischief,’ suggesting Jonson's subtle sensibility towards King James's legal reformation which aimed to establish and deploy monarchical authority in the state of emergency (such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). The play's climactic trial scene highlights the display of the collected evidence, such as hand-written letters and the testimonies obtained through Cicero's spies, the Allbroges, as proof of Catiline's mischievous character. I argue that the tactical negotiating skills of the virtuous and vicious characters rely heavily on the effective use of rhetoric exemplified by both the political discourse of classical Rome and the legal discourse of Tudor and Jacobean England.

“That line’s got personality!” – The Big 5 as a Model of Personality Perception

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-280
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Gailliot
Keyword(s):  
Current Work ◽  
Big 5 ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Personality Perception ◽  
Personality Ratings ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Meaningful Sense

Personality – enduring traits describing how people tend to think and behave – often is described by the Big 5 model. Everything people do and think can be described as representing 1 of 5 more general traits. Though the Big 5 model has been posited to describe actual thought and behavior, the current work tested the hypothesis that personality ratings would fit the Big 5 model even when the target being rated does not have a personality in any meaningful sense. Supporting this hypothesis, the Big 5 model showed acceptable fit for describing a person (consistent with past work), but also a straight line drawn on paper, something that should not have personality in any meaningful sense. The Big 5 model thus does not necessarily describe actual thought and behavior but instead the structure of personality perception.

‘The whole of the proceedings were very orderly’: Gunpowder Plot celebrations, civic culture and identity in some smaller Kent towns, 1860–1890

Urban History ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAIN TAYLOR
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Business Relationships ◽  
Local Variant ◽  
The Social ◽  
Gunpowder Plot ◽  
Formed Part

ABSTRACT:This article looks at how and why Bonfire Night celebrations became more peaceful in the later nineteenth century in some smaller Kent towns and what this process reveals about local civic cultures and identities. The drive towards respectability is seen both in the changing business relationships between participants, spectators and local tradesmen and in the evolving role of satire within processions. The ‘social energy’ visible at these events was channelled such that earlier class and other vertical conflicts within these towns were superseded by horizontal rivalries without, as they competed against each other (an important local variant of civic boosterism) to build free public libraries, for example. Moreover, more peaceful ‘Fifths’ and better reading facilities were linked, since both formed part of the much-altered prevailing civic cultures in these towns – their comprehensive, continuous, identity-driven efforts to present themselves in the best possible light against their rivals.

Investigating Gunpowder Plot

1988 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
Gunpowder Plot

ON 6 November 1605, the earl of Salisbury wrote jubilantly to the English Ambassador in France, Sir Thomas Parry, that it had ‘pleased Almighty God, out of his singular goodness, to bring to light the most cruel and detestable practise against the person of his Majesty and the whole estate of the Realm that ever was conceived by the heart of man, at any time, or in any place whatsoever’. But, when he wrote this, Salisbury was fully aware that, though the Lord might have revealed the bare existence of the Gunpowder plot, it would be left to men to discover the details and the ramifications of a complex treason that had been long in the planning.

AUTONOMOUS AUTONOMY: SPINOZA ON AUTONOMY, PERFECTIONISM, AND POLITICS

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Den Uyl
Keyword(s):  
Kantian Ethics ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Meaningful Sense

These epigraphs present us with part of the problem that is to be discussed in this essay. For Spinoza (1632–1677) there is no metaphysical freedom, except for God/Substance/Nature. The behavior of individual things, or modes, is completely a function of causes that bring about the behavior. This might suggest that there can be no autonomy in any meaningful sense either, thus aborting at the outset any talk of autonomy in Spinoza. To add to this problem, “autonomy” is somewhat anachronistic when applied to Spinoza. The philosophical theory surrounding the concept of autonomy seems to have developed later, perhaps mostly from Kant (1724–1804), which is not to say that it did not have parallels earlier. Kantian metaphysics is certainly different from Spinozistic metaphysics in allowing for freedom, if nothing else. But even if we ignore the metaphysics, the structure of a Kantian ethics is different from a Spinozistic one in its focus on duty and imperatives. One finds little of that in Spinoza. Consequently, on both metaphysical and historical grounds, it seems somewhat problematic to speak of Kantian autonomy in Spinoza.

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