‘Cet universel naufrage du monde’

Author(s):  
Jennifer H. Oliver

This chapter marks the transition from portent to actuality, addressing the prospect of political shipwreck in the troubled latter part of the sixteenth century by considering not only incarnations and reconfigurations of the suave mari magno commonplace but also shipwrecks that are narrated from the inside. It explores the distinction between the struggling ship in Lucretius and the eagerly spectated shipwreck of a political enemy in Cicero’s letters, taking account of the model of the ship of state as elaborated in Plato, Cicero, and medieval sources. It argues that the role of the spectator is most often not at a safe distance, and that the ethical relationship between the spectator and those on board is significantly developed from that in Lucretius. Through the work of three writers (Michel de L’Hospital, Pierre de Ronsard and Michel de Montaigne), it shows that the powerful metaphor of the ship of state struggling on troubled waters is itself articulated in a variety of ways during the political storm of the late sixteenth century—ways that, ethically speaking, variously implicate or exonerate the politician, poet or author. This chapter poses a series of questions concerning the difference between public and private spheres, the unique moral implications of civil war, and the author or poet’s own position, be it personal, political, or philosophical—or all three—with relation to what Montaigne calls ‘cet universel naufrage du monde’.

1976 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 211-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Elton

WHEN on the previous two occasions I discussed Parliament and Council as political centres, as institutions capable of assisting or undermining stability in the nation, I had to draw attention to quite a few unanswered questions. However, I also found a large amount of well established knowledge on which to rely. Now, in considering the role of the King's or Queen's Court, I stand more baffled than ever, more deserted. We all know that there was a Court, and we all use the term with frequent ease, but we seem to have taken it so much for granted that we have done almost nothing to investigate it seriously. Lavish descriptions abound of lavish occasions, both in the journalism of the sixteenth century and in the history books, but the sort of study which could really tell us what it was, what part it played in affairs, and even how things went there for this or that person, seems to be confined to a few important articles. At times it has all the appearance of a fully fledged institution; at others it seems to be no more than a convenient conceptual piece of shorthand, covering certain people, certain behaviour, certain attitudes. As so often, the shadows of the seventeenth century stretch back into the sixteenth, to obscure our vision. Analysts of the reigns of the first two Stuarts, endeavouring to explain the political troubles of that age, increasingly concentrate upon an alleged conflict between the Court and the Country; and so we are tempted, once again, to seek the prehistory of the ever interesting topic in the age of Elizabeth or even Henry VIII.


Author(s):  
Mark Greengrass

Letter exchange occupies a significant and growing role in the activities of the Protestant Reformers. This chapter offers explanations for its growing significance in the evolution of the Protestant Reformation. It analyses what over a century of investment in editing the correspondence of the magisterial Reformers has achieved. It offers a yearly profile of the surviving editorial correspondence. At the same time, it underlines the limitations of our concentration on the letters of magisterial Reformers by examining the role of letter exchange in the political evolution of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, and especially in the context of the coalitions at a distance that sustained it. It ends by evoking martyr letters, as found in the martyrologies of John Foxe and Jean Crespin, but also in a devotional context in Hutterite and Anabaptist dissenting traditions.


Author(s):  
Stephen Cory

Although the fourteenth century Marīnids openly acknowledged their Berber identity, by the end of the sixteenth century, sharīfian descent had become a requirement for Moroccan rule. This chapter examines the political propaganda of the Marīnid sultan Abū’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī (r. 731–752/1331–1351) and the Saʿdī sultan Aḥmad al-Manṣūr al-Dhahabī (r. 986–1012/1578–1603). It considers similarities and differences between their political propaganda in light of their differing historical circumstances, particularly the relative power of sharīfian movements during their respective reigns, as well as the importance of holy lineages, monarchical treatment of the shurafāʾ, and the role of ceremonies in political legitimation. It argues that the Saʿdī ability to convince Moroccans of their sharīfian lineage connected with a larger trend to equate political power with descent from the Prophet and reinforced their authority. In contrast, the Marīnids contributed to their own downfall through their inconsistent policies towards honouring the shurafāʾ.


Author(s):  
Vito Tanzi

This more theoretical chapter focuses on the normative role of the government, in democratic countries with a market economy, and how that role has been tied to the prevalent view of the assumed relationship between individual citizens and their government. That view has been different in different countries. The chapter stresses the difference between choices made in and by the free market and those made through the political market. In the former, income distribution and individual liberty are important. In the political market, with one person one vote, the income of the voters should be less important. However, it often is important. Some societies place a lot of importance on individual liberty. Others give more weight to community goals. These attitudes influence government policies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Alfeetouri Salih Mohammed Alsati ◽  
Al-Sayed Abd ulmutallab Ghanem

The current research aims at identifying and measuring the political knowledge of the students of the two universities of Al- Balqaa in Jordan and Omar Al- Mokhtar in Libya. The two communities are almost similar in terms of the social formation, Arab customs and traditions, the Bedouin values, the difference in the institutional age and the political stability.The study attempts to measure and compare the political knowledge in the communities of the two universities using the descriptive and comparative analytical method. The study uses a 400 random questionnaire of 30 paragraphs to measure eight indicators divided into internal and external political knowledge, and other aspects of knowledge: general political knowledge, knowledge of the political institutions and leaders, the political interest, the geographical and historical knowledge, and knowledge of the methods of exercising the political process. The study also attempts to identifying the most important sources and the role of the university in university students’ political knowledge.The results show that the level of the political knowledge is medium while its level in the sample of the Jordanian students is high. According to the samples, the internal political knowledge is more than the external knowledge with a lack of interest in the political matters. The samples do not consider the political matters as their priorities. The political knowledge as a whole needs to much effort to be exerted to confront the current circumstances. The variables of the place of resident, age and the educational level make big difference in the political knowledge. In contrast, the level of the parental education does not create big differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Marian Tadeusz Mencel

This lecture includes an attempt to answer the question: what the connection of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De was, and what conditions contributed to the fact that both Zhou Enlai and Zhu De did not share the fate of the political opponents of Mao Zedong, inter alia Liu Shaoqi, Wang Ming, Gao Gang and others. Recognizing the political reality of China of the period from the creation of the CPC to the death of the heroes, the synthetic approach shows their resumes, and an attempt was taken to involve the most important facts to answer the questions, inter alia about civil, war of national liberation, domestic and foreign policy of China implemented in accordance with the provisions of the Communist Party of China and the role of the heroes in shaping the cultural and civilisation order after the declaration of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.


PMLA ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-83
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Boughner

The chief purpose of this paper is to describe one phase of the domestication of Latin drama on the Renaissance stage, specifically to show how a conventional type made famous by the Roman comedians, the miles gloriosus, was fashioned by the academic playwrights of sixteenth-century Italy into an instrument of contemporary satire. A secondary aim is to provide a fuller literary background for the study of the braggart in Elizabethan drama. Such analysis requires a summary of themes, situations, and attitudes that have enriched the comic tradition of Europe, and demands also a definition of the comic spirit that exposes and derides the vainglorious folly of the alazon or boaster who struts and brags of his merits in utter disregard of truth. Menander and his disciples in Latin comedy developed a satiric method which the Italians borrowed for the ridicule of modern representatives of the alazon. Any consideration of the commedia erudita must also be prefaced by a review of the political conditions in Italy that brought to prominence such hated types as the Spaniard and other mercenary soldiers. This paper describes the rôle of the Spaniard and traces the evolution of the braggart from the imitations of Plautus and Terence, through the modifications of conventional themes, and finally to the new elements inspired by the changed domestic conditions of the peninsula.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-395
Author(s):  
Xavier Gil

AbstractThe Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia were well known in Renaissance times for their mature institutional development and their capacity to counterbalance the tendency of monarchs towards authoritarianism. But, from the mid sixteenth century onwards, they were summoned by kings at increasingly long intervals, thus losing part of their visibility in the political scene. But this did not exactly mean parliamentary decline. As Cortes became rarer, lesser corporate bodies, ultimately deriving from the Cortes themselves, acquired an enhanced political status. Different sorts of meetings of estates (brazos) and small committees of members of the estates, while already known in previous times, won a more active role by the late sixteenth century and were a major, if not crucial, factor in the different political crises of the seventeenth century. This article contributes to the current reassessment of the Cortes by emphasizing the role of these bodies, focusing on their interplay with the Cortes, with some comparative remarks on other such bodies in Europe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Alexey Chistyakov ◽  

In the XXI century, the French Republic remains one of the major economic and political partners of the Russian Federation. At the same time, one of the forces contributing to the internal stability of the Fifth Republic is the community of holders of state awards, united by official symbols around the idea of serving for the benefit of France, regardless of their own political beliefs. However, differences in the nature of award systems make it difficult for Russian statesmen to understand the true role of French order-bearers in political processes, the role of the Order itself in the life of France. The intuitive perception of this institution by Russian representatives is often limited or erroneous. Based on the analysis of information resources affiliated with the Order of the Legion of Honor, the author formulates a list of the main activities of its members. Understanding the nature of the participation of this organization in the political and social life of the Republic can have a significant impact on a certain «course correction» when interacting with foreign orderbearers. In addition, the presented conclusions can focus the attention of politicians in international affairs on institutions whose influence on domestic processes, although not obvious due to the difference in thesauri, is significant.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Chemakin

This article is devoted to the Ukrainian People’s Gromada (UPG), the organization of Little Russian landlords which played a prominent part in the political life of Ukraine and South Russia during the Civil War. Ukrainian historiography treats the UPG as an organisation of Ukrainian conservatives and assigns it the key role in the Hetman coup d’état of April 1918. There is also a widespread opinion that the Gromada was dissolved immediately after Hetman P. P. Skoropadsky took power. This work aims to reconsider traditional views on UPG and, with reference to new archival sources, prove the following: the role of the Gromada in the coup d’état was exaggerated considerably; the UPG continued to exist after Skoropadsky took power; and one can doubt the “Ukrainian” nature of the organisation, despite its name. Based on Skoropadsky’s memoirs and the accounts of other witnesses, as well as some German sources, the author proves that the Gromada was not the leading force in the coup d’état, but only the organisation which prepared lists of candidates to be included in the new government. The sources kept in the Central State Archives of the Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine and the Hoover Institution Archives that are devoted to the activities of the UPG from the summer of 1918 to the spring of 1919 have not been made public previously. After the directorate seized power, the leaders of the Gromada fled from Kiev to Odessa. There they took part in local political intrigues and tried to distance themselves from Hetman Skoropadsky and the project of the Ukrainian state. The UPG leaders, who had previously viewed themselves as Ukrainian “samostiyniks”, now proclaimed that they were not Ukrainians, but Little Russians and “Russian statists”. An attempt is made to analyse the reasons why UPG members moved from the Russian political camp to the Ukrainian one and back several times in a comparatively short period. Based on research in the field of “nationalism studies”, the author concludes that the Gromada members had traditional, pre-modern views on the nation (in this case as a corporation of Little Russian nobility), which, together with their desire to adapt to the ever-changing political situation and fight for their privileges and economic interests, made it possible for them to keep joining Russian and Ukrainian nationalists interchangeably without perceiving their actions as national treason. The study of this topic makes it possible to address the Little Russian nobility’s behaviour in the Civil War and their attempts to integrate into Ukrainian or Russian national projects.


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