scholarly journals The Influence of the Writings of Sir John Fortescue

1916 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 77-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline A. J. Skeel
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Important Case ◽  
The Political ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Chief Justice ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Henry Vi

To trace the influence of writings is a task in which full attainment is impossible. Yet the attempt is worth making, especially when the writer under consideration was in some sort a pioneer, the first to write a constitutional treatise in the English language, and likewise the first, in all probability, to write a legal treatise for the benefit of English laymen. Few English lawyers can have had so varied a career as that of Sir John Fortescue. Born some time between 1390 and 1400, he lived to see the ‘unquiet time’ of Henry IV, the ‘victorious acts’ of Henry V, and the ‘troublous season’ of Henry VI, which ended in the overthrow of the Lancastrian dynasty, and the apparently firm establishment of the Yorkist line. In early manhood he became a serjeant-at-law; in 1442 he was made Chief Justice of the King's Bench; in 1443 he was sent on various special commissions; in the critical year 1450 he acted as spokesman of the Judges in relation to the trial of Suffolk, and four years later he delivered the Judges' opinion on the important case of Thorpe. During the early stages of the Wars of the Roses Fortescue was actively engaged in various extra-judicial duties; in 1461 he was present at the battle of Towton, and a few months later he fought against Edward IV at Ryton and Brancepeth. Between 1461 and 1463 he wrote the ‘De Natura Legis Naturae’ and various tracts on the succession question, and in 1463 he accompanied Queen Margaret and her son into exile in Flanders and France, where he remained till 1471. During his sojourn abroad he wrote the ‘De Laudibus Legum Angliae,’ and drew up memoranda on the political situation and a programme for the restored Lancastrian government. Fortescue took a prominent part in the conclusion of the agreement between Margaret and Warwick in 1470, and accompanied the queen and her son to England, landing at Weymouth on the very day of Warwick's overthrow and death at Barnet. Less than a month later he was taken prisoner at Tewkesbury, and Prince Edward was slain; before long Henry VI also died, and there was nothing before the loyal Lancastrian but to accept the clemency of the conqueror, Edward IV. His pardon passed the Great Seal, he was made a member of the King's Council, and before very long he obtained (1473) the reversal of his attainder and the restoration of his estates at the price—hard for a lawyer to pay—of refuting in writing the arguments he had formerly adduced against Edward's title. An interesting reference to this treatise is made by Coke.

Telling the Story: Shakespeare's Histories in Performance

1990 ◽  
Vol 6 (23) ◽  
pp. 207-214
Author(s):  
Andrew Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
History Plays ◽  
English History ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Royal Shakespeare Company ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Henry Vi

The English Shakespeare Company was founded in 1986 by Michael Bogdanov and Michael Pennington with a commitment to take large-scale productions to regional venues. Henry IV, Parts One and Two and Henry V opened at the Plymouth Theatre Royal in November 1986 under the title The Henrys: they were then staged at the Old Vic and toured extensively. In December 1987 Richard II, with a two-part adaptation of the three parts of Henry VI (House of Lancaster and House of York) and Richard III, were added to the previous trilogy to create a complete cycle of history plays – The Wars of the Roses. The cycle was toured in England and abroad before playing at the Old Vic in the spring of 1989. It has since been filmed for television by Portman Productions. The only comparable treatment of the histories in the theatre took place at Stratford in 1964. when Peter Hall and John Barton staged seven plays as a sequence spanning English history from the reign of Richard II to the downfall of Richard III. Andrew Jarvis has been with the English Shakespeare Company since 1986 when he played Gadshill, Douglas, Harcourt, and the Dauphin. He has since played Exton, Hotspur, and Richard III. In 1988 he won the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Actor in a Visiting Production for his portrayal of Richard III. Prior to joining the ESC he had played many roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Here, he is interviewed by Stephen Phillips, lecturer in drama at the College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, who is currently preparing a study of Shakespeare's history cycles in performance in the twentieth century.

Hark what discord follows

1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Ian Linklater
Keyword(s):  
Richard Ii ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second Tetralogy

"Richard II" is the first play in the second Tetralogy or group of plays broadly about the history of England from 1399 to 1415. It is followed by the two parts of Henry IV and climaxes in the so-called English Epic play Henry V. The first Tetralogy, obviously written before, comprises the three parts of Henry VI and culminates in "Richard III" and deals with the period of the Wars of the Roses from 1420 to the accession of Henry Tudor in 1485, which final date marks the beginning of the Tudor Dynasty.

Imperial Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Alessio Fiore
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Total Change ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Full Control ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
The Moment

Chapter 2 looks at imperial policies in Italy of Henry III, Henry IV, and Henry V, discussing especially their impact on the political make-up of the countryside. The focus is on how emperors attempted to keep control of their Italian resources and infrastructures (palaces and fiscal patrimony) as opposed to the vicissitudes of the ideological and propaganda struggle with the pope which has received more attention in historiography. Henry IV, in particular, adopted an aggressive policy towards his Italian opponents such as Adelaide of Torino and Matilda of Canossa, refusing to recognize the heirs of the former and deposing the latter. The result in both cases was the destruction of the coherence of two vast regional principalities. The author makes the important point that at first the emperors were not hostile to new emerging city communes and granted them rights in return for support and assistance (though later emperors, most notably Frederick I, would have a total change of mind in this regard). The author sees the moment in which cities began to take full control of the affairs seeing it as occurring during the reign of Henry V (1111–25) rather than in 1140–50, as usually believed.

scholarly journals Diplomatie en informatie

1970 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 223-236
Author(s):  
Laura Mesotten
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Philip Ii ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Henry Iv

This contribution focuses on the peace of Vervins and the process of gathering informationduring the peace negotiations which hitherto has been neglected. The peace conferenceof Vervins took place in 1598 between Spain (Philip II) and France (Henry IV). Athird significant party was Archduke Albert of Austria in whose name the Habsburg diplomatswere sent. This Habsburg delegation consisted out of three diplomats: Jean Richardot,Jean-Baptiste de Tassis and Lodewijk Verreycken. During the conference, the diplomatshad to inform Albrecht about every development and collect further intelligenceabout the political situation in France. Although the accumulation of information and thecommunication process were confronted with certain problems, the method of the diplomatsin Vervins indicates the professionalization of diplomacy.

IV.—The Swan Badge and the Swan Knight

Archaeologia ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony R. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Henry V ◽  
Great House ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Henry Vi

The scribe of these and the following lines, which lament the English disasters France about 1449, had the kindness to insert the names of the noblemen, thus denoted by their badges. The Root, he tells us, for example, is Bedforde, the swan Gloucetter, and the cresset Excetter. This swan badge of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, who died in 1447, is familiar, but he was by no means the only bearer of a swan in his time. It had been the badge of the great house of Bohun, earls of Hereford and Essex (pls. XXXVI, g; XXXVII, g; XL), and is assumed to have come to Humphrey through the marriage of his father the earl of Derby, later King Henry IV (pls. XXXVI, f; XXXVII, g; XL), with Mary de Bohun the younger daughter and coheir of Humphrey, earl of Hereford. But even among Mary's own descendants Duke Humphrey was not alone in using it, for Henry V (pls. XXXIV, a, b; XL), Henry VI, and the latter's son Edward did so too. Mary's elder sister Eleanor (pls. XXXVII, f; XL) used it also, as did her husband, Thomas of Woodstock (pls. XXXIV, c, d, e; XL), duke of Gloucester, and the Staffords, dukes of Buckingham (pls. XXXVI, a, c; XL), descended from their daughter Anne. Nor was this all, for in 1325 Margaret de Bohun (pls. XXXIX, b; XL), the daughter of an earlier Humphrey, earl of Hereford and Essex, had married Hugh de Courtenay, earl of Devon, and many of their descendants, Courtenays (pls. XXXIV, f, j; XXXVII, h; XL), Luttrells (pls. XXXVII, a, b, c, e, i, j; XL) and others (pl. XXXIX, a) used swans as badges, or as crests or supporters in their arms.

scholarly journals War Games: Staging the Histories in an American Presidential Year

Linguaculture ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-68
Author(s):  
Kath Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Richard Ii ◽  
Richard Iii ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Political Concern ◽  
Edward Iii ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Political Statement ◽  
Henry Vi ◽  
Artistic Director ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract This paper examines the ways in which the seldom performed collaborative play, Edward III, was re-contextualised by Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theater of Chicago, in order to create a specifically presentist piece of theatre making a forceful political statement during the 2016 US presidential election. Edward III formed the opening section of a trilogy entitled Tug of War: Foreign Fire, which continued with Henry V, and Henry VI Part I. The second trilogy, Tug of War: Civil Strife, comprised the remaining two parts of Henry VI and Richard III. The paper will address the rationale behind the selection of these specific plays, and why it was felt unnecessary to fill the historical lacuna created by the exclusion of Richard II and Henry IV Parts I and II. In addition, it will also examine the limitations inherent in the available archival material when researching an ephemeral theatrical event, particularly one which has been edited and directed in order to address issues of immediate political concern. Selected extracts from my own review of the first of these two trilogies will seek to offer a more detailed response than is possible for journalistic reviewers and to provide sufficient background to prove of benefit for future researchers.

scholarly journals "This Blessed Plot": An Ecocritical Approach to Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Silvia Barna
Keyword(s):  
Human Dimension ◽  
Richard Ii ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Wars Of The Roses ◽  
Henry Iv ◽  
Second Tetralogy ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

This research project aims at bringing to light the non-human dimension in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy, i.e., Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV and Henry V. In the context of the military confrontations that preceded the Wars of the Roses, the disruption of human relationships bears an impact on the land and the non-human cosmos in general. Through his literary craft and thorough understanding of human and non-human nature, Shakespeare reveals an intricate network of relationships, which, even when broken, can be mended. My project is guided by a presentist understanding of literature. Studying the relationship between the human and the non-human in Shakespeare’s histories can also inform our own relationship with the land we inhabit and our mutual interdependence. Matter and spirit are integrated in this analysis and inspiration is drawn from Pope Francis’ so-called green encyclical <em>Laudato Si,</em> which invites us to see the earth as our common home and, consequently, exhorts us to be responsible and caring.

‘Fause Frenche Enough’

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-88
Author(s):  
Anny Crunelle-Vanrigh
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Henry V ◽  
Critical Attention

The English language lesson scene in Shakespeare’s Henry V has attracted more critical attention for its sexual innuendoes than for its political significance even though King Henry was historically instrumental in the demise of French in medieval England. Closely modeled on early modern primers, the language lesson is a stage metaphor of the king’s language policy, and settles old ideological scores by canceling the effects of the Norman Conquest. Traces of insular French in Kate’s morphosyntactic idiosyncrasies serve the political agenda of a play chronicling the process that took the French tongue from authority to disempowerment. Keywords: Shakespeare; Henry V; language primers; French; Anglo-French

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