Royal Opportunity: Noble Marriages in the Reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI/I, 1558-1625

<p>This thesis explores Queen Elizabeth I’s and King James VI/I’s management of and involvement in noble marriages from 1558 to 1625 by merging two methodologies: an analysis of an extensive, custom-made database of 380 noble marriages with an examination of primary sources like state papers, personal correspondence, diaries, and ambassadorial reports. This study demonstrates that “noble-marriage management” was a single but efficient method for the implementation of many facets of early modern rule—this made it an important apparatus of the monarchical office and a significant conduit of power. Illuminated within this thesis are Queen Elizabeth’s and King James’s tactics for handling noble marital alliances which included participation and support, avoidance and opposition. They applied their exclusive crown privileges like plural prerogatives of wards’ and widows’ marriages and in loco parentis rights in attempts to control marital unions and they inaugurated new monarch-noble bonds through their patronage of weddings. They communicated religious, succession, and Anglo-Scottish union policies, brought peace, and cultivated a crown-supportive aristocracy by means of their noble marriage involvement. Both monarchs employed multiple aspects of the royal prerogative to manage marriages which, at times, involved manipulating courts, bypassing Parliament, and prolonging punishments. Elizabeth and James also used the royal prerogative to forge their respective legacies of a Protestant kingdom and a unified England and Scotland. By utilising their exclusive privileges, both monarchs secured the freedom and power to intervene in noble marital alliances which preserved the hierarchical system of monarchy, achieving a pro-monarch balance of power and internal stability. In particular, it was through supportive involvement in marriages that Elizabeth and James perpetuated the patronage system and established all-important monarch-noble connections which upheld royal authority. Monarch-noble links became especially important as parliamentary debates on the legitimacy and use of crown privileges increased in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, exposing both monarchs’ absolutist tendencies.</p>

Royal Opportunity: Noble Marriages in the Reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI/I, 1558-1625

<p>This thesis explores Queen Elizabeth I’s and King James VI/I’s management of and involvement in noble marriages from 1558 to 1625 by merging two methodologies: an analysis of an extensive, custom-made database of 380 noble marriages with an examination of primary sources like state papers, personal correspondence, diaries, and ambassadorial reports. This study demonstrates that “noble-marriage management” was a single but efficient method for the implementation of many facets of early modern rule—this made it an important apparatus of the monarchical office and a significant conduit of power. Illuminated within this thesis are Queen Elizabeth’s and King James’s tactics for handling noble marital alliances which included participation and support, avoidance and opposition. They applied their exclusive crown privileges like plural prerogatives of wards’ and widows’ marriages and in loco parentis rights in attempts to control marital unions and they inaugurated new monarch-noble bonds through their patronage of weddings. They communicated religious, succession, and Anglo-Scottish union policies, brought peace, and cultivated a crown-supportive aristocracy by means of their noble marriage involvement. Both monarchs employed multiple aspects of the royal prerogative to manage marriages which, at times, involved manipulating courts, bypassing Parliament, and prolonging punishments. Elizabeth and James also used the royal prerogative to forge their respective legacies of a Protestant kingdom and a unified England and Scotland. By utilising their exclusive privileges, both monarchs secured the freedom and power to intervene in noble marital alliances which preserved the hierarchical system of monarchy, achieving a pro-monarch balance of power and internal stability. In particular, it was through supportive involvement in marriages that Elizabeth and James perpetuated the patronage system and established all-important monarch-noble connections which upheld royal authority. Monarch-noble links became especially important as parliamentary debates on the legitimacy and use of crown privileges increased in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, exposing both monarchs’ absolutist tendencies.</p>

Revitalization of Ancient Institutions: The 1394 Governance Code for the Joseon Dynasty of Korea by Jeong Do-jeon

<p>The Code of Governance for the Joseon Dynasty written by Jeong Do-jeon in 1394 was the first legal document written in justification of a new Korean dynasty. The eminent Korean historian Han Young-woo has credited the political scheme formulated in the Code for promoting democratic ideas of power separation. This study argues that the Code cannot be considered as an attempt to introduce a new power structure in this way, as it was primarily concerned with revitalizing idealized Confucian institutions mobilized by the ideological force of weixin 維新 (revitalization) of guzhi 古制 (ancient institutions) and with creating a society modelled on Confucian values and hierarchical order laid out in the Chinese work, the Zhouli (Rites of Zhou). In his Code, Jeong used this system of government structure as the principle of ancient state institutions, to justify the position of the new Joseon throne, and he also adopted the legal format of the 1331 Yuan law book, Jingshi dadian, in which royal authority took precedence over that of the government. This study emphasizes not only Jeong Do-jeon’s conservative adherence to the continuity of state institutions from the previous Goryeo dynasty (a replica of the Chinese Tang and Song systems), but also the priority he gave to the new Joseon monarch as a stabilizing force within the new dynasty, and argues that the Code was written to ensure continuity and priority, and cannot be considered as an attempt to introduce a new power structure.</p>

Revitalization of Ancient Institutions: The 1394 Governance Code for the Joseon Dynasty of Korea by Jeong Do-jeon

<p>The Code of Governance for the Joseon Dynasty written by Jeong Do-jeon in 1394 was the first legal document written in justification of a new Korean dynasty. The eminent Korean historian Han Young-woo has credited the political scheme formulated in the Code for promoting democratic ideas of power separation. This study argues that the Code cannot be considered as an attempt to introduce a new power structure in this way, as it was primarily concerned with revitalizing idealized Confucian institutions mobilized by the ideological force of weixin 維新 (revitalization) of guzhi 古制 (ancient institutions) and with creating a society modelled on Confucian values and hierarchical order laid out in the Chinese work, the Zhouli (Rites of Zhou). In his Code, Jeong used this system of government structure as the principle of ancient state institutions, to justify the position of the new Joseon throne, and he also adopted the legal format of the 1331 Yuan law book, Jingshi dadian, in which royal authority took precedence over that of the government. This study emphasizes not only Jeong Do-jeon’s conservative adherence to the continuity of state institutions from the previous Goryeo dynasty (a replica of the Chinese Tang and Song systems), but also the priority he gave to the new Joseon monarch as a stabilizing force within the new dynasty, and argues that the Code was written to ensure continuity and priority, and cannot be considered as an attempt to introduce a new power structure.</p>

The Burning of Bishop Adam: perspectives of a murder on the Norse-Scottish border

In 1222, Adam, bishop of Caithness, was murdered by a group of Caithness landholders. Although it appears in a fourteenth century manuscript, the Old Norse text Brenna Adams Byskups (The Burning of Bishop Adam) originated in Iceland in the 1230s. It provides a Caithness-based perspective on Adam’s death to compare with other accounts from around the world. Including a new transcription and translation of the text, this article contextualises Brenna Adams Byskups and the events of Adam’s death. At this time, the bishops of Caithness were used by the Scottish kings to promote royal authority in the territory of the jarls of Orkney and Caithness, leading to moments of violence. By comparing Brenna Adams Byskups to other accounts, Jarl Jón’s (died 1231) role in Adam’s death can be established, as can the extent of King Alexander II’s (1214–49) punishments. Adam’s murder had a significant impact on northern Scotland, consolidating Scottish royal authority in Sutherland and possibly contributing to Jarl Jón’s murder in 1231.

Conclusion

Legal reforms in early modern France marked a confluence of the crown’s judicial and legislative agenda, aimed at achieving what can be called in modern times judicial economy. They attested to the old-fashioned idea that the law, reinforced by royal authority, afforded better protection for the less-than-mighty subjects. Success in making the kingdom’s laws more systematic and equitable vindicates an important aspect of the meaning that historians and theorists have attached to the idea of a monarchie absolue. Early modern legal history has shown that a robust expression of sovereignty was intrinsically tied with the control of the sources of law. The historical forces behind the French law, long in the making, shed critical light on European legal tradition and jus commune.

La Coutume and la Législation

The reformation of customs aimed to bring the sources of law under royal authority and improve judicial administration. Through this process, the king reaffirmed the primacy of legislation in both public and private law. This chapter examines major provisions of the Nouvelle coutume de Paris of 1580 and also looks at judicial cases that were argued at the Parlement of Paris based on the coutumes of other localities. The efforts to reform customs took place in tandem with legislative measures. Most edicts and ordinances inspired by Chancellor Michel de L’Hôpital dealt with public law and procedural matters, but they also covered key private law matters like succession and marital property. Customary law campaigns and legislative activities together represented the royal effort to ensure coherence in the legal system.

The Problem of a Courtly Literature

This chapter analyses the seventeenth-century shift from aristocratic forms of literary evaluation to the book market as a key source of prestige—from a courtly to a commercial model of literary judgment and value. Setting the literature of the Caroline court within larger debates about the monarchy’s authority over an increasingly powerful commercial sector, it argues that English courtly culture crystalized in response to the challenges to royal authority posed by market growth and autonomy. It thus returns to a Marxist interpretation of the causes of the English Revolution, while using recent research on the book market, print censorship, and coterie literary circulation to draw new connections between socioeconomic change and literary history.

Transformation of the image of power on the medals of the last Valois during the Religious wars

The article is devoted to the study of images of Royal power that were used by the last Valois dynasty’s representatives, reflecting the transformations that occurred in connection with the attempt to strengthen the Royal authority with intensification of secular power and gaining spiritual power. Studying the French Royal medals of the end of the XVI century, it is possible to identify the main trends of changes in the image of the Royal power during the development of religious conflict, demonstrating the increasing role of certain Christian symbols that were used both to indicate their religious position and its presentation to society during the state crisis. The study analyzes the medals of the time of Charles IX, in particular in memory of St. Bartholomew’s night, and the medals of Henry III. Analysis of these images allows us to come to the conclusion about the evolution of ideas about the king and his power from the image of the ancient hero king that was formed at the time of the beginning of religious wars, to the restoration of the idea of the most Christian king and peacemaker king, common in the pre-Renaissance era, and which is most clearly shown in the images of Henry III.