The Mental World of the Jacobean Court

New interpretations of Jacobean court culture by an international group of specialists.

Linda Levy Peck (Edited by)

9780521021043, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 October 2005

404 pages
24.4 x 16.9 x 2 cm, 0.644 kg

The reign of James I (1603-25) has long been overshadowed by the prior glory of Elizabeth and the later outbreak of the Civil War. Yet how, without understanding the Jacobean court, are we to understand the world of Jonson, Donne and the late Shakespeare, divine right theory, court scandal and reform, appeals to the ancient constitution and reason of state, arguments from necessity and parliamentary precedent, chivalric nostalgia and classicism, mannerist excess and baroque grandeur? In this volume an international group of specialists in history literature and political theory set about reconstructing the mental world of the Jacobean court and challenging older orthodoxies on Jacobean politics, ideology, religion and culture. While the volume marks fresh departures in the study of the Jacobean court, it makes no attempt to offer a comprehensive study of the era. Rather, it presents chapters of original research, strongly interpretive in character, and sometimes in disagreement. There are three different but highly suggestive interpretations of the role and writings of the king himself from Jenny Wormald, Johann Sommerville and Paul Christianson which, taken together, provide the most definitive portrait yet offered of James as king and theorist. Several essays give important new emphasis to the neglected years of James's reign.

1. The mental world of the Jacobean court: an introduction Linda Levy Peck
Part I. Reconstructing the Jacobean Court: 2. Patronage and politics under the Tudors Wallace MacCaffrey
3. James VI and I, Basilikon Doron and The Trew Law of Free Monarchies: the Scottish context and the English translation Jenny Wormald
4. James I and the divine right of kings: English politics and continental theory J. P. Sommerville
5. Royal and parliamentary voices on the ancient constitution, c. 1604–1621 Paul Christianson
Part II. Court Culture and Court Politics: 6. Cultural diversity and cultural change at the court of James I Malcolm Smuts
7. Lancelot Andrews, John Buckeridge, and avant-garde conformity at the court of James I Peter Lake
8. Robert Cecil and the early Jacobean court Pauline Croft
9. The mentality of a Jacobean grandee Linda Levy Peck
10. Seneca and Tacitus in Jacobean England J. H. M. Salmon
Part III. Literature and Art: 11. The court of the first Stuart queen Leeds Barroll
12. The masque of Stuart culture Jerzy Limon
13. Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, as collector and patron A. R. Braunmuller
14. John Donne, kingsman? Annabel Patterson
Index
Notes.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]