Writing to the king : nation, kingship, and literature in England, 1250-1350 / David Matthews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matthews, David, 1963- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 77.

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 77

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political poetry, English (Middle)--History and criticism.

Political poetry, English (Middle).

Politics and literature--England--History--To 1500.

Politics and literature.

Literature and history--England.

Literature and history.

Letter writing in literature.

Kings and rulers in literature.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1066-1485--Historiography.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 221 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the century before Chaucer a new language of political critique emerged. In political verse of the period, composed in Anglo-Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English, poets write as if addressing the king himself, drawing on their sense of the rights granted by Magna Carta. These apparent appeals to the sovereign increase with the development of parliament in the late thirteenth century and the emergence of the common petition, and become prominent, in an increasingly sophisticated literature, during the political crises of the early fourteenth century. However, very little of this writing was truly directed to the king. As David Matthews shows in this book, the form of address was a rhetorical stance revealing much about the position from which writers were composing, the audiences they wished to reach, and their construction of political and national subjects.

Contents:

Introduction

Defending Anglia

Attacking Scotland : Edward I and the 1290s

Regime change

The destruction of England : crisis and complaint c.1300-41

Love letters to Edward III

Envoy

Appendix. The tail-rhyme poems of Langtoft's chronicle.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-20272-8

1-282-53593-5

9786612535932

0-511-67810-X

0-511-67684-0

0-511-68133-X

0-511-68331-6

0-511-67607-7

0-511-67935-1

OCLC:

609860865