Writing to the king
Subtitle: nation, kingship, and literature in England, 1250-1350
By: David Matthews.
Series: Cambridge studies in medieval literature -- 77
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521111379
Subjects: Political poetry, English (Middle) -- History and criticism; Politics and literature -- England -- History -- To 1500; Literature and history -- England -- History -- To 1500; Letter writing in literature; Kings and rulers in literature; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1066-1485 -- Historiography
Description: "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, 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"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Preface; Introduction: writing to the King; 1. Defending Anglia; 2. Attacking Scotland: Edward I and the 1290s; 3. Regime change; 4. The destruction of England: crisis and complaint c.1300-41; 5. Love letters to Edward III; Envoy.