English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth Century

by Andrea Ruddick

This broad-ranging study explores the nature of national sentiment in fourteenth-century England and sets it in its political and constitutional context for the first time. Andrea Ruddick reveals that despite the problematic relationship between nationality and subjecthood in the king of England's domains, a sense of English identity was deeply embedded in the mindset of a significant section of political society. Using previously neglected official records as well as familiar literary sources, the book reassesses the role of the English language in fourteenth-century national sentiment and questions the traditional reliance on the English vernacular as an index of national feeling. Positioning national identity as central to our understanding of late medieval society, culture, religion and politics, the book represents a significant contribution not only to the political history of late medieval England, but also to the growing debate on the nature and origins of states, nations and nationalism in Europe.

369 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Արսեն Նազոյան · Rating 5 out of 5]

This broad-ranging study explores the nature of national sentiment in fourteenth-century England and sets it in its political and constitutional context for the first time. ...

[J M-B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very useful survey and analysis of, mainly, historical and some chronicle material relating to national identity. Ruddick argues against the view that regional and supra-national (church) affiliations formed blocks against a late medieval sense of English national identity. She is sensitive to the sociological and semantic difficulties arising application of the modern distinction between political and theological thought but, nevertheless, provides a valuable account of the nationally inflected language utilised in administrative and governmental spheres and that produced by the church. A weakness, for me, is in her limited use of literary sources (almost wholly confined to Lawrence Minot) and her rather dismissive attitude to literary scholarship.