Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction The 1590s: the second reign of Elizabeth I?
- 1 The patronage of the crown in Elizabethan politics: the 1590s in perspective
- 2 Regnum Cecilianum? A Cecilian perspective of the Court
- 3 Patronage at Court, faction and the earl of Essex
- 4 Peers, patronage and the politics of history
- 5 The fall of Sir John Perrot
- 6 The Elizabethan establishment and the ecclesiastical polity
- 7 Ecclesiastical vitriol: religious satire in the 1590s and the invention of puritanism
- 8 Ecclesiastical vitriol: the kirk, the puritans and the future king of England
- 9 Social strain and social dislocation, 1585–1603
- 10 Lord of Liberty: Francis Davison and the cult of Elizabeth
- 11 The complaint of poetry for the death of liberality: the decline of literary patronage in the 1590s
- 12 Summer's Last Will and Testament: revels' end
- 13 The theatre and the Court in the 1590s
- Index
8 - Ecclesiastical vitriol: the kirk, the puritans and the future king of England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction The 1590s: the second reign of Elizabeth I?
- 1 The patronage of the crown in Elizabethan politics: the 1590s in perspective
- 2 Regnum Cecilianum? A Cecilian perspective of the Court
- 3 Patronage at Court, faction and the earl of Essex
- 4 Peers, patronage and the politics of history
- 5 The fall of Sir John Perrot
- 6 The Elizabethan establishment and the ecclesiastical polity
- 7 Ecclesiastical vitriol: religious satire in the 1590s and the invention of puritanism
- 8 Ecclesiastical vitriol: the kirk, the puritans and the future king of England
- 9 Social strain and social dislocation, 1585–1603
- 10 Lord of Liberty: Francis Davison and the cult of Elizabeth
- 11 The complaint of poetry for the death of liberality: the decline of literary patronage in the 1590s
- 12 Summer's Last Will and Testament: revels' end
- 13 The theatre and the Court in the 1590s
- Index
Summary
Elizabeth's last great effort at self-glorification was to hang on to life relentlessly and infuriatingly until 1603. But in the latter part of her reign she might have died at any moment, and her worried subjects, as well as the cheerfully expectant Scots north of the border, did not have our advantage of hindsight. To the English in the confusing and often demoralizing decade of the 1590s was therefore added one miserable certainty: the moment of her death would usher in radical change. Whoever her successor was, he (or just possibly she) was likely to be a foreigner. The best to be hoped for was James VI, king of Scotland, experienced politician and notable amateur theologian, head, in his own view, and mere member according to prominent Scottish divines, of a kirk whose purity and godliness – at least in its own confident eyes – left that of England far behind. So a critical aspect of the last decade of Elizabeth's rule was that Scotland was more relevant than ever before to English perceptions and anticipations. English politics, English patronage, the English economy, would all be deeply affected by King James VI and I. But even before 1603, the state of the Scottish church was a matter of considerable concern. Thus the kirk forms a fitting postscript to Professor Collinson's chapter. That brings out compellingly the nastiness of the 1590s. When one adds in the dimension of anticipation – and fear – of the future, then one comes up against not just nastiness, but a fundamental clash of interests and ideologies which were to create the misunderstandings and tensions of the early years of the Jacobean English church.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Reign of Elizabeth ICourt and Culture in the Last Decade, pp. 171 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995