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Britannia, Ralph Brooke, and the Representation of Privilege in Elizabethan England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

William Rockett
William Rockett*
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
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Abstract

The fourth edition of Britannia (1594) contained a marked increase in the representation of the propertied classes. The names of landowners, new families as well as old, were increased by approximately three hundred over the third edition of 1590. The fourth edition also contained a new index — “Barones et lllustriores Familiae” — which, together with the new names, registered first Camden's awareness of the changing character of Elizabethan society and second his qualifications as heraldic historian. The significance of this is not entirely clear until it is seen that the changes in Britannia came at a time of controversy and declining esteem in the College of Arms. Camden's authority in heraldry, of which the 1594 Britannia provided convincing evidence, together with his association with the advocates of armorial reform (Fulke Greville, Sir Edward Hoby, and Baron Burghley as well as the queen) made him a logical choice, over Ralph Brooke, for elevation to Clarenceux King of Arms in October 1597. Brooke's quarrel with Camden was part and parcel of the College's troubles and was seen at the time as an instance of the jealous animosity for which Brooke was notorious. One of the ironies of Brooke's attack is that it was symptomatic of the conditions — rivalries and jurisdictional disputes among the heralds, for instance — that advocates of reform were attempting to remedy.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , Summer 2000 , pp. 474 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2000

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