The Rule of Manhood: Tyranny, Gender, and Classical Republicanism in England, 1603–1660 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)
Cambridge University Press, 12/10/2020
EAN 9781108478830, ISBN10: 1108478832
Hardcover, 350 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Through stories of lustful and incestuous rulers, of republican revolution and of unnatural crimes against family, seventeenth-century Englishmen imagined the problem of tyranny through the prism of classical history. This fuelled debates over the practices of their own kings, the necessity of revolution, and the character of English republican thought. The Rule of Manhood explores the dynamic and complex languages of tyranny and masculinity that arose through these classical stories and their imaginative appropriation. Discerning the neglected connection between concepts of power and masculinity in early Stuart England, Jamie A. Gianoutsos shows both how stories of ancient tyranny were deployed in the dialogue around monarchy and rule between 1603 and 1660 and the extent to which these shaped English classical republican thought. Drawing on extensive research in contemporary printed texts, Gianoutsos persuasively weaves together the histories of politics and manhood to make a bold claim: that the fundamental purpose of English republicanism was not liberty or virtue, but the realisation of manhood for its citizens.
Part I. Emasculated Kingship
1. Tyranny, manhood, and the study of history
2. A chaste Virginia
tyranny and the corruption of law in Jacobean England
3. 'And thus did the wicked sonne murther his wicked mother'
Nero and the tyrannical household in late Jacobean England
4. Neronian corruption in Caroline England
Part II. The Masculine Republic
5. John Milton, marriage, and the realisation of Republican manhood
6. 'Begin now to know themselves men, and to breath after liberty'
Marchamont Nedham and the Republican empire
7. 'So much power and piety in one'
Oliver Cromwell and the masculine republic.