HST247 - A Protestant Nation? Politics, Religion and Culture in England 1558-1640

HST247: A Protestant Nation? Politics, Religion and Culture in England 1558-1640

20 credits (Semester 2)

Module Leader: Professor Anthony Milton (2024-25)

Module Summary

This module explores the causes of political and religious instability in England in the century before the Civil War, with a particular focus on the problematic creation of a national identity. We begin by looking at the troubled political and religious legacy inherited by Queen Elizabeth. We then examine some of the forces that united and divided English men and women during the period. How did monarchs and local elites seek to justify their authority in this period? How did religion and politics intersect? Areas for consideration include government ideology; popular beliefs and literacy; the persecution and toleration of religious minorities; the politics of the parish; and attitudes towards birth, marriage and death.

One overriding question for our period is the question of how, if at all, England became a Protestant nation over the period 1560 to 1640. The accession of Elizabeth I brought with it a church settlement that ensured that England became an officially Protestant country. Yet this settlement could not guarantee that all English people instantly assumed a uniform set of beliefs and practices. To begin with we need to ask if contemporaries agreed about what constituted a distinctively Protestant nation. What changes in politics, society and popular culture were going to be necessary to accommodate this new religion? And how would local society manage to cope with the existence of different religious groups? As we will see, these issues sometimes prompted quite different responses from church, state and laypeople.

Teaching 

The module is taught via 11 weekly lectures, and 11 weekly seminars.

Assessment

Please see this page for assessment details: Level 2 assessment

Background Materials

An excellent guide to recent work on the history of religious politics and belief in the period is Peter Marshall, Reformation England 1480-1642 (3rd edn, 2022) [E-BOOK]. Also useful is John Spurr, The Post-Reformation 1603-1714 (2006) [E-BOOK] but obviously this does not cover the period before 1603. For the earlier period there is a useful introduction in S. Doran, Elizabeth I and Religion 1558-1603 (1994) [E-BOOK].

A basic but useful introduction to some of the issues dealt with in the course is provided in S. Doran and C. Durston, Princes, Pastors and People (2003) [E-BOOK].

You may also find useful a number of the chapters in A. Milton (ed.), The Oxford History of Anglicanism vol.1: Reformation and Identity (2017) [E-BOOK]. You may also find the outline narratives in chapters 2, 3 and 4 helpful in getting an overall sense of religious developments in the period.

For the Jacobean Settlement see Kenneth Fincham and Peter Lake, The ecclesiastical policy of King James I', Journal of British Studies, 24 (1985), pp.169-207 [ELECTRONIC JOURNAL].