Classical Humanism and Republicanism in English Political Thought, 1570}}}1640 [Paperback]

A new perspective on two seminal themes in English political thought before the Civil War.Early modern England was a monarchy and the Englishman was a subject rather than a citizen. Scholars have assumed that those traditions of political thought which emphasise the citizen's active role exercised no influence in England between the mid sixteenth century and the Civil War in the 1640s. Markku Peltonen challenges that view and argues that early modern Englishmen could characterize their life as one of participation rather than subjection and portray their community as having several distinctively republican features.Early modern England was a monarchy and the Englishman was a subject rather than a citizen. Scholars have assumed that those traditions of political thought which emphasise the citizen's active role exercised no influence in England between the mid sixteenth century and the Civil War in the 1640s. Markku Peltonen challenges that view and argues that early modern Englishmen could characterize their life as one of participation rather than subjection and portray their community as having several distinctively republican features.Early modern England was a monarchy and the Englishman was a subject rather than a citizen. Scholars have assumed that those traditions of political thought that emphasize the citizen's active role exercised no influence in England between the mid-sixteenth century and the Civil War in the 1640s. Markku Peltonen challenges that view and argues that early modern Englishmen could characterize their life as one of participation rather than subjection and portrays their community as having several distinctively republican features.Introduction: classical humanism and republicanism in England before the Civil War; 1. Classical humanism restated; 2. Classical republicanism in the margins of Elizabethan politics; 3. Civic life and the mixed constitution in Jacobean political thought; 4. Francis Bacon, Thomas Hedley and the true greatness olcÅ