Court Scandal Flashcards
Evidence of popular perceptions of the Jacobean Court:
Anonymous libel written on the overbury affair
Published 1614
- Corruption and conspiracy: ‘Nor dare we say why Overbury died’
- ‘And that her greatness and the law consent/to prove my weapon insufficient
- ‘Some are made great at birth, some have advance/Some climb by wit, some are made great by chance/I know a Lord made great for his face
Alisar Bellany, The Politics of Court Scandal
A cynical reading of the Jacobean court
‘a pattern not of godliness but of disorder, of sexual corruption, of murder.’
The Overbury Affair: an overview of the key events
- countess of Somerset, Frances Howard, daughter of earl of Suffolk, annuls marriage to third Earl of Essex in 1613
- Robert Carr, earl of Somerset after marrying Howard (replacing Essex).
- Overbury disapproved of the affair, wrote the poem ‘A Wife’ about the virtues of being a wife, which was an attach on the adulterous Howard. Overbury refuses to go to be an ambassador to the court of Michael of Russia and is imprisoned by James I, where he dies in September 1613
- Later becomes apparent that Howard had Richard Weston, of whom it was ominously said that he was “a man well acquainted with the power of drugs,” made jailer in the Tower, and that he poisoned Overbury
Lawrence Stone on the relationship between scandal and Court - Country in the Crisis of the Aristocracy
- One of the most striking features of Early Stuart society was the growing cleavage in outlook between the Court and Country. An aspect of this development which attracted much contemporary attention and criticism was the sexual licence at the Jacobean Court,
Lawrence Stone on sexual licence at the Jacobean court
- combination of power, time and lack of inhibition led to sexual promiscuity in both genders since the 1590s.
Lawrence Stone on sexual promiscuity in the court of James I
Quote from Stone
Evidence
QUOTE
- ‘The real breakthrough with promiscuity at Court only occurred under James I
EVIDENCE
- Lady Anne Clifford, 1603, ‘all the ladies about the Court had gotten such ill names that it was grown a scandalous place’
- J. Marston, The Malcontent, ‘Do your husbands lie with ye? That were country fashion, i’ faith.’
Which scandal occurred shortly after the poisoning of Overbury?
Lake-Roos affair
- Daughter of Sir Thomas Lake and Lady Mary Lake, Lady Roos, accuses William Cecil Lord Roos of impotence, he goes abroad
- Lady Roos accuses Frances Cecil of affair with Lord Roos, and of trying to poison Lady Roos
Stone on the change that came with the court of Charles I
- ‘far more respectable place’ but still troubled
- Puritan, country gentry appalled by court
EVIDENCE
- 1633, Elanor Villiers has child of Henry Jermyn, who refuses to marry her on the grounds that she had already been the mistress of himself, Lord Newport, and Lord Fielding
Stone on the significance of the public sphere for scandal and the court-country distinction
- ‘Once rooted in the public mind, this association of sexual depravity with the Court took a long time to wear off.’
- scandals ‘heavily written up in the correspondence of the professional letter writers and so gave the appearance of a general collapse of sexual standards
—> the discrepancy between the generally enforced moral code and the licence of the Court became an established part of public belief.
The weaknesses of Stone’s commentary on Court Scandal
OWN VIEW
- when the scandals led to prosecution, the principals usually escaped with little more than loss of office and royal favour. - Bellany sees this as far more significant
Quote on the importance of court scandal to the breakdown of the 1640s
Stone, The Causes of the English Revolution
‘The most important cause, and symptom, of the decay of any government or institution is the loss of prestige and respect among the public at large
What does Stone make of the reputation of the Duke of Buckingham?
Stone, The Causes of the English Revolution
- State expansion meant court held a lot of power and money, and continued to be a place where patronage was dispensed
- 1618-1629, Patronage given to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham –> frustrated nobles and Parliament, who refused to dispense taxation
Stone on conceptualising the ‘Court’ and the ‘Country’
AN IDEAL
- Country was ascetically, morally and religiously superior to the court
A CULTURE
- Countrymen had responsibilities (as a landowner, head-of-house), and the courtier in his rented accommodation was just a ‘hedonist’
- Conservative and pure lifestyle choices, opposed to extravagance of the Court
A PLACE AND AN INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE
- Bench of justices, ancient houses
- Localism
How have historians countered Lawrence Stone’s equation of Court-Country differences with Court- Country political opposition?
Kevin Sharpe, Criticism and Compliment
- Deconstructs certain court-country divides
- Charles I ordered gentry to remain in the country, and so understood the importance of locality
- Many Courtly poets commented on the virtues of the country
- Charles I carried out a moral reformation of his court
- ‘The caree[r] of Johnson make[s] nonsense of the labels of ‘court’ and ‘country’ as terms explanatory of cultural and political divisions.
–> ‘the ideology of the ‘country’ was not the preserve of a distinct political group, let alone a political party’
What is Bellany’s view of the existing historiography of the court scandal?
- Value of scandals under appreciated.
-Stone’s comments more ‘suggestions’ than
‘conclusions’
- Morril creates a ‘heirarchy’ of political news.
Scandal not treated as ‘real’ news - Scandals could not have accumulated for the breakdown of the 1640s, as Charles’ court was less scandalous than James’
- Sharpe minimises the language of conflict. Court and Country may have been spoken about in the court and the country, but still capacity for conflict