Nationalism and the Nation in the English Civil Wars

Abstract

This dissertation examines the semantic differences which different writers across the breadth of the English Civil Wars demonstrated in their invocation of the ‘nation’, ‘people’ and ‘country’ as points of appeal during the conflicts. These words constituted part of England’s wider ‘political language’ during this period, and were used by apologists of every side to justify their own cause and to attack their opponents. The use, or disuse, of such language meant to refer to the entirety of the realm and its desperate circumstances can be observed to change depending on the faction using this language, and even between prominent writers within each faction. Royalists, Parliamentarians, Levellers, and unique writers of all stripes each demonstrated different understandings of what this political language meant, and so this dissertation will analyse such evolutions across the span of the civil wars (1639-1651), as well as give attention to particular themes and their interplay with the concepts of the ‘nation’, ‘people’, and ‘country’. Through analysis of these semantic evolutions and divergences, the reader can better come to understand not only the instigating factors which made the civil wars possible, but which ensured that they could only be concluded with the total victory of one side over the other.