“Communis Hostis Omnium”: The Smerwick Massacre (1580) and the Law of Nations

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Alan Orr

AbstractThis article examines the brutal massacre of up to six hundred Spanish and Italian papal troops on the order of the English Lord Deputy Arthur Grey, 14th Baron de Wilton (1536–1593), at Dún An Óir (Forto del Oro), Smerwick, County Kerry, on 10 November 1580. The article investigates the relationship between the religious and juridical rationales for the massacre, shedding new light on the broader relationship between the early modern law of nations, Protestantism, and what Brendan Bradshaw has characterized as “catastrophic violence” in the Elizabethan military conquest of Ireland. While Vincent Carey has emphasized the virulently anti-Catholic character of Grey's rationales for the massacre, my argument instead emphasizes the role of the received laws of nations and of war in justifying Grey's actions both to Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) and to the English public, from the period immediately following the massacre until the writing of Edmund Spenser's pro-Grey apologetic, A View of the Present State of Ireland (ca. 1596). On this view, the papal troops at Smerwick were considered brigands, pirates, or, in Marcus Tullius Cicero's words, “communis hostis omnium”—a common enemy to all—and enjoyed no standing as lawful enemies under the law of nations. In the sixteenth century, the established law of nations was hardly a seamless web but manifested significant cleavages and fissures allowing for the construction of localized spheres of legal exception in which the ordinary rules of warfare did not apply, thus providing a convenient juridical rationale for atrocity.

2021 ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Sarah Mortimer

The murder of Henry III in 1589 plunged France further into crisis, raising questions not only of succession but also of the limits of royal power and the legitimacy of resistance. Leading figures in the French Catholic League, along with the Spanish Jesuit Juan de Mariana, defended this act of tyrannicide. Meanwhile, the ageing English queen Elizabeth I was still childless, and anxiety about the succession was exacerbated by Catholic writers, notably Robert Parsons. In these debates, appeal was made once more to the idea of ‘the people’, but now the role of clergy, kings and magistrates in transforming a multitude into a people was examined more explicitly. In response, James VI of Scotland began to defend ‘free monarchy’ and the divine right of kings; while the jurist William Barclay defended monarchy against those he called ‘monarchomachs’—Catholic and Protestant advocates of resistance. The Venetian Interdict and James’s Oath of Allegiance brought into focus the question of where sovereignty lay and the relationship between Church and state. In this context, the Jesuit Francisco Suarez offered a series of texts which not only reaffirmed papal indirect power but were also designed to make sense of the Christian’s relationship to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities and to provide effective, authoritative counsel for Christian souls.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sienna Louise Latham

<p>This thesis explores the advent of gentlewomen's chymical activities in Elizabethan England. In the sixteenth century, chymistry gained widespread currency under Queen Elizabeth I. This thesis argues that the queen's significant chymical interests contributed to her iconography, thereby bridging England's previously discrete chymical and female realms. It shows that Elizabeth's influence and fundamental societal changes enabled women, beginning with the gentry, to acquire and apply chymical knowledge. Four case studies highlight the queen's impact on her female subjects through an examination of primary manuscript and printed sources. The Protestant gentlewomen Grace Mildmay, Mary Sidney Herbert, Margaret Hoby and Margaret Clifford may first have encountered chymistry in the manifestation of their religious beliefs through charitable healing, but they developed their knowledge in very different ways. Evidence of their engagement with chymical practitioners and writings provides context for their activities. Shared motivations led to divergent practices, indicating that chymistry in Elizabethan England took as many forms as there were practitioners. This thesis asserts the crucial importance of community to early modern chymists, noting courtly links and overlapping social circles. It contributes to limited historiography on Elizabethan alchemy as well as female alchemists.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sienna Louise Latham

<p>This thesis explores the advent of gentlewomen's chymical activities in Elizabethan England. In the sixteenth century, chymistry gained widespread currency under Queen Elizabeth I. This thesis argues that the queen's significant chymical interests contributed to her iconography, thereby bridging England's previously discrete chymical and female realms. It shows that Elizabeth's influence and fundamental societal changes enabled women, beginning with the gentry, to acquire and apply chymical knowledge. Four case studies highlight the queen's impact on her female subjects through an examination of primary manuscript and printed sources. The Protestant gentlewomen Grace Mildmay, Mary Sidney Herbert, Margaret Hoby and Margaret Clifford may first have encountered chymistry in the manifestation of their religious beliefs through charitable healing, but they developed their knowledge in very different ways. Evidence of their engagement with chymical practitioners and writings provides context for their activities. Shared motivations led to divergent practices, indicating that chymistry in Elizabethan England took as many forms as there were practitioners. This thesis asserts the crucial importance of community to early modern chymists, noting courtly links and overlapping social circles. It contributes to limited historiography on Elizabethan alchemy as well as female alchemists.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-250
Author(s):  
Stephanie Dropuljic

This article examines the role of women in raising criminal actions of homicide before the central criminal court, in early modern Scotland. In doing so, it highlights the two main forms of standing women held; pursing an action for homicide alone and as part of a wider group of kin and family. The evidence presented therein challenges our current understanding of the role of women in the pursuit of crime and contributes to an under-researched area of Scots criminal legal history, gender and the law.


Author(s):  
András Sajó ◽  
Renáta Uitz

This chapter examines the relationship between parliamentarism and the legislative branch. It explores the evolution of the legislative branch, leading to disillusionment with the rationalized law-making factory, a venture run by political parties beyond the reach of constitutional rules. The rise of democratically bred party rule is positioned between the forces favouring free debate versus effective decision-making in the legislature. The chapter analyses the institutional make-up and internal operations of the legislature, the role of the opposition in the legislative assembly, and explores the benefits of bicameralism for boosting the powers of the legislative branch. Finally, it looks at the law-making process and its outsourcing via delegating legislative powers to the executive.


Early Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Plank

Abstract This article considers questions relating to the performance practice of listening to music in early modern contexts. The evidence of paintings by Pieter Lastman, Gerard ter Borch and Hendrik Sorgh, poetry by Robert Herrick, William Shakespeare and Edmund Waller, and accounts of performances by Francesco da Milano, Nicola Matteis and Queen Elizabeth I all help to bring into focus questions of attentiveness, affective response and analogical understanding. The source material also interestingly raises the possibility of occasionally understanding the act of listening within a frame of erotic relationship modelled on Laura Mulvey’s well-known concept of the ‘male gaze’.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Jette Steen Knudsen ◽  
Jeremy Moon

We investigate the relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (often assumed to reflect corporate voluntarism) and government (often assumed to reflect coercion). We distinguish two broad perspectives on the CSR and government relationship: the dichotomous (i.e., government and CSR are / should be independent of one another) and the related (i.e., government and CSR are / should be interconnected). Using typologies of CSR public policy and of CSR and the law, we present an integrated framework for corporate discretion for engagement with public policy for CSR. We make four related contributions. First, we explain the dichotomous and the related perspectives with reference to their various assumptions and analyses. Second, we demonstrate that public policy for CSR and corporate discretion coexist and interact. Specifically, we show, third, that public policy for CSR can inform and stimulate corporate discretion and, fourth, that corporations have discretion for CSR, particularly as to how corporations engage with such policy.


Nuncius ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Valleriani

The paper aims to show how sixteenth century hydraulic and pneumatic engineers appropriated ancient science and technology – codified in the text of Hero of Alexandria’s Pneumatics – to enter into scientific discourse, for instance, with natural philosophers. They drew on the logical structure, content and narrative style passed down from antiquity to generate and codify their own theoretical approach and to document their new technological achievements. They did so by using the form of commented and enlarged editions, just as Aristotelian natural philosophers had been doing for centuries. The argument aims to detail the exact role of ancient science and the process of transformation it underwent during the early modern period. In particular, it aims to show how pneumatic engineers first tested the ancient technology codified by Hero while carrying out their own practical activities. Once these tests were successfully concluded, in the spirit of early modern humanism they finally presented these activities as being associated with the work of their discipline’s most authoritative author, Hero of Alexandria, whose technology was tested during the construction of the hydraulic and pneumatic system of the garden of Pratolino.


2019 ◽  
pp. 40-61
Author(s):  
Martin Pugh

This chapter focuses on the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Following Henry VIII's break with Rome in 1531, the English Reformation led Britain into a protracted struggle with the two great Catholic powers, Spain and France, for the next 300 years. The long-term effect was to define Britain as the leading Protestant power; but more immediately, it posed a far greater threat to England than Islam, and effectively destroyed the rationale for crusading activities. In this situation, the Islamic empires actually became a valuable balancing factor in European diplomacy. Henry's readiness to deal with the Muslim powers was far from eccentric during the sixteenth century. Both King Francis I of France and Queen Elizabeth I of England took the policy of collaboration much further.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-178
Author(s):  
Piseth Chann

ABSTRAKEksploitasi terhadap tenaga kerja di laut lepas, khususnya ABK, masih sering terjadi. Meskipun tidak diatur secara spesifik, keselamatan dan keamanan ABK dapat dikaitkan dengan KHL PBB 1982, Pasal 94. Tujuan dari kajian ini adalah untuk menjelaskan keterkaitan Pasal 94 KHL dengan perlindungan terhadap ABK, peran IMO terhadap keselamatan dan keamanan ABK, dan kerja sama antara IMO dan ILO dalam menangani masalah eksploitasi sumber daya manusia dalam pelayaran internasional. Dari kajian ini dapat dijelaskan bahwa dalam KHL PBB 1982, Pasal 94 Ayat 2 (b) dan 3 (b) terdapat kewajiban yang dibebankan kepada Negara Bendera untuk ikut bertanggung jawab jika ABK mendapatkan suatu masalah. Sementara itu, sebagai agen khusus PBB, IMO telah mengadopsi satu Kode Manajemen Internasional dengan tujuan untuk memastikan keselamatan manusia dan menghindari kerusakan lingkungan laut. IMO, ILO dan Ad Hoc juga membentuk kerja sama tripartit untuk mengatur hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan ketenagakerjaan di laut. Kata Kunci: anak buah kapal; IMO; ILO; keselamatan dan keamanan ABSTRACTExploitation of workers on the high seas, especially the ship's crew, is still common. Although not specifically regulated, the safety and security of the ship's crew can be linked to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Article 94. The purpose of this study is to explain the relationship between Article 94 UNCLOS and the protection of ship's crew, the role of International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the safety and security of ship's crew, and cooperation between IMO and ILO in dealing with the problem of exploitation of human resources in international shipping. From this study, it can be explained that in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 94 Paragraphs 2 (b) and 3 (b) there was an obligation imposed on the Flag State to take responsibility if the ship's crew had a problem. Meanwhile, as a UN special agent, IMO has adopted an International Management Code to ensure human safety and avoid damage to the marine environment. IMO, ILO and Ad Hoc also formed tripartite cooperation to regulate matters related to employment at sea.Keywords: ILO; IMO; security and safety; ship's crew


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