Humanism and the Social Order in Tudor England

AbstractThis article, a revised and annotated version of a plenary lecture given at the North American Conference on British Studies meeting in October 2018, considers the place and significance of aliens in England's history between the expulsion of the Jews in 1290 and the arrival of the French and Dutch Protestants from the 1540s onward. It draws extensively on a new database of immigrants to England between 1330 and 1550, which itself relies principally on the remarkable records generated by a tax on aliens resident in England, collected at various points between 1440 and 1487. Aliens emerge as a significant element in English society—sometimes chastised, sometimes subject to violence and other abuse, but also recognized clearly for their contribution to the economy. If immigrants were sometimes seen as a potentially disruptive presence, they were also understood to be a natural and permanent part of the social order.

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Humanism and Education: Humanism and the Social Order in Tudor England

The Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.1080/00221546.1955.11779424 ◽

1955 ◽

Vol 26 (6) ◽

pp. 336-337

Author(s):

Crane Brinton

Keyword(s):

Social Order ◽

Tudor England ◽

The Social

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Humanism and the Social Order in Tudor England. Fritz Caspari

Speculum ◽

10.2307/2850043 ◽

1955 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 96-97

Author(s):

Douglas Bush

Keyword(s):

Social Order ◽

Tudor England ◽

The Social

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Violence and Social Conflict In Mid-Tudor Rebellions

Journal of British Studies ◽

10.1086/385702 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 18-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Roger B. Manning

Keyword(s):

Social Order ◽

Social Conflict ◽

Social Protest ◽

The Other ◽

Wide Spread ◽

Tudor England ◽

Community Or ◽

Village Community ◽

The Social ◽

Social Polarization

Two of the most common manifestations of social tension in Tudor England were the enclosure riot and the seditious rumor. Both are essentially pre-political forms of social protest, but the first must be viewed as more primitive than the second. Enclosure riots, at least prior to the riots and rebellions of 1548-49, were not particularly directed against the governing elite, but rather were aimed at innovations which threatened the traditional agrarian routine within the manorial or village economy. Thus, enclosure riots, which were procured as frequently by gentry as by peasants and often were calculatingly combined with litigation, did not especially menace the social order. On the other hand, seditious rumors — particularly those that were threatening and anonymous — raised the possibility of social polarization and violent protest on a larger scale than that of the enclosure riot. Before the rebellions and riots of 1548-49, enclosure riots were almost invariably confined within a single village community or between two neighboring communities, but during those troubled years the wide-spread circulation of rumors threatening the gentry resulted in the destruction over a widely-scattered area of enclosing hedges which had stood unchallenged for generations.The rumor as a vehicle of social protest could either express the collective fear that some supposedly hostile group such as the rural aristocracy had put together a conspiracy to harm the peasantry, or could, conversely, convey the desire of peasants and artisans for social levelling or even social inversion.

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