Edward Vallance | Roehampton University (original) (raw)

Books and edited collections by Edward Vallance

Research paper thumbnail of Remembering early modern revolutions: England, North America, France and Haiti

Remembering Early Modern Revolutions is the first study of memory in relation to the major revolu... more Remembering Early Modern Revolutions is the first study of memory in relation to the major revolutions of the early modern period. Beginning with the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (1642–60 and 1688–9), this book also explores the American, French and Haitian revolutions.

Through addressing these events collectively, this volume demonstrates the interconnectedness of these revolutions in the contemporary mind and highlights the importance of invoking the memory of prior revolutions in order both to warn of the dangers of revolution and to legitimate radical political change. It also unpicks the different ways in which these events were presented and their memory utilised, uncovering the importance of geographical and temporal contexts to the processes of remembering and forgetting.

Examining both personal and collective remembrance and exploring both private recollection and public commemoration, Remembering Early Modern Revolutions uncovers the rich and powerful memory of revolution in the Atlantic world and is ideal for students and teachers of memory in the early modern period.

Research paper thumbnail of Loyalty, Memory and Public Opinion in England, 1658-1727

This book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate over the emergence of an early mo... more This book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate over the emergence of an early modern 'public sphere'. Focusing on the petition-like form of the loyal address, it argues that these texts helped to foster a politically aware public by mapping shifts in the national 'mood'. Covering addressing campaigns from the late-Cromwellian to the early Georgian period, the book explores the production, presentation, subscription and publication of these texts. It argues that beneath partisan attacks on the credibility of loyal addresses lay a broad consensus about the validity of this political practice. Ultimately, loyal addresses acknowledged the existence of a 'political public' but did so in a way which fundamentally conceded the legitimacy of the social and political hierarchy. They constituted a political form perfectly suited to a fundamentally unequal society in which political life continued to be centered on the monarchy.

Research paper thumbnail of Conscience and the Early Modern World, 1500-1800

Research paper thumbnail of Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism, and the Political Nation, 1553-1682

REVOLUTIONARY ENGLAND AND THE NATIONAL COVENANT STATE OATHS, PROTESTANTISM AND THE POLITICAL NATI... more REVOLUTIONARY ENGLAND AND THE NATIONAL COVENANT STATE OATHS, PROTESTANTISM AND THE POLITICAL NATION, 1553-1682 This book studies the oaths and covenants taken during the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, a time of great religious and ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Glorious Revolution: Britain's Fight for Liberty

Research paper thumbnail of A Radical History of Britain: Visionaries, Rebels and Revolutionaries-the Men and Women Who Fought for Our Freedoms

history.ac.uk

From medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell, by way of... more From medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell, by way of John Lilburne and Mary Wollstonecraft, a rich and colourful thread of radicalism runs through almost a thousand years of British history ... traces a national tendency towards ...

Research paper thumbnail of The renaissance conscience (paperback)

The renaissance conscience (paperback) BRAUN Harald E., VALLANCE Edward.

Book chapters by Edward Vallance

Research paper thumbnail of A democratic culture? Women, citizenship and subscriptional texts in early modern England

Democracy and Anti-democracy in early modern England, 1603-1689, eds. C. Cuttica and M. Peltonen, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of 'Reborn John? The eighteenth-century afterlife of John Lilburne' (revised version of HWJ piece) in J. Rees (ed.) (2017), John Lilburne and the Levellers: Reappraising the roots of English radicalism 400 years on, Routledge

Research paper thumbnail of The Decline of Conscience as a Political Guide: William Higden's View of the English Constitution (1709)

H. Braun and Vallance (eds.), Contexts of Conscience …, Jan 1, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of 'From the hearts of the people': Loyalty, addresses and the public sphere in the exclusion crisis'

Research paper thumbnail of Royalist Absolutism in the 1650s: The Case of Robert Sheringham

Research paper thumbnail of Oaths, Covenants, Associations and the Origins of the Agreements of the People

Research paper thumbnail of 'Harrington, Petitioning and the Construction of Public Opinion'

Perspectives on English Revolutionary Republicanism, eds. D. Wiemann and G Mahlberg, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of 'Political thought: Liberty in the English Revolution' in M. J. Braddick ed., The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2015), ch. 25

This chapter explores the political thought of the civil war and interregnum through an examinati... more This chapter explores the political thought of the civil war and interregnum through an examination of the language of liberty.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘ “The Insane Enthusiasm of the Time”: Remembering the Regicides in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain and North America’

published in ‘L. Curelly and N. Smith (eds), Radical Voices, Radical Ways: Articulating and disse... more published in ‘L. Curelly and N. Smith (eds), Radical Voices, Radical Ways: Articulating and disseminating radical ideas in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain, Manchester University Press, 2016

Journal articles by Edward Vallance

Research paper thumbnail of The manuscript journals of the trial of Charles I: new evidence on their provenance and purpose

Historical Research, 2021

Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journ... more Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journals kept in The National Archives of the U.K. and the U.K. Parliamentary Archives. Besides these manuscripts, two further copies of the trial proceedings are held in the Beinecke Library, Yale, and in the British Library. This article compares these versions to propose a tentative document history of the journals, suggesting that these manuscripts were produced for different purposes: what began as the basis for an authoritative public account of the trial later became a text intended for a more select legal audience.

Research paper thumbnail of Testimony, Tyranny and Treason: The Witnesses at Charles I's Trial

English Historical Review, 2021

The trial and execution of Charles I have been the subject of considerable historical study, espe... more The trial and execution of Charles I have been the subject of considerable historical study, especially in the last twenty years. One aspect of the trial, however, remains largely unexplored: the role of witness testimony. The witness depositions received on 24 and 25 January 1649 have sometimes been dismissed as a mere stalling tactic, intended to provide Charles with further time to consider entering a plea. In contrast, this article contends that the witnesses’ depositions shed important new light on the trial. Exploring the witnesses’ backgrounds allows us to connect individuals with the regiments of regicides such as John Hewson and John Barkstead. These connections, through the army petitions of 1648, also link the witnesses’ testimony and, in broader terms, the trial, with the radical ideas of justice embodied in the Levellers’ ‘Large Petition’. Connecting the trial with the arguments made in the petitions for justice of the autumn and winter of 1648/9 also allows us to reconsider the importance of the concept of ‘blood guilt’. This article suggests that, far from being marginal to the king’s trial, the multi-faceted idea of blood guilt not only influenced the court’s procedure (in terms of the calling of multiple witnesses) but also was central to many of the witness depositions. Finally, drawing on both historical and philosophical work on personal testimony, the article suggests that the witness depositions may be connected to the broader, non-legal purposes of ‘witnessing’ in offering narratives of personal suffering.

Research paper thumbnail of Cromwell, blood guilt and the trial and execution of Charles I

Cromwelliana: The Journal of the Cromwell Association, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Une démonstration stratégique de loyauté dans l’Angleterre de la fin des Stuart : le cas des couteliers du Hallamshire

HISTOIRE, ÉCONOMIE & SOCIÉTÉ, 2019

Historians of the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (notably Michael Braddick and Jo... more Historians of the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (notably Michael Braddick and John Walter) have observed that the social, political and religious fissures of the period were revealed as much through gesture and speech as through the much-noted explosion of printed polemic. This article explores what may seem an unlikely arena in which to encounter such transgressive behaviour: the political theatre surrounding the presentation of loyal or humble addresses to the Crown. Addresses, as often formulaic public declarations of fidelity, were frequently derided as mere flattery. This impression was reinforced through the highly ritualised act of physically presenting these texts to the monarch, as the addressers engaged in embodied displays of submissiveness. This literally 'humbling' performance, however, could conceal a more subversive intent. Using the case study of the addressing activity of the Yorkshire baronet, Sir John Reresby, the article will show that addressing was often employed as means of lobbying the political centre. The public expressions of loyalty contained within these texts often concealed the pragmatic aims of the communities which produced them.

Research paper thumbnail of Remembering early modern revolutions: England, North America, France and Haiti

Remembering Early Modern Revolutions is the first study of memory in relation to the major revolu... more Remembering Early Modern Revolutions is the first study of memory in relation to the major revolutions of the early modern period. Beginning with the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (1642–60 and 1688–9), this book also explores the American, French and Haitian revolutions.

Through addressing these events collectively, this volume demonstrates the interconnectedness of these revolutions in the contemporary mind and highlights the importance of invoking the memory of prior revolutions in order both to warn of the dangers of revolution and to legitimate radical political change. It also unpicks the different ways in which these events were presented and their memory utilised, uncovering the importance of geographical and temporal contexts to the processes of remembering and forgetting.

Examining both personal and collective remembrance and exploring both private recollection and public commemoration, Remembering Early Modern Revolutions uncovers the rich and powerful memory of revolution in the Atlantic world and is ideal for students and teachers of memory in the early modern period.

Research paper thumbnail of Loyalty, Memory and Public Opinion in England, 1658-1727

This book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate over the emergence of an early mo... more This book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate over the emergence of an early modern 'public sphere'. Focusing on the petition-like form of the loyal address, it argues that these texts helped to foster a politically aware public by mapping shifts in the national 'mood'. Covering addressing campaigns from the late-Cromwellian to the early Georgian period, the book explores the production, presentation, subscription and publication of these texts. It argues that beneath partisan attacks on the credibility of loyal addresses lay a broad consensus about the validity of this political practice. Ultimately, loyal addresses acknowledged the existence of a 'political public' but did so in a way which fundamentally conceded the legitimacy of the social and political hierarchy. They constituted a political form perfectly suited to a fundamentally unequal society in which political life continued to be centered on the monarchy.

Research paper thumbnail of Conscience and the Early Modern World, 1500-1800

Research paper thumbnail of Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism, and the Political Nation, 1553-1682

REVOLUTIONARY ENGLAND AND THE NATIONAL COVENANT STATE OATHS, PROTESTANTISM AND THE POLITICAL NATI... more REVOLUTIONARY ENGLAND AND THE NATIONAL COVENANT STATE OATHS, PROTESTANTISM AND THE POLITICAL NATION, 1553-1682 This book studies the oaths and covenants taken during the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, a time of great religious and ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Glorious Revolution: Britain's Fight for Liberty

Research paper thumbnail of A Radical History of Britain: Visionaries, Rebels and Revolutionaries-the Men and Women Who Fought for Our Freedoms

history.ac.uk

From medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell, by way of... more From medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell, by way of John Lilburne and Mary Wollstonecraft, a rich and colourful thread of radicalism runs through almost a thousand years of British history ... traces a national tendency towards ...

Research paper thumbnail of The renaissance conscience (paperback)

The renaissance conscience (paperback) BRAUN Harald E., VALLANCE Edward.

Research paper thumbnail of A democratic culture? Women, citizenship and subscriptional texts in early modern England

Democracy and Anti-democracy in early modern England, 1603-1689, eds. C. Cuttica and M. Peltonen, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of 'Reborn John? The eighteenth-century afterlife of John Lilburne' (revised version of HWJ piece) in J. Rees (ed.) (2017), John Lilburne and the Levellers: Reappraising the roots of English radicalism 400 years on, Routledge

Research paper thumbnail of The Decline of Conscience as a Political Guide: William Higden's View of the English Constitution (1709)

H. Braun and Vallance (eds.), Contexts of Conscience …, Jan 1, 2004

Research paper thumbnail of 'From the hearts of the people': Loyalty, addresses and the public sphere in the exclusion crisis'

Research paper thumbnail of Royalist Absolutism in the 1650s: The Case of Robert Sheringham

Research paper thumbnail of Oaths, Covenants, Associations and the Origins of the Agreements of the People

Research paper thumbnail of 'Harrington, Petitioning and the Construction of Public Opinion'

Perspectives on English Revolutionary Republicanism, eds. D. Wiemann and G Mahlberg, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of 'Political thought: Liberty in the English Revolution' in M. J. Braddick ed., The Oxford Handbook of the English Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2015), ch. 25

This chapter explores the political thought of the civil war and interregnum through an examinati... more This chapter explores the political thought of the civil war and interregnum through an examination of the language of liberty.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘ “The Insane Enthusiasm of the Time”: Remembering the Regicides in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Britain and North America’

published in ‘L. Curelly and N. Smith (eds), Radical Voices, Radical Ways: Articulating and disse... more published in ‘L. Curelly and N. Smith (eds), Radical Voices, Radical Ways: Articulating and disseminating radical ideas in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain, Manchester University Press, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of The manuscript journals of the trial of Charles I: new evidence on their provenance and purpose

Historical Research, 2021

Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journ... more Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journals kept in The National Archives of the U.K. and the U.K. Parliamentary Archives. Besides these manuscripts, two further copies of the trial proceedings are held in the Beinecke Library, Yale, and in the British Library. This article compares these versions to propose a tentative document history of the journals, suggesting that these manuscripts were produced for different purposes: what began as the basis for an authoritative public account of the trial later became a text intended for a more select legal audience.

Research paper thumbnail of Testimony, Tyranny and Treason: The Witnesses at Charles I's Trial

English Historical Review, 2021

The trial and execution of Charles I have been the subject of considerable historical study, espe... more The trial and execution of Charles I have been the subject of considerable historical study, especially in the last twenty years. One aspect of the trial, however, remains largely unexplored: the role of witness testimony. The witness depositions received on 24 and 25 January 1649 have sometimes been dismissed as a mere stalling tactic, intended to provide Charles with further time to consider entering a plea. In contrast, this article contends that the witnesses’ depositions shed important new light on the trial. Exploring the witnesses’ backgrounds allows us to connect individuals with the regiments of regicides such as John Hewson and John Barkstead. These connections, through the army petitions of 1648, also link the witnesses’ testimony and, in broader terms, the trial, with the radical ideas of justice embodied in the Levellers’ ‘Large Petition’. Connecting the trial with the arguments made in the petitions for justice of the autumn and winter of 1648/9 also allows us to reconsider the importance of the concept of ‘blood guilt’. This article suggests that, far from being marginal to the king’s trial, the multi-faceted idea of blood guilt not only influenced the court’s procedure (in terms of the calling of multiple witnesses) but also was central to many of the witness depositions. Finally, drawing on both historical and philosophical work on personal testimony, the article suggests that the witness depositions may be connected to the broader, non-legal purposes of ‘witnessing’ in offering narratives of personal suffering.

Research paper thumbnail of Cromwell, blood guilt and the trial and execution of Charles I

Cromwelliana: The Journal of the Cromwell Association, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Une démonstration stratégique de loyauté dans l’Angleterre de la fin des Stuart : le cas des couteliers du Hallamshire

HISTOIRE, ÉCONOMIE & SOCIÉTÉ, 2019

Historians of the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (notably Michael Braddick and Jo... more Historians of the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (notably Michael Braddick and John Walter) have observed that the social, political and religious fissures of the period were revealed as much through gesture and speech as through the much-noted explosion of printed polemic. This article explores what may seem an unlikely arena in which to encounter such transgressive behaviour: the political theatre surrounding the presentation of loyal or humble addresses to the Crown. Addresses, as often formulaic public declarations of fidelity, were frequently derided as mere flattery. This impression was reinforced through the highly ritualised act of physically presenting these texts to the monarch, as the addressers engaged in embodied displays of submissiveness. This literally 'humbling' performance, however, could conceal a more subversive intent. Using the case study of the addressing activity of the Yorkshire baronet, Sir John Reresby, the article will show that addressing was often employed as means of lobbying the political centre. The public expressions of loyalty contained within these texts often concealed the pragmatic aims of the communities which produced them.

Research paper thumbnail of Petitioning, addressing and the historical imagination: the case of Great Yarmouth

Parliament, Estates and Representation, 2018

This article examines the role of loyal addresses, petition-like texts that emerged during the Cr... more This article examines the role of loyal addresses, petition-like texts that emerged during the Cromwellian Protectorate in England, as repositories of public memory. It contends that loyal addresses were a particularly mnemonic form of political communication: not only did addresses themselves incorporate historical narratives but their reproduction in contemporary newsbooks facilitated their later collection in compendia and histories of addressing. These volumes in turn gave an overall ‘sense’ or character to public opinion nationally and allowed its shifts to be charted over time. The article uses the case study of an address to Richard Cromwell issued in 1658 from the corporation of Great Yarmouth to demonstrate how this text was redeployed to wage a political campaign against leading magistrates in the town in the 1670s. The address gained renewed political significance in the late eighteenth century, as the interplay of local political and historical interests made its depiction of the influence of religious factions in the borough once again relevant. This local memory in turn fed upon a wider national use of the Cromwellian addresses as an example of political faithlessness and duplicity. Combined, these local and national discussions demonstrated the importance of addresses in defining public opinion and political identity over time.

Research paper thumbnail of Women, Politics, and the 1723 Oaths of Allegiance to George I

The Historical Journal, Dec 2016

This article explores the last instance of mass public oath-taking in England, the tendering of t... more This article explores the last instance of mass public oath-taking in England, the tendering of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration in the aftermath of the Jacobite Atterbury Plot of 1722. The records of this exercise, surviving in local record offices, have been little examined by historians. The returns are, however, unusual not only in the level of detail they occasionally provide concerning subscribers (place of abode, occupation, and social status) but also in the consistently high numbers of women who can be found taking the oaths. Prior to 1723, the appearance of female subscribers on oath returns was exceptional and usually assumed to be accidental. As this article seeks to demonstrate, the targeting of women in 1723 was intentional and represented a recognition of women's economic and political influence in early Hanoverian England. Even so, the presence of women on these oath returns represented a breach in the normal exclusion of women from formal political participation. The article suggests that other means of presenting public loyalty, namely the loyal address, were subsequently preferred which both seemed more the product of popular enthusiasm rather than state direction and which could informally represent women without conferring a public political identity.

Research paper thumbnail of Loyal or Rebellious? Protestant Associations In England 1584-1696

Seventeenth Century, Jan 1, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Oaths, Casuistry, and Equivocation: Anglican Responses to the Engagement Controversy

The Historical Journal, Jan 1, 2001

Research paper thumbnail of Preaching to the Converted: Religious Justifications for the English Civil War

The Huntington Library Quarterly, Jan 1, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of The Kingdom's Case: The Use of Casuistry As a Political Language 1640-1692

Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British …, Jan 1, 2002

It has now become orthodoxy for historians to write about political texts as being part of discou... more It has now become orthodoxy for historians to write about political texts as being part of discourses or languages. This approach has much merit. At the very least, the work of Quentin Skinner, JGA Pocock and John Dunn has encouraged historians to use a broader range of sources, ...

Research paper thumbnail of 'An Holy and Sacramentall Paction': Federal Theology and the Solemn League and Covenant In England

English Historical Review, Jan 1, 2001

THE Solemn League and Covenant of I643 and the oaths of loyalty that preceded it, the Protestatio... more THE Solemn League and Covenant of I643 and the oaths of loyalty that preceded it, the Protestation and Vow and Covenant, have received relatively little attention in comparison to their Scottish counterpart, the National Covenant of 1638.1 The Protestation has generally been ...

Research paper thumbnail of Protestation, Vow, Covenant and Engagement: Swearing Allegiance In the English Civil War

Historical Research, Jan 1, 2002

Research paper thumbnail of Rebels, Radicals and (Lukewarm) Republicans In Early Modern England

The English Historical Review, Jan 1, 2009

Paine's discussion of English government bears a marked resemblance to a much more recen... more Paine's discussion of English government bears a marked resemblance to a much more recent treatment of the early modern state by Patrick Collinson. 3 Collinson has described Elizabethan England as 'a republic which happened also to be a monarchy: or vice versa'. 4 The ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Dangers of Prudence: Salus Populi Suprema Lex, Robert Sanderson, and theCase of the Liturgy'

Research paper thumbnail of The Captivity of James II: Gestures of Loyalty and Disloyalty in Seventeenth‐Century England

Research paper thumbnail of 'Thomas Paine and Monarchical Republicanism'

The fourth sort or classe amongest us, is of those which the olde Romans called capite censij pro... more The fourth sort or classe amongest us, is of those which the olde Romans called capite censij proletary or operoe, day labourers, poore husbandmen, yea marchantes or retailers which have no free lande, copiholders, all artificers, as Taylers, Shoomakers, Carpenters, Brickemakers, Bricklayers, Masons, &c. These have no voice nor authoritie in our common wealth, and no account is made of them but onelie to be ruled, not to rule other, and yet they be not altogether neglected. For in cities and corporate townes for default of yeomen, they are faine to make their enquests of such manner of people. And in villages they be commonly made Churchwardens, alecunners, and manie times Constables, which office toucheth more the common wealth, and at the first was not imployed uppon such lowe and base persons. Wherefore generally to speake of the common wealth, or policie of Englande, it is governed, administred, and manied by three sortes of persons, the Prince, Monarch, and head governer, which is called the king, or if the crowne fall to a woman, the Queene absolute, as I have heeretofore saide: In whose name and by whose authoritie all things be administred. The gentlemen, which be divided into two partes, the Baronie or estate of Lordes which conteyneth [5] barons and all that bee above the degree of a baron, (as I have declared before): and those which be no Lords, as Knightes, Esquires, and simple gentlemen. The thirde and last sort of persons is named the yeomanrie: each of these hath his part and administration in judgementes, corrections of defaultes, in election of offices, in appointing tributes and subsidies, and in making lawes, as shall appear heereafter.

Research paper thumbnail of Reborn John?: the Eighteenth-century Afterlife of John Lilburne

Research paper thumbnail of 'The 1723 oath rolls in England: an electronic finding list'

A finding list which attempts to catalogue all of the surviving English returns for the oaths to... more A finding list which attempts to catalogue all of the surviving English returns for the oaths to George I tendered in the summer and winter of 1723. The project is funded by the Marc Fitch Fund and employs crowd-sourced information to identify returns. If you would like to add a comment please contact history working papers for a login. http://www.historyworkingpapers.org/?page_id=373
"

Research paper thumbnail of Are oaths inclusive or exclusive?

Research paper thumbnail of 'Digging for Britain'

Research paper thumbnail of Londoners:Rioting Through the Ages

Research paper thumbnail of In the name of the people

Research paper thumbnail of Debates: Narrative in school history with Peter Mandler and Sean Lang

Research paper thumbnail of 'PJ Harvey has brilliantly evoked a nation built on bloodshed'

Research paper thumbnail of Polychronicon: The unrevolutionary revolution? Interpreting the revolution of 1688

Research paper thumbnail of The 1723 oaths to George I: a resource for family historians

A short article for the London Metropolitan Archives website and newsletter on the LMA's holdings... more A short article for the London Metropolitan Archives website and newsletter on the LMA's holdings of 1723 oath returns.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Daniel Defoe, public opinion and the Anglo-Scottish Union', The Historian, 124 (2015), pp. 20-24

There is a tendency to represent Daniel Defoe as a novelist and satirical journalist who was at o... more There is a tendency to represent Daniel Defoe as a novelist and satirical journalist who was at one point placed in the London stocks as a punishment. Ted Vallance's article broadens our perspective to appreciate Defoe's activities as a propagandist in both England and Scotland.

Research paper thumbnail of 'Jeremy Clarkson: A 17th Century Protest'

Like a good 17th-century pamphleteer, Clarkson denies that protest is effective but doesn't disco... more Like a good 17th-century pamphleteer, Clarkson denies that protest is effective but doesn't discourage his supporters from agitating in his defence.

Research paper thumbnail of The Rebirth of the Levellers

Research paper thumbnail of 'Make Catholics Pay', BBC History Magazine, no. 9, September 2015

Research paper thumbnail of State oaths and political casuistry in England 1640-1702

Research paper thumbnail of Radicalism

Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, 2013

Research paper thumbnail of 'Writing the Regicide in an Age of Revolutions: the case of Mark Noble'

Edward Vallance, ‘Writing the Regicide in the Age of Revolutions: the case of Mark Noble’ This pa... more Edward Vallance, ‘Writing the Regicide in the Age of Revolutions: the case of Mark Noble’
This paper explores the difficulty of writing about regicide in the 1790s. Focusing on the career of the clergyman and antiquary, Mark Noble, it demonstrates how the publication of Noble’s The Lives of the Regicides in 1798 affected his career as a writer. While his earlier collective biography of the Cromwell family had both established his literary reputation and secured him important patrons, the publication of Lives of the Regicides severely damaged his career as a writer,even though Noble was a loyalist who framed his work as a warning to the regicides of France. Despite having prepared many other historical works for publication, Noble was forced to return to publishing apolitical, antiquarian works. Noble’s case illustrates the broader difficulty in the 1790s of invoking the memory of 1649 even to condemn the actions of both French and English revolutionaries. This in turn reflects wider concerns about fuelling the radical imaginery in an age of revolution.

Research paper thumbnail of The loyal address of the well-affected of Leicestershire to Richard Cromwell, 1658

A transcription of Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Rawlinson A. 61* I discuss this manuscript in grea... more A transcription of Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Rawlinson A. 61*
I discuss this manuscript in greater detail in chapter 5 of my monograph, Loyalty, Memory and Public Opinion in England, 1658-1727 (Manchester University Press, 2019). This was one of many loyal addresses sent to the new Protector, Richard Cromwell, in the autumn and winter of 1658: a hostile compendium of these texts A True Catalogue (1659) identified 94 texts from English boroughs and counties sent to Cromwell.