The Power of Petitioning in Seventeenth-Century England

十七世纪英国请愿的力量

基本信息

  • 批准号:
    AH/S001654/1
  • 负责人:
  • 金额:
    $ 25.77万
  • 依托单位:
  • 依托单位国家:
    英国
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant
  • 财政年份:
    2019
  • 资助国家:
    英国
  • 起止时间:
    2019 至 无数据
  • 项目状态:
    已结题

项目摘要

How can people without official political power push the authorities to act? Historically, one of the most common tactics was to create a petition or supplication. Even today, every year hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens sign e-petitions addressed to parliament which can lead directly to high-profile debates in the House of Commons.In seventeenth-century England, petitioning was ubiquitous. It was one of the only acceptable ways to address the authorities when seeking redress, mercy or advancement. As a result, it was a crucial mode of communication between the 'rulers' and the 'ruled'. People at all levels of society - from noblemen to paupers - used petitions to make their voices heard. Some were mere begging letters scrawled on scraps of paper; others were carefully crafted radical demands signed by thousands and sent to the highest powers in the land. Whatever form they took, they provide a vital source for illuminating the concerns of supposedly 'powerless' people and also offer a unique means to map the structures of authority that framed early modern society. This study will be the first to examine petitioning systematically at all levels of English government over the whole century.The project will create a valuable new resource by digitising and transcribing a corpus drawn from nine key collections of petitions held at national and local archives, totalling about 2,500 documents. This corpus, when combined with careful contextualisation, will allow the investigators to offer new answers to crucial questions about the major social and political changes that unfolded in this formative period. We will be able to examine the role of petitioning in specific moments such as the outbreak of civil war in 1642, the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the Exclusion Crisis in 1679-81 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. We will also be able to track how petitionary practices shaped - and were shaped by - long-term developments, such as the emergence of a politicised 'public sphere' and the vast expansion in the English state, by assessing how much petitioners' attention shifted from local to national authorities, and from individual to mass subscriptions. Such questions are central to understanding government and politics in this period, but they can only be addressed through methodical analysis of a substantial corpus of petitions.This resource will make it possible to go beyond questions specific to petitioning by offering a new perspective on the nature of state authority itself. Current understandings of formal power structures in seventeenth-century England have been drawn primarily from the writings of theorists or officeholders. In contrast, petitions provide a view of authority 'from below'. They will allow us to reconstruct the outlook of people who lacked any official authority of their own. What concerns did they believe should be addressed by their superiors? To whom did they direct their complaints or requests? How did they adapt their rhetoric to fit with the changing political and ideological complexion of the state?The transcribed petitions will be made freely available through a bespoke Institute of Historical Research website, augmented with contextual essays, and searchable by year, locality, sender, recipient, topic and response. So, while publications by the investigators will address the research questions above, other scholars will use this resource to pursuing further lines of inquiry. Moreover, this resource will also serve the needs of stakeholders beyond professional researchers. We will partner with two archives (Cheshire and London Metropolitan) and a large volunteer organisation (The University of the Third Age) to support lay researchers - such as local and family historians - working on this wealth of newly accessible material tagged by place and name. This project will therefore open up a new perspective on the seventeenth century for both scholars and the wider public.
没有官方政治权力的人如何推动当局采取行动?从历史上看,最常见的策略之一是创建一个请愿书或恳求。即使在今天,每年仍有成千上万的普通公民在电子请愿书上签名,这些请愿书可以直接导致下议院的高调辩论。在17世纪的英国,请愿无处不在。这是在寻求补救、宽恕或进步时与当局交涉的唯一可接受的方式之一。因此,它是“统治者”和“被统治者”之间沟通的重要方式。社会各阶层的人--从贵族到贫民--都通过请愿来表达自己的意见。有些只是潦草地写在纸片上的乞求信;其他人则是精心制作的激进要求,由数千人签名,并发送给该国的最高权力机构。无论它们采取何种形式,它们都为阐明所谓“无权无势”的人们的关切提供了重要来源,也为描绘构成早期现代社会的权威结构提供了独特的手段。这项研究将是第一次系统地研究整个世纪英国各级政府的请愿活动。该项目将通过数字化和转录国家和地方档案馆保存的9个关键请愿书集合中的语料库,共计约2,500份文件,创造一个宝贵的新资源。这个语料库,当结合仔细的语境,将使调查人员提供新的答案,在这个形成时期展开的重大社会和政治变革的关键问题。我们将能够研究请愿在特定时刻的作用,如1642年内战的爆发,1660年君主制的恢复,1679- 1681年的排斥危机和1688年的光荣革命。我们还将能够跟踪请愿的做法如何塑造-和被塑造-长期的发展,如政治化的“公共领域”的出现和英国国家的巨大扩张,通过评估请愿者的注意力从地方转移到国家当局,从个人到大众订阅。这些问题对于理解这一时期的政府和政治至关重要,但它们只能通过对大量请愿书的系统分析来解决,这一资源将使我们有可能超越请愿书特有的问题,提供一个关于国家权力本身性质的新视角。目前对17世纪英国正式权力结构的理解主要来自理论家或官员的著作。相比之下,请愿书提供了一种“来自下层”的权威观点。他们将使我们能够重建那些缺乏任何官方权威的人的世界观。他们认为上级应该解决哪些问题?他们向谁提出申诉或要求?他们是如何调整自己的言论,以适应不断变化的政治和意识形态的情况下,国家?转录的请愿书将通过定制的历史研究所网站免费提供,并添加上下文文章,并可按年份、地点、发件人、收件人、主题和回应进行搜索。因此,虽然研究人员的出版物将解决上述研究问题,但其他学者将利用此资源进行进一步的研究。此外,这一资源还将满足专业研究人员以外的利益攸关方的需求。我们将与两个档案馆(柴郡和伦敦大都会)和一个大型志愿者组织(第三年龄大学)合作,以支持非专业研究人员-如当地和家庭历史学家-对这些新获得的材料财富进行标记。因此,这一项目将为学者和广大公众开辟一个新的视角来看待17世纪。

项目成果

期刊论文数量(7)
专著数量(0)
科研奖励数量(0)
会议论文数量(0)
专利数量(0)
Petitions to the Westminster Quarter Sessions, 1620-1799
威斯敏斯特季度会议请愿书,1620 年至 1799 年
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2019
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Brodie Waddell
  • 通讯作者:
    Brodie Waddell
Petitions to the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions, 1589-1799
斯塔福德郡季度会议请愿书,1589 年至 1799 年
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2019
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Brodie Waddell
  • 通讯作者:
    Brodie Waddell
Petitions to the House of Lords, 1597-1696
向上议院请愿书,1597-1696 年
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2020
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Peacey J
  • 通讯作者:
    Peacey J
Petitions in the State Papers, 1600-1699
国家文件中的请愿书,1600-1699 年
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2020
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Brodie Waddell
  • 通讯作者:
    Brodie Waddell
Petitions to the Worcestershire Quarter Sessions, 1592-1797
伍斯特郡季度会议请愿书,1592-1797 年
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2020
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0
  • 作者:
    Brodie Waddell
  • 通讯作者:
    Brodie Waddell
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Brodie Waddell其他文献

"Verses of My Owne Making": Literacy, Work, and Social Identity in Early Modern England
“我自己创作的诗句”:近代早期英国的读写能力、工作和社会身份
  • DOI:
  • 发表时间:
    2019
  • 期刊:
  • 影响因子:
    0.8
  • 作者:
    Brodie Waddell
  • 通讯作者:
    Brodie Waddell
The Popular Politics of Local Petitioning in Early Modern England
近代早期英国地方请愿的流行政治

Brodie Waddell的其他文献

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相似海外基金

Popular Petitioning and Mass Democracy in the United States: a History
美国的民众请愿和群众民主:一段历史
  • 批准号:
    FT190100258
  • 财政年份:
    2020
  • 资助金额:
    $ 25.77万
  • 项目类别:
    ARC Future Fellowships
Petitioning and People Power in Twentieth-Century Britain
二十世纪英国的请愿与人民力量
  • 批准号:
    AH/T003847/1
  • 财政年份:
    2020
  • 资助金额:
    $ 25.77万
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant
Petitions and Petitioning from the Medieval Period to the Present
从中世纪至今的请愿书和请愿书
  • 批准号:
    AH/R008868/1
  • 财政年份:
    2018
  • 资助金额:
    $ 25.77万
  • 项目类别:
    Research Grant
Social agency of petitioning
信访社会机构
  • 批准号:
    2114667
  • 财政年份:
    2018
  • 资助金额:
    $ 25.77万
  • 项目类别:
    Studentship
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