Abstract
Since disparate recollections of the past have the power to undermine and subvert desired cultural memories and impede their integration into a collective past, the Restoration regime and its supporters had to encourage and promote a specific form of remembering the protagonists of the previous two decades. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse Restoration myths as narrative acts of distorted commemoration.
Abstract
I.The Saints: “Born of Heav’nly Race”
This subsection analyses the regime-prescribed methods of national commemoration of Charles I and the forms it took in the national myths circulating in popular print, repeatedly encouraging the nation to remember an authorised version of Charles I and his execution worked to establish the legitimacy of the return of Charles II. To achieve this, the reasons for Charles I’s arrest and execution were overwritten by narratives of his Christ-like sacrifice and martyrdom. This, in turn, affected the manner in which the image of Charles II could be portrayed: the myths and legends that were propagated about the restored king presented him in the style of three common archetypes found within the structures of myths and legends: the ‘romantic hero’, the ‘healer of the nation’, and the ‘father of the nation’.
II.The Demons: “Unhallowed Monsters of this Age”
In order to be effective, the apotheosis of Charles I in a process of positive commemoration required a definitional other: Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was demonised in a contrasting but equally significant process of negative commemoration. This section demonstrates that it was in the interests of the Restoration regime, the same regime that had expressly ordered a collective forgetting of the recent past, to maintain and even promote a demonic image of Cromwell in the collective memories of the nation. With obvious biblical overtones, satanic Cromwell was occasionally surrounded by a cabal of lesser devils, that is, a selection of the other regicides. This section argues that, rather than initiate a blanket campaign against non-royalists, and therefore increase national divisions, it proved more useful to single out one man as uniquely evil and then collectively abhor and blame him for events of the past.
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Notes
- 1.
Robert Zaller, “Breaking the Vessels: The Desacralization of Monarchy in Early Modern England”, The Sixteenth Century Journal, 29:3 (Autumn 1998), 774.
- 2.
Harris, Restoration: Charles II and his Kingdoms, 1660–1685, 55.
- 3.
Lori Ducharme and Gary Alan Fine, “The Construction of Nonpersonhood and Demonization: Commemorating the Traitorous Reputation of Benedict Arnold”, Social Forces, 73:4 (June 1995), 1309.
- 4.
Malcolm Smuts has pointed out that “we cannot filter out all the myths and polemic distortions from the story…since many of these are integral to it” (Smuts, Culture and Power in England, 1585–1685 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999), 106). Though much work has been done on Tudor and early Stuart propaganda and image-making, there has been significantly less focus on the representation, in contemporary print, of the myth-making and image construction of the Restoration era. For Tudor and (predominantly) early Stuart propaganda, ritual, and image-making see, for example, Kevin Sharpe, Reading Authority and Representing Rule in Early Modern England (London: Bloomsbury, 2013); Kevin Sharpe, Selling the Tudor Monarchy: Authority and Image in Sixteenth-Century England (London: Yale University Press, 2009); Thomas N. Corns (ed.), The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman (eds.), The Myth of Elizabeth (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003); David R. Howarth, Images of Rule: Art and Politics in the English Renaissance 1485–1649: Social and Political analysis of English Renaissance Art (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997); Richard Olland, The Image of the King (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1979). As Kevin Sharpe recently suggested, images of the monarchy and representations of rule from 1660 “remain largely unstudied” (Sharpe, Rebranding Rule: The Restoration and Revolution Monarchy 1660–1714, xvi).
- 5.
Jeanette Rodriguez and Ted Fortier, Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith, and Identity (Texas: University of Texas Press, 2007), 12.
- 6.
Birgit Neumann, “The Literary Representation of Memory” in Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nunning (eds.), A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), 334.
- 7.
Zaller, “Breaking the Vessels”, 774.
- 8.
Lois Potter, “The Royal Martyr in the Restoration: National Grief and National Sin” in Thomas N. Corns (ed.), The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 240.
- 9.
George Morely, A Sermon Preached at the Magnificent Coronation of the Most High and Mighty King Charles the IId (London: 1661), 58.
- 10.
See, for example, Kevin Sharpe “So Hard a Text? Images of Charles I, 1612–1700”,The Historical Journal, 43:2 (June 2000),383–405; Lois Potter, “The Royal Martyr in the Restoration: National Grief and National Sin” in Thomas Corns (ed.), The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 240–262; Joad Raymond, “Popular Representations of Charles I” in Thomas Corns (ed.), The Royal Image: Representations of Charles I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 47–73; Laura L. Knoppers, Historicizing Milton: Spectacle, Power, and Poetry in Restoration England (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994); Richard Ollard, The Image of the King: Charles I and Charles II (New York: Atheneum, 1979).
- 11.
Stoyle, “Remembering the English Civil Wars”, 25.
- 12.
Anon., Salmasius his Buckler: Or, a Royal Apology for King Charles the Martyr (London, 1662), 20.
- 13.
See, for example, Henry Leslie, The Martyrdom of King Charles I. Or, His Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings (London, 1660); Anon., An Elegie and Epitaph on That Glorious Saint, and Blessed Martyr, King Charles I. The Best of Kings Since Christ, But Murther’d by the Worst of Men Since the Creation (London, 1661).
- 14.
Smuts, Culture and Power in England, 154.
- 15.
Cubitt, Geoffrey, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 214.
- 16.
A Person of Quality, The Faithful, Yet Imperfect, Character of a Glorious King, King Charles I. His Country’s and Religions Martyr (London, 1660), 4; Anon., An Elegie and Epitaph on That Glorious Saint, and blessed Martyr, King Charles I. The best of Kings since Christ, but murther’d by the worst of men since the Creation (London: 1661), 4.
- 17.
Stoyle, “Remembering the English Civil Wars”, 25.
- 18.
William Langley, The Death of Charles the First Lamented, with the Restauration of Charles the Second Congratulated (London, 1660), 1–2.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Roger L’Estrange, A Memento: Directed to all Those That Truly Reverence the Memory of King Charles the Martyr; And as Passionately wish the Honour, Safety, and Happinesse of His Royall Successour Our Most Gratious Sovereign Charles the II (London, 1662), 7.
- 21.
Thomas Forde, Virtus Rediviva: Or, A Panegyrick On the late K. Charles the I. Second Monarch of Great Britain (London, 1660), 25–26.
- 22.
A Person of Quality, The Faithful, Yet Imperfect, Character of a Glorious King, King Charles I. His Country’s and Religions Martyr (London, 1660), 4.
- 23.
William Winstanley, The Loyal Martyrology (London, 1665), 16.
- 24.
Thomas Warmstry, A Handkerchiefe for Loyal Mourners (London, 1659), 5–6.
- 25.
Ibid.
- 26.
Anon., An Elegy, Consecrated to the Inestimable Memory of Our Late Most Famous Monarch, Charles the First, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland; Who was Beheaded on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 1648 (London, 1660), 1.
- 27.
Charles Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty (London, 1660), 2; H. Beeston Winton, A Poem To His most Excellent Majesty Charles the Second (London, 1660), 4; Thomas Higgons, A Panegyric to the King. By His Majesties most humble, Most Loyal, and Most Obedient Subject and Servant (London, 1660), 4; Rachel Jevon, Exultationis Carmen to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty Upon His Most Desired Return (London, 1660), 2; Anthony Sadler, Majestie Irradiant, of The Splendor Displayed, of Our Soveraigne King Charles (London, 1660).
- 28.
Sir Samuel Tuke, A Character of Charles the Second, Written by an Impartial and Exposed to Publick View for the Information of the People (London, 1660), 3–4.
- 29.
For some examples of the short biographies of Charles II, see Sir Samuel Tuke, A Character of Charles II (London, 1660); Anthony Sadler, Majestie Irradiant or The Splendor Displayed, of Our Soveraigne King Charles (London, 1660); David Lloyd, Eikon Basilike. Or, The True Pourtraiture of Charles II (London, 1660); Edward Terry, A Character of His Most Sacred Majesty King Charles II (London, 1660); Anon., An Imperfect Portraiture of His Sacred Majesty Charles II (London, 1660). For some examples of the more extensive histories, see John Dauncy, The History of His Sacred Majesty Charles II (London, 1660); Francis Eglesfield, The Life and Reigne of our Sovereign Lord, King Charles II (London, 1660).
- 30.
Weber, Harold, Paper Bullets: Print and Kingship Under Charles II(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 16.
- 31.
Sawday, Jonathan, ‘Re-Writing a Revolution: History, Symbol, and Text in the Restoration’ The Seventeenth Century, 7:2 (1992), 180.
- 32.
Cubitt, 187.
- 33.
Anon., King Charles the Second’s Restoration (London, 1660), 1.
- 34.
For more detail concerning the events of the escape, see Richard Ollard, The Escape of Charles II After the Battle of Worcester (New York: Scribner), 1966.
- 35.
Henry Jones, The Patient Royall Traveller, or, The wonderful Escapes of His Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second from Worcester-Fight; and His making a Hollow Oke his Royall Palace…to the Tune of Chivy Chase (London, 1660).
- 36.
Brian Weiser, “Owning the King’s Story: The Escape from Worcester”, The Seventeenth Century, 14:1 (Spring 1999), 45.
- 37.
John Danvers, The Royal Oake, or, An Historical Description of the Royal Progress, Wonderful Travels, Miraculous Escapes, and Strange Accidents of His Sacred Majesty Charles the II Third Monarch of Great Brittain (London, 1660), 1.
- 38.
Ibid., 2.
- 39.
Ibid., 3.
- 40.
Ibid.
- 41.
Higgons, A Panegyric to the King, 8–9.
- 42.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 5.
- 43.
Ibid., 10.
- 44.
Ibid., 9.
- 45.
Jevon, Exultationis Carmen to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, 2–3.
- 46.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 6.
- 47.
James Heath, The Celebration of the Anniversary Day of His Majesties Birth and Restitution May 29th 1630/60 (London: 1661).
- 48.
Jevon, Exultationis Carmen to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, 3–5.
- 49.
The layering of new myths through references to older more established ones in order to construct a specific version of remembering the recent past was also used to display the villainy of Oliver Cromwell. For example, William Winstanley’s, The Loyal Martyrology (London, 1665) refers to Cromwell as, “a pattern of tyranny, whose horrid treasons will scarce gain credit with posterity, whose bloody tyranny will quite drown the names of Nero, Domitian, Caligula, etc.” (102).
- 50.
Higgons, A Panegyric to the King, 11.
- 51.
Ibid., 4.
- 52.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 9.
- 53.
John Evelyn, A Panegyric to Charles the Second, Presented to His Majestie The XXXIII of April, Being the Day of His Coronation (London, 1661), 8.
- 54.
Higgons, A Panegyric to the King, 4.
- 55.
Christopher Hill, Some Intellectual Consequences of the English Revolution (London: Harmondsworth, 1980), 28.
- 56.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 4.
- 57.
Evelyn, A Panegyric to Charles the Second, Presented to His Majestie The XXXIII of April, Being the Day of His Coronation, 9.
- 58.
Collop, Itur Satyricum: In Loyall Stanza’s (London, 1660), 5.
- 59.
Higgons, A Panegyric to the King, 9.
- 60.
Edmund Waller, To the King, Upon His Majesties Happy Return (London, 1660), 3.
- 61.
H. Beeston and H. Bold, A Poem to His Most Excellent Majesty Charles the Second (London, 1660), 9.
- 62.
A Loyal Member of His Majesties Army, A Congratulations for His Sacred Majesty, Charles, the third Monarch of Great Britain, His Happy Arrival at Whitehall (Edinburgh, 1660), 1.
- 63.
J.G.B., Royall Poems Presented to His Majesty Charles the II (London, 1660), 5; Jevon, Exultationis Carmen to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, 5.
- 64.
George Morely, A Sermon Preached at the Magnificent Coronation of the Most High and Mighty King Charles the IId (London, 1661), 46.
- 65.
Sir Edmund Pierce, Vox vere Anglorum: or Englands Loud Cry for their King, Written by a Hearty Well-willer to the Common-weale, and the Flourishing of Our Nations (London, 1659), 10.
- 66.
Weiser, “Owning the King’s Story”, 46.
- 67.
Sir Samuel Tuke, A Character of Charles the Second, Written by an Impartial and Exposed to Publick View for the Information of the People (London, 1660), 10.
- 68.
Anthony Sadler, Majestie Irradiant, or The Splendor Displayed, of our Soveraigne King Charles (London, 1660), 1.
- 69.
Jevon, Exultationis Carmen to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, 4–6.
- 70.
Sawday, 186.
- 71.
Weber, 4.
- 72.
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory, ed. and trans. Lewis A. Coser (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
- 73.
Ducharme and Fine, “The Construction of Nonpersonhood and Demonization”, 1310.
- 74.
In reference to the longer printed histories and biographies, Matthew Neufeld, The Civil Wars After 1660: Public Remembering in Late Stuart England, also refers to Oliver Cromwell as the “chief villain of the decade in the sanctioned histories” (35) and the “major horror-figure of early Restoration historical writing” (49).
- 75.
Ducharme and Fine, “The Construction of Nonpersonhood and Demonization, 1311.
- 76.
H. Beeston Winton, A Poem to His most Excellent Majesty Charles the Second (London, 1660), 6.
- 77.
Roger L’Estrange, A Memento: Directed to all Those That Truly Reverence the Memory of King Charles the Martyr; And as Passionately wish the Honour, Safety, and Happinesse of his Royall Successour our most Gratious Sovereign Charles the II (London, 1662), 217.
- 78.
For examples of pamphlets featuring other regicides, see Anon., A New Meeting of Ghosts at Tyburn (London, 1660); Marchamont Needham and Pagan Fisher: Servants, Poets and Pamphleteers to his Highnesse, The Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, and John Bradshaw. Intended to Have Been Spoken at Their Execution at Tyburne, January 30, 1660. But for Many Weightie Reasons Omitted (London, 1660).
- 79.
Anon., A New Meeting of Ghosts at Tyburn (London, 1660), 5.
- 80.
Kindome’s Intelligencer, Issue 6 (London: February 4–February 11, 1661), 88.
- 81.
Anon., A Relation of the Ten Grand Infamous Traytors Who for Their Horrid Murder and Detestable Villany Against…Late Soveraigne lord King Charles the First, That Ever Blessed Martyr, Were Arraigned, Tryed, and Executed in the Moneth of October, 1660. Which in Perpetuity Will be Had in Remembrance. nnto [sic] the Worlds End (London, 1660).
- 82.
Extended and more detailed print material concerning the trials and executions of the regicides was also in circulation. See, Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham, An Exact and Most Impartial Accompt of the Indictment, Arraignment, Trial, and Judgment (According to Law) of Twenty Nine Regicides, the Murtherers of His Late Sacred Majesty of Most Glorious Memory: Begun at Hicks-Hall on Tuesday, the 9th. of October, 1660. And continued (at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bayley) Untill Friday, the Nineteenth of the Same Moneth. Together with a Summary of the Dark, and Horrid Decrees of Those Caballists, Preparatory to That Hellish Fact. Exposed to View for the Reader’s Satisfaction, and Information of Posterity (London, 1660).
- 83.
George Horton, The English Devil: or, Cromwell and His Monstrous Witch Discover’d at Whitehall (London: 1660), 1–3; J.G.B., Royall Poems Presented to His Majesty Charles the II (London, 1660), 6; A Loyal Member of His Majesties Army, A Congratulation for his Sacred Majesty, Charles, the Third Monarch of Great Britain, His Happy Arrival at Whitehall (Edinburgh, 1660), 1; Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 3.
- 84.
Anon., A New Meeting of Ghosts at Tyburn (London, 1660), 4.
- 85.
A Person of Quality, The Faithful, Yet Imperfect, Character of a Glorious King, King Charles I. His Country’s and Religions Martyr (London, 1660), 29.
- 86.
For pre-Restoration pamphlets praising Cromwell see, for example, Samuel Slater, The Protectors Protection: Or, The Pious Prince guarded by a Praying People (London, 1658); Marchamont Needham, The Excellencie of a Free-State: Or, the Right Constitution of a Common-Wealth (London, 1656); John Moore, Protection Proclaimed. Wherein the Government Established, in the Lord Protector and His Council, Is Proved to be of Divine Institution (London, 1655); George Wither, The Protector. A Poem Briefly Illustrating the Supereminency of That Dignity (London: 1655); Thomas Manley, Veni, Vedi, Vici. The Triumphs of the Most Excellent & Illustrious Oliver Cromwell, &c. Set forth in Panegyric (London, 1653).
- 87.
Laura Lunger Knoppers, Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait, and Print, 1645–1661 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 168.
- 88.
Laura Lunger Knoppers, “‘Sing Old Noll the Brewer’: Royalist Satire and Social Inversion 1648–64”, Seventeenth Century, 15 (2000), 32–52; “Ceremony, Print, and Punishment in the Early Restoration” in Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait, and Print, 1645–1661 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 167–193. For examples of some pamphlets and ballads which feature these comical satires, see Anon., “The Protecting Brewer” in Rump Song: Or an Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs Relating to the Late Times (London, 1662); Anon., A Parly Between the Ghosts of the Late Protector and the King of Sweden (London, 1660); Anon., The Last Farewell of Three Bold Traytors (London, 1661); Colonel Baker, The Blazing Star, Or Nolls Nose, Newly Revived and Taken Out of His Tomb (London, 1660).
- 89.
Knoppers, Constructing Cromwell: Ceremony, Portrait, and Print, 1645–1661, 168; Knoppers, “Sing Old Noll the Brewer”, 44.
- 90.
Jerry Palmer, Taking Humour Seriously (London: Routledge, 1994), 2.
- 91.
Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody (New York: Methuen, 1985), 75.
- 92.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 11.
- 93.
Horton, The English Devil: Or, Cromwell and His Monstrous Witch Discover’d at Whitehall (London, 1660), 2.
- 94.
A Person of Honour, Cromwell’s Bloody Slaughter-house; Or, His Damnable Designs Laid and Practiced by Him and His Negro’s, in Contriving the Murther of His Sacred Majesty King Charles I Discovered (London, 1660), 4–7.
- 95.
Cotton, A Panegyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 10.
- 96.
Raymond, Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain, 253.
- 97.
Peter Marshall, Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 234.
- 98.
John Aubrey, cited in Marshall, Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England, 254.
- 99.
Adam Wood, A New Conference Between the Ghosts of King Charles and Oliver Cromwell (London: 1659), 2.
- 100.
Anon., The Court Career, Death Shaddow’d to Life. Or, Shaddowes of Life and Death. A Pasquil Dialogue Seriously Perused and Highly Approved by the Clearest Judgements (London, 1659), 4.
- 101.
Ibid., 12.
- 102.
Ibid., 3.
- 103.
Wood, A New Conference Between the Ghosts of King Charles and Oliver Cromwell, 5–6.
- 104.
Anon., A Dialogue Betwixt the Ghosts of Charls the I, late King of England: And Oliver the Late Usurping Protector (London, 1659), 5–7.
- 105.
T.B., The Devil’s an Asse: Or, The Policy of Hell Made Plain to the Dwellers on Earth. Being a Serious Reflection Upon the Late Inhumane Rebellious Warr (London: 1660), 4.
- 106.
Wood, A New Conference Between the Ghosts of King Charles and Oliver Cromwell, 6.
- 107.
Anon., A Dialogue Betwixt the Ghosts of Charls the I, late King of England: And Oliver the Late Usurping Protector (London, 1659), 7.
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Peters, E. (2017). Saints and Demons: Making Royalist Myths. In: Commemoration and Oblivion in Royalist Print Culture, 1658-1667. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50475-9_3
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