IHR's Tudor and Stuart seminar programme ahead

 

Monday 10 November London time: on zoom and in person at the IHR in the Wolfson Suite, NB01, basement

 

Clare Egan (University of Lancaster)

‘Libel performance and Legal Literacies in the early-seventeenth century English Provinces’

Libels between private persons occurring in the English provinces during the early modern period took many forms – from verse and song to pictures and plays – and by the early seventeenth-century they were being tried at the court of Star Chamber. By exploring such libels as performances this paper argues that they reveal the creative and interpretative skill of provincial communities participating in long-standing theatrical cultures of insult. The paper will also consider, however, a distinct and previously under-examined form of libel referred to in the legal records as ‘libellous articles’, which further suggest a range of legal literacies in provincial settings. Such lists of false ‘articles’ were circulated in communities and produced at local assizes or other courts by libellers to force the investigation of their targets, causing scandals which the targets then complained of as libel. The existence of such a practice indicates an interplay between the texts and performances of libel, on the one hand, and legal documents and process on the other. To further elaborate this argument, the paper will finally consider the Lancashire libel case of Blundell v. Osbaldeston, in which some of the defendants drew up a set of ‘scandalous interrogatories’ that they got into the commission for the examination of witnesses. This paper argues that Star Chamber libel records of the early seventeenth-century reveal not only provincial performance cultures but also a range of legal literacies that could be exploited for defamatory purposes.  

 

Dr Clare Egan is a Senior Lecturer in the English Literature department at Lancaster University

 

All welcome. This event is free, but booking is required. Joining details included in the booking confirmation.All welcome. This event is free, but booking is required. Joining details included in the booking confirmation.

Book here: https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/events/libel-performance-legal-literacies-early-seventeenth-century-english-provinces

If you have any problems using this link, please book via the main seminar site - https://www.history.ac.uk/seminars/tudor-stuart-history 

 

Meanwhile the rest of this term’s programme has also been arranged:

24 November Richard Hoyle, ‘Harvest variability in the 1580s: volume and prices at the mills of the earl of Shrewsbury in Sheffield (Yorkshire), 1578-1588’

8 December Jacob Deacon & Rob Runacres, panel on ‘The Politics of Martial Education in Tudor and Stuart Britain’

 

All these seminars are now bookable via the main seminar site - https://www.history.ac.uk/seminars/tudor-stuart-history 

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