Holy War rhetoric in Elizabethan England

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/76645

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History (MA)

Put, Maureen (2019)

Holy War rhetoric in Elizabethan England

Master thesis | History (MA)

This thesis traces the development and the adaption of the originally Catholic concept of Holy War to the post-Reformation era, and a new faith, Protestantism. For this reason one part of the main research-question of this thesis was how the concept of Holy War emerged in the anti-Spanish polemics, and the other part deals with its socio-political functions within the English society. The conclusion of the author is that the purpose of Holy War rhetoric in the anti-Spanish polemics was a way to sacralize political rule in England and to strengthen the English national identity. To maintain Protestantism, Catholicism needed to be fought. By strengthening the national Protestant identity and sacralizing the political rule, Holy War had become a productive cultural concept that continued to be present in the English society of the late sixteenth century.

Anti-Spanish polemics

Anti-Catholic polemics