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‘Wrightsonian Incorporation’ and the Public Rhetoric of Mid‐Tudor England
Author(s) -
Hoyle Richard
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12145
Subject(s) - rhetoric , context (archaeology) , politics , closing (real estate) , state (computer science) , action (physics) , period (music) , history , expression (computer science) , collective action , political rhetoric , sociology , political science , law , aesthetics , art , philosophy , archaeology , theology , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
This article introduces the idea of ‘Wrightsonian incorporation’ in the later sixteenth century to a wider audience. A number of scholars have taken Wrightson's original idea, that village society split in the later sixteenth century as the ‘yeomen’ were incorporated into the state as officeholders, and elaborated upon it, particularly using it to explain why a late medieval tradition of rebellion should have ended in 1549. A number of reasons are offered as to why we should not readily accept the idea, but it is then shown how the public rhetoric of the period was deeply hostile to all forms of collective action, which it defined as rebellion. It is suggested that this context was as important as ‘incorporation’ in the sense that Wrightson and others have used it in changing the attitudes of the yeomen in the village by closing off options for political expression and activity.