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Rethinking ‘Loyalty’ in Eighteenth‐Century Britain
Author(s) -
McCORMACK MATTHEW
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00420.x
Subject(s) - loyalty , obedience , politics , conservatism , state (computer science) , phenomenon , nationalism , term (time) , deception , political economy , aesthetics , sociology , political science , positive economics , history , law , economics , epistemology , art , philosophy , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
This article explores the meanings and applications of the term ‘loyalty’ in Britain between 1688 and 1815. Political historians today employ the term in an instrumental way to connote obedience, nationalism, conservatism and monarchism: this finds its expression in the phenomenon of ‘loyalism’. This article instead argues that ‘loyalism’ was not a current term in the eighteenth century, and that ‘loyalty’ had specific meanings for different political groups. It could connote a religious, a legal or an emotional tie: as such, the changing concept of ‘loyalty’ is indicative of the shifting relationship between the individual and the state.