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Reframing Regicide: Symbolic Politics and the Sentimental Trial of J ames H adfield (1800)
Author(s) -
RAMSEY NEIL
Publication year - 2013
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.1754-0208.2012.00547.x
Subject(s) - politics , cognitive reframing , relation (database) , the symbolic , law , sociology , political science , history , psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , computer science , database
This article considers the political significance of sentimental language in the treason trial of J ames H adfield. It argues that the sentimental resolution of the trial needs to be understood in relation to the pressures of modern war on the B ritish nation and the political instability associated with the figure of the returned soldier. The trial dispelled the threat of revolution that H adfield's attack on the king presented, but it also helped establish a new form of symbolic body politics in B ritain that valorised both the king and the soldier as figures of manly self‐command.