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Merry England
"Merry England", or in more jocular, archaic spelling "Merrie England", refers to a utopian conception of English society and culture based on an idyllic pastoral way of life that was allegedly prevalent in Early Modern Britain at some time between the Middle Ages and the onset of the Industrial Revolution. More broadly, it connotes a putative essential Englishness with nostalgic overtones, incorporating such cultural symbols as the thatched cottage, the country inn and the Sunday roast. "Merry England" is not a wholly consistent vision, but rather a revisited England described as "a world that has never actually existed, a visionary, mythical landscape, where it is difficult to take normal historical bearings." It may be treated both as a product of the sentimental nostalgic imagination and as an ideological or political construct, often underwriting various sorts of conservative world-views. Favourable perceptions of Merry England reveal a nostalgia for aspects of an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poor Little Birdie Teased By Richard Doyle
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little . Poverty can have diverse , , and causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures: '' absolute poverty'' compares income against the amount needed to meet ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an English historian who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 books and has appeared on British television and radio. He held a fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and is a Commissioner of English Heritage. Born in Ootacamund, India, his family returned to England, and he attended a school in Ilford and became particularly interested in archaeology. He volunteered in a number of excavations until 1976 and visited the country's chambered tombs. He studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and then Magdalen College, Oxford, before he lectured in history at the University of Bristol from 1981. Specialising in Early Modern Britain, he wrote three books on the subject: ''The Royalist War Effort'' (1981), ''The Restoration'' (1985) and ''Charles the Second'' (1990). In the 1990s, he wrote boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Langland
William Langland (; la, Willielmus de Langland; 1332 – c. 1386) is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as ''Piers Plowman'', an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem translated the language and concepts of the cloister into symbols and images that could be understood by a layman. Life Little is known of Langland himself. It seems that he was born in the West Midlands of England around 1330, according to internal evidence in ''Piers Plowman''. The narrator in ''Piers Plowman'' receives his first vision while sleeping in the Malvern Hills (between Herefordshire and Worcestershire), which suggests some connection to the area. The dialect of the poem is also consistent with this part of the country. ''Piers Plowman'' was written ''c.'' 1377, as the character's imagination says he has followed him for "five and forty winters." A fifteenth-century note in the Dublin manuscript of ''Piers Plowman'' says ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Stone
Lawrence Stone (4 December 1919 – 16 June 1999) was an English historian of early modern Britain, after a start to his career as an art historian of English medieval art. He is noted for his work on the English Civil War and the history of marriage, families and the aristocracy. Biography Stone was born on 4 December 1919 in Epsom, Surrey, England. He was educated at Charterhouse School, an all-boys public school (i.e., an independent boarding school). He studied for a time at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1938. He then studied modern history at Christ Church, Oxford from 1938 to 1940. His university studies were interrupted by service during the Second World War as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He returned to Oxford after demobilisation in 1945, and after a further year of study, graduated with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1946. His BA degree was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree in accordance with the regulations of the university ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Yoke
The Norman yoke is a term denoting the oppressive aspects of feudalism in England, attributed to the impositions of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, his retainers and their descendants. The term was used in English nationalist and democratic discourse from the mid-17th century. History The medieval chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote in his ''Ecclesiastical History'' that the Normans had imposed a yoke on the English: "And so the English groaned aloud for their lost liberty and plotted ceaselessly to find some way of shaking off a yoke that was so intolerable and unaccustomed." His later work, written in light of Henry I's reign and fifty years after the Conquest, took a more positive view of the situation of England, writing, "King Henry governed the realm ... prudently and well through prosperity and adversity.... He treated the magnates with honour and generosity. He helped his humbler subjects by giving just laws, and protecting them from unjust exto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Ball (priest)
John Ball ( 1338 – 15 July 1381) was an English priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although he is often associated with John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement, Ball was actively preaching 'articles contrary to the faith of the church' at least a decade before Wycliffe started attracting attention. Biography It is possible that John Ball was the son of William and Joan Ball of Peldon near Colchester. He was born and it has been suggested that his name is first mentioned in the Colchester Court Rolls of 30 January 1352, when, on coming of age in 1350 he acknowledged the tenancy of a tenement between East and West Stockwell Street in the town. Whether this is the John Ball from the Peasants' Revolt is not clear and others see this among the "speculative attempts" at reconstructing Ball's early life. Ball trained as a priest in York and referred to himself, according to Thomas Walsingham, as " Seynte Marie priest of York". He later moved to Norwic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egalitarian
Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or moral status. Egalitarianism is the doctrine that all citizens of a state should be accorded exactly equal rights. Egalitarian doctrines have motivated many modern social movements and ideas, including the Enlightenment, feminism, civil rights, and international human rights. The term ''egalitarianism'' has two distinct definitions in modern English, either as a political doctrine that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social and civil rights, or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities among people, economic egalitarianism, or the decentralization of power. Sources define egalitarianism as equality reflecting the natural sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visionary
A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, this can involve the supernatural. The visionary state is achieved via meditation, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century artist and Catholic saint. Other visionaries in religion are St Bernadette and Joseph Smith, said to have had visions of and communed with the Blessed Virgin and the Angel Moroni, respectively. There is also the case of Targum Jonathan, which was produced in the antiquity and served as the targum to the Nevi'im. It described the significance of the turban or a diadem to indicate a capability on the part of Jewish priests to become agents of visionary experience. Extended meanings A vision can be political, religious, environmental, social, or technological in nature. By extension, a visionary can also be a person with a clear, distinctive, and specific (in some details) vision of the future, usually connected with advances i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Straw (rebel Leader)
Jack Straw (probably the same person as ''John Rakestraw'' or ''Rackstraw'') was one of the three leaders (together with John Ball and Wat Tyler) of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a major event in the history of England. Biography Little is known of the revolt's leaders. It has been suggested that Jack Straw may have been a preacher. Some have argued that the name was in fact a pseudonym for Wat Tyler or one of the other peasants' leaders; all of them appear to have used pseudonyms, adding to the confusion.See Brie, F. W. 'Wat Tyler and Jack Straw', in ''The Historical Review'', v.21, 81 (January, 1906). Brie states that "the Continuator of Knighton held this view ..and that two or three ballads and several fifteenth-century chroniclers ..speak of Jakke Straw being killed by Walworth at Smithfield .e. in the same manner as Wat Tyler" Several chroniclers, including Henry Knighton, mention Straw, though Knighton erroneously confuses him with Tyler. Thomas Walsingham stated t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wat Tyler
Wat Tyler (c. 1320/4 January 1341 – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms. While the brief rebellion enjoyed early success, Tyler was killed by officers loyal to King Richard II during negotiations at Smithfield, London. Early life Not much is known of Wat Tyler's early life. There are varying sources of his birth. One claims that he was born on January 4, 1341, while another source claims he was born around 1320. Most historians agree that he was born around 1341. He was fascinated by John Ball, his group having broken the radical priest out of jail. He was probably born in Kent or Essex. “Wat” may have been his given name (derived from the Old English name ''Watt)'', or a diminutive form of the name ''Walter''; his original surname was unknown. It is thought that the name "Tyler" came from his occupation as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cockaigne
Cockaigne or Cockayne () is a land of plenty in medieval myth, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life does not exist. Specifically, in poems like ''The Land of Cockaigne'', it is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns flipped over to show their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheese). Writing about Cockaigne was commonplace in Goliard verse. It represented both wish fulfillment and resentment at scarcity and the strictures of asceticism. Etymology While the first recorded uses of the word are the Latin ''Cucaniensis'' and the Middle English ''Cokaygne'', one line of reasoning has the name tracing to Middle French ''(pays de) cocaigne'' "(land of) plenty", ultimately adapted or derived from a word for a small sweet cake sold to children at a fai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited, Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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