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| The Reconstruction of Citizen’s Memory: Historical Discourses and Collective Identity in Early Modern London |
| Sun Chao |
| School of Humanities, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China |
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Abstract Most historians hold the view that the historical memory of London was reshaped and adapted to Protestant prevalence in early modern England, especially when the fact that the London government allied with the Puritans to struggle with the King in 1640 was considered. However, such an explanation is problematic and relatively simple. And dynamic comprehension on the Protestantization of historical memory of London, particularly the neutral inclination towards the rewriting of London history in early times, is of great importance. Besides, in the process of Protestant historical memory formation, the traditionalists such as King Charles I intervened, which propelled a gradual radical reaction of London deviating from the neutral position. This evolving situation has been rarely discussed by researchers, and it is therefore the main point of this thesis.In 1529, King Henry VIII accepted Thomas Cromwell and other Protestants’ advice to initiate English Reformation for his divorce with Queen Katherine. From then on, traditional historical memory established on the basis of medieval cult of saints was severely affected. Thousands of youths swarmed into the city of London and became the main force getting involved into the Reformation movement. With serious threats at home and abroad and the failure of traditional chronicles to meet the needs of new memory writing, the historical narratives formed since late Middle Ages had broken up, and London citizens’ identity also inevitably encountered a crisis. For the maintenance of its stability and prosperity, London Guildhall set up three historical scribes — City Remembrancer, City Recorder and City Viewer, to record the city’s development and history. They compiled historical documents for the city, thus provided judgement criteria and discourse materials for reference. However, historical scribes were mostly part-time officials and they could not afford full energy to reconstruct citizens’ historical memory. Under that circumstance, the Guildhall hired John Stow to write London’s first general history A Survey of London from 1573 to 1598. Anthony Munday promoted two revised editions of A Survey of London after Stow’s death. Stow and Munday hence essentially shaped a “neutralized” tradition of writing London citizens’ history to minimize the influence of religious conflicts on the city’s cohesiveness. In the early Seventeenth Century, London citizens utilized Stow’s texts to make new physical memories and public rituals, they also created pro-Protestant burial rituals, citizen portraits and the activities of Mayor’s Day. Although the city administrators preserved the elements of traditional religion for the adaptation of varieties of citizen origins, an image of a Protestant London was established. London had a more complicated relationship with the crown. The city of London played a fundamental role in every succession to the throne since English Reformation, which meant that a pro-monarchy London was essential to the King. Consequently, in the course of reconstructing urban memories, the crown always got involved. But, because of the sustained development of Puritanism and the failed relationship between Stuart kings and London citizens, the Puritans were discontented with the control of citizens’ life and urban landscape by the monarchy. In the meantime, the Stuart rulers insisted on the Divine Right of the King, and disrespected citizens’ rights. That stimulated a radicalized citizen memory, and the citizens struggled for their historical narratives and space memories with the kings, which led to a turning point concerned with the relationship between the two parties, that is, from sharing memories to competing with each other for that. In 1642, the English Civil War broke out and the Protestants dominated London citizens’ memory from then on because Charles I fled his Capital City. While in early modern Europe, some Protestant cities avidly propelled the Protestantization and ignored to create a stable relationship with the Catholics, thus had to confront themselves with social divisions. In a word, the reconstruction of London citizens’ memories experienced a continual “neutralized Protestantized → moderately Protestantized → radically Protestantized” transition. The transition prevented the city of London from dropping into social polarization sharply, and kept London prosperous and stable for a relatively long time, but it could not avoid the outbreak of the English Civil War.
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Received: 20 June 2020
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2021, Vol. 51 
