Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's note on the texts
- Note on the translations
- Introduction
- Principal events in Fortescue's life
- Select bibliography
- List of abbreviations
- In Praise of the Laws of England
- The Governance of England
- Appendices
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's note on the texts
- Note on the translations
- Introduction
- Principal events in Fortescue's life
- Select bibliography
- List of abbreviations
- In Praise of the Laws of England
- The Governance of England
- Appendices
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
Throughout this introduction, references to primary sources are given in the form of author, title and section of work, page number; e.g. (Aquinas, On Princely Government, II.i, 7); the page reference is to the edition listed in the Select bibliography, primary sources. The exception to this is Fortescue, where the page reference is to this volume unless otherwise stated. Secondary works are given in footnotes with a full reference of author, title and publication details, unless they appear in the Select bibliography, in which case they are given in the form of author and short version of the title.
Sir John Fortescue (c.1395 – c.1477) was undoubtedly the major English political theorist of the fifteenth century. His works are famous, above all, for their vision of the English polity as a ‘dominion political and royal’, ruled by common law, and they have been widely quoted and used over the past five hundred years. This very popularity, however, has resulted in their original meaning falling victim to the various purposes of his commentators.
The process of distortion began in the sixteenth century, when the development and strengthening of both the monarchy and the institution of parliament led to a division and potential conflict of power between the two. In attempting to deal with this problem, political writers of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries interpreted Fortescue's ‘political and royal dominion’ in support of their own projects to define the respective spheres of king and parliament.
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- Information
- Sir John Fortescue: On the Laws and Governance of England , pp. xv - xxxixPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997