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Duke Humphrey of Gloucester in the eyes of posterity: Lancastrian rule and Tudor propaganda
Petrina, Alessandra
2016
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e-ISSN
2283-6438
Abstract
The century following Duke Humphrey’s death has transmitted an image of “the Good Duke” that modern historiography may find misleading. Contemporary scholarship is interested in his role as the promoter of humanism in fifteenth-century England; yet, though in the course of his life there were acknowledgements of his patronage, the years immediately following his death saw his image undergo a metamorphosis. His role as a proto-humanist was quickly forgotten, while the political resonance of his death made later scholars overlook his unsuccessful career as a politician. Humphrey’s death created a major sensation, and after the fall of the Lancasters it was quickly exploited for propaganda purposes by the York faction first, and by the Tudors afterwards. Humphrey haunts Elizabethan drama and Ovidian epistles, appears as an improbable Wycliffite in Foxe’s "Acts" and as a wise man of the world in More’s "Dialogue Concerning Heresies". The present article takes Duke Humphrey and his afterlives as a case study for the examination of the role of propaganda in literary/political biography.
Series
Prospero. Rivista di letterature e culture straniere
21 (2016)
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Alessandra Petrina, “Duke Humphrey of Gloucester in the eyes of posterity: Lancastrian rule and Tudor propaganda”, in: Daniel-Henri Pageaux (a cura di) "Prospero. Rivista di letterature e culture straniere 21 (2016). Letteratura e Storia", pp. 15-34
Languages
en
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it
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la
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